Book 7
2
Again, the craftier men are, the more Unjust they are.
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Now the hot-tempered man is not crafty, nor is anger, but open; whereas desire is crafty, as they say of Aphrodite: Weaver of wiles in Cyprus bornThe line seems to have ended Κυπρογένεος πρόπολον (Bergk, cf. Hesych., K. π. προαγ〈ω〉γόν) , for the servant of the wile-weaving Cyprus-born, viz., Peitho, Persuasion. It is ascribed by Wilamowitz to Sappho, and the same epithet is applied to Aphrodite in Sappho, 1.2. and Homer writes of her broidered girdle CajoleryOne of the emblematic figures embroidered on the girdle of Aphrodite, Hom. Il. 14.217. that cheats the wisest wits.
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As therefore unrestraint in desire is more unjust as well as more disgraceful than unrestraint as regards anger, unrestraint in desire is Unrestraint in the strict sense, and is even in a certain sense Vice.
4
Again, a wanton outrageὕβρις means any injury that is insulting to the victim, but here the writer is thinking specially of outrage prompted by lust. The argument is based on the feelings of both agent and victim. Anger, being a painful feeling, does not show wantonness or insolence, for wanton acts are pleasant to the doer. An injury done in anger therefore arouses less anger in return, less resentment in the victim, than does wanton outrage due to unrestrained desire. Therefore it is less unjust, less of an injury. Cf. Aristot. Rh. 1380a 34(anger is not so much resented, because it does not show contempt for its victim). gives pleasure to the doer, never pain, whereas an act done in anger always causes him a feeling of pain. If then things are unjust in proportion to the justice of the anger they arouse in the victim, unrestraint arising from desire is more unjust than that arising from anger; for anger contains no element of wanton insolence.
