The Picture or Table of Cebes, Pinax or Tabula Cebetis in Latin, and in Arabic Lughz Qabis (The Riddle of Cebes), is an ethical allegory attributed to 5th-century BC philosopher Cebes, “a friend of Plato”. The Table is written in Greek, is probably pseudonymous, and dates from the 1st or 2nd century CE. Thanks to early translations into Latin and Arabic it had a huge and lasting influence on the development of ethics literature throughout the Middle East, the Mediterranean and Europe. It is an engaging narrative based on the description of an allegorical temple wall image, an account of the initiatic development of the soul towards salvation by means of moral cultivation.

‘This is so,’ he said to us, ‘because none of you possess that habit through which you may acquire this way of thinking. Therefore, throughout the whole course of your lives hold to the practice of those things I have just now explained to you, such that those things of which I have spoken will become imprinted in your minds and become a habit for you.

Click here to read a recent translation and introduction by Keith Seddon: “The Journey to Happiness”.

Click on this link for J. Elichmann’s trilingual edition of 1640, with the Greek, Latin and Arabic versions on facing pages.

Here is an older translation on Wikisource, entitled The Greek Pilgrim’s Progress. Generally known as the Picture, by Kebes. Also on Wikisource, there are links to several previous editions on the Internet Archive.

Here is a digital Arabic text on The Digital Corpus for Graeco-Arabic Studies.

Translation from Keith Seddon, Epictetus’ Handbook and the Tablet of Cebes. Guides to Stoic Living, Routledge, 2005. Republished here with thanks.