Introduction
Plutarch is best known for his biographies of
Greek and Roman figures of eminence, yet for
him, no biography exists. What is known has
been sourced from casual references in his own
work, which was prolific.
Born in the middle of the first century around
the year 45 A.D. to an affluent family residing
at Chaeronia, a small town in Boeotia, Greece,
he lived during the reign of Roman emperor
Nero and his successors, up to the early years
of the emperor Hadrian, and is thought to have
died in the beginning of the second century,
around 120 A.D.
He studied mathematics, philosophy, and
rhetoric at the school of Athens, and from then
on applied himself to the task of lecturing and
writing. Travelling widely in Greece and Rome,
he settled down at his native town Chaeronia,
where most of his writing was done, serving at
the same time as a building commissioner and
an archon. Plutarch was also made a priest at
the Temple of Apollo in Delphi, a position he
held for almost thirty years. Late in life, he is
said to have been given the title of procurator,
governor, of Achaea, a region in the Peloponnese.
His best known works are Parallel Lives, in
which he pairs eminent Greeks and Romans to
highlight and compare their virtues and vices,
and Moralia, a collection of Essays on ethics.
The principles that govern the moral conduct of
individuals feature in the majority of his works,
some of which are quite unexpected, his being
so prolific an author of articles on diverse topics,
ranging from music, history and sciences,
to animal psychology and anecdotal accounts,
all written in the Greek language of his times.
Economical, albeit serpentine and intricately
woven, yet crystal clear and, more often
than not, poetic, his prose poses a challenge
for translators. This particular translation aspires
to be as faithful as possible to the original
structure of the text, in terms of both form and
content. For, a language has its own music, that
may end up being lost when the words are being
translated.
Which could not be more true of the ancient
Greek language, wherein nothing is superfluous
or missing. So nothing that can be said in
a single word, as in the original ancient Greek
text, should be added to or embellished in another
language. It is hoped that in this English
version, a single word will invoke a thousand
images and a harmonious melody for the reader
to enjoy, in a vein similar to the original.
The title, by the way, is no coincidence; after
all, reading is and always will be the ultimate
form of listening. And perhaps it is no
coincidence either, that the words of Plutarch
echoed throughout the centuries and inspired
other famous authors, including Shakespeare,
Montaigne, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Sir Francis
Bacon, Ralph Waldo Emerson and the poet
Robert Browning.
[1] My study conducted on the subject of listening,
o Nicander, having put down in words I
have sent to you, in order that you may comprehend
the proper way of listening to whom
speaks convincingly, since you have been divested
of your guardians’ unyielding garment
and have donned a man’s garb. Because anarchy
of course, which certain youths regard as
freedom owing to their ignorance, renders desires,
as if unleashed from chains, the vehicles
of an oppression far worse than what is imposed
on children by teachers and tutors. And,
just as Herodotus states, that when women cast
off their clothes they cast away their sense of
shame, in the same way some of the youths,
along with their childhood garb, immediately
become divested of their fear and shame and
become insolent. You on the other hand, having
heard multiple times it is one and the same to
follow god and obey reason, be aware that the
wise do not consider the passage from childhood
to manhood as a distancing from authority,
but rather as a replacement of the source
of authority, and instead of some hired hand or
bribed servant, they view reason as the divine
master of life, whose followers are the only ones
worthy of being deemed free. For only those
who have learnt what they must aspire to, live
as they wish; as for the uncouth and irrational
urges and acts, something base therein and
petty lies in one’s willingness to rue these over
and over again.
[2] And because, much like those who register
in citizen catalogues, foreigners and aliens, for
one, find fault with so much and struggle to
adjust to the run of events, while they who descend
from immigrants raised and acquainted
with the laws have no trouble obeying and acquiescing
with the mandatory, thus should you,
raised in philosophy for the longest time and accustomed
to the philosopher’s reasoning being
offered in the mix of every lesson and acoustic
tale of childhood, gravitate in a favourable and
welcoming manner towards philosophy, which
alone invests the youths with the manly and
truly perfect adornment provided by reason.
I think, then, that you would not be averse to
becoming further informed about the sense of
hearing, which Theophrastus termed the most
sensitive of all senses. For neither anything
visible nor palatable or tactile produces elations,
upheavals and excitements such as those
that overwhelm the soul when certain beating,
raucous noises and sounds descend upon it
through hearing. And it is by far the more rational
rather than the more emotional. Because
many parts and areas of the body are on offer
for vice to sink in through and grip the soul,
but it is only the ears of the young that virtue
can get a hold of, provided they be pure and
impregnable to flattery and kept untouched by
vicious speech from the outset of their lives.
That is why Xenocrates advised the children
rather than the athletes to cover their ears with
ear protectors, since the latter have ears susceptible
to injuries, while the former, to words
that corrupt the morals, not in the interest of
preventing heedlessness or deafness, but so as
to advocate vigilance against words that are
vile, before others that are wise, in the manner
of guardians raised in the spirit of philosophy,
can prevail in this most volatile and fluid
terrain. And Vias the elder, when ordered to
dispatch to Amases (Pharao) the primest and
at the same time the vilest piece of meat from
the sacrificial offerings, sent the tongue after
removing it, as it contains the greatest of both
ills and benefits of speech. And many people
when they bestow kisses on the small children
also touch their own ears and urge the latter to
do the same, suggesting in jest that it is worth
cherishing most those who prove beneficial by
way of the ears.
Therefore it is truly evident that, in abstaining
from any form of listening and savouring no
speech, not only does the youth remain entirely
fruitless and budless with regard to virtue,
but may also deviate towards vice, producing
like soil uncultivated and unsown a multitude
of wild offshoots from his soul. For should one
allow cravings for pleasure and wariness in the
face of toil (not pursued or imported by the
spoken word, but as if they be innate sources
of countless ills and passions) to develop unrestrained
as they occur naturally, and does not
control their nature by either removing or reversing
non-edifying words, there will not be a
beast that will appear less tame than man.
[3] So then, with listening being a source of
great benefit but no lesser danger for the
youths, I am of the opinion that one should
always converse with both oneself and with another
on how to listen. Since we also observe
that most mishandle this, those who practice
speaking before adopting the habit of listening;
and of discourse they believe it depends on
instruction and study, but of listening that it
will prove beneficial no matter how. Admittedly,
for the ball players learning comes from both
throwing and catching at the same time; in the
usage of speech, however, proper understanding
precedes delivery, just as giving birth follows
conception and insemination. Of birds they
say the labouring and laying of wind-eggs are
due to some imperfect and lifeless remnants of
mating; and as for those youths incapable of listening
or unaccustomed to benefitting from the
sense of hearing, their truly empty speech cast
away unlauded and trivial is dispersed beneath
the clouds. Because though vessels to be filled
with liquid tilt and rotate they do, so that filling,
not spilling, actually happens, how to concentrate
on the speaker and focus on listening,
so nothing useful said may escape them, they
do not learn, but what is the most ridiculous of
all, should they happen to come across somebody
recounting a dinner or a procession or a
dream or some mockery he made someone else
an object of, they listen in silence and plead for
more; and if one having attracted their attention
proceeds to teach them something of use,
or prompt them to do what is due, or advise
them when at fault, or calm them down when
irate, they do not display any patience, but if
they can, trying their best to outdo him refute
the arguments; and if not, fleeing they resort to
discourses irrelevant and verbose, having filled
their ears like foul and flimsy vessels with all
but the necessary. Those then who do a fine
job of raising, deliver the horses, on the one
hand, with mouths receptive to the bridle, and
the children, on the other, with ears receptive
to speech, being taught to listen to a lot yet
say little. And indeed in praising Epameinondas,
Spintharus claimed it would not be easy
to come across anyone else who knew more but
spoke less. Also they say that nature gave each
of us two ears, but only one tongue, as one
ought to be saying less than what one hears.