{
    "schema": "prokopton42-public-passage-v1",
    "id": "plutarch.table_talk",
    "canonical_url": "https://prokopton42.com/en/works/plutarch/table-talk/reference-8-2-4/",
    "language": "en",
    "title": "Table Talk",
    "author": "Plutarch",
    "date": "late 1st to early 2nd century CE; internal order uncertain",
    "summary": "Table Talk observes character in action and tests moral rules against concrete situations.",
    "learning": "To read Table Talk, isolate the decisive action, distinguish character from fortune, then compare its consequence with that of a neighboring course of conduct.",
    "long_summary": "The dialogue sets several voices against one another without turning every utterance into Plutarch’s personal doctrine. Setting, speakers, and the inquiry’s progression are part of the evidence.\n\nCanonical identity follows the critical Greek CTS divisions. The historical English translation and AI-generated French remain distinct, labeled manifestations. Questions arise from the meal and circulate among guests; the inquiry's sociability matters as much as its conclusion.",
    "historical_context": "The corpus manifests do not yet establish the precise place and circumstances of composition. The images below document the author’s world or the text’s transmission. They do not claim to show the exact scene of writing.",
    "material_world_label": "World of 1989",
    "material_world": {
        "technology": "Personal computers, satellites, video, industrial robots, and expensive mobile phones exist, but the public Web does not yet.",
        "science": "Computing, genetics, climate science, cosmology, and medical imaging produce growing data and international collaboration.",
        "medicine": "CT, MRI, transplantation, vaccines, and intensive care advance; the AIDS epidemic exposes both medical capacity and its limits.",
        "transport": "Cars, high-speed rail, metros, aircraft, and containers globalize people and goods.",
        "agriculture": "Machinery, chemical inputs, breeding, and cold chains support high yields with increasingly debated social and environmental costs.",
        "communication": "Fixed telephones, fax, television, radio, and newspapers predominate. Email and computer networks remain mainly professional or academic.",
        "clothing": "Loose suits, jeans, trainers, women’s power suits, sportswear, and urban subcultures create highly varied silhouettes."
    },
    "material_world_scenes": [
        {
            "asset": "/assets/timeline/landmarks/30-1989-ce/world-01.webp",
            "title": "Technology, science, and care",
            "description": "Personal computers, satellites, video, industrial robots, and expensive mobile phones exist, but the public Web does not yet. Computing, genetics, climate science, cosmology, and medical imaging produce growing data and international collaboration. CT, MRI, transplantation, vaccines, and intensive care advance; the AIDS epidemic exposes both medical capacity and its limits."
        },
        {
            "asset": "/assets/timeline/landmarks/30-1989-ce/world-02.webp",
            "title": "Travel and communication",
            "description": "Cars, high-speed rail, metros, aircraft, and containers globalize people and goods. Fixed telephones, fax, television, radio, and newspapers predominate. Email and computer networks remain mainly professional or academic."
        },
        {
            "asset": "/assets/timeline/landmarks/30-1989-ce/world-03.webp",
            "title": "Farming and food",
            "description": "Machinery, chemical inputs, breeding, and cold chains support high yields with increasingly debated social and environmental costs."
        },
        {
            "asset": "/assets/timeline/landmarks/30-1989-ce/world-04.webp",
            "title": "Clothing, women and men",
            "description": "Loose suits, jeans, trainers, women’s power suits, sportswear, and urban subcultures create highly varied silhouettes."
        }
    ],
    "intellectual_tradition": {
        "id": "platonism",
        "label": "Socratic and Platonic thought"
    },
    "period": {
        "id": "ancient",
        "label": "Antiquity"
    },
    "languages": [
        "grc",
        "en",
        "fr"
    ],
    "manifestations": [
        {
            "coverage": "complete",
            "file": "data/corpus/normalized/plutarch/table_talk/representations/grc.ndjson",
            "language": "grc",
            "records": 260,
            "role": "complete_aligned_work",
            "sha256": "3ffd54ef37a2e5237502158e4645648cd3602af003e82ba194d7ad8489b1752e",
            "source_id": "perseus-grc"
        },
        {
            "coverage": "complete",
            "file": "data/corpus/normalized/plutarch/table_talk/representations/en.ndjson",
            "language": "en",
            "records": 260,
            "role": "complete_aligned_work",
            "sha256": "be8ab794ce81be237148d33a9eeb631a8999bf4a79c5990500c6c7c0e62bad5e",
            "source_id": "perseus-en"
        },
        {
            "coverage": "complete",
            "file": "data/corpus/normalized/plutarch/table_talk/representations/ai-generated/fr-gpt-5-6-sol-corpus-passage-translation-v1.ndjson",
            "generated_on": "2026-09-13",
            "language": "fr",
            "model": "gpt-5.6-sol",
            "official_status": "non_official",
            "prompt_version": "corpus-passage-translation-v1",
            "provider": "codex_subscription",
            "records": 260,
            "role": "ai_generated_translation_non_official",
            "sha256": "134f69c970f08ff75ea5f4549a30c50d53ddab2f89703a1060b1088ac473f9d5",
            "source_id": "prokopton42-codex-translation:gpt-5.6-sol:corpus-passage-translation-v1",
            "translation_type": "ai_generated_translation"
        }
    ],
    "concepts": [
        {
            "id": "comparative_character",
            "label": "Comparative character"
        },
        {
            "id": "desire",
            "label": "Desire"
        },
        {
            "id": "ether_field",
            "label": "Ether and field"
        },
        {
            "id": "family",
            "label": "Family"
        },
        {
            "id": "forms",
            "label": "Intelligible forms"
        },
        {
            "id": "friendship",
            "label": "Friendship"
        },
        {
            "id": "god",
            "label": "God"
        },
        {
            "id": "justice",
            "label": "Justice"
        },
        {
            "id": "nature",
            "label": "Nature"
        },
        {
            "id": "necessity",
            "label": "Necessity"
        },
        {
            "id": "probable_judgment",
            "label": "Probable judgment"
        },
        {
            "id": "reason",
            "label": "Reason"
        },
        {
            "id": "recollection",
            "label": "Recollection"
        },
        {
            "id": "roles",
            "label": "Roles and relationships"
        },
        {
            "id": "service",
            "label": "Service"
        },
        {
            "id": "sin",
            "label": "Sin"
        },
        {
            "id": "substance",
            "label": "Substance"
        },
        {
            "id": "worship",
            "label": "Worship"
        }
    ],
    "source_work_ids": [
        "plutarch.table_talk"
    ],
    "passages": 260,
    "word_count": 83198,
    "word_counts_by_language": {
        "en": 83198,
        "fr": 85181,
        "grc": 60934
    },
    "editorial_status": "gpt_5_6_semantic_draft_v1",
    "structure": {
        "citation_scheme": "plutarch-table-talk-book-question-section-v1",
        "kind": "native",
        "levels": [
            {
                "key": "book",
                "label_fr": "Livre",
                "label_en": "Book"
            },
            {
                "key": "question",
                "label_fr": "Question",
                "label_en": "Question"
            },
            {
                "key": "section",
                "label_fr": "Section",
                "label_en": "Section"
            }
        ],
        "leaf_fr": "Section",
        "leaf_en": "Section"
    },
    "canonical_passage_id": "passage:plutarch.table_talk:8.2.4",
    "canonical_ref": "8.2.4",
    "canonical_parent_ref": null,
    "canonical_parent_id": null,
    "representations": [
        {
            "language": "grc",
            "text": "ἐπὶ τούτοις ῥηθεῖσιν ἠξίουν κἀμὲ συμβαλέσθαι τι πρὸς τὸν λόγον αὐτοῖς. ἐγὼ δὲ τὰς μὲν εἰρημένας δόξας ὡς ἰθαγενεῖς καὶ ἰδίας αὐτῶν ἐκείνων ἐπῄνεσα καὶ τὸ εἰκὸς ἔφην ἔχειν ἱκανῶς· ὅπως δʼ εἶπον ἑαυτῶν μὴ καταφρονῆτε μηδʼ ἔξω βλέπητε παντάπασιν, ἀκούσατε τὸν μάλιστα παρὰ τοῖς καθηγηταῖς ἡμῶν εὐδοκιμοῦντα περὶ τούτου λόγον. ἔστι γὰρ ἐν τοῖς γεωμετρικωτάτοις θεωρήμασι, μᾶλλον δὲ προβλήμασι, τὸ δυεῖν εἰδῶν δοθέντων ἄλλο τοίἰον τρίτον παραβάλλειν τῷ μὲν ἴσον τῷ δʼ ὅμοιον· ἐφʼ ᾧ καί φασιν ἐξευρεθέντι θῦσαι τὸν Πυθαγόραν. πολὺ γὰρ ἀμέλει γλαφυρώτερον τοῦτο καὶ μουσικώτερον ἐκείνου τοῦ θεωρήματος, ὃ τὴν ὑποτείνουσαν ἀπέδειξε ταῖς περὶ τὴν ὀρθὴν ἴσον δυναμένην. εὖ λέγεις εἶπεν ὁ Διογενιανὸς ἀλλὰ τί τοῦτο πρὸς τὸν λόγον; εἴσεσθε ῥᾳδίως εἶπον ἀναμνήσαντες αὑτοὺς τῆς ἐν Τιμαίῳ διαιρέσεως, διεῖλε τριχῇ τὰ πρῶτα, ὑφʼ ὧν τὴν γένεσιν ὁ κόσμος ἔσχεν, ὧν τὸ μὲν θεὸν τῷ δικαιοτάτῳ τῶν ὀνομάτων τὸ δʼ ὕλην τὸ δʼ ἰδέαν καλοῦμεν. ἡ μὲν οὖν ὕλη τῶν ὑποκειμένων ἀτακτότατόν ἐστιν, ἡ δʼ ἰδέα τῶν παραδειγμάτων κάλλιστον, ὁ δὲ θεὸς τῶν αἰτίων ἄριστον. ἐβούλετʼ οὖν μηθέν, ὡς ἀνυστὸν ἦν, ὑπολιπεῖν ὁριστὸν ἀόριστον, ἀλλὰ κοσμῆσαι λόγῳ καὶ ἀριθμῷ τὴν φύσιν· ἕν τι ποιῶν ἐκ πάντων ὁμοῦ τῶν ὑποκειμένων, οἷον ἡ ἰδέα καὶ ὅσον ἡ ὕλη γενόμενον . διὸ τοῦτο πρόβλημα δοὺς αὑτῷ , δυεῖν ὄντων, τρίτον ἐποίησε καὶ ποιεῖ καὶ φυλάττει διὰ παντὸς τὸ ἴσον τῇ ὕλῃ καὶ ὅμοιον τῇ ἰδέᾳ τὸν κόσμον· ἀεὶ γὰρ ὢν διὰ τὴν σύμφυτον ἀνάγκην τοῦ σώματος ἐν γενέσει καὶ μετατροπῇ καὶ πάθεσι παντοδαποῖς ὑπὸ τοῦ πατρὸς καὶ δημιουργοῦ βοηθεῖται τῷ λόγῳ πρὸς τὸ παράδειγμα τὴν οὐσίαν ὁρίζοντος· καὶ κάλλιον τοῦ συμμέτρου τὸ περίμετρον τῶν ὄντων.",
            "source_id": "perseus-grc",
            "translation_type": "critical_original_language"
        },
        {
            "language": "en",
            "text": "When he had said this, he desired me to contribute something to the discourse; and I applauded their conceits as their own devices, and very probable. But lest you despise yourselves (I continued) and altogether look for some external explication, attend to an exposition upon this sentence, which your masters very much approve. Amongst the most geometrical theorems, or rather problems, this is one: Two figures being given, to construct a third, which shall be equal to one and similar to the other. And it is reported that Pythagoras, upon the discovery of this problem, offered a sacrifice to the Gods; for this is a much more exquisite theorem than that which lays down, that the square of the hypothenuse in a right-angled triangle is equal to the squares of the two sides. Right, said Diogenianus, but what is this to the present question? You will easily understand, I replied, if you call to mind how Timaeus divides that which gave the world its beginning into three parts. One of which is justly called God, the other matter, and the third form. That which is called matter is the most confused subject, the form the most beautiful pattern, and God the best of causes. Now this cause, as far as possible, would leave nothing infinite and indeterminate, but adorn Nature with number, measure, and proportion, making one thing of all the subjects together, equal to the matter, and similar to the form. Therefore proposing to himself this problem, he made and still makes a third, and always preserves it equal to the matter, and like the form; and that is the world. And this world, being in continual changes and alterations because of the natural necessity of body, is helped and preserved by the father and maker of all things, who by proportion terminates the substance according to the pattern. Wherefore in its measure and circuit this universal world is more beautiful than that which is merely similar to it....",
            "translator": "Thomas Creech, 1874",
            "source_id": "perseus-en",
            "translation_type": "historical_translation"
        },
        {
            "language": "fr",
            "text": "Après avoir parlé ainsi, il me demanda d’apporter quelque contribution à la discussion. J’applaudis leurs conceptions, qui étaient de leur propre invention et fort vraisemblables. « Mais, poursuivis-je, afin que vous ne vous méprisiez pas vous-mêmes et ne cherchiez pas absolument quelque explication extérieure, prêtez attention à une interprétation de cette sentence que vos maîtres approuvent beaucoup. Parmi les théorèmes, ou plutôt les problèmes les plus géométriques, se trouve celui-ci : deux figures étant données, en construire une troisième qui soit égale à l’une et semblable à l’autre. On rapporte que Pythagore, après avoir découvert ce problème, offrit un sacrifice aux dieux. Car ce théorème est bien plus subtil que celui qui établit que, dans un triangle rectangle, le carré de l’hypoténuse est égal aux carrés des deux côtés. »\n\n« Fort bien, dit Diogénianos, mais quel rapport cela a-t-il avec la question présente ? »\n\n« Tu le comprendras aisément, répondis-je, si tu te rappelles comment Timée divise en trois parties ce qui donna naissance au monde. L’une est justement appelée Dieu, l’autre matière, et la troisième forme. Ce qu’on appelle matière est le sujet le plus confus, la forme est le plus beau modèle, et Dieu la meilleure des causes. Or cette cause voulait, autant que possible, ne rien laisser d’infini ni d’indéterminé, mais orner la Nature par le nombre, la mesure et la proportion, faisant de tous les sujets réunis une seule chose, égale à la matière et semblable à la forme. S’étant donc proposé ce problème, Dieu produisit et produit encore une troisième chose, qu’il conserve toujours égale à la matière et semblable à la forme : c’est le monde. Et ce monde, soumis à des changements et à des altérations continuels par la nécessité naturelle du corps, est secouru et conservé par le père et l’artisan de toutes choses, qui, au moyen de la proportion, limite la substance selon le modèle. C’est pourquoi, dans sa mesure et son circuit, ce monde universel est plus beau que ce qui lui est seulement semblable.... »",
            "translator": "Codex gpt-5.6-sol",
            "edition": "Prokopton42 non-official AI translation, 2026-09-13",
            "source_id": "prokopton42-codex-translation:gpt-5.6-sol:corpus-passage-translation-v1",
            "translation_type": "ai_generated_translation",
            "official_status": "non_official",
            "generation_model": "gpt-5.6-sol"
        }
    ],
    "content_checksum": "2214ed9afe2139749297805ef15532428af9e633f461ee356df15f442dbb3d20"
}