Book 3, Chapter 9

“Accordingly, Dionysius of Heraclea argues with some acuteness against Achilles’ complaint in Homer, which runs, I believe, like this:“‘My heart swells deep within with bitter anger,“‘When I recall my loss of honor and all praise.’“Is a hand in a healthy state when it is swollen? Or is any other swollen, puffed-up limb not in a defective condition?

19 “So a puffed-up, swollen soul is in a defective condition. But the wise person’s soul is always free of defect, never puffed up, never swollen; yet the angry person’s soul is in just this condition. Therefore the wise person is never angry. For if he is angry, he also feels desire: it is characteristic of the angry person to desire to inflict the greatest possible pain on the person by whom he thinks himself injured. Whoever desires this must rejoice greatly if he achieves it. The result is that he delights in another’s misfortune. Since this cannot befall the wise person, neither can anger. But if distress could befall the wise person, anger could as well; since he is free of the latter, he will be free of distress too.

20 “For if the wise person could fall into distress, he could also fall into pity and envy. I have not used the ambiguous word that can mean ‘being envied’ as well as ‘envying’; we may rightly form a distinct noun from ‘to envy,’ to avoid that ambiguity. The verb derives from looking too closely at another’s fortune, as in the Melanippus: ‘Who has cast an envious eye upon my flowering children?’ The construction seems bad Latin, but Accius handles it splendidly: just as we say ‘see the flower,’ so ‘envy the flower’ is more correct than ‘envy at the flower.’ Custom prevents us from doing this;

21 “the poet maintained his right and spoke more boldly—”

“Dionysius of Heraclea makes a sensible argument about Achilles’ complaints in Homer. They run something like this, I think:“‘My heart swells deep inside with bitter anger“‘When I remember being stripped of honor and all praise.’“Is a hand in good condition when it’s swollen? Is any other swollen, puffed-up part of the body free of trouble?

19 “So a mind that’s puffed up and swollen is in a bad condition too. But a wise person’s mind is always free of defects. It never swells or puffs up. That’s just the condition of an angry mind. So a wise person never gets angry. If they get angry, they also feel desire. An angry person characteristically wants to inflict as much pain as possible on whoever they think injured them. Anyone who wants that must be very pleased if they achieve it. That means taking pleasure in someone else’s suffering. Since a wise person can’t do that, a wise person can’t get angry either. But if a wise person could experience distress, they could also experience anger. Since they’re free of anger, they’ll be free of distress as well.

20 “If a wise person could fall into distress, they could also fall into pity and into envy. I didn’t say invidia, the word for being envied. We can properly form invidentia from invidere, ‘to envy,’ to avoid the ambiguity of invidia. The word comes from looking too intently at someone else’s good fortune, as in the Melanippus: ‘Who envied my children’s flowering?’ The Latin may seem wrong, but Accius puts it admirably. Just as we say ‘look at the flowering,’ it’s more correct to say ‘envy the flowering’ with a direct object than an indirect one. Ordinary usage prevents us from doing it;

21 “the poet exercised his right and spoke more boldly.”