Chapter
XVI
.—
Concerning Anger.
Anger is the ebullition
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of the heart’s blood
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produced by bilious exhalation or
turbidity. Hence it is that the words
χολή
and
χόλος
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are both used in the sense of
anger. Anger is sometimes lust for vengeance. For when we
are wronged or think that we are wronged, we are distressed, and there
arises this mixture of desire and anger.
There are three forms of anger: rage, which the
Greeks also call
χολή
or
χόλος
,
μῆνις
and
κότος
. When anger arises
and begins to be roused, it is called rage or
χολή
or
χόλος
. Wrath again implies
that the bile endures, that is to say, that the memory of the wrong
abides: and indeed the Greek word for it,
μῆνις
is derived from
μένειν
, and means what
abides and is transferred to memory. Rancour, on the other hand,
implies watching for a suitable moment for revenge, and the Greek word
for it is
κότος
from
κεῖσθαι
.
Anger further is the satellite of reason, the vindicator
of desire. For when we long after anything and are opposed in our
desire by some one, we are angered at that person, as though we had
been wronged: and reason evidently deems that there are just
grounds for displeasure in what has happened, in the
case of those who, like us, have in the natural
course of things to guard their own position.
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ζέσις
, boiling.
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τοῦ περὶ
καρδίαν
αἵματος
,
the blood
about the heart
.
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Nemes.,
ch.
21.