Available translations: English
οἵ γε προκόπτοντες οἷς ἤδη καθάπερ ἱεροῦ τινος οἰκοδομήματος καὶ βασιλικοῦ τοῦ βίου ‘κεκρότηται χρυσέα κρηπίς‘, οὐδὲν εἰκῆ προσίενται τῶν γιγνομένων, ἀλλ’ οἷον ἀπὸ στάθμης τοῦ λόγου προσάγουσι καὶ προσαρμόττουσιν ἕκαστον, ὑπέρ τὸν Πολύκλειτον οἰόμενοι λέγειν ὡς ἔστι χαλεπώτατον αὐτῶν τὸ ἔργον , οἷς ἂν εἰς ὄνυχα ὁ πηλὸς ἀφίκηται.
καὶ γὰρ αἱ τέχναι πρῶτον ἀτύπωτα καὶ ἄμορφα πλάττουσιν, εἶθ’ ὕστερον τοῖς εἴδεσιν διαρθροῦσιν· ἧι Π. ὁ πλάστης εἶπε χαλεπώτατον εἶναι τὸ ἔργον , ὅταν ἐν ὄνυχι ὁ πηλὸς γένηται. διὸ καὶ τῆι φύσει τὸ πρῶτον εἰκός ἐστιν ἀτρέμα κινούσηι τὴν ὕλην ἀργοτέραν ὑπακούειν, τύπους ἀμόρφους καὶ ἀορίστους ἐκφέρουσαν ὥσπερ τὰ ὠιά, μορφουμένων δὲ τούτων καὶ διαχαρασσομένων ὕστερον ἐκδημιουργεῖσθαι τὸ ζῶιον.
But the proficients in virtue, who have already laid the golden solid foundation of a virtuous life, as of a sacred and royal building, take especial care of the whole work, examine and model every part of it according to the rule of reason, believing that it was well said by Polycletus, that the hardest work remained for them to do whose nails must touch the clay;
Thus art first makes rude and ill-shapen figures, and afterwards perfects every thing with its proper form; and it was for this reason that the statuary Polycletus said, Then our work is most difficult, when the clay comes to be fashioned by the nail. So it is probable that matter, not readily obeying the slow motions of contriving Nature, at first frames rude and indefinite masses, as the egg, and of these moulded anew, and joined in better order, the animal afterward is formed.
Mr. Tod; Table Talk translated by several hands; revised William W. Goodwin · Plutarch’s Morals, vol. 2, translated by several hands, corrected and revised by William W. Goodwin (1911 reprint of the nineteenth-century revision of the 1684–1694 translation)How this fragment survives
A source citation has not yet been identified for this reading.
A source citation has not yet been identified for this reading in the reviewed records. The linked edition remains available below.
Original-text edition
Hermann Diels, Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker, 2nd edition, volume I (Berlin: Weidmann, 1906), p. 229; historical running original-language text, excluding the critical apparatus.
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Notes & source
The first witness is Mr. Tod’s translation (volume II); the second is from Table Talk in volume III. DK’s terminal repeated maxim is an editorial repetition of the quotation already translated
Published passage: Plutarch, Progress in virtue 17, 86a; Table Talk 2.3.2, 636c
Existing human translation retained verbatim; historical original-language passage covers the same translated quotation.
Both translated Plutarch passages checked in 1906; restored historical ὑπέρ, repaired transcription, removed duplicate editor-extracted quotation at end and bibliographical labels. Translation wording unchanged.
Hermann Diels, Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker, 2nd edition, volume I (Berlin: Weidmann, 1906), p. 229; historical running original-language text, excluding the critical apparatus. View original source ↗
English: Mr. Tod; Table Talk translated by several hands; revised William W. Goodwin · Plutarch’s Morals, vol. 2, translated by several hands, corrected and revised by William W. Goodwin (1911 reprint of the nineteenth-century revision of the 1684–1694 translation). Published translation ↗
Additional translation sources: Progress in virtue 17 · Table Talk 2.3.2
Original edition: Historical original edition: public domain under the recorded term review.