Instituta Laconia

Plutarch

Plutarch. Moralia, Vol. III. Babbitt, Frank Cole, translator. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1931 (printing).

Those fond of proverbs are wont to quote this on occasion:

Yer ain hand use when Fortune ye would call,

thus indicating that calling on the gods for aid ought to be accompanied by effort and action on one’s own part, or else they should not be invoked.[*](Cf. Leutsch and Schneidewin, Paroemiographie Graeci, ii. p. 653, for the ancient versions of God helps those who help themselves; also Babrius, Fabulae, no. 20.)