Cicero (on the Stoics) · 106–43 BCE
On Duties 3.94 — Cicero (on the Stoics)
Translation by Walter Miller (1913)
Cicero (on the Stoics), On Duties 3.94
No more binding are those promises which are inexpedient for the persons themselves to whom they have been given. To go back to the realm of story, the sungod promised his son Phaethon to do for him whatever he should wish. His wish was to be allowed to ride in his father's chariot. It was granted. And before he came back to the ground he was consumed by a stroke of lightning. How much better had it been, if in his case the father's promise had not been kept. And what of that promise, the fulfilment of which Theseus required from Neptune? When Neptune offered him three wishes, he wished for the death of his son Hippolytus, because the father was suspicious of the son's relations with his step-mother. And when this wish was granted, Theseus was overwhelmed with grief.
Cite this passage
Cicero (on the Stoics), On Duties 3.94, tr. Walter Miller (1913)
https://whatwouldstoicsdo.com/passage/on-duties/3.94
Cicero, On Duties (De Officiis), tr. Walter Miller (Loeb, 1913). Text: Perseus Digital Library (CC BY-SA 4.0). Sources and licences
In plain English
AI-written notesA promise does not bind if keeping it would harm the very person it was made to. Phaethon was granted his wish to drive his father's chariot and was killed, and Theseus's wish for his son's death brought him only grief.
Older wording
- “inexpedient”
- — not advantageous or helpful
Themes and situations
- Judgements and impressions
- Desire and craving
- Family and love
- Duty and roles
- Parenting
- An ethical dilemma
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