Short Works · Chapter
CXXIII explained
A brief analogy compares the role of physicians for the sick to the role of laws for those who have been wronged, positioning laws as the remedy for injustice.
What happens
A brief analogy compares the role of physicians for the sick to the role of laws for those who have been wronged, positioning laws as the remedy for injustice.
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Narrative arc
Story tension across the book.
- Setup
- Escalation
- Breaking point
- Aftermath
- Closing
This moment is the emotional and philosophical peak where Epictetus forces the reader into a crisis of choice,…
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- Social Duty and Relationship
The excerpt implicitly highlights the function of laws within society as a protective and corrective mechanism for maintaining social order and justice, a core aspect of social duty.
Key passages
“As to the sick physicians are as saviours, so to those also who are wronged are the laws.”
Just as doctors are the rescuers of the ill, the laws are the rescuers of those who have been treated unjustly.
This simple analogy establishes the law as the societal institution designed to heal the injury of wrongdoing.
