{
    "schema": "prokopton42-public-passage-v1",
    "id": "plutarch.table_talk",
    "canonical_url": "https://prokopton42.com/en/works/plutarch/table-talk/reference-8-4-2/",
    "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": "aporia",
            "label": "Aporia"
        },
        {
            "id": "care_of_soul",
            "label": "Care of the soul"
        },
        {
            "id": "comparative_character",
            "label": "Comparative character"
        },
        {
            "id": "death",
            "label": "Death"
        },
        {
            "id": "education",
            "label": "Education"
        },
        {
            "id": "faith",
            "label": "Faith"
        },
        {
            "id": "friendship",
            "label": "Friendship"
        },
        {
            "id": "philosophical_eros",
            "label": "Philosophical eros"
        },
        {
            "id": "reason",
            "label": "Reason"
        },
        {
            "id": "time",
            "label": "Time"
        }
    ],
    "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:8.4.2",
    "canonical_ref": "8.4.2",
    "canonical_parent_ref": null,
    "canonical_parent_id": null,
    "representations": [
        {
            "language": "grc",
            "text": "ταῦτʼ εἰπὼν ὁ Ἡρώδης οὐκ ἀτερπέστερον ἐμβάλλειν ἔδοξε τοῦ ζητουμένου τὸ περὶ τοῦ Νικολάου. διὸ καὶ μᾶλλον ἔφη ὁ Σῶσπις προθυμητέον, ὡς ἕκαστος αὑτόν τις ἔπεισε, συνεισενεγκεῖν εἰς τὸ ζητούμενον. ἐγὼ δʼ εἰσφέρω πρῶτος, ὅτι δεῖ τὴν τῶν νικηφόρων δόξαν ἄφθιτον, ὡς ἀνυστὸν ἐστι, καὶ ἀγήρων διαμένειν· ὁ δὲ φοῖνιξ μακρόβιον μέν ἐστιν ἐν τοῖς μάλιστα τῶν φυτῶν, ὥς που καὶ τὰ Ὀρφικὰ ταῦτα μεμαρτύρηκε ζῶον δʼ ἴσον ἀκροκόμοισιν φοινίκων ἔρνεσσιν, μόνῳ δʼ αὐτῷ σχεδὸν ὑπάρχει τὸ κατὰ πολλῶν ὡς ἀληθῶς λεγόμενον· τί δὲ τοῦτʼ ἔστι; τὸ ἐμπεδόφυλλον εἶναι καὶ ἀείφυλλον· οὔτε γὰρ δάφνην οὔτʼ ἐλαίαν οὔτε μυρσίνην οὔτʼ ἄλλο τι τῶν μὴ φυλλορροεῖν λεγομένων ὁρῶμεν ἀεὶ ταὐτὰ φύλλα διατηροῦν, ἀλλὰ τοῖς πρώτοις ἀπορρέουσιν ἑτέρων ἐπιβλαστανόντων, ὥσπερ πόλεις , ἕκαστον ἀείζωον διαμένει καὶ ἀμείλικτον ὁ δὲ φοῖνιξ οὐθὲν ἀποβάλλων ἀφʼ αὑτοῦ τῶν φυομένων, βεβαίως ἀείφυλλός ἐστι· καὶ τοῦτο δὴ τὸ κράτος αὐτοῦ μάλιστα τῆς νίκης τῷ ἰσχυρῷ συνοικειοῦσι.",
            "source_id": "perseus-grc",
            "translation_type": "critical_original_language"
        },
        {
            "language": "en",
            "text": "This discourse of Herodes seemed to give occasion for a query about Nicolaus, which would be as pleasant as the former. Therefore, said Sospis, let every one carefully give his sentiments of the matter in hand. I begin, and think that, as far as possible, the honor of the victor should remain fresh and immortal. Now a palm-tree is the longest lived of any, as this line of Orpheus testifies: They lived like branches of a leafy palm. And this almost alone enjoys the privilege (though it is said to belong to many beside) of having always fresh and the same leaves. For neither the laurel nor the olive nor the myrtle, nor any other of those trees called evergreen, is always seen with the very same leaves; but as the old fall, new ones grow. So cities continue the same, where new parts succeed those that decay. But the palm, never shedding a leaf, is continually adorned with the same green. And this power of the tree, I believe, men think agreeable to, and fit to represent, the strength of victory.",
            "translator": "Thomas Creech, 1874",
            "source_id": "perseus-en",
            "translation_type": "historical_translation"
        },
        {
            "language": "fr",
            "text": "Le discours d’Hérode parut fournir l’occasion d’une recherche sur Nicolas qui serait aussi plaisante que la précédente. Que chacun, dit donc Sospis, expose avec soin son sentiment sur la question présente. Je commence et je pense que l’honneur du vainqueur doit, autant que possible, demeurer frais et immortel. Or le palmier vit plus longtemps que tout autre arbre, comme l’atteste ce vers d’Orphée :\n\nIls vivaient tels les rameaux d’un palmier feuillu.\n\nEt presque seul, il jouit du privilège, quoique celui-ci soit attribué à beaucoup d’autres, de garder toujours fraîches les mêmes feuilles. Car ni le laurier, ni l’olivier, ni le myrte, ni aucun des autres arbres dits toujours verts ne se voit toujours couvert exactement des mêmes feuilles ; à mesure que les anciennes tombent, de nouvelles poussent. Ainsi les cités restent-elles les mêmes, lorsque des parties nouvelles succèdent à celles qui dépérissent. Mais le palmier, qui ne perd jamais une feuille, demeure continuellement paré de la même verdure. Cette propriété de l’arbre, je crois, paraît aux hommes conforme à la force de la victoire et propre à la représenter.",
            "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": "af5e947544ad74ed99c76f9dd423d29cd572abcb33c39d2f053689ce975f5909"
}