The Morals (Moralia), Book 2: Free Audiobook and Listening Guide

The Morals (Moralia), Book 2, credited to Plutarch, is available as a LibriVox volunteer audiobook. This guide identifies the recording, its source summary and its audio tracks.

About the work

The LibriVox catalogue summary, preserved with the recording, reads:

LibriVox recording of The Morals, Volume 2, by Plutarch. Read by Librivox Volunteers.] The Moralia (loosely translatable as "Matters relating to customs") of the 1st-century Greek scholar Plutarch of Chaeronea is an eclectic collection of 78 essays and transcribed speeches. They give an insight into Roman and Greek life, but often are also fascinating timeless observations in their own right. Many generations of Europeans have read or imitated them, including Montaigne and the Renaissance Humanists and Enlightenment philosophers. The Moralia include "On the Fortune or the Virtue of Alexander the Great" — an important adjunct to his Life of the great general — "On the Worship of Isis and Osiris" (a crucial source of information on Egyptian religious rites), and "On the Malice of Herodotus" (which may, like the orations on Alexander's accomplishments, have been a rhetorical exercise), in which Plutarch criticizes what he sees as systematic bias in the Father of History's work; along with more philosophical treatises, such as "On the Decline of the Oracles", "On the Delays of the Divine Vengeance", "On Peace of Mind" and lighter fare, such as "Odysseus and Gryllus", a humorous dialog between Homer's Odysseus and one of Circe's enchanted pigs. The Moralia were composed first, while writing the Lives occupied much of the last two decades of Plutarch's own life. Some editions of the Moralia include several works now known to be pseudepigrapha: among these are the "Lives of the Ten Orators" (biographies of the Ten Orators of ancient Athens, based on Caecilius of Calacte), "The Doctrines of the Philosophers", and "On Music". One "pseudo-Plutarch" is held responsible for all of these works, though their authorship is of course unknown. Though the thoughts and opinions recorded are not Plutarch's and come from a slightly later era, they are all classical in origin and have value to the historian. The book is also famously the first reference to the problem of the chicken and the egg. (Summary adapted from the Wikipedia)

Recording facts

• Recording title: The Morals (Moralia), Book 2
• Author credits: Plutarch
• Language: English
• Original MP3 tracks: 38
• Listed recording duration: 18:03:34

Opening tracks: first 24 of 38

1. 01 - The Banquet of the Seven Wise Men, part 1 — 33:53
2. 02 - The Banquet of the Seven Wise Men, part 2 — 31:10
3. 03 - The Banquet of the Seven Wise Men, part 3 — 20:47
4. 04 - How a Young Man Ought to Hear Poems, part 1 — 31:12
5. 05 - How a Young Man Ought to Hear Poems, part 2 — 24:37
6. 06 - How a Young Man Ought to Hear Poems, part 3 — 24:34
7. 07 - How a Young Man Ought to Hear Poems, part 4 — 21:52
8. 08 - Of Envy and Hatred — 10:26
9. 09 - How to Know a Flatterer From a Friend, part 1 — 25:35
10. 10 - How to Know a Flatterer From a Friend, part 2 — 27:28
11. 11 - How to Know a Flatterer From a Friend, part 3 — 33:47
12. 12 - How to Know a Flatterer From a Friend, part 4 — 32:45
13. 13 - That It Is Not Possible to Live Pleasurably According to the Doctrine of Epicurus, part 1 — 31:37
14. 14 - That It Is Not Possible to Live Pleasurably According to the Doctrine of Epicurus, part 2 — 34:13
15. 15 - That It Is Not Possible to Live Pleasurably According to the Doctrine of Epicurus, part 3 — 33:35
16. 16 - Roman Questions, part 1 — 32:24
17. 17 - Roman Questions, part 2 — 33:30
18. 18 - Roman Questions, part 3 — 32:19
19. 19 - Roman Questions, part 4 — 34:29
20. 20 - Greek Questions, part 1 — 33:49
21. 21 - Greek Questions, part 2 — 32:15
22. 22 - Of the Love of Wealth — 25:38
23. 23 - How a Man May Inoffensively Praise Himself Without Being Liable to Envy — 34:06
24. 24 - Concerning the Procreation of the Soul As Discoursed In Timaeus, part 1 — 26:36

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