Epictetus · c. 50 – c. 135 CE
Discourses 2.17 ¶4 — Epictetus
From “How We Must Adapt Preconceptions to Particular Cases”
Translation by George Long (1877)
Epictetus, Discourses 2.17 ¶4
It was because she could not endure this that Medea came to murder her children: an act of a noble spirit in this view at least, for she had a just opinion what it is for a thing not to succeed which a person wishes. Then she says, “Thus I shall be avenged on him (my husband) who has wronged and insulted me; and what shall I gain if he is punished thus? How then shall it be done? I shall kill my children, but I shall punish myself also: and what do I care?” This is the aberration of soul which possesses great energy. For she did not know wherein lies the doing of that which we wish; that you cannot get this from without, nor yet by the alteration and new adaptation of things. Do not desire the man (Jason, Medea’s husband), and nothing which you desire will fail to happen. Do not obstinately desire that he shall live with you, do not desire to remain in Gerinth, and in a word desire nothing than that which God wills.—And who shall hinder you? Who shall compel you? No man shall compel you any more than he shall compel Zeus.
Cite this passage
Epictetus, Discourses 2.17 ¶4, tr. George Long (1877)
https://whatwouldstoicsdo.com/passage/discourses/2.17.4
Epictetus, Discourses (as recorded by Arrian), tr. George Long (1877). Text: Standard Ebooks (CC0). Sources and licences
In plain English
AI-written notesMedea's revenge on her husband, killing her own children, shows how far someone will go when a wish is blocked and they cannot bear it. Satisfaction cannot be forced from outside by rearranging other people, so the way out is to stop demanding that a particular person stay or that you remain in a particular place, and to want only what the order of things allows.
Older wording
- “aberration”
- — a departure from sound reasoning
Themes and situations
- Desire and craving
- Acceptance and fate
- What is in our control
- Anger
- Emotions and the passions
- A break-up or divorce
- Betrayal
- Being angry with someone
- Being treated unfairly
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