Plutarch

A remarkable survey covering all the major writers from Homer to Plutarch, with brilliant translations by the author, one of the leading poets of today. 

Aixhimcdes fascination with geometry was beautifully described by Plutarch ... 

Historians have described the consequences of mass intoxication as early as in the last half-century BC, when Antony s army was exposed to belladonna by an enemy force and experienced both delirium and deaths, according to Plutarch and case reports. A summary of some of his findings follows. 

Plutarch, from Obsolescence of Oracles in Plutarch s Moralia, Volume V... 

In the 1 century a.d., Plutarch, then the high priest at the temple, left records on how the oracle worked. He described the descent of the priestess into a small chamber where she would breathe divine, sacred vapors and enter a trance. Then the Pythia would return to sit on a stool with a basin of water held in one hand and a sprig of olive in the other... 

Plutarch. Obsolescence of Oracles, Plutarch s Moralia, Vol. 5, trans. F.C. Babbitt. Cambridge, MA Harvard University Press, 1957, pp. 348-501. 

Herodotus does not say whether the Thracians used any of the other parts of the plant, but Plutarch (46-127 B.C.), writing some 400 years later, mentions that after their meals, it was not uncommon for the Thracians to throw the tops of a plant which looked like oregano into the fire. Inhaling the fumes of this plant, the people became drank and then so tired they finally fell asleep. 

Plutarch. Of the names of rivers and mountains, and of such things as are to be found therein. In Essays and miscellanies, London Simplin, Marshall, Hamilton Kent Co., n.d. (vol.5). 

Whoeirer is not a great enemy is not a great friend. This proverb from Dournon s dictionary may be contrasted with another from the same source, who is cruel to his enemies wilt he rude to his friends. In 1.61 cite a similar pair of sayings from Plutarch about the relation between attitudes towards friends and towards enemies. 

The compensation effect and the spillover effect were briefly mentioned in 1.5. An example from Plutarch can be taken from his essay "How to Profit from One s Enemies." Here he first observes "that a man is farthest removed from envying the good fortune of his friends or the success of his relatives, if he has acquired the habit of commending his enemies, and feeling no pang and cherishing no grudge when they prosper "S3 This is the spillover effect Envy of one s enemies... 

A problem with interpreting ostracism in terms of envy is the lack of contemporary statements to this effect. The evidence for this view comes largely from Plutarch, writing some five or six centuries after the events he describes. In his Liivs Plutarch notably explains the ostracisms of Themistocles and Aristides in terms of envy ... 

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