Thesauros Literature biography Πότερα τῶν ζῴων φρονιμώτερα τὰ χερσαῖα ἢ τὰ ἔνυδρα

Πότερα τῶν ζῴων φρονιμώτερα τὰ χερσαῖα ἢ τὰ ἔνυδρα

Πότερα τῶν ζῴων φρονιμώτερα τὰ χερσαῖα ἢ τὰ ἔνυδρα Plutarch
11 It is impossible to relate in full detail all the methods of production and storage practised by ants, but it would be careless to omit them entirely. Nature has, in fact, nowhere else so small a mirror of greater and nobler enterprises. Just as you may see greater things reflected in a drop of clear water, so among ants there exists the delineation of every virtue. Love and affection are found,Homer, Iliad, xiv. 216. namely their social life. You may see, too, the reflection of courage in their persistence in hard labour. Cf. Plato, Laches, 192 b ff.; we have here the four Platonic virtues, with Love added. There are many seeds of temperance and many of prudence and justice. Now Cleanthes,Von Arnim, S.V.F. i, p. 116, frag. 515; cf. Aelian, De Natura Animal. vi. 50. even though he declared that animals are not endowed with reason, says that he witnessed the following spectacle: some ants came to a strange anthill carrying a dead ant. Other ants then emerged from the hill and seemed, as it were, to hold converse with the first party and then went back again. This happened two or three times until at last they brought up a grub to serve as the dead ant’s ransom, whereupon the first party picked up the grub, handed over the corpse, and departed.

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