43.1 Πᾶν πρᾶγμα δύο ἔχει λαβάς, τὴν μὲν φορητήν, τὴν δὲ ἀφόρητον. ὁ ἀδελφὸς ἐὰν ἀδικῇ, ἐντεῦθεν αὐτὸ μὴ λάμβανε ὅτι ἀδικεῖ (αὕτη γὰρ ἡ λαβή ἐστιν αὐτοῦ οὐ φορητή), ἀλλὰ ἐκεῖθεν μᾶλλον ὅτι ἀδελφός, ὅτι σύντροφος, καὶ λήψῃ αὐτὸ καθ' ὃ φορητόν ἑστιν.
notes
The Two Handles
Problems or unpleasant events can be thought of objects that have two “handles.”
φορητήν: “bearable, endurable,” but also “by which (an object) can carried.” Epictetus plays on two meanings of “handle,” the literal (“grasp, pick up”) and the mental (“endure”), an ambiguity present in both Greek and English.
λάμβανε: “take,” playing on both the physical sense (“grasp”) and the mental “regard (as),” “think (that)” (LSJ λαμβάνω A.I.9.c). The use of λαμβάνω elaborates the metaphor in λαβή.
λήψῃ: > λαμβάνω, 2 sg. fut. mid. ind.
vocabulary
λαβή, - ῆς, ἡ, a handle
φορητός, -ή, -όν, able to be carried, graspable
ἀφόρητος, -ον, unable to be carried, non-graspable
ἐντεῦθεν, from here, from there
ἐκεῖθεν, from there, thence
σύντροφος, -ον, raised with