Ch. 4
Against a person who had once been detected in adultery.
As Epictetus was saying that man is formed for fidelity,
and that he who subverts fidelity subverts the peculiar
characteristic of men, there entered one of those who are
considered to be men of letters, who had once been
detected in adultery in the city. Then Epictetus continued, But if we lay aside this fidelity for which we are
formed and make designs against our neighbour's wife,
what are we doing? What else but destroying and overthrowing? Whom, the man of fidelity, the man of
modesty, the man of sanctity. Is this all? And are we
not overthrowing neighbourhood, and friendship, and the
community; and in what place are we putting ourselves?
How shall I consider you, man? As a neighbour, as a
friend? What kind of one? As a citizen? Wherein shall
I trust you? So if you were an utensil so worthless that a
man could not use you, you would be pitched out on the
dung heaps, and no man would pick you up. But if
being a man you are unable to fill any place which befits
a man, what shall we do with you? For suppose that
you cannot hold the place of a friend, can you hold the
place of a slave? And who will trust you? Are you not
then content that you also should be pitched somewhere
on a dung heap, as a useless utensil, and a bit of dung?
Then will you say, no man cares for me, a man of letters?
They do not, because you are bad and useless. It is just
as if the wasps complained because no man cares for
them, but all fly from them, and if a man can, he strikes
them and knocks them down. You have such a sting
that you throw into trouble and pain any man that you
wound with it. What would you have us do with you?
You have no place where you can be put.
What then, are not women common by nature?239 So I
[p. 108]
say also; for a little pig is common to all the invited
guests, but when the portions have been distributed, go, if
you think it right, and snatch up the portion of him who
reclines next to you, or slily steal it, or place your hand
down by it and lay hold of it, and if you can not tear
away a bit of the meat, grease your fingers and lick them.
A fine companion over cups, and Socratic guest indeed
Well, is not the theatre common to the citizens? When
then they have taken their seats, come, if you think
proper, and eject one of them. In this way women also
are common by nature. When then the legislator, like the
master of a feast, has distributed them, will you not also
look for your own portion and not filch and handle what
belongs to another. But I am a man of letters and
understand Archedemus.240 Understand Archedemus then,
and be an adulterer, and faithless, and instead of a man,
be a wolf or an ape: for what is the difference?241