The Discourses of Epictetus; with the Encheiridion and Fragments/Book 3/Chapter 11

by Epictetus

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CHAPTER XI.

certain miscellaneous matters.

There are certain penalties fixed as by law for those who disobey the divine administration.^[1] Whoever thinks any other thing to be good except those things which depend on the will, let him envy, let him desire, let him flatter, let him be perturbed: whoever considers any thing else to be evil, let him grieve, let him lament, let him weep, let him be unhappy. And yet, though so severely punished, we cannot desist. Remember what the poet^[2] says about the stranger:

Stranger, I must not, e'en if a worse man come.

This then may be applied even to a father: I must not, even if a worse man than you should come, treat a father unworthily; for all are from paternal Zeus. And (let the same be said) of a brother, for all are from the Zeus who presides over kindred. And so in the other relations of life we shall find Zeus to be an inspector.

Footnotes

1. 'As to the divine law, see iii. 24. 32, and Xenophon's Memorabilia, iv. 4. 21,' etc. Upton.
2. The poet is Homer. The complete passage is in the Odyssey, xiv. v. 55, etc.

   Stranger, I must not, e'en if a worse man come,
   Ill treat a stranger, for all come from Zeus,
   Strangers and poor.