Epicharmus of Kos

Epicharmus of Kos (c. 540 – c. 450 BC) was a Greek dramatist and philosopher.

Quotes

Greek text cited from R. Kassel, C. Austin, Poetae Comici Graeci, vol. I Comoedia Dorica, Mimi, Phlyaces (Berlin-New York, 2001).

• οὐ λέγειν τύ γ᾿ ἐσσὶ δεινός, ἀλλὰ σιγῆν ἀδύνατος.
  • You are not skilled at speaking: you are only incapable of keeping silent.
  • Frg. 184 K.-A. = B 29 DK (tr. K. Freeman, 1948)

• ἁ δὲ χεὶρ τὰν χεῖρα νίζει· δός τι καὶ λάβε τι.
  • One hand washes the other; give and take.
  • Frg. 211 K.-A. = B 30 DK (tr. T. B. Harbottle, 1897)

• νοῦς ὁρῇ καὶ νοῦς ἀκούει· τἆλλα κωφὰ καὶ τυφλά.
  • Mind sees and Mind hears; everything else is deaf and blind.
  • Frg. 214 K.-A. = B 12 DK (tr. K. Freeman, 1948)

• νᾶφε καὶ μέμνασ᾿ ἀπιστεῖν· ἄρθρα ταῦτα τᾶν φρενῶν.
  • Keep sober and remember to be mistrustful: these are the joints of the intelligence.
  • Frg. 218 K.-A. = B 13 DK (tr. K. Freeman, 1948)

• emori nolo, sed me esse mortuum nihil aestimo.
• I have no desire to die, but I count my death as nothing.
  • Frg. 230 K.-A. = B 11 DK (tr. T. Habinek, 2012)
  • Latin translation by Cicero (Tusc. Disp. I.15); original Greek partially preserved in Sextus Empiricus (Adv. math. I.273) but not intelligible: ἀποθανεῖν † ἢ τεθνάναι οὔ μοι διαφέρει.

Pseudepicharmea

These gnomic verses were popularly circulated as Epicharmus' in antiquity, but were already recognised as spurious by Aristoxenus (frg. 45 Wehrli).

• καθαρὸν ἂν τὸν νοῦν ἔχῃς, ἅπαν τὸ σῶμα καθαρὸς εἶ.
  • Keep a clean mind and you will be clean in body.
  • Frg. 258 K.-A. = B 26 DK (tr. T. B. Harbottle, 1897)

• οὐ μετανοεῖν ἀλλὰ προνοεῖν χρὴ τὸν ἄνδρα τὸν σοφόν.
  • The wise man must be wise before, not after the event.
  • Frg. 263 K.-A. = B 41 DK (tr. T. B. Harbottle, 1897)

• ἐπιπολάζειν οὔτι χρὴ τὸν θυμόν, ἀλλὰ τὸν νόον.
  • Judgment, not passion, should prevail.
  • Frg. 264 K.-A. = B 43 DK (tr. T. B. Harbottle, 1897)

• ὄνος δ᾿ ὄνῳ κάλλιστον, ὗς δέ θην ὑί.
  • Ass fairest is to ass, and pig to pig.
  • Frg. 279.5 K.-A. = B 5 DK (tr. T. B. Harbottle, 1897)

Quotes about Epicharmus

• ἅ τε φωνὰ Δώριος χὦνὴρ ὁ τὰν κωμῳδίαν
      εὑρὼν Ἐπίχαρμος.
    ὦ Βάκχε, χάλκεόν νιν ἀντ᾿ ἀλαθινοῦ
      τὶν ὧδ᾿ ἀνέθηκαν
  τοὶ Συρακούσσαις ἐνίδρυνται, πελωρίσται πόλει,
      οἷ᾿ ἄνδρα πολίταν.
    σοφῶν ἔοικε ῥημάτων μεμναμένους
      τελεῖν ἐπίχειρα·
  πολλὰ γὰρ ποττὰν ζόαν τοῖς παισὶν εἶπε χρήσιμα.
      μεγάλα χάρις αὐτῷ.
  • Dorian is the speech and Dorian too the man—Epicharmus the inventor of Comedy. In thy honour, Bacchus, since he was their fellow-townsman, the folk that dwell in the splendid city of Syracuse have set him here, in bronze, not flesh and blood. Fitting it is that they who recall his words of wisdom should recompense him, for many precepts serviceable for the ordering of their lives did he utter to the young. Much thanks to him therefore.
  • Theocritus, Epigram 18; composed to accompany a statue of Epicharmus in Syracuse.