Keep It Short, by Plutarch

A priestess of Apollo, by Lawrence Alma-Tadema.

By Lawrence Alma-Tadema, Wikimedia COmmons. Public domain.

A priestess of Apollo, as imagined by Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema (1836-1912). Plutarch, who wrote this passage, was a priest of the Temple of Apollo at Delphi, the centre of the cult.

Keep It Short

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And are not those who indicate by signs, without a word, what must be done, praised and admired exceedingly? So Heracleitus,* when his fellow-citizens asked him to propose some opinion about concord, mounted the platform, took a cup of cold water, sprinkled it with barley-meal, stirred it with penny-royal, drank it up, and departed, thus demonstrating to them that to be satisfied with whatever they happen upon and not to want expensive things is to keep cities in peace and concord.

And Scilurus,* king of the Scythians, left behind him eighty sons; when he was dying, he asked for a bundle of spear-shafts and bade his sons take it and break it in pieces, tied closely together as the shafts were. When they gave up the task, he himself drew all the spears out one by one and easily broke them in two, thus revealing that the harmony and concord of his sons was a strong and invincible thing, but that their disunion would be weak and unstable.

by Plutarch ?46-120

From On Talkativeness 511, in ‘Plutarch’s Moralia’ Vol. VI translated (1962) by W. C. Helmbold.

* Heraclitus (540-?480 BC) was a philosopher born in Ephesus in Asia Minor (in modern-day Turkey).

* Penny-royal is mentha pulegium, a herb with a strong aroma of spearmint, used by the ancient Greeks for bath fragrance, as a kitchen herb and as an insect repellent.

* Scilurus, a Scythian king reigning during the 2nd century BC. His kingdom was seated in Neapolis in the northern part of the Crimea, in what is now Russia.

Précis

Some, Plutarch went on, are so economical in their speech that they let actions speak for them. To recommend frugal living, Heraclitus tossed back a glass of water mixed with whatever he found on the table. Scilurus of Scythia, likewise, taught his sons to understand the strength in brotherly unity not with words, but with a bundle of arrows.

Questions for Critics

1. What is the author aiming to achieve in writing this?

2. Note any words, devices or turns of phrase that strike you. How do they help the author communicate his ideas more effectively?

3. What impression does this passage make on you? How might you put that impression into words?

Based on The English Critic (1939) by NL Clay, drawing on The New Criticism: A Lecture Delivered at Columbia University, March 9, 1910, by J. E. Spingarn, Professor of Comparative Literature in Columbia University, USA.

Sevens

Suggest answers to this question. See if you can limit one answer to exactly seven words.

What point was Heraclitus trying to prove?

Suggestion

That the simple life fosters civic harmony.

Jigsaws

Express the ideas below in a single sentence, using different words as much as possible. Do not be satisfied with the first answer you think of; think of several, and choose the best.

Scilurus had eighty sons. He taught them unity was important. He used a bundle of arrows to do it.

See if you can include one or more of these words in your answer.

IAid. IILesson. IIITogether.

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