Sophrosyne

[4] In Homer's Odyssey, Odysseus avoids being turned into an animal by Circe the enchantress by means of a magical herb, moly (symbolizing, by some accounts, sophrosyne), given to him by Athena (Wisdom) and Hermes (Reason).

[5] Heraclitus's fragment 112 states:[6] σωφρονεῖν ἀρετὴ μεγίστη, καὶ σοφίη ἀληθέα λέγειν καὶ ποιεῖν κατὰ φύσιν ἐπαίοντας Sophrosyne is the greatest virtue, and wisdom is speaking and acting the truth, paying heed to the nature of things Themes connected with sophrosyne and hubris figure prominently in plays of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides.

It is the main subject of the dialogue Charmides, wherein several definitions are proposed but no conclusion reached; however in the dramatic context it connotes moral purity and innocence.

The ability to manage with temperance and with justice (σωφρόνως καὶ δικαίως) is offered as a definition of virtue in the Meno (73a).

[13] Later Stoics like Musonius Rufus, Seneca, Epictetus, and Marcus Aurelius took a practical view of sophrosyne and share a definition of it as the restraint of the appetites.

Cicero considered four Latin terms to translate sophrosyne: temperantia (temperance), moderatio (moderateness), modestia (modesty), and frugalitas (frugality).

[15] Through the writings of Lactantius, St. Ambrose and St. Augustine, the virtue's meaning as temperance or "proper mixture" became the dominant view in subsequent Western European thought.