Gratitude in ancient thought

Griffin begins her essay: “The exchange of beneficia – gifts and services – was an important feature of Greek and Roman society at all periods. Its prominence was reflected in the number of philosophical works that analyzed the phenomenon. From the fourth century B.C. onwards, euergesia and charis became subjects of moral discourse. Xenophon, particularly in his Socratic works and the Cyropaideia , and Aristotle, in his rhetorical and ethical writings, already anticipate much of what the Hellenistic schools were to elaborate. One of Aristotle’s followers gave the first clear formulation we have of the idea that ‘the giving and interchange of favours holds together the lives of men.’ Aristotle’s successor Theophrastus wrote the first treatise we know of to deal wholly and specifically with the subject of charis . His On Gratitude . . . had a long line of successors, including Epicurus’s On Gifts and Gratitude . . . and Chrysippus’ Stoic treatments of the subject, both as part of a general work On Duties . . . and in a separate work On Favours .”

Unfortunately, only two of these many treatises survive – Cicero’s de Officiis and Seneca’s de Beneficiis .