tively,[1] but unjustifiable if viewed together, even so, at a feast, to pick out the largest portion for oneself may be justifiable if the act is viewed merely as it concerns the body, but is unjustifiable if viewed as it concerns the preservation of the proper community of the feast. Therefore when you are eating with another person, remember not merely to look at the value for the body of the things that are set before you, but to preserve also the reverence due to the giver of the feast.[2]
- ↑ 'If viewed disjunctively,' that is, if you say 'It is day, or it is night.'
- ↑ Epictetus alludes to the feast of life, where 'the Gods' are the hosts. See ch. xv.
Enchiridii capite tanta, quanta in hoc, librorum est discrepantia: in ea vero parte in qua mihi maxima inesse difficultas visa erat, in ipsa extremitate, miro modo iidem libri consentiunt.' The text (according to Schw.'s reading) is as follows: Ὡς τὸ Ἡμέρα ἐστὶ, καὶ Νύξ ἐστι, πρὸς μὲν τὸ διεζευγμένον μεγάλην ἔχαι ἀξίαν, πρὸς δὲ τὸ συμπεπλεγμένον ἀπαξίαν, οὕτω καὶ τὸ τὴν μείζω μερίδα ἐκλέξασθαι, πρὸς μὲν τὸ σῶμα ἐχέτω ἀξίαν, πρὸς δὲ τὸ, τὸ κοινωνικὸν ἐν ἑστιάσει, οἷον δεῖ, φυλάξαι, ἀπαξίαν ἔχει. “Ὅταν οὖν συνεσθίης ἑτέρῳ, μέμνησο, μὴ μόνον τὴν πρὸς τὸ σῶμα ἀξίαν τῶν παρακειμένων ὁρᾷν, ἀλλὰ καὶ τὴν πρὸς τὸν ἑστιάτορα αἰδῶ φυλάξαι. The last two words are Schw.'s emendation for the perplexing reading οἷαν δεῖ φνλαχθϑῆναι, in which (with slight variations such as οἷον δ. φ., σῖαν σε δ, φ.) all the MSS. and old editions consent. One MS., strangely enough, has αἰδοῖ for οἷον δεῖ in the middle of the chapter. I have given the plain sense of the chapter as well as I could, but it has many difficulties.
