Aristotle on the Suffering of Priam

When developing his account of happiness (eudaimonia) in the Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle twice invokes the fate of Priam to caution readers about the potential devastations of misfortune. He states that “no one calls happy” (oudeis eudaimonizei) a person who has suffered such a fate, but his reasoning on the topic is the subject of debate. In this paper, I give a detailed analysis of Aristotle’s account of Priam and argue that, according to the most consonant reading of the text, Priam’s suffering impacts his happiness only if, and only to the extent that, it prevents excellent activity. My analysis opposes an influential interpretation of the relationship between happiness and external goods recently defended by Timothy Roche.