ancient political theory final

\D /THE LOEB CLASSICAL LIBRARY FOUNDED BY JAMES LOEB, LL.D.

EDITED BY

+ T. E. PAGE, C.H., urr.D. /

E. CAPPS, PH.D., LL.D. W. H. D. ROUSE, utt.d.

PLATO'S REPUBLIC

I

PLATO THE REPUBLIC WITH AN ENGLISH TRANSLATION BY

PAUL SHOREY, Ph.D., LL.D., Lrrr.D. PROFESSOR OF GREEK, UNIVERSITY OF CHICAOO

IN TWO VOLUMES

I

BOOKS I—

V

CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS

LONDON WILLIAM HEINEMANN LTD

MCMXXXVII

First printed 1930

Revised and Reprinted 1937

Z-i>.\\.Sb

Printed in Great Britain

CONTENTS OF VOLUME I

PAOE

Introduction ^,jj

The Text ...... xlv The Translation

jjjj

Book I.

Book II.

Book III.

Book IV.

Book V.

k

2

108

200

314

424

INTRODUCTION

Analyses of the Republic abound." The object of this sketch is not to follow all the windings of its ideas, but to indicate sufficiently their literary frame- work and setting. Socrates speaks in the first person, as in the Charmides and the Lysis. He relates to Critias, Timaeus, Hermocrates, and an unnamed fourth person, as we learn from the introduction of the Timaeus, a conversation which took place " yester- day " at the Peiraeus. The narrative falls on the day of the Lesser Panathenaea, and its scene, like that of the Timaeus, Proclus affirms to be the city or the Acropolis, a more suitable place, he thinks, for the quieter theme and the fit audience but few than the noisy seaport, apt symbol of Socrates' contention with the sophists.* The Timaeus, composed some time later than the

Republic, is by an afterthought represented as its

* Jowett, Dialogues of Plato, vol. iii. pp. xvi-clvii ; Grote'a P/a<o, vol. iv. pp. 1-94: Gomperz, Greek Thinkers, iii. pp. 54-105 ; William Boyd, An Introduction to the Republic of Plato, London, 1904, pp. 196 flF. ; Richard Lewis Nettleship, Lectures on the Republic o/ P/a<o, Ix)ndon, 1904; Ueberwe^- Praechter, Geschichte der PhiJosophie, Altertum, pp. 231-234 and 269-279 ; Wilamowitz, Platan^ i. pp. 393-449 ; etc.

» Cf. Proclus, In Rem P. vol. i. p. 17. 3 KrolL Of. also Laws, 705 A.

VOL. I b Vii

INTRODUCTION

sequel. And the Republic, Timaeus, and unfinished Critias constitute the first of the " trilogies " in

which Aristophanes of Byzantium arranged the Platonic dialogues." The Timaeus accordingly opens with a brief recapitulation of the main political and social features of the Republic. But nothing can be inferred from the variations of this slight summary.*' The dramatic date of the dialogue is plausibly

assigned by Boeckh '^ to the year 411 or 410.'* Proof is impossible because Plato admits anachronisms in

his dramas.*

Socrates tells how he went down to the Peiraeus to attend the new festival of the Thracian Artemis, Bendis/ and, turning homewards, was detained by

" Cf. Diogenes Laertius, iii. 61, and Zeller, Philosophie der Griechen*, vol. ii. pt. i. pp. 494 f., n. 2.

" Proclus tries to show that the points selected for em- phasis are those which prefigure the constitution and govern- ment of the universe by the Creator (In Tim. 17 e-f). His reasoning is differently presented but hardly more fantastic than that of modern critics who endeavour to determine by this means the original design or order of publication of the parts of the Rep^iblic. Cf. further Taylor, Plato, p. 264, n. 2.

" Kleine Schriften, iv. pp. 437 ff., especially 448. ** A. E. Taylor, Plato, p. 263, n. 1, argues that this is the

worst of all possible dates. ' Cf. Jowett and Campbell, vol. iii. pp. 2-3 ; Zeller,

vol. ii. pt. i. p. 489. Arguments are based on the circum- stances of the family of Lysias, the presumable age of Socrates, Glaucon, Adeimantus and Thrasymachus, and the extreme old age of Sophocles.

f The religion of Bendis may have been known at Athens as early as Cratinus's Thraitfai {4'iS B.C.), Kock, Fragmenfa, i. 34. Mommsen, Fe.ste der Stadt Athen, p. 490, cites inscriptions to prove its establishment in Attica as early as 429-428 B.C. But he thinks Plato's " inasmuch as this was the first celebration " may refer to special ceremonies first instituted circa 411 b.c.

INTRODUCTION

a group of friends who took him to the house of Polemarchus, brother of the orator Lysias." A goodly company was assembled there, Lysias and a younger brother Euthydemus—yea, and Thrasymachus of Chalcedon,* Charmantides of the deme Paiania,'' Cleitophon,'* and conspicuous among them the venerable Cephalus, cro^\•ned from a recent sacrifice and a prefiguring t\"pe of the happy old age of the just man.* A conversation springs up which Socrates guides to an inquiry into the definition and nature y of justice (330 d, 331 c, 332 b) and to the conclusion that the conventional Greek formula, " Help your friends and harm your enemies," cannot be right (335 E-336 a), since it is not the function (epyov, 335 d) of the good man to do evil to any. The sophist

" See Lysias in any classical dictionary. He returned to Athens from Thurii circa 413 b.c. Polemarchus was the older brother. He was a student of philosophy {Phaedr. 257 b). Whether he lived with Cephalus or Cephalus with him cannot be inferred with certainty. Lysias perhaps had a separate house at the Peiraeus (c/. Phaedr. 227 b). The family owned three houses in 404 B.C. (Lysias, Or. 12. lS),andBlass{Attische Beredsamkeit, i. p. 347) infers from Lysias, 12. 16 that Polem- archus resided at Athens. Lysias takes no part in the conversation. He was no philosopher {^Phaedr. 257 b).

* A noted sophist and rhetorician. Cf. Phaedr. 266 c, Zeller*, i. pp. 1321 ff. ; Blass, Attische Beredsamkeit^, i. pp. 244-258; Sidgwick, Jc-Mrn. o/ PA//. (English), v. pp. 78-79, who denies that Thrasymachus was, properly speaking, a sophist ; Diels, Fragmented, ii. pp. 276-282.

' Blass, op. cit. ii. p. 19. '* Apparently a partisan of Thrasymachus. His name is

given to a short, probably spurious, dialogue, of which the main thought is that Socrates, though excellent in exhorta- tion or protreptic, is totally lacking in a positive and coherent philosophy. Grote and others have conjectured it to be a discarded introduction to the Republic.

• Cf. 329 D, 331 A with 613 b-c

INTRODUCTION

Thrasymachus, intervening brutally (336 b), affirms the immoralist thesis that j ustice is only the advantage of the (politically) stronger, and with humorous dramatic touches of character-portrayal is finally

silenced (350 c-d), much as Callicles is refuted in the Gorgias. The conclusion, in the manner of the minor dialogues, is that Socrates knows nothing (354 c). For since he does not know what justice is, he cannot a fortiori determine the larger question raised by Thrasymachus 's later contention (352 d), whether the just life or the unjust life is the happier.

Either the first half or the whole of this book detached would be a plausible companion to such dialogues as the Charmides and Laches, which deal in similar manner with two other cardinal virtues, temperance and bravery. It is an easy but idle and unverifiable conjecture that it was in Plato's original intention composed as a separate work, perhaps a discarded sketch for the Gorgias, and only by an afterthought became an introduction for the Republic.'* It is now an excellent introduction and not, in view of the extent of the Republic, dis- proportionate in length. That is all we know or can know. The second book opens with what Mill describes

as a " monument of the essential fairness of Plato's mind " ^—a powerful restatement of the theory of Thrasymachus by the brothers of Plato, Glaucon and Adeimantus. They are not content with the dialectic that reduced Thrasymachus to silence (358 b). They demand a demonstration which will convince the youth hesitating at the cross-roads of virtue and

" Cf. infra, p. xxv, note 6. ' Cf. Dissertations and Discussions, vol. iv. p. 311.

INTRODUCTION

vice (365 a-b) " that it is really and intrinsically better to be than to seem just.**

It is Plato's method always to restate a satirized and controverted doctrine in its most plausible form before proceeding to a definitive refutation. '^ As he himself says in the Phaedrus (272 c), " it is right to give the wolf too a hearincr."

It is also characteristic of Plato that he prefers to put the strongest statement of the sophistic, im- moralist, Machiavellian, Hobbesian, Nietzschean political ethics in the mouths of speakers who are themselves on the side of the angels. ** There is this historical justification of the procedure, that there

exists not a shred of evidence that any contemporary or predecessor of Plato could state any of their theories which he assailed as well, as fully, as coherently, as systematically, as he has done it for them.

In response to the challenge of Glaucon and Adeimantus, Socrates proposes to study the nature of justice and injustice wTit large in the larger organism of the state, and to test the conceptions so won by their application to the individual also (368 E, 369 a). Plato, though he freely employs

• Cf. my Unity of Plato's Thought, p. 25, n. 164. " Cf. 362 A with 367 e. « Cf. my Unity of Plato's Thought, p. 8 : ... the

elaborate refutations which Plato thinks fit to give of the crudest form of hostile theories sometimes produce an impression of unfairness upon modern critics. They forget two things : First, that he always goes on to restate the theory and refute its fair meaning ; second, that in the case of many doctrines combated by Plato there is no evidence that they were ever formulated with the proper logical qualifications except by himself."

" Cf. 368 A-B.

INTRODUCTION

metaphor, symbolism, and myth, never bases his argument on them." The figurative language here, as elsewhere, serves as a transition to, a framework for, an illustration of, the argument. Man is a social and political animal, and nothing but abstract dialectics can come of the attempt to isolate his psychology and ethics from the political and social environment that shapes them.*" The question whether the main subject of the Republic is justice or the state is, as Proclus already in effect said, a

logomachy.'' The construction of an ideal state was a necessary part of Plato's design, and actually occupies the larger part of the Republic. But it is, as he repeatedly tells us, logically subordinated to the proof that the just is the happy life."*

It is idle to object that it is not true and cannot be proved that righteousness is verifiably happiness. The question still interests humanity, and Plato's discussion of it, whether it does or does not amount to a demonstration, still remains the most instructive and suggestive treatment of the theme in all literature. There is little profit also in scrutinizing too curiously

the unity or lack of unity of design in the Republic, the

" Cf. my review of Barker, " Greek Political Theory," in the Philosophical Review, vol. xxix., 1920, p. 86 : " To say (on p. 119) that ' by considering the temper of the watchdog Plato arrives at the principle,' etc., is to make no allowance for Plato's literary art and his humour. Plato never really deduces his conclusions from the figurative analogies which he uses to illustrate them."

* Cf., e.g.. Rep. 544 d-e, and infra, p. xxvi. ' Cf. the long discussion of Stallbaum in his Introduction

to the Republic, pp. vii-lxv. For Proclus cf. On Rep. p. 349 (ed. of Kroll, p. 5 and p. 11).

"* Cf. 352 D, 367 E, 369 a, 427 d, 445 a-b, 576 c, and especially 472 b with 588 b and 612 b.

INTRODUCTION

scale and proportion of the various topics introduced, the justification and relevance of what may seem to some modern readers disproportionate digressions. The rigid, undeviating logic which Poe postulates for the short story or poem has no application to the large-scale masterpieces of literature as we actually find them. And it is the height of naivete for philo- logical critics who have never themselves composed any work of literary art to schoolmaster such creations by their own a priori canons of the logic and architec- tonic unity of composition. Such speculations have made wild work of Homeric criticism. They have been appUed to Demosthenes On the Crotvn and Virgil's Aeneid. Their employment either in criti- cism of the Republic or in support of unverifiable

hj^otheses about the order of composition of its

different books is sufficiently disposed of by the common sense of the passages which I have quoted below." For the reader who intelligently follows the

" Cf. my review of Diesendruck's " Struktur and Cha- rakter des Platonischen Phaidros," Class. Phil. vol. xxiii., 1928, pp. 79 f. : " In the Introduction to the Republic, Jowett writes, ' Nor need anji;hing be excluded from the plan of a great work to which the mind is naturally led by the association of ideas and which does not interfere with the general purpose.' Goethe in conversation with Eckermann said on May 6, 1827, ' Da kommen sie und fragen, welche Idee ich in meinem Faust zu verkorpern gesucht. Als ob ich das selber wiisste und aussprechen konnte.' Or with more special application to the Phaedrus I may quote Bourguet's review of Raeder, ' Cet eniiemble, on pensera sans doute que M. Raeder a eu tort de le juger mal construit. Au lieu d'une imperfection d'assemblage, c'est le plan raeme que le sujet indiquait. Et peut-etre est-il permis d'ajouter qu'on arrive ainsi a une autre id^e de la com- position, plus large et plus profonde, que celle qui est d'ordinaire acceptee, trop asservie a des canons d'ecole.'

"

INTRODUCTION

main argument of the Republic, minor disproportions and irrelevancies disappear in the total impression of

the unity and designed convergence of all its parts in

a predetermined conclusion. If it pleases Plato to

dwell a little longer than interests the modern reader on the expurgation of Homer (379 d-394)i the regula- tion of warfare between Greek states (469-471 c), the postulates of elementary logic (438-439), the pro-

gramme of the higher education (521 fF.) and its psychological presuppositions (522-524), and the

justification of the banishment of the poets (595-608 c),

criticism has only to note and accept the fact. Socrates constructs the indispensable minimum

(369 i>-e) of a state or city from the necessities of

human Hfe, food, shelter, clothing, the inability of the isolated individual to provide for these needs and the principle of the division of labour." Plato is aware

that the historic origin of society is to be looked for

in the family and the clan. But he reserves this

aspect of the subject for the Larvs.^ The hypothetical, simple primitive state, which Glaucon stigmatizes as

a city of pigs (372 d), is developed into a normal

modern society or city by the demand for customary luxuries, and by Herbert Spencer's principle of " tie multiplication of effects," one thing leading

to another (373-374). The luxurious and inflamed city (372 e) is then purged and purified by the reform of ordinary Greek education," in which the expurgation of Homer and Homeric mythology holds a place that may weary the modern reader but is not

" Cf. 369 B-372 c and my paper on " The Idea of Justice in Plato's Republic,'" The Ethical Record, January 1890.

* 677 ff., 680 A-B ff. " Cf. my paper, " Some Ideals of Education in Plato's

Republic," The Educational Bi-Monthly, February 1908.

INTRODUCTION

disproportionate to the importance of the matter for Plato's generation and for the Christian Fathers who quote it almost entire. Luxury- makes war unavoid- able (373 e). The principle of division of labour (374- b-e) is applied to the military class, who receive a special education, and who, to secure the disin- terested use of their power,'' are subjected to a Spartan disciphne and not permitted to touch gold or to own property (416-417).

In such a state the four cardinal \irtues, the defini- tions of which were vainly sought in the minor dia- logues, are easily seen to be realizations on a higher plane of the principle of the di\ision of labour.^ It is further pro\-isionally assumed that the four cardinal \'irtues constitute and in some sort define goodness.*" The wisdom of such a state resides predominantlv in the rulers (428) : its bravery- in the soldiers (429), who acquire from their education a fixed and settled right opinion as to what things are reallv to be feared. Its sobriety, moderation, and temperance {sophrosyne) are the willingness of all classes to accept this di\ision of function (431 e). Its justice is the fulfilment of its own function by ever\' class (433). A pro\isional psychology (435 c-d) discovers in the human soul faculties corresponding to tfie three social classes (435 e ff.)."* And the social and poHtical definitions of these \-irtues are then seen to

» Cf. my article, " Plato and His Lessons for To-day," in the Independent, vol. Ix., 1906, pp. -253-256.

* Cf. 433, 443 c and Unity of Plato's Thought, pp. 15-16, • Cf. i-27 E with 449 a, and Gorgias, 507 c. •* There is no real evidence that this is derived from a

Pythagorean doctrine of the three lives. There is a con- siderable recent literature that affirms it. It is enoush here to refer to Mr. A. E. Taylor's Plato, p. 281, and Burnet, Early Greek Philosophy', p. 296, n. 2.

XV

INTRODUCTION

fit the individual. Sobriety and temperance are the acceptance by every faculty of this higher division of labour (441-442). Justice is the performance by every faculty of its proper task (433 a-b with 441 n). These definitions will stand the test of vulgar instances.

The man whose own soul is inherently just in this ideal sense of the word will also be just in the ordinary relations of life. He will not pick and steal and cheat and break his promises (442 e-443 a). Justice in man and state is health. It is as absurd to maintain that the unjust man can be happier than the just as it would be to argue that the unhealthy man is happier than the healthy (445 a)." Our problem is apparently solved.

It has been argued that this conclusion marks the end of a first edition of the Republic to which there are vague references in antiquity. There can be no proof for such an hypothesis.'' Plato's plan from the first presumably contemplated an ideal state governed

by philosophers (347 d), and there is distinct reference in the first four books to the necessity of securing

the perpetuity of the reformed state by the superior intelligence of its rulers.*^

" Cf. my paper on " The Idea of Good in Plato's Republic,'' University of Chicago Studies in Classical Philology, vol. i.

p. 194 : " Utilitarian ethics differs from the evolutionist, says Leslie Stephen ... in that ' the one lays down as a criterion the happiness, the other the health of the society.

. . .' Mr. Stephen adds, ' the two are not really divergent,'

and this is the thesis which Plato strains every nerve to prove throughout the Republic and Laws."

* Cf. infra, p. xxv, note b. ' Cf. 412 A with 429 a, 497 c-d, 502 d. Cf. also the

•* longer way," 435 d with 504 b-c, and further. The Unity of Plato's Thought, note 650, and the article " Plato's Laws and the Unity of Plato's Thought," Classical Philology, October 1914,

INTRODUCTION

The transition at the beginning of the fifth book is quite in Plato's manner and recalls the transition in the Phaedo (84< c) to a renewal of the discussion of im- mortality. Here Glaucon and Adeimantus, as there Simmias and Cebes, are conversing in low tones and are challenged by Socrates to speak their mind openly (449 b). They desire a fuller explanation and justifi- cation of the paradox, too hghtly let fall by Socrates, that the guardians will have all things in common, including wives and children (449 c, cf. 424 a). Soc- rates, after some demur, undertakes to expound this topic and in general the pre-conditions of the realiza- tion of the ideal state under the continued metaphor of three waves of paradox. They are (1) the exercise of the same functions by men and Avomen (457 a, 453 to 457) ; (2) the community of wives (457 c) ; (3) (which is the condition of the realization of all these ideals) the postulate that either philosophers must become kings or kings philosophers. The discussion of these topics and the digressions

which they suggest give to this transitional book an appearance of confusion which attention to the clue of the three waves of paradox and the distinction between the desirabiUty and the possibility of the Utopia contemplated will remove." The last few pages of the book deprecate prevailing prejudice against the philosophers and prepare the way for the theory and description of the higher education in Books VI and VH by distinguishing from the many pretenders the true philosophers who are those who are lovers of ideas, capable of appreciating them, and able to reason in abstractions.^ Whatever the meta-

« Cf. 452 E, 457 c, 457 d-e, 458 a-b, 461 e, 466 d, 471 c, 472 D, 473 c-D. » Cf. 474 b, 475 d-e. 477-4S0. 479 a-b.

INTRODUCTION

physical implications of this passage " its practical

significance for the higher education and the main argument of the Republic is that stated here. The sixth book continues this topic with an enum-

eration of the qualities of the perfect student, the

natural endowments that are the prerequisites of the higher education (4-85 ff.) and the reasons why so few (496 a) of those thus fortunately endowed are saved (-tQ* a) for philosophy from the corrupting influences of the crowd and the crowd-compelling sophists.''

In an ideal state these sports of nature (as Huxley styles them) will be systematically selected (499 b ff.), tested through all the stages of ordinary education

and finally conducted by the longer way (504 b with 435 d) of the higher education in the abstract sciences

and mathematics and dialectics to the apprehension of the idea of good, which will be their guide in the con- duct of the state. This simple thought is expressed in

a series of symbols—the sun (506 e ff.), the divided line (509 d), the cave (514 ff.)—which has obscured its plain meaning for the majority of readers." For the purposes of the Republic and apart from disputable metaphysical implications it means simply that ethics and politics ought to be something more than mere empiricism. Their principles and practice must be consistently related to a '^learly conceived final

standard and ideal of human welfare and good. To conceive such a standard and apply it systematically

» Cf. The Unity of Plato's Thought, pp. 55-56. " Cf. 490 E, 492 ff. ' Cf. my paper on " The Idea of Good," The Unity

of Plato's Thovffht, pp. 16 ff. and 74, and my article '* Summum Bonum " in Hastings, Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics,

INTRODUCTION

to the complications of institutions, law, and educa- tion is possible only for first-class minds who have undergone a severe discipline in abstract thought,

supplemented by a long experience in affairs (-tS-i a,

539 e). But it is even more impossible that the multitude should be critics than that they should be philosophers (49^ a). And so this which is Plato's plain meaning has been lost in the literature of mystic and fanciful interpretation of the imagery

in which he clothes it. From these heights the seventh book descends to

a sober account of the higher education in the

mathematical sciences and dialectic (521 c ff.). The passage is an interesting document for Plato's con- ception of education and perhaps for the practice in

his Academy. It also is the chief text for the con- troverted question of Plato's attitude towards science

and the place of Platonism in the history of science,

but it need not further detain us here." This book, in a sense, completes the description of the ideal

state.

The eighth book, one of the most brilliant pieces of writing in Plato, is a rapid survey of the diver-

gence, the progressive degeneracy from the ideal state in the four types to which Plato thinks the

tiresome infinity of the forms of government that minute research enunr 'grates among Greeks and barbarians may be conveniently reduced (54'+ c-d). These are the timocracy, whose principle is honour

(545 c ff.), the oUgarchy, which regards wealth

(550 c ff., 551c), the democracy, whose slogan is

• Cf. my paper, " Platonism and the History of Science," American Philosophical Society's Proceedings, vol. Ixvi., 1927, pp. 171 ff.

INTRODUCTION

liberty, or " doing as one likes " (557 B-E),the tyranny, enslaved to appetite. In this review history, satire, political philosophy, and the special literary motives of the Republic are blended in a mixture hopelessly disconcerting to all literal-minded critics from Aristotle down.

In the first two types Plato is evidently thinking of the better (544 c) and the worse aspects (548 a) of Sparta. In his portrayal of the democratic state he lets himself go in satire of fourth-century Athens (557 B ff.), intoxicated with too heady draughts of liberty (562 d) and dying of the triumph of the liberal party. His picture of the tyrant is in part a powerful restatement of Greek commonplace (5G5 a-576) and in part a preparation for the return to the main argument of the Republic (577 ff.) by direct applica- tion of the analogy between the individual and the state with which he began.

In the ninth book all the lines converge on the original problem. After adding the final touches to the picture of the terrors and inner discords (576-580) of the tyrant's soul, Plato finally decides the issue

between the just and the unjust life by three argu- ments. The just life is proved the happier (1) by the analogy with the contrasted happiness of the royal (ideal) and the unhappiness of the tyrannized state (577 c ff.), (2) by reason of an argument which Plato never repeats but which John Stuart Mill seriously accepts (582-583) : The man who lives mainly for the higher spiritual satisfactions has necessarily had experience of the pleasures of sense and ambition also. He only can compare and judge. The devotees of sense and ambition know little or nothing of the higher happiness of the intellect and the soul.

INTRODUCTION

(S) The third and perhaps the most weighty proof is the principle on which the Platonic philosophy or

science of ethics rests, the fact that the pleasures of

sense are essentially negative, not to say worthless,

because thev are preconditioned by equivalent wants which are pains.'' This principle is clearly suggested

in the Gorgias, Meno, Phaedrns, and Phaedo, and is elaborately explained in the psychology of the

Philehus. It is in fact the basis of the Platonic ethics,

which the majority of critics persist in deducing from their notion of Plato's metaphysics. These three arguments, however, are not the last word. For final

conviction Plato falls back on the old analogy of health and disease, with which the fourth book provisionally concluded the argument, and which as we there saw is all that the scientific ethics of Leslie Stephen can urge in the last resort.* The immoral soul is diseased and cannot enjoy true happiness. This thought is expressed in the image of the many-headed beast (588 c ff.) and confirmed in a final passage of moral eloquence which forms a climax and the apparent conclusion of the whole

(591-592).

The tenth book may be regarded either as an appendix and after-piece or as the second and higher climax prepared bv an intervening level tract separat- ing it from the eloquent conclusion of the ninth book. The discussion in the first half of the book of the deeper psychological justification of the banishment of imitative poets is interesting in itself. It is

something that Plato had to say and that could be

» C/. 583 B ff. and Unity of Plato's Thought, pp. 23 f. and 26 f., and '* The Idea of Good in Plato's Republic," pp. 192 ff.

* Cf. supra, p. xvi, note a.

INTRODUCTION

said here with the least interruption of the general

design. But its chief service is that it rests the emotions between two culminating points and so allows each its full force. Whether by accident or design, this method of composition is found in the Iliad, where the games of the twenty-third book relieve the emotional tension of the death of Hector

in the twenty-second and prepare us for the final climax of the ransom of his body and his burial in the twenty-fourth. It is also found in the oration

On the Crofim, which has two almost equally eloquent perorations separated by a tame level tract. In Plato's case there is no improbability in the assump-

tion of conscious design. The intrinsic preferability of justice has been proved and eloquently summed up. The impression of that moral eloquence would have been weakened if Plato had immediately pro- ceeded to the myth that sets forth the rewards that await the just man in the life to come. And the mvth itself is much more effective after an interval of sober argument and discussion. Then that natural human desire for variation and relief of monotony for which the modulations of Plato's art everywhere

provide makes us welcome the tale of Er the son of Arminius (614 b), the " angel " from over there

(614 d). And we listen entranced to the myth that was saved and will save us if we believe it—believe that the soul is immortal, capable of infinite issues

of good and evil, of weal or woe. So shall we hold ever to the upward way and follow righteousness and sobriety with clear-eyed reason that we may be dear to ourselves and to God, both in the time of

our sojourn and trial here below and also when, like

victors in the games, we receive the final crown and

INTRODUCTION

prize, that thus both here and in aU the millennial pilgrim's progress of the soul of which we fable we shall fare well (621 c-d).

This smnmary presents only the bare frame- work of the ideas of the Republic. But we may fittingly add here a partial list of the many brilhant passages of description, character - painting, satire, imagery, and moral eloquence dispersed through the work.

They include the dramatic introduction (327-331) with the picture of the old age of the just man, prefiguring the conclusion of the whole work ; the angry intervention of Thrasymachus (336 b ff.) ; the altercation between Thras\-machus and Cleitophon (340) ; Thrasymachus perspiring under Socrates' questions because it was a hot dav (350 d) ; the magnificent restatement of the case for injustice by Glaucon and Adeimantus (357-367) ; the Words- worthian idea of the influence of a beautiful environ- ment on the young soul (4-01) ; the satiric description of the valetudinarian and malade imaginaire (406- 407) ; the eloquent forecast of the fate of a society in which the guardians exploit their charges and the watchdogs become grey wolves (416-417) ; the satire on the lazy workman's or sociahst paradise (420 d-e) ; the completion of the dream and the first of three noble statements of what Emerson calls the sove- reignty of ethics, the moral ideal, the anticipated Stoic principle that nothing really matters but the good vriW (443-444 ; cf. 591 E, 618 c) ; the soul that contemplates all time and all existence (486 a) ; the allegory of the disorderly ship and the riotous crew (488-489) ; the power of popular assembUes to

INTRODUCTION

corrupt the youthful soul and all souls that have not

a footing somewhere in eternity (492) ; the great beast that symbolizes the public (493 a-b)—not to be confused, as often happens, with the composite

beast that is an allegory of the mixed nature of man ; the little bald tinker who marries his master's daughter, an allegory of the unworthy wooers of

divine philosophy (495 e) ; the true philosophers

whose contemplation of the heavens and of eternal

things leaves them no leisure for petty bickerings and jealousies (500 c-d) ; the sun as symbol of the

idea of good (507-509) ; the divided line illustrating

the faculties of mind and the distinction between the sciences and pure philosophy or dialectics (510-

511) ; the prisoners in the fire-lit cave, an allegory

of the unphilosophic, unreleased mind (514-518) ; the entire eighth book, which Macaulay so greatly admired ; and especially its satire on democracy

doing as it likes, the inspiration of Matthew Arnold (562-563) ; Plato's evening prayer, as it has been

called, anticipating all that is true and significant in the Freudian psychology (571); the description of

the tortured tyrant's soul, applied by Tacitus to the Roman emperors (578-579) ; the comparison of the shadows we are and the shadows we pursue with the Greeks and Trojans who fought for a phantom Helen (586 B-c) ; the likening of the human soul to a many-headed beast (588 c) ; the city of which the pattern is laid up in heaven (592 a-b) ; the spell of Homer (607 c-d) ; the crowning myth of immortality (614-621).

The Republic is the central and most comprehensive work of Plato's maturity. It may have been com-

INTRODUCTION

posed between the years 380 and 370 b.c. in the fifth or sixth decade of Plato's life." The tradition that the earlier books were published

earlier can neither be proved nor disproved.** The invention of printing has given to the idea of

" publication " a precision of meaning which it could not bear in the Athens of the fourth century b.c. Long before its formal completion the plan and the main ideas of Plato's masterpiece were doubtless familiar, not only to the students of the Academy but to the rival school of Isocrates and the literary gossips of Athens.

Unlike the presumably earlier Charmides, Laches, Lysis, Euthyphro, Meno, Protagoras, Gorgias, Euthy- demus, the Republic is a positive, not to say a dog- matic, exposition of Plato's thought, and not, except in the introductory first book, an idealizing dra-

• Cf. Unity of Plato's Thought, p. 78, n. 606 ; Zeller, Plato*, p. 551, discusses the evidence and anticipates without accepting Taylor's argument {Plato, p. 20) that the quotation of the sentence about philosophers being kings {Rep. 473 c-D, 499 b c) by the author of the seventh Epistle proves that the Republic was already written in the year 388/7.

* Cf. Aulus Gellius, Nodes Atticae, xiv. 3. 3 and other passages cited by Henri Alline, Histoire dii texte de Platon, p. 14, and Hirmer, " Entstehung und Komp. d. Plat. Rep.," Jahrbiicher fiir Phil., Suppl., N.F., vol. xxiii. p. 654

;

Wilamowitz, i. pp. 209 ff. on the " Thrasymachus " ; Hans Raeder, Platons philosophische Entwicklung, pp. 187 ff.

;

Ueberweg-Praechter {Altertum), p. 217. Cf. Ivo Bruns, Das literarische Portrdt der Griechen, etc., p. 322 : " Vor allem aber bestimmt mich der Gesammtscharakter des ersten Buches, welches zu keinem anderen Zwecke ge- schrieben sein kann, als demjenigen, den es in dem jetzigen Zusammenhange erfiillt, namlich, als Einleitung in ein grosseres Ganzes zu dienen. Es kann nie dazu bestimmt gewesen sein, eine Sonderexistenz zu fuhren, wie etwa der (Jharmidea,"

INTRODUCTION

matization of Socrates' talks with Athenian youths

and sophists. Aristotle cites the Republic as the Politeia,'^ and

this was the name given to it by Plato. In 527 c it is playfully called the Kallipolis. The secondary title y] Trept ^iKaiov is not found in the best manu- scripts, and, as the peculiar use of t] indicates, was probably added later.

But, as already said, we cannot infer from this that the ethical interest is subordinated to the political.''

The two are inseparable. The distinction between ethics and politics tends to vanish in early as in recent

philosophy. Even Aristotle, who first perhaps wrote separate treatises on ethics and politics, combines

them as 7) Trept to. dvdpwTTLva </)iAoa"o</)ta. He speaks of ethics as a kind of politics. And though he regards the family and the individual as historically preceding

the state, in the order of nature and the idea the state

is prior. The modern sociologist who insists that the psychological andmoral life ofthe individual apart from

the social organism is an unreal abstraction is merely

returning to the standpoint of the Greek who could not conceive man as a moral being outside of the polis.'^ In the consciously figurative language of Plato,<* the

I idea of justice is reflected both in the individual and

1! the state, the latter merely exhibits it on a larger

r scale. Or, to put it more simply, the true and only

aim of the political art is to make the citizens happier by making them better.* And though good men

" Politics, 1264, b 24. The plural also occurs, ibid. 1293 b 1.

* Cf. supra, p. xii, note c. ' Cf. supra, p. xii, ^ 368 D-369 A. It is uncritical to press the metaphysical

suggestions of this passage. « Euthydemus 291 c ff., Gorgias 621 d, Euthyphro 2 d.

INTRODUCTION

arise sporadically," and are preserved by the grace of God in corrupt states,* the only hope for mankind is in a state governed by philosophical wisdom (473 d), and the ideal man can attain to his full stature and live a complete life only in the ideal city/ The larger part of the Republic is in fact occupied

with the ideal state, with problems of education and social control, but, as already said, we are repeatedly reminded (supra, p. xii) that all these discussions are in Plato's intention subordinated to the main ethical proof that the just life is happier than the unjust. Ethics takes precedence in that the final appeal is to the individual will and the individual thirst for happi- ness. Plato is to that extent an indi%idualist and a utilitarian. Politics is primary in so far as man's moral life cannot exist outside of the state.

There are hints of the notion of an ideal state before Plato."* And the literary motif of Utopia has a long history.* But it was the success of the Republic and Larvs that made the portrayal of the best state the chief problem, not to say the sole theme, of Greek political science. In Plato this was due to an idealistic temper and a conviction of the irremediable corrup- tion of Greek social and political life. The place

« Rep. 520 B, Protag. 320 a, Meno 92 d-e, Laws 642 c, 951 B.

* Meno 99 e. Rep. 493 a. • Cf. Rfp. 497 A ; Spencer, Ethics, vol. i. p. 280. ' Cf. Newman, Politics of Aristotle, vol. i. pp. 85 S, ' Of the immense literature of the subject it is enough to

refer to Alfred Dorens' " Wiinschraume und Wiinschzeiten "

in Vortrage der Bibliothek Warburg, 1924-1925, Berlin, 1927 ; Fr. Kleinwachter. Die Staats Romane, Vienna, 1891 ; Edgar Salin, Platon und die griechische Utopie, Leipzig, 1921. An incomplete list collected from these essays includes more than fifty examples.

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INTRODUCTION

assigned to the ideal state in Aristotle's Politics is

sometimes deplored by the admirers of the matter- of-fact and inductive methods of the first and fifth books. And in our own day the value of this motif for the serious science of society is still debated by sociologists.

The eternal fascination of the literary motif is in- disputable, and we may enjoy without cavil the form which the artist Plato preferred for the exposition of his thought, while careful to distinguish the thoughts

themselves from their sometimes fantastic embodi- ment. But we must first note one or two of the funda- mental differences between the presuppositions of Plato's speculations and our own. (1) Plato's state is a Greek city, not a Persian empire, a European nation, or a conglomerate America. To Greek feeling com- plete and rational life was impossible for the in- habitant of a village or the subject of a satrap. It

was attainable only through the varied social and political activities of the Greek polis, equipped with agora, gymnasium, assembly, theatre, and temple- crowned acropolis. It resulted from the action and interaction upon themselves and the world of in- telligent and equal freemen conscious of kinship and not too nuinerous for self-knowledge or too few for self-defence. From this point of view Babylon, Alexandria, Rome, London, and New York would not be cities but chaotic aggregations of men. And in the absence of steam, telegraphy, and representative government the empires of Darius, Alexander, and Augustus would not be states but loose associations of cities, tribes, and provinces. Much of Plato's sociology is therefore inapplicable to modern con- ditions. But though we recognize, we must not

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INTRODUCTION

exaggerate the difference. The Stoic and Christian city of God, the world citizenship into which the

subjects of Rome were progressively adopted, the mediaeval papacy and empire, the twentieth-century

democratic nation are the expressions of larger and

perhaps more generous ideals. But in respect of the achievement of a complete life for all their members,

they still remain failures or experiments. The city- state, on the other hand, has once and again at Athens

and Florence so nearly solved its lesser problem as to

make the ideal city appear not altogether a dream. And, accordingly, modern idealists are returning to the conception of smaller cantonal communities, inter-

connected, it is true, by all the agencies of modern science and industrialism, but in their social tissue and

structure not altogether incomparable to the small

city-state which Plato contemplated as the only

practical vehicle of the higher life.

(2) The developments of science and industry have

made the idea of progress an essential part of every modern Utopia. The subjugation of nature by man predicted in Bacon's New Atlantis has come more and more to dominate all modern dreams of social reform.

It is this which is to lay the spectre of Malthusianism.

It is this which is to give us the four-hour day and \n\\

furnish the workman's dwelling with all the labour-

saving conveniences of electricity, supply his table

with all the delicacies of all the seasons, entertain his

cultivated leisure with automatic reproductions of all

the arts, and place flying machines and automobiles

at his disposal when he would take the air. This is not the place to estimate the part of illusion

in these fancies. It is enough to observe that in

dwelling too complacently upon them modern utop-

INTRODUCTION

ians are apt to forget the moral and spiritual pre- conditions of any fundamental betterment of human life. Whereas Plato, conceiving the external con- dition of man's existence to be essentially fixed, has

more to tell us of the discipline of character and the elevation of intelligence. In Xavier Demaistre's

Voyage autour de ma ckambre, Plato, revisiting the glimpses of the moon, is made to say, " In spite of your glorious gains in physical science, my opinion of human nature is unchanged—but I presume that your progress in psychology, history, and the scientific control of human nature, has by this time made possible that ideal Republic which in the conditions of

my own age I regarded as an impracticable dream." Demaistre was sorely embarrassed for a reply. Have we one ready ?

Living in a milder climate and before the birth of

the modern industrial proletariat, Plato is less haunted than we by the problem of pauperism.*' And his austerity of temper would have left him indifferent, if not hostile, to the ideal of universal luxury and ease.

It was not the life he appointed for his guardians, and

the demand of the workers for it he has satirized in advance (420 d-e). If we add to the two points here considered some shades of ethical and religious feel- ing, associated with Christianity, we shall have nearly exhausted the list of fundamental differences between Plato's political and social thought and our own.

The Republic, if we look beneath the vesture of paradox to the body of its substantive thought, might

" Cf.y however, Pohlmann, Oeschichte der sozialen Frage und des Sozialismus in der antiken Welt, who, however, in the opinion ofsome of his critics, exaggerates the industrialism and industrial problems of Athens.

INTRODUCTION

seem a book of yesterday or to-morrow. The concep- tion of society as an organism, %\-ith the dependence of laws and institutions upon national temperament, and customs, the omnipotence of public opinion, the division of labour and the reasons for it, the necessity of specialization, the formation of a trained standing

army, the Hmitation of the right of private property,

the industrial and political equality of women, the reform of the letter of the creeds in order to save the

spirit, the proscription of unwholesome art and litera- ture, the reorganization of education, eugenics, the

kindergarten method, the distinction between higher and secondary education, the endowment of research, the application of the higher mathematics to astron- omy and physics—all this and much more may be read in it by him who runs. A critical interpretation would first remove some

obstacles to a true appreciation interposed by cap- tious cavils or over-ingenious scholarship, and then proceed to study Plato's ideas (1) as embedded in the artistic structure of the Republic, (2) as the outgrowth of Plato's thought and experience as a whole, and of the suggestions that came to him from his predeces- sors and contemporaries. The Republic is, in Huxley's words, a " noble, philosophical romance "—it is a dis- cussion of ethics, poUtics, sociology, religion and edu- cation cast in the form of a Utopia or an Emile. The criticism of Plato's serious meanings is one thing. The observation of the wav in which thev are coloured and heightened by the exigencies of this special literary form is another. Plato himself has told us that the Republic is a fairy-tale or fable about justice. And he has warned us that ever}' such finished composition must contain a large measure of what in contrast to

INTRODUCTION

the severity of pure dialectic he calls jest or play." Within the work itself the artistic illusion had to be preserved. But even there Plato makes it plain that his chief purpose is to embody certain ideas in an ideal, not to formulate a working constitution or body of legislation for an actual state. An ideal retains its value even though it may never be precisely realized in experience. It is a pattern laid up in heaven for those who can see and understand. Plato will not even assert that the education which he prescribes is the best. He is certain only that the best education, whatever it may be, is a pre-condition of the ideal state (416 B-c). Somewhere in the infinite past or future—it may be in the barbarian world beyond our ken—the true city may be visioned whenever and wherever political power and philosophic wisdom are wedded and not as now divorced. He affirms no more.

It is a waste of ink to refute the paradoxes or harp upon the omissions of the Republic in disregard of these considerations. The paradoxes are softened and explained, the omissions supplied in the Politicus and the Laws, which express fundamentally identical ethical and political convictions from a slightly different point of view and a perhaps somewhat sobered mood.'' To assume that differences which are easily explained by the moulding of the ideas in their literary framework are caused by revolutions in Plato's beliefs is to violate all canons of sound criti- cism and all the established presumptions of the unity of Plato's thought.

The right way to read the Republic is fairly indicated

" Phaedr. 278 e. * Cf. my paper, " Plato's Laics and the Unity of Plato's

Thought," Class. Phil. vol. ix., 1914, pp. 345-369.

INTRODUCTION

by casual utterances of such critics as Renan, Pater, Emerson, and Emile Faguet. The captious attitude of mind is illustrated by the set criticism of Aristotle, the Christian Fathers, Zeller, De Quincey, Landor, Spencer, and too large a proportion of professional philologists and commentators. " As the poet too," says Emerson, " he (Plato) is only contemplative. He did not, like Pythagoras, break himself with an insti- tution. All his painting in the Republic must be esteemed mythical with the intent to bring out, sometimes in violent colours, his thought."

This disposes at once of all criticism, hostile or friendly, aesthetic or philological, that scrutinizes the

Republic as if it were a bill at its second reading in Parliament, or a draft of a constitution presented to

an American state convention. The greater the in- genuity and industry applied to such interpretations the further we are led astray. Even in the Lans Plato warns us that we are not yet, but are only becoming, legislators.

In the Republic it suits Plato's design to build up the state from indi\idual units and their economic needs. But his critics, from Aristotle to Sir Henry Maine, derive their conception of the patriarchal theory of

society from his exposition of it in the Lans. He embodies his criticism of existing Greek institu-

tions in a scheme for the training of his soldiers, supple- mented by the higher education of the guardians. But we cannot infer, as hasty critics have done, from 421 A that he would not educate the masses at all. The banishment of Homer is a vivid expression of Plato's demand that theology be purified and art moralized. But Milton wisely declined to treat it as a serious argument against the liberty of unlicensed

INTRODUCTION

printing in England. And nothing can be more pre- posterous than the statement still current in books of supposed authority that the severity of dialectics had suppressed in Plato the capacity for emotion and the appreciation of beauty. The abolition of private property among the ruling classes is partly the ex- pression of a religious, a Pythagorean, not to say a Christian, ideal, which Plato reluctantly renounces in the Laws.'^ But it is mainly a desperate attempt to square the circle of politics and justify the rule of the intelligent few by an enforced disinterestedness and the annihilation of all possible " sinister interests." ^

All criticism that ignores this vital point is worthless."

The same may be said of the community of wives, which is further, as Schopenhauer remarks, merely a drastic expression of the thought that the breeding of men ought to be as carefully managed as that of animals. It is abandoned in the Laws. The detailed refutations of Aristotle are beside the mark, and the denunciations of the Christian Fathers and De Quincey and Landor are sufficiently met by Lucian's remark that those who find in the Republic an apology for licentiousness little apprehend in what sense the divine philosopher meant his doctrine of communistic marriage.

It is the height of naivete to demonstrate by the statistics of a Parisian creche that the children of the

guardians would die in infancy, or to inquire too curiously into the risks they would run in accompany- ing their parents on horseback to war (A'&Q f, 467 f).

« Rep. 416, 462-463, 465 b, Timaeus 18 b, Laws 739 b-d. * Cf. supra, p. XV and infra, p. xlii. ' Even Newman, for example, seems to accept the Aristo-

telian objection that such a military caste will tyrannize. See Newman's Politics of Aristotle, vol. i. pp. 326 f.

INTRODUCTION

The comparison of the individual to the state is a suggestive analogy for sociology and at the same time a literary motif that is vi'orth precisely what the

writer's tact and skill can make of it. Plato's use of the idea is most effective. By subtle artifices of style the cumulative effect of which can be felt only in the

original, the reader is brought to conceive of the social

organism as one monster man or leviathan, whose sensuous appetites are the unruly mechanic mob,

whose disciplined emotions are the trained force that

checks rebelhon within and guards against invasion

from without, and whose reason is the philosophic

statesmanship that directs each and all for the good

of the whole. And conversely the individual man is pictured as a biological colony ofpassions and appetites

which " swarm like worms ^nthin our living clay "—

a

curious compound of beast and man which can attain real unity and personality only by the conscious domination of the monarchical reason. The origina- tion of this idea apparently belongs to Plato. But he

can hardly be held responsible for the abuse of it by modern sociologists, or for Herbert Spencer's pon- derous demonstration that with the aid of Huxley

and Carpenter he can discover analogies between the

body politic and the physiological body in comparison

with which those of Plato are mere child's-play. It is unnecessary to multiply illustrations of such

matter-of-fact and misconceived criticism. Enough has been said perhaps to prepare the way for the broad literary common-sense appreciation of the

Republic, which an intelligent reader, even of a trans-

lation, will arrive at for himself if he reads without

prejudice and without checking at every Uttle

apparent oddity in the reasoning or the expression.

INTRODUCTION

The proper historical background for such a broad understanding of Plato's political and social philosophy is Thucydides' account of the thirty years' Pelo- ponnesian war, which Hobbes translated in order to exhibit to England and Europe the evils of un- bridled democracy. Thucydides' history is the ultimate source of all the hard-headed cynical politi- cal philosophy of Realpolitik and the Superman, from Machiavelli, Guicciardini, and Hobbes to Nietzsche and Bernardi. And in recent years the speeches which he attributes to the Athenian ambassadors proposing to violate the neutrality of Melos have been repeatedly rediscovered and quoted. They are merely the most drastic expression of a philosophy of life and politics which pervades the entire history and which I studied many years ago in a paper on the " Implicit Ethics and Psychology of Thucy- dides," " some of the ideas of which are reproduced apparently by accident in Mr. Cornford's Thucydides Mythistoricus. The moral disintegration of a pro- longed world war is the predestined medium for the culture of this poisonous germ. And the Pelo- ponnesian war was a world war for the smaller international system of the Greek states. It was for Greece that suicide which our civil war may prove to have been for the old American New England and Virginia, and which we pray the World War may not prove to have been for Europe. The analogy, which we need not verify in detail, is startling, though the scale in Greece was infinitely smaller. In both cases we see an inner ring or focus of intense higher civilization encompassed by a vast

" Transactions of Amer. Philol. Assoc, vol. xxiv. pp. 66 fF. The Dial, Chicago, 1907, xliii. p. 202.

INTRODUCTION

outer semi-civib'zed or barbarian world of coloniza- tion, places in the sun, trade monopolies, and spheres of influence. In both the inner ring is subdivided into jealous states whose unstable equihbrium depends on the maintenance of the balance of power between two great systems, one commercial, demo- cratic, and naval, the other authoritative, dis- ciplined, militar}-. The speeches of Pericles and King Archidamus in Thucydides analyse, contrast, and develop the conflicting ideals and weigh sea power against land power, as the speeches of rival prime ministers have done in our day. I merely suggest the parallel. What coacerns us here is that to understand Plato we must compare, I do not say identify, him with Renan vTiting about la reforme intellectuelk et morale of France after the annee terrible, or, absit omen, an EngUsh philosopher of 1950 speculating on the decline and fall of the British Empire, or an American philosopher of 1980 meditating on the failure of American democracy. The background of the comparatively optimistic Socrates was the triumphant progressive imperialistic democracy of the age of Pericles, and the choric odes of the poets and prophets of the imaginative reason, Aeschylus and Sophocles. The background of Plato, the experience that ground to devihsh colours all his dreams and permanently darkened his vision of life, was the world war that made ship^^Teck of the Periclean ideal and lowered the level of Hellenic civilization in preparation for its final overthrow. The philosophy which he strove to overcome in himself and others was the philosophy of the political speeches in Thucydides and of those bitter disillusionized later plays of Euripides, His

INTRODUCTION

middle age fell and his Republic was conceived in an Athens stagnating under the hateful oppression of the Sp&rtan Junker dominating Greece in alliance with the unspeakable Persian. The environment of his old age and its masterpiece, the Laws, was the soft, relaxed, sensuous, cynical, pococurante,

^n de siecle Athens of the New Comedy, drifting helplessly to the catastrophe of Chaeronea—the Athens which Isocrates expected to save by treaties of peace with all mankind and shutting up the wine- shops, and which Demosthenes vainly admonished to build up its fleet and drill its armies against the Macedonian peril. When Plato is characterized as an unpatriotic, undemocratic, conservative reaction- ary, false to the splendid Periclean tradition, we must remember that Pericles' funeral oration had become for all but the fourth of July orators of Plato's generation as intolerable and ironic a mockery as Lowell's Commemoration Ode and Lincoln's Gettysburg address will seem to America if democracy fails to unify us into a real people. His philosophy was " reactionary " in the sense that it was his own inevitable psychological and moral reaction against the sophistical ethics " of the Superman on one side and on the other against the cult of inefficiency and indiscipline which he had come to regard as wholly inseparable from unlimited democracy. This reactionary aspect of Plato's political and social philosophy has been vividly depicted, though perhaps with some strained allusions to the democracy of contemporary France, in Faguet's five chapters on the hatreds of Plato.

" Cf. my paper on the " Interpretation of the Timaeus" A.J.P. vol. ix. pp. 395 ff.

INTRODUCTION

The equivocal labels radical and conservative mean little in their application to minds of the calibre of a Plato or even of a Burke. What really matters is the kind of conservative, the kind of radical that

you are. As Mill says, there is a distinction ignored in all political classification, and more important than any political classification, the difference between superior and inferior minds. As a thinker for all time, Plato in logical grasp

and coherency of consecutive and subtle thought, stands apart from and above a Renan, a Burke, an Arnold, or a Ruskin. But as a man, his mood, in- e\itably determined by his historical environment, was that of Matthew Arnold in the 'sixties, en- deavouring to prick with satire the hide of the

British Philistine, or of Ruskin in the 'seventies embittered by the horrors of the Franco-Prussian War and seeking consolation in the political economy of the future. We may denominate him a conserv^a- tive and a reactionary, in view of this personal mood and temper, and his despair of the democracy of

fin de Steele Athens. But his Utopian Republic advocated not only higher education and votes, but offices for women, and a eugenic legislation that would stagger Oklahoma. And so if you turn to Professor Murray's delightful Euripides and his Age, you \\ill read that Euripides is the child of a strong and splendid tradition and is, together with Plato, the first of all rebels against it. Suppose Professor Murray had ^vTitten, Bernard Shaw is the child of a strong and splendid tradition and, together with Matthew Arnold, the first of all rebels against it. I think we should demur, and feel that something was wrong. We should decline to bracket Arnold

VOL. 1 d xxxix

INTRODUCTION

and Shaw as rebels to English tradition, despite the fact that both endeavoured to stir up the British Philistine with satire and wit. As a matter of fact, Plato detested Euripides and all his works, and generally alludes to him with Aristophanic irony.

If we pass by the terrible arraignment in the Gorgias of the democracy that was guilty of the judicial murder of Socrates, the pohtical philosophy of the minor dialogues is mainly a Socratic canvassing of definitions, and an apparently vain but illuminating quest for the supreme art of Hfe, the art that will make us happy, the political or royal art, which guides and controls all else, including music, Hterature, and edu- cation. This conception is represented in the Republic by the poetic allegory of the Idea of Good and the description of the higher education of the true states- man which alone lends it real content. The matter is quite simple, and has been confused . only by the refusal to accept Plato's own plain statements about it and the persistent tendency to translate Plato's good poetry into bad metaphysics." The metaphysics of the Idea of Good will be treated

in the introduction to the second volume. Here it is enough to quote Mr. Chesterton, who, whether by accident or design, in a lively passage of his Heretics, expresses the essential meaning of the doctrine in the political, ethical, and educational philosophy of the Republic quite sufficiently for practical purposes.

Every one of the popular modern phrases and ideals is a dodge in order to shirk the problem of what is good. We are fond of talking about ' hberty '; that, as we talk of it, is a dodge to avoid discussing

" Cf. my article " Summum Bonum " in Hastings' Encyclo- pedia of Religion and Ethics. xl

INTRODUCTION

what is good. We are fond of talking about * pro- gress ' ; that is a dodge to avoid discussing what is good. We are fond of talking about ' education ' ; that is a dodge to avoid discussing what is good. The modern man says, ' Let us leave all these arbitrary standards and embrace liberty.' That is, logically rendered, ' Let us not decide what is good, but let it be considered good not to decide it.' He says, ' Away with your old moral formulae ; I am for progress.' This, logically stated, means, ' Let us not settle what is good ; but let us settle whether we are getting more of it.' He says, ' Neither in religion nor morality, my friend, lie the hopes of the race, but in education.' This, clearly expressed, means, ' We cannot decide what is good, but let us give it to our children.' " So far Mr. Chesterton.

Plato's Idea of Good, then, means that the educa- tion of his philosophic statesmen must lift them to a region of thought which transcends the intellectual

confusion in which these dodges and evasions alike of the ward boss and the gushing settlement-worker dwell. He does not tell us in a quotable formula what the good is, because it remains an inexhaust- ible ideal. But he portrays with entire lucidity his own imaginative conception of Greek social good in his Republic and Laivs. The doctrine of the Idea of Good is simply the

postulate that social well-being must be organized not by rule-of-thumb, hand-to-mouth opportunist politi- cians, but by highly trained statesmen systematically keeping in view large and consciously apprehended ends. The only way to compass this, Plato affirms, is first to prepare and test your rulers by the severest education physical and mental, theoretical and

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INTRODUCTION

practical that the world has yet seen, and secondly to insure their freedom from what Bentham calls " sinister interests " by taking away from them their safe-deposit vaults and their investments in corporation stock and requiring them to live on a moderate salary and a reasonable pension.

This, or so much of it as may be translated into modern terms, is the essence of Plato's social and political philosophy.

But Plato's Republic, whatever its contributions to political theory or its suggestiveness to the practical

politician or social reformer, is not a treatise on

political science or a text-book of civics. It is the

City of God in which Plato's soul sought refuge from the abasement of Athenian politics which he felt himself impotent to reform. The philosopher, he says (496 d) with unmistakable reference to Socrates

(^Apology 31 e) and apology for himself, knows that no politician is honest nor is there any champion ofjustice at whose side he may fight and be saved. He resem- bles a man fallen among wild beasts. He is unwilling to share and impotent singly to oppose their rapine. He is like one who in a driving storm of dust and sleet stands aside under shelter of a wall and seeing others filled full with all iniquity, must be content to live his own life, keep his soul unspotted from the world, and depart at last with peace and good will andgracious hopes. This is something. But how much more could he accomplish for himself and others, Plato wistfully

adds, in a society in harmony with his true nature. And so he plays (it is his own word) with the construc- tion of such a state. But when the dream is finished, his epilogue is : We have built a city in words, since it exists nowhere on earth, though there may be a

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INTRODUCTION

pattern of it laid up in heaven. But whether it exists or not, the true philosopher will concern himself with

the politics of this city only, of this city only will he constitute himself a citizen. As Emerson puts it, he was born to other politics. The witty and cynical Lucian mocks at this city in the clouds where Socrates lives all alone by himself, governed by his own laws. And I have no time to answer him now, even by enum- eration of the great spirits who have taken refuge in the Platonic City of God. It was there that St. Augustine found consolation and hope in the crash and downfall of the Roman Empire. And fifteen hundred years later an unwonted glow suffuses the arid style of Kant when he speaks of the man who is conscious of an inward call to constitute himself by his conduct in this world the citizen of a better. But to those political and social philosophers who

disdain a fugitive and cloistered virtue and ask for some more helpful practical lesson than this, Plato's Republic offers two main suggestions. The first is the way of St. Francis : the acceptance

of the simple life, which by a startling coincidence Glaucon, in reply to Socrates, and the Pope, in remon- strance with St. Francis, designate as a city of pigs.**

But if we insist on a sophisticated civilization, a fevered city as Plato styles it, we shall find no remedy for the ills to which human nature is heir so long as our guiding principle is the equality of unequals (558 c) and the liberty of every one to do as he pleases. The only way of political and social salvation for such a state is self-sacrificing discipline, specialized efficiency, and government administered by men whom we have

" Matthew Paris apud Sabatier, Life of St. Francis, p. 97 " vade frater et quaere porous («jc)," etc.

xliii

INTRODUCTION

educated for the function and whom we compel to be unselfish.

We shall not wrong them by this suppression of their lower selves. For they will find in it their highest happiness and so apprehend the full meaning of old Hesiod's saying that the half is more than the whole." All this, though often confounded with the gospel of the strong man, is in Plato's intentions its diametrical opposite. Plato's strong man is not, and is not permitted to be, strong for himself. And find- ing his own happiness in duty fulfilled he will procure through just and wise government as much happiness as government and education can bestow upon men. Plato never loses faith in the leadership of the right leaders nor in the government ofscholars and idealists, provided always that the scholarship is really the highest and severest that the age can furnish, the idealism tempered by long apprenticeship to practical administration, and the mortal nature which cannot endure the temptations of irresponsible power held in check by self-denying ordinances of enforced disinterestedness.

Such scholars in politics and such idealists, and they only, can do for us what the practical politician and the opportunist who never even in dreams have seen the things that are more excellent, can never achieve. Think you (Rep. 500) that such a man, if called to the conduct of human affairs and given the opportunity not merely to mould his own soul but to realize and embody his vision in the institutions and characters of men, will be a contemptible artizan of sobriety and righteousness and all social and human virtue ? Will he not like an artist glance frequently back and forth

« Cf. Rep. 419, 420 b, c, 466 b-c.

xliv

INTRODUCTION

from his model, the city in the clouds, home of the absolute good, the true and the beautiful, to the mortal copy which he fashions so far as may be in its image ? And so mixing and mingling the pigments on his palette he \\i\\ reproduce the true measure and hkeness of man which even old Homer hints is or ought to be the likeness of God.

The Text

Convention requires that something should be said about the text. How little need be said appears from the fact that the translation was originally made from two or three texts taken at random. The text of this edition was for convenience set up from the Teubner text, and the adjustments in either case have presented no difficulty. I have tried to indicate all really significant divergences and my reasons. That is all that the student of Plato's philosophy or literary art needs.

The tradition of the text ofthe Republicis excellent." The chief manuscripts have been repeatedly collated, and the Republic has been printed in many critical editions that record variations significant and in- significant. The text criticism of Plato to-day is a game that is played for its own sake, and not for any important results for the text itself or the interpretation. The validity of a new text to-day depends far more on acquaintance with Platonic Greek and Platonic thought than on any rigour of the text-critical and palaeographic game. Nothing whatever results from the hundred and six pages of

" Cf. the work of Alline referred to supra, p. xxv, note b.

xlv

INTRODUCTION

" Textkritik " in the Appendix to Professor Wila- mowitz's Platon. Adam repeatedly changed his mind about the readings of his preliminary text edition when he came to write his commentary, and with a candour rare in the irritabile genus of text

critics withdrew an emendation which I showed to be superfluous by a reference to the Sophist. The Jowett and Campbell edition devotes about

a hundred pages of costly print to what are for the most part unessential and uncertain variations. As I said in reviewing it (A.J.P. xvi. pp. 229 ff-) • " There is

something disheartening in the exiguity of the out-

come of all this toil, and one is tempted to repeat Professor Jowett's heretical dictum, that ' such

inquiries have certainly been carried far enough and

need no longer detain us from more important subjects.' There is really not much to be done with the text of Plato. The game must be played strictly according to the rules, but when it is played out we feel that it was hardly worth the midnight oil. The text of this edition must have cost Professor Campbell

a considerable portion of the leisure hours of two or

three years. Yet, as he himself says at the close of

his interesting, if discursive, essay : ' Were the corruptions and interpolations of the text of the

Republic as numerous as recent scholars have imagined,

the difference of meaning involved would be still

infinitesimal. Some feature of an image might be obscured, or some idiomatic phrase enfeebled, but Plato's philosophy would remain uninjured.'

" Of the twelve passages which Professor Campbell regards as still open to suspicion (vol. ii. p. 115),

only two affect the sense even slightly. 387 c

cfiptTTeLv 8r) TTotet ws oierat, for which our editors read

xlvi

INTRODUCTION

ws oTov T£ (which they refer to q, and the correction of Par. A by q, not to Par. A, as hitherto), rejecting Hermann's more vigorous ocr' erv; and not venturing to insert in the text L. C.'s suggestion, Jjs e'rea.

In ix. 581 E, rvy? rjSovrj'i ov irdvv TToppw, there is no real difficulty if we accept, with nearly all editors, Graser's rl olwfiida and place interrogation points after fiavOdvovTa and -oppo). Professor Jowett would retain Trotw/xe^a and take the words t/)s t)8ovrj^ ov Trdi'v TToppd} as ironical ; I do not care to try to convert anyone whose perceptions of Greek style do not tell him that this is impossible. Professor Campbell's suggestion, -rj<; dX.y]6u-T}s, of which he

thinks i']8ov?)^ a substituted gloss, does not aflfect the

meaning and supplies a plausible remedy for the seemingly objectionable repetition of i)8oini^. But it is, I think, unnecessary. The Platonic philosopher thinks that sensual pleasures are no pleasures. Cf. Philebus 44 C uxTTe Kal airrb tovto avrrj'; to eTraywyov

yoriTev[xa ov^ rjSovrfv eivai. The difficulties in 388 E, 359 c, 567 E, 590 d, 603 c, 615 c are too trifling for

further debate. 439 e Trore uKovo-as ti TricrTei'to rorrw is

certainly awkward. L. C.'s suggestion, ov ttkttci'w TovToj, with changed reference of tovtw, equally so. 533 E o av /JLOVOV dr^Aoi :rpo9 rrjv e^iv cra(f>rjy€ia o Aeyet

ev xjyvxy is impossible, and the ingenuity is wasted that is spent upon it in the commentary to this result : ' An expression which may indicate with a clearness proportioned to the mental condition that

of which it speaks as existing in the mind.' All we want is the thought of Charmides 163 d 6>}Aoi' Se fxovov ecf> 6 Ti ai' (fi€p7]<i Tovvo/xa on ai' keyij^, and that is given by the only tolerable text yet proposed, that of Hermann : d\k' o av /xovov 8i]\ol irpos rqv e^w

xlvii

INTRODUCTION

<ra<ji7]veiav a Aeyet iv i^i'XS {apKecrii}, which is ignored by our editors and which is indeed too remote from the Mss. to be susceptible of proof. In 562 b the unwarranted virepTrXovros, which B. J. defends more suo, mav be emended by deleting vTrep or by L. C.'s plausible suggestion, irov ttAovtos. In 568 d L. C.'s suggestion, TrwAoi/jtei'wv, is as easy a way as any of securing the required meaning which grammar forbids us to extract from oLTroSo/xeviov.

" Of the 29 passages in which the present text relies on conjectures by various hands, none affects the sense except possibly the obvious Traialv for iraa-iv

(494 B and 431 c), Schneider's palmary koi irifxa fiaXuTTa for koI €ti [idXurTa, 554 B, Graser's ri olo)fj.(6a, 581 D, Vermehren's -x^aipMv kuI ^v<T^epaiv()}i', which restores concinnity in 401 e, and L. C.'s 8ia To{! bis, 440 c, for 6ia to, an emendation which was pencilled on the margin of my Teubner text some years ago. The others restore a paragogic 1/ or a dropped dv or an iota subscript, or smooth out an anacoluthon. Professor Campbell himself suggests some fifteen emendations in addition to the one admitted to the text (vol. ii. p. 1 23) ; three or four of these have already been considered. Of the others the most important are the (in the context) cacophonous u^tws, 496 a, for a^iov which is better omitted altogether, with Hermann ; eyyv<s n t€lv(du Twv Tou a-MpuTos fov €ivaL, 518 D, which is clever and would commend itself but for a lingering doubt whether the phrase had not a half-humorous sug- gestion in Plato's usage ; and 7} ovk (sic q) . . . dkXoLav T€ [Stallb. for roi] </)7yo-ets, 500 A. It is unnecessary to follow Professor Campbell in his recension of the superfluous emendations of Cobet,

xlviii

INTRODUCTION

Madvig and others not admitted into the text. The man who prints an emendation that is not required but is merely possible Greek in the context is a thief of our time and should be suppressed by a conspiracy of silence. I could wish, however, that

our editors had followed Hermann in admitting Nagelsbach's en dSwafiia, supported by a quotation from lamblichus, for err dSvya/jLia in 532 b-c. ctt' dSivaixia j3\e-eLi' ' to look powerlessly,' i.e. ' to be without the power to see,' as our editors construe, after Schneider, makes large demands on our faith in the flexibihty of Greek idiom, and Stallbaum's ' bei dem Unvermogen zu sehen ' is not much better. Moreover, the Irt adds a touch that is needed; cf. 516 a -pCJrov fxlv, etc. For the rest, all this matter, with much besides, is conscientiously repeated in the commentary, though exhaustiveness is after all not attained, and many useful readings recorded in Stallbaum or Hermann are ignored. I have noted the following points, which might (^\"ithout much profit) be indefinitely added to. In 332 E no notice is taken of the plausible -poivoXejitlv approved by Ast and Stephanus, In 365 b kav p-q kuI Sokm, which has sufficient ms. authority, is better than iav Kal firj 8oKh). The thought is : ' I shall profit nothing from being just (even) if I seem the opposite.' What our editors mean by saying that e'av Kal fir} 8oKU) is more idiomatic I cannot guess. In 365 d, Kttt (oL'8' Jowett and Campbell) I'jfuv ixeXqrtov row kavddveiv, I think the consensus of the mss. could be defended, despite the necessity for a negative that nearly all editors have felt here. The argument of the entire passage would run : There exist (1) political clubs cTTi TO Aav^aveiv, and (2) teachers of persuasion

xlix

INTRODUCTION

who will enable us to evade punishment if detected. But, you will say, we cannot (1) elude or (2) constrain the gods. The answer is (transferring the question to the higher sphere), as for gods, perhaps (1) they do not exist or are careless of mankind, or (2) can be persuaded or bought off by prayers and cere- monies. Accordingly, we must either (1) try to escape detection, as on the previous supposition, before the gods were introduced into the argument, or (2) invoke priests and hierophants as in the former case teachers of the art of persuasion. The logic of Kal rjfiLv jXiXrjTkov to{5 Aav^avfii' is loose, but it is quite as good as that of et fi-q elcriv as an answer to Beovs ovT€ Aai'^avftv Svvarov, and it is not absolutely neces- sary to read ov8\ ovkow ri or d/iekrjTeov. The koi of Kal rjfi.ii' indicates an illogical but perfectly natural antithesis between ' us ' on the present supposition and the members of the political clubs above. In 378 D our editors follow Baiter in punctuating after ypaiKTi. The antithesis thus secured between TraiSia €v6v^ and 7rpecrf3vT€poi<i ytyi'o/xevots (an yei'o/xei'oi? ?) favours this. The awkwardness of the four times repeated ambiguous Kal, and the difficulty of the dative with AoyoTroteiv and the emphasis thus lost of the triplet Kal yepovcrt Kal ypavcrl Kal —pea-fSvTepots

yiyofxivoL^ are against it. 397 a, L. G, accepts Madvig's (Schneider's ?) /^t/xTjcreTat for St7/y?^creTat, adversante B. J., but Stv/yvycrerai seems to be favoured by the balance of the sentence : Travra re fj.aXXov Str^yvycreTat Kal . , . olijcreTai wcrre Travra eTTi^^cipvycret

fiLfxilcrdai. 442 C cro<f>ov 8e ye cKfiVoj tw a-p-iKpi^ jjLepei

Tw 6 ^px^ t' iv avTW Kal ravra TrapqyyeXXev ^x^^ av KOKet.vo, etc. Our editors seem to feel no difficulty in the tw o, etc., nor do they note the omission of

1

INTRODUCTION

Tw by Par, K and Mon. A simple remedy would be to omit the tw before 5 and insert it after Trapn]y- ycAAer, reading rcj €X^"'- ^^ "^^1 A"^' ^^ reading oxttc

ev (for ov) fj.€

irapafivOei, our editors, here as elsewhere,

over-estimate the possibihties of Socratic irony.

500 A. In arguing against the repetition of aAAotav in

a different sense, 499 k-500 a, our editors should not

have ignored the reading of M, aAA' o'lar (recorded, it is true, in the footnotes to the text), which, with

the pointing and interrogation marks of Hermann, yields a much more \ivacious and idiomatic text than that adopted here. Moreover, aAAa u—oKpive'ia-tiai fits the defiant ovk av SoKel above much better if taken in the sense ' contradict us ' than in the sense ' change their reply.' In 521 c Hermann's oicra €-avo8o9 (after lamblichus) is the only readable idio-

matic text here. Only desperate ingenuity can con- strue the others. In 606 c the text or footnotes

should indicate Hermann's 8r] (for Si), which the commentary' rightly prefers." These observations are not intended as a renewal

of Jowett's attack on text criticism or an illiberal

disparagement of an indispensable technique. They merely explain why it was not thought necessarv' to waste the limited space of this edition by reprinting information which would interest a half dozen speciaUsts at the most and which they know where to find in more detail than could possibly be given here.

The Republic has been endlessly edited, commented, summarized, and paraphrased (cf. stipra, p. vii). The chief editions are enumerated in Ueberweg-Praechter, Die Philosophie des Altertums, 12th ed., Berlin (1926),

pp. 190 ff. Schneidewin's edition is curt, critical, and

U

INTRODUCTION

sagacious. Stallbaum's Latin commentary is still useful for idioms and parallel passages. The two most helpful editions are English. The great three- volume work of Jowett and Campbell was critically reviewed by me in A.J.P. vol. xvi. pp. 223 ff., and from another point of view in the New York Nation, vol. Ixi. (1895) pp. 82-84. Adam's painstaking and faithful commentary does not supersede, but in- dispensably supplements, Jowett and Campbell's. Apelt's German translation is, with a few exceptions, substantially correct, and the appended notes supply most of the information which the ordinary reader needs.

The history of the Platonic text is most amply set forth in the excellent and readable book of AUine (Histoire du texte de Plaion, par Henri AUine, Paris,

1915). Other general discussions of the text and its history are : H. Usener, Unser Platontext {Kleine Schriften, vol. ii. pp. 104-162) ; M. Schanz, Studien zur Geschichte des platonischen Textes, Wiirzburg, 1874

;

Wohlrab, " Die Platon-Handschriften und ihre gegen- seitigen Beziehungen," Jahrhucherfiir klassische Philo- logie, Suppl. 15 (1887), pp. 641-728. Cf. further

Ueberweg-Praechter, vol. i., appendix pp. 67 fF. The manuscripts of Plato are enumerated end described by Jowett and Campbell, vol. ii. pp. 67-131, Essay II. " On the Text of this Edition of Plato's Republic " ; less fully by Adam, who did not live to write a pro- posed introductory volume supplementing his com- mentary (The Republic of Plato, vol. i. pp. xiii-xvi) ; and, sufficiently for the ordinary student, by Maurice i Croiset in the Bude Plato, vol. i. pp. 14-18. I, The best manuscript is thought to be Parisinus

'

graecus 1807 (ninth century), generally designated!

Hi '

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK I

have lost my voice." But as it is, at the very moment when he began to be exasperated by the course of the argument I glanced at him first, so that I became capable of answering him and said ^\ith a slight tremor : " Thrasyniachus, don't be harsh ^ with

us. If I and my friend have made mistakes in the consideration of the question, rest assured that it is

unwillingly that we err. For you surely must not suppose that while " if our quest were for gold <* we would never willingly truckle to one another and make concessions in the search and so spoil our chances of finding it, yet that when we are searching for justice, a thing more precious than much fine gold, we should then be so foolish as to give way to one another and not rather do our serious best to have it discovered. You surely must not suppose that, my friend. But you see it is our lack of ability that is at fault. It is pity then that we should far more reasonably receive from clever fellows like you than severity."

XI. And he on hearing this gave a great guffaw and laughed sardonically and said, " Ye gods ! here we have the well-known irony * of Socrates, and I knew it and predicted that when it came to rephing you would refuse and dissemble and do anything rather than answer any question that anyone asked you." " That's because you are wise, ThrasjTnachus, and so you knew very well that if you asked a man how- many are twelve, and in putting the question warned him : don't you be telling me, fellow, that twelve

589 E, 600 c-D, Crito 46 d, Zatrs 6 17 c, 931 c, Protag. 325 b-c, Phaedo 68 a, Thompson on Meno 91 e.

"* 6/. Ilci aJeit: fr. 22 Diets, and Ruskin, /Tf'n^'s TreasunVa "The physical type of wisdom, gold," Psalms xix. 10.

' Cf. Syinp. 21 6 E, and Gomperz, Greek Thinkers iii. p. 277.

41

PLATO

fx,r]8 OTL rpls rirrapa /xtjS' ort e^a/ct? 8uo /xt^S'

OTi TerpaKtg rpta* co? ouk aTToSe^o/xat ctou, ecti TOiavra (f)Xvapfjs' SrjXov, olfxai, aol ^v otl ovSels aTTOKpivolro tw ovtio TTwdavofidvco. oAA' el aoi €L7T€v a> Qpaavfxaxe, ttws Xiyeis; fir] anoKpLvojixai

0)v TTpoeiTTes ixrjSev; TTorepov, cS dav[xdaL€, /inyS

ei TOVTcov Tt rvyxo.vei 6v, aXX erepov etVco rt, rov ^ aAiqdovs; rj TTwg Xeyetg; ri du avTO) etTre? rrpos Tavra; Etev, €(f)r]- co? h-q op,oiov tovto eKeivoi.

Ovoev ye KcoXvei, rjv 8' iyw- el 8' ovv /cat firj ecTTLv op.oLov, (f>aiveTai 8e to) epcoTr^Oivri tolovtov,

rjTTov TL avTov oiet aTTOKpiveiadai to <f)aiv6pevov

eavTO), edv re r]p,€LS aTrayopevcopLev idv re ^t^;

AAAo Tt ow, e^Ty, /cat au ooto; Troti^crets; cSv eyw aTrecTTov, toutcov Tt dwoKpLvel; Ovk du davpdcraiiJii, rjv 8' eyttj, et /xot CT/cei/ra/xeVoj outco 8ofetev'. Tt

^' ovv, €(f)rj, du iyd) 8ei^6L) irepau diroKpiaiv irapd

TTaaas ravrag Trepl SLKaioauvqs ^eXrioj tovtcdv;

Tt actors' TTadeiv; Tt dXXo, -^v 8' iyd), r] orrep

TTpoa-qKei Trdax^iv ro) p,ri etSoTt; TrpoarJKeL 8e

TTOV piadeiv TTapd rov et8oTOS" /cat eyco oyv' tovto

a^idj nadelv. 'HSu? yap et, €(f>r]' dXXd rrpos tw p-adelv Kal diroTLOov dpyvpiov. Ovkovv iveiSav jLtoi yev7]Tai, eiTTov. 'AAA' eoTiv,

€(f)-q 6 FXavKcov

" In "American," "nerve." vSocrates' statement that the TraOeiv " due him " is /xaOelf (gratis) aflFects Thrasy- machus as the dicasts were affected by the proposal in the Apology that his punishment should be^to dine at the City Hall. The pun on the legal formula cculd he rep-->telj rendered : " In addition to the recoverij of your wits, you must pay a fine." Plato constantly harps on the taking

4-2

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK I

is twice six or three times four or six times two or four times three, for I won't accept any such

'

drivel as that from you as an answer—it was obvious I fancy to you that no one could give an answer to a question framed in that fashion. Suppose he had said to you, ' Thras}'machus, what do you mean ? Am I not to give any of the prohibited answers, not even, do you mean to say, if the thing really is one of these, but must I say something different from the truth, or what do you mean ? ' What would have been your answer to him ? " " Humph ! "

said he, " how very like the two cases are ! " " There is nothing to prevent," said I ; " yet even granted that they are not alike, yet if it appears to the person asked the question that they are alike, do you suppose that he will any the less answer what appears to him, whether we forbid him or whether we don't ? " " Is that, then." said he, " what you are going to do ? Are you going to give one of the forbidden answers ? " "I shouldn't be surprised," I said, " if on reflection that would be my \iew." " What then," he said, " if I show you another answer about justice differing from all these, a better one—what penalty do you think you deserve ? " " Why, what else," said I, " than that which it befits anyone who is ignorant to suffer ? It befits him, I presume, to learn from the one who does know. That then is what I propose that I should suffer." " I like your simplicity," " said h " but in addition to ' learning ' you must pay a ^ of money." " Well, I will when I have got it," 1 id. " It is there," said Glaucon : " if money is all t.iat

of pay by the Sophists, but Thrasymachus is trying to jest,-too.

43

PLATO

aAA' ev€Ka apyvplov, o) Qpaav^iax^, Aeye* TrdvTes

yap rjfxelg HcoKpdrei etaotaojuev. Ilavu ye, oi/xat,

E '^ 8' OS, Ivo. Scu/cpaTTj? TO elcodos htavpa^-qrat, avTOS fiev jxr] d.TTOKpivrjTai, aXXov S arroKpLVO-

jxevov XafjL^dvrj Xoyov Kal iXeyxjj- Hois' yo.p dv,

k^rjv eyo), c5 jSe'^TtCTxe, ns drroKpivaiTO Trpcbrov [lev fir] el8d)S p,rj8e (f)d(JKcov etSeVat, eiretra, et Tt

Krai oterat nepl rovrcov, dTreiprjpievov avrcb elr],

OTTCxis fJiTjSev ipel (Lv rjyelTai, V'n dvhpos ov (f)avXov;

338 aAAa ae Si] fxaXXov et/co? Xeyeiv av yap S17 (f)f]g etSeVai /cat ^x^i^v eiTTelv. fir] ovv aAAcus' ttoUi, dXX

ifioL T€ ;\;api^ou aTTOKpivojjLevos Kal jir] (f>6ovr]ar]s

Kal TXavKcova rovBe SiSd^at Kal rovs dXXovs.

XII. Wlttovtos Be ]iov ravra 6 re VXavKiav Kal

ol dXXoL iheovro avrov firj aAAai? TroLelv Kat,

Qpaavfiaxos (f)avep6s jiev r]V emdvfidjv emelv, iv

evhoKLpL-qaeiev , 'qyovfievos ^x^tv d-noKpiaLV iray-

KoXrfV' TrpoaeTToieiTO 8e ^iXoveiKeiv vpos to efie

etvai Tov aTTOKpivofievov. TeXevTOiv he ^uj^ep^coprjae,

B Kaireira AvTr] h-q, e(f)r], r] HwKpdTOVs cro(f>ia, avTOV (lev [ir] edeXeiv hihdoKeiv, Trapd he tcov dXXcov

TTepuovTa fiavddveLV Kal tovtojv [xrjhe X^P^^ ano-

StSdvcu. "0x4 ]i€V, "qv S' eyco, fiavddvoj Trapd tcjv

aXXoiv, dXrjdfj eiTre?, c5 Qpaovfiax^' otl he ov fie

4'V^ X^P''^ e/CTiVetv, tjjevhei. e/crtVcu yap bar]v

hvvafiai' hvvafxaL he eTraivelv fiovov XP'^P-^'^^ V^P ovK ex(JO' (hs 8e TrpoOvfiojg tovto hpco, eav tls p-oi

hoKj) ev Xeyeiv, ev elaei, avriKa hr] fidXa, eTreihdv

C aTTOKpLvrj' otfiai ydp ae ev epelv. "Akovc hrj, rj

""Grudging." Cf. Laches 200 b. " Of. Crof^J. 291 i^. « Socrates' poverty {Apol. 38 a-b) was denied by some later

writers who disliked to have him classed with the Cynics.

44

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK I

-tiinds in the way, Thrasymachus, go on with your speech. We will all contribute for Socrates." " Oh yes, of course," said he, " so that Socrates may contrive, as he always does, to evade answering himself but may cross-examine the other man and refute his repHes." " Why, how," I said, " my dear fellow, could anybodS' answer if m the first place he did not know and did not even profess to know, and secondly even if he had some notion of the matter, he had been told by a man of weight that he mustn't give any of his suppositions as an answer ? Nay, it is more reasonable that you should be the speaker. For you do affirm that you know and are able to tell. Don't be obstinate, but do me the favour to reply and don't be charj- "^ of your wisdom, and instruct Glaucon here and the rest of us."

XII. When I had spoken thus Glaucon and the others urged him not to be obstinate. It was quite plain that Thrasymachus was eager to speak in order that he might do himself credit, since he believed that he had a most excellent answer to our question. But he demurred and pretended to make a point of my being the respondent. Finally he gave way and then said, " Here you have the \visdom of Socrates, to refuse himself to teach, but go about and learn from others and not even pay thanks* therefor." " That I learn from others," I said, " you said truly, Thrasymachus. But in saving that I do not pay thanks you are mistaken. I pay as much as I am able. And I am able only to bestow praise. For money I lack.<^ But that I praise right wilhngly those who appear to speak well you will well know forthwith as soon as you have given your answer. For 1 think that you will speak well." " Hearken

45

PLATO

S' OS. <f>rjyi\ yap iy<h etvai to BiKaiov ovk dXXo ti T] TO TOV KpeiTTOVOS ^VIJLcf)€pOV , OlXXo. tL OVK eTTatvels; dXX* ovk IdeXiqcjeis. 'Eav [xddoj ye TTpcbrov, k(f)'qv, ti Xiyets' vvv yap ovttco otSa. to Tou KpeiTTOVOS (f>lis ^vpicfiepov St/caiov etvaL. Kal

TOVTo, c5 Spaavixaxe, tl ttot€ Xeyeis ; oi) yap ttov TO ye Toiovhe (j>ris' el YlovXvhdpias rjfxcov KpeiTTCov

o TTayKpaTiaaTTjs Kai avTco ^Vfjicfyepei to. jSoeta Kpea

D npos TO CT6u/xa, tovto to gltlov elvai Kal rjfjuv tols rJTTOGLV eKeivov ^vpL(^epov a/xa /cat hiKaiov. BSe- Xvpos yap et, e(f>rj, c5 HcoKpaTes, Kal TavTif] vtto- XapL^dvets , § dv KaKovpyrjaais pudXiOTa tov Aoyor. OvhapLiLs, c5 dpioTe, ^v 8' eyoj' dXXd aa^ioTepov etTTe, Tt Aeyeis. H/tT ovk olgu , e<pT7, oti, tcov TToXeoiv at p,ev TvpavvovvTai, at Se 8r)p.oKpaTOvvTai,

at Se dpLOTOKpaTOVVTai; Yicos ydp ov ; Ovkovv

' For this dogmatic formulation of a definition c/. Theaetet. 151 e.

* To idealists law is the perfection of reason, or vov diavofxri. Laws 714a; "her seat is the bosom of God" (Hooker). To the political positivist there is no justice outside of positive law, and " law is the command of a political superior to a political inferior." "Whatsoever any state decrees and establishes is just for the state while it is in force," Theaetet. 177 d. The formula "justice is the advantage of the superior" means, as explained in Laws 714, that the ruling class legislates in its own interest, that is, to keep itself in power. This interpretation is here drawn out of Thrasymachus by Socrates' affected misapprehen- sions (c/. further Pascal, Pensees iv. 4, "lacommodite du souverain." Leibniz approves Thrasymachus's definition: "justum potentiori utile . . . nam Deus ceteris potentior ! ").

" The unwholesomeness of this diet for the ordinary man proves nothing for Plato's alleged vegetarianism. The Athenians ate but little meat.

46

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK I

and hear then," said he. " I affirm that the just is nothing else than " the advantage of the stronger."*

Well, why don't you applaud ? Nay, you'll do any- thing but that." " Pro\ided only I first understand

vour meaning," said I ; " for I don't yet apprehend it. The advantage of the stronger is what you affirm the just to be. But what in the world do you mean by this ? I presume you don't intend to affirm this, that if Polydamas the pancratiast is stronger than we are and the flesh of beeves ' is advantageous for him, for his body, this \iand is also for us who are weaker than he both advantageous and just." " You are a buffoon,"* Socrates, and take my statement ' in the most detrimental sense." " Not at all, my dear fellow," said I ; " I only want you to make your meaning plainer."^ " Don't you know then," said he, " that some cities are governed by t}Tants, in others democracy rules, in others aristocracy ? "

"

" Assuredly." " And is not this the thing that is

* The Greek is stronger—a beastly cad. A common term of abuse in the orators. Cf. Aristoph. Frogs 465, Theophrast. Char. xvii. (Jebb).

• Cf. 392 c, 394 B, 424 c, Meno 78 c, Euthydem. 295 c, Gorg. 451 a 5t«ata;s iiroXaft^avfn, " you take my meaning fairly." For complaints of unfair argument cf. 340 d. Charm. 166 c, Meno 80 a, Theaetet. 167 e, Oorg. 461 b-c, 482 e.

' This is the point. Thrasymachus is represented as challenging assent before explaining his meaning, and Socrates forces him to be more explicit by jocosely putting a perverse interpretation on his words. Similarly in Gorg. 451 E, 453 B, 489 d, 490 c, Lav:s 714 c. To the misunder- standing of such dramatic passages is due the impression of hasty readers that Plato is a sophist.

' These three forms of government are mentioned by Pindar, Pyth. ii. 86, Aeschin. In Ctes. 6. See 445 d, Whib- ley, Or«ek Oligarehu*, and Unity of Plato's Thought, p. 62.

47

PLATO

TOVTO Kparet iv eKoiarr) TrdAet, to dpxov; Udvv ye.

E TiOerat, 8e ye rovs vofiovs iKaarr) rj apxr) Trpos to avrfj ^vfji(f)€pov, hrjpiOKparia p,€v hripiOKpariKovs

,

Tvpavvls Se TvpavvLKovs, Kal at aAAat ovro) ' 6ep,€vai

8e d'7T€(f)rjvav rovro hiKaiov toIs dp^opiivois elvai,

TO a^iai ^vfx^epov, /cat rov tovtov cK^aivovTa

KoXdl,ovaLV cos TTapavojjiovvTa t€ /cat aSLKOvvra,

tout' ovv icrriv, c3 ^eXriare, o Xeyco iv ctTraaats

339 Tat? TToAeat ravrov etvat Si'/catov, to rrjs KaQeaT-q-

Kvias dpx'fjs ^vp,(f)€pov avrr] 8e ttov Kparel, cSotc

^vpi^aivei t<x> opdws Xoyil^ofxivcp Ttavraxov elvai

TO avTO SiKatov, to tov KpeiTTOvos ^vpL^ipov.

Nw, Tfv 8' eyc6, ifiadov o Ae'yets" ei 8e dXrjdes rj yLTj, TreLpdaofjiai, fiadetv. to ^vficfiepov p,kv ovv, ol

Qpacrufxax^, Kal av aTre/cptVco 8t/catov eti^af kultoi

ejxoiye aTT-qyopeves ottcos {mt] tovto dTTOKpLvotfxrjV

B TTpoaeaTi 8e 817 avTodi to tov KpeiTTovos- S/xt- Kpd ye tacos, e(f)7], TTpoad-qKr], Ovttio hrjXov ovh*

el jjieydXr]- aAA' oTt jxev tovto OKerrTeov el dXrjdrj

Xeyeis, SrjXov. eTretSr) yap ^vfxcf}epov ye Tt etvai

" Kparei with emphasis to suggest Kpeirrtjjv. Of. Menex.

238 D, Xen. Mem. i. 2. 43. Platonic dialectic proceeds by minute steps and linked synonyms. Cf. 333 a, 339 a. 342 c, 346 A, 353 E, 354 a-b, 369 c, 370 a-b, 379 b, 380-381, 394 b,

400 c, 402 D, 412 D, 433-434, 486, 585 c, Meno 77 a. Lysis 215 B, where L. & S. miss the point.

'' On this view justice is simply to voixlixov (Xen. Mem. iv. 4. 12; cf. Gorg. 504 d). This is the doctrine of the "Old Oligarch," [Xen.] R^p. Ath. 2. Against this conception of

class domination as political justice, Plato (Laws 713 ff.) and

Aristotle {Pol. iii. 7) protest. Cf. Arnold, Culture and Anarchy.

48

'IHE REPUBLIC, BOOK I

strong and has the mastery " in each—the ruling party?" "Certainly." " And each form of govern- ment enacts the laws with a \iew tqits own advantage, a democracy democratic laws and tyTanny autocratic and the others likewise, and by so legislating they

.

proclaim that the just for their subjects is that which ^ is for their—the rulers'—advantage and the man " who de\iates ^ from this law they chastise as a law- breaker and a wrongdoer. This, then, my good sir, is what I understand as the identical principle of justice that obtains in all states—the advantage of the established government. This I presume you vriW admit holds power and is strong, so that, if one reasons rightly, it works out that the just is the same thing ever}-where,*^ the advantage of the i stronger." " Now," said I, " I have learned your meaning, but whether it is true or not I have to try to learn. The advantageous, then, is also your reply, ThrasjTnachus, to the question, what is the just—though you forbade me to give that answer. But you add thereto that of the stronger." " A trifling addition** perhaps you think it," he said. " It is not yet clear * whether it is a big one either

;

but that we must inquire Avhether what you say is true, is clear.* For since I too admit that the just

chap. ii. : "We only conceive of the State as something equivalent to the class in occupation of the executive govern- ment " etc.

* Thrasymachus makes it plain that he, unlike Meno (7 1 t), Euthyphro (5 ff.). Laches ( 19 1 e), Hippias {Hipp. Maj. 286 ff.\ and even Theaetetus ( 1 46 c-d) at firsC understands Uie nature of a definition.

" C/. Laches 182 c. * For the teasing or challenging repetition cf. 394 b, 470

B-c 487 E, 493 A, 500 s, 505 d, 514 s, 517 c, 523 a, 527 c. Lysis 203 b, Soph. O.T. 327.

VOL. I X 49

PLATO

Kal iyoi oiJLoXoyci) ro StVatoi^, av 8e TrpoaTiOrjs KaC

avTO (f)fjg

elvai to tou Kpeirrovos , iy<x> Se dyvooj,

aK€7TT€OV hrj . S/coTret, ecf)r).

XIII. Tavr' earai, fjv 8' eycu. /cat /Aot eiTre*

ou /cat TTeiOeaOai fievroi rols ap^ovoi hiKaiov (f)rjs

C elvat; "Eycuye. Xldrepor 8e dvajjLdprrjToi eiaiv oi dp)(ovT€s €v rats trokeaiv iKdarms rj olol ti Kai ap.apreiv ; WdvTOis ttov, e(f)r], olol tl /cat a/xapreti'.

OvKovi' iTTLx^tpovvreg vofiovs TLdevat tovs p.ev

opddjg TLdeaai, tovs 8e TLvas ovk opddJs; Ot/xat

eycoye. To 8e opdws dpa ro rd ^vpi^epovra earL rid^adai iavrols, ro 8e jxr) dpSdjs d^vp.<f)opa; 7)

TTUis Xeyeig; Ovrcos. "A 8' dv dcouraL, TTOLr]r€Ov rols dpxofievoLs, /cat rovro iari ro hiKaLov; YicJs

D ydp ov; Ov ixovov dpa hiKaLov eari Kara rov aov Aoyov TO TOU Kpeirrovos ^vpn^ipov TTOielv, aAAa

/cat Touj'ai^Tiov' to ixtj ^vfX(f)€pov. Tt Aeyei? crv;

ccf)!/]. "A art) Xeyeis, efioiye Sokco' oKOTTcbfiev 8e ^iXriov. ovx d)p.oX6yrjrat, rovs dp^ovras tols

dpxop.€i'OLs TTpoardrrovras ttolclv drra eviore 8ta-

fiaprdveLv rov iavrols ^eXriorov, d h dv npocr-

rdrrcoGLV ol dp^ovres, hiKaLov elvai rols ap^opi^voLS

" For Plato's so-called utilitarianism or eudaemonism see 457 b, Unity of Plato's Thovglit, pp. 21-22, Gomperz, ii. p. 262. He would have nearly accepted Bentham's state- ment that while the proper end of government is the greatest happiness of the greatest number, the actual end of every government is the greatest happiness of the governors. Cf. Leslie Stephen, English Utilitarianism, i. p. 282, ii. p. 89.

"" This profession of ignorance may have been a trait of the real Socrates, but in Plato it is a dramatic device for the evolution of the argument.

" The argument turns on the opposition between the real (i.e. ideal) and the mistakenly supposed interest of the rulers. See on 334 c. 50

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK I

is something that is of advantage "—but you are for making an addition and affirm it to be the advantage of the stronger, while I don't profess to know,^ we must pursue the inquiry. " Inquire away," he said.

XIII. " I will do so," said I. '• Tell me, then ; you affirm also, do you not, that obedience to rulers is just ? " "I do." " May I ask whether the rulers in the various states are infallible '^ or capable sometimes of error ? " " Surely," he said, " they are hable to err." " Then in their attempts at legislation they enact some laws rightly and some not rightly, do they not?" "So I suppose." "And by rightly we are to understand for their advantage, and by WTongly to their disadvantage ? Do you mean that or not?" "That." "But whatever they enact"* must be performed by their subjects and is justice ?

"

" Of course." " Then on your theory it is just not only to do what is the advantage of the stronger but also the opposite, what is not to his advantage." " What's that you're saying ? « " he repUed. " What you yourself are saying,^ I think. Let us consider it more closely. Have we not agreed that the rulers in giving orders to the ruled sometimes mistake their o>vn advantage, and that whatever the rulers enjoin it is just for the subjects to perform ? Was not that

<* Cf. supra 338 E and TheaeM. 177 d. • Ti XtyfLs av ; is rude. See Blaydes on Aristoph. Clouds

1174. The suspicion that he is being refuted makes Thrasy- machus rude again. But cf. Euthydem. 290 e.

' C/. Berkeley, Divine Visual Language, 13: "The con- clusions are yours as much as mine, for you were led to them by your own concessions." See on 33-t d. Ale. I. 112- 1 13. On a misunderstanding of this passage and 344 e, Herbert Spencer (Data of Ethics, § 19) bases the statement that Plato (and Aristotle), like Hobbes, made state enact- ments the source of right and wrong.

51

PLATO

TTOieZv; raOr' ov^ (LfxoXoyrjTai; Ot/xat eycoye, £^17. E O'iov Toivvv, -qv 8' iyo), /cat to d^vfji(f)opa TTOietv

Tot? dpxovaL re /cat Kpeirrooi St/catot' eu'at a>/i.o-

XoyrjaOaL aoL, orav ol fxev ap^ovres o-Kovres /ca/ca

auTot? TTpoaTdrro}aL, rois Se St/catov etv'at (f)fjs ravra TTOielv, d e/cetvot Trpoaera^av apa rore, d> ao(f)a)TaT€ Qpaavfiaxe, ovk dvayKatov avfx^atveLv avro ovTcoal 8i/catov eti^at TTOcelv Tovvavriov 7} o

av Xeyeig; to yap tov KpeiTTOvos d^vpb^opov hrjTTOV 340 TTpoCTTarTerat tols rJTTOGL TTOLelv. Nat jLta At ,

€cf)r], CO HojKpaTes, 6 WoXeixapxos , cra^ecrTaTa ye.

Eat' av y , ^V*^> ovtO) [xapTVpT^arjg, 6 ViXeiTocfycov VTToXa^cov. Kat tl, €(f)r], SeZrai pidpTVpos ; avTOs yap SpaaujjLaxos 6p,oXoy€l tovs fi€v dpxovTas evLOTC eavTols /ca/ca Tr/DOCTrarret^, rot? 8e (^PX^' jjidvois StKaiov elvai raura ttolcIv. To yap Ta KeXevojxeva TToieLV, t5 HoXej-capx^, vtto tcov apxov-

Tojv ^LKaLov eh'ai eOeTO Qpaavp.axos. Kat yap TO TOV KpeiTTOVOS, CO KX€LTO(f)(x)v , ^vpi^epov St/catov

B etvat edsTO. TavTa 8e a/x<^oTepa 6ep.evos cu/xoAd- yrjaev av evioTe tovs KpciTTovs to. aurots' d^vpi(f)opa KeXeveiv tovs rjTTovs re /cat dpxoj-Uvovs TTOielv.

e/c 8e TOVTCxiv tow ofioXoyidjv ov^ev fidXXov to tov KpeiTTOvos ^vpitjjepov hiKaiov av e'Lrj rj to fXT]

^vix(f)epov. 'AAA', e^T] o KAetro^cDi', to tov KpeiT-

Tovos ^vjji(f)epov eXeyev o rjyoLTO 6 KpeiTTOiv avTU)

" Socrates is himself a little rude. * Cf. Gorgias 495 d. « Cf. Laches 215 e, Phaedo 62 e. '' It is familiar Socratic doctrine that the only witness

needed in argument is the admission of your opponent. Cf. Gorg. 472 a-b.

* TO, K€\€v6/j.eva iroutv is a term of praise for obedience to

52

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK I

admitted ? " "I think it was," he replied. " Then vou will have to think,** I said, that to do what is dis-

advantageous to the rulers and the stronger has been

adnnitted by you to be just in the case when the rulers unwittingly enjoin what is bad for themselves,

while you affirm that it is just for the others to do

what they enjoined. In that way does not this con- clusion inevitably follow, my most sapient * Thrasy- machus, that it is just to do the very opposite "^ of what

vou say ? For it is in that case surely the dis-

advantage of the stronger or superior that the

inferior are commanded to perform." " Yes, by Zeus, Socrates," said Polemarchus, " nothing could be

more conclusive." " Of course," said Cleitophon, breaking in, " if you are his \\itness." '^ " Wliat need

is there of a witness? " Polemarchus said. " Thrasy-

machus himself admits that the rulers sometimes enjoin what is evil for themselves and yet says that

it is just for the subjects to do this." " That,

Polemarchus, is because Thras}TTiachus laid it dovm that it is just to obey the orders ' of the rulers." " Yes, Cleitophon, but he also took the position

that the advantage of the stronger is just. And after these two assumptions he again admitted that

the stronger sometimes bid the inferior and their

subjects do what is to the disadvantage of the rulers. And from these admissions the just would no more be the advantage of the stronger than the contrary." " O well," said Cleitophon. " by the advantage of the superior he meant what the superior supposed to be

lawful authorit}-, and of disdain for a i>eople or state that takes orders from another. Cleitophon does not apprehend the argument and, thinking only of the last clause, reaffirms the detinition in the form " it is just to do what rulers bid." Polemarchus retorts : '* And (I was right,) for he (also) . . ."

53

PLATO

^vijt.(f)epei.v' rovTO TTOirjTeov etvai tco tjttovi, koi to hiKaiov TOVTO irldero. 'AAA' ovx ovrcos, rj S' o?

C d YloXefjiapxos, iXeyero. OuSeV, rjv 8' eyco, cL UoXefiapx^ > ?iLa(f>€peL, dAA' et vvv ovtco Ae'yet

QpaavfMaxos, ovrcos avrov a.TToSexc^P'^da. XIV. Kai [XOL elire, w Qpaavp,a)(€- rovro rjV o

i^ovXov Xeyeiv to St/catoi/, to rov Kp^iTTOvos ^vp,-

c/yepou 80KOVV etvai to) KpeiTTOvi, idv re ^vpcfieprj idv T€ pij; OVTW oe (jicopev Xiyeiv; "H/ctcrTa y', e</)7j' dAAd KpeLTTco pe olei KaXelv tou €^ap,apTd- vovTa, orav c^apapTavr] ; "Kycoye, €L7tov, a>p,t]i'

ae TOVTO Xeyeiv, ot€ tou? dp^ovras (hpLoXoyeis ovk D dvap,apTT^TOVs elvat, dXXd ti /cat e^apapTdveiv

.

JLvKO(f)dvTr]s yap el, e.(j>rj, a) Sctj/cpares', ev rot? Adyots" eVet avTiKa larpov KaXelg av tov i^ap,ap- rdvovTa irepi, tovs KapivovTas KaT avTO tovto o €^ap,apTdv€t ; 7) XoytOTtKov, o? dv iv XoyLopcp

dpiaprdvrj, TOTe OTav dpapTdvrj, Kara TavTrjv t7]v dpapTLav ; dXX , oipai, Xeyopev Tip prjpiaTL ovtcos,

OTL 6 laTpos i^-qpapTe /cat d XoyLaTTjs e^rjpLapTe

/cat d ypapLpaTLGT-qs' to 8\ ot/xat, eKaoTos tovtidv, ^ /ca^' oaov tout' eoTiv o Ttpoaayopevopev avTOv,

ovSeTTOTe dpaprdvei djCTTe Kara tov aKpi^rj Xoyov, eTTeihr] /cat av aKpi^oXoyel, ovSels Tajv- 8rjp.Lovpya)v

" Socrates always allows his interlocutors to amend their statements. Cf. Gorg. 491 b, 499 b, Protag. 349 c, Xen. Mem. iv. 2. 18.

* Thrasymachus rejects the aid of an interpretation which Socrates would apply not only to the politician's miscalcula- tions but to his total misapprehension of his true ideal interests. He resorts to the subtlety that the ruler qua ruler is infallible, which Socrates meets by the fair retort that the ruler gwa ruler, the artist qua artist has no "sinister" or seltish interest but cares only for the work. If we are to

54

>y)X-

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK I

for his advantage . Thiswaswhat the inferior had to do, and that this is the just was his position." " That isn't what he said," rephed Polemarchus. " Never mind, Polemarchus," said I, "but if that is Thrasymachus's present meaning, let us take it from him "in that sense.

" XIV. So tell me, Thras^Tnachus, was this what you intended to say, that the just is the advantage of the superior as it appears to the superior whether it really is or not ? Are we to say this was your meaning ? " " Not in the least," he said ; * "do you suppose that I call one who is in error a superior when he errs ? " "I certainly did suppose that you meant that," I replied, " when you agreed that rulers are not infalHble but sometimes make mistakes." " That is because you argue like a pettifogger, Socrates. \Miy, to take the nearest example, do you call one who is mistaken about the sick a physician in respect of his mistake or one who goes ^\Tong in a calculation a calculator when he goes wrong and in respect of this error ? Yet that is what we say literally—we say that the physician <= erred and the calculator and the schoolmaster. But the truth, I take it, is, that each of these in so far as he is that which we entitle him never errs ; so that, speaking precisely, since you are such a stickler for precision ,** no crafts-

substitute an abstraction or an ideal for the concrete man we must do so consistently. Cf. modern debates about the " economic man.''

* For the idea r/. Rousseau's Em He, i. : " On me dira . . . que les fautes sent du medecin, mais que la medicine en elle-meme est infaillible. A la bonne heure : mais qu'elle viennedonc sans le medecin." Lucian, De Parasilo 54,parodies this reasoning.

"* F'or the invidious associations o(dKpi3o\o~,ia (1) in money dealings, (2) in argument, cf. Aristot. Met. 995 all, Cratyl. 415 a, Lysias vii. 12, Antiphon B 3, Dcmosth. xxiii. 148, Timon in Diog. Laert. ii. 19.

55

PLATO

aiiaprdvei. im,XenTOvarjs yap iTnaTrjfx-qs 6 d/xap- rdvcov dfxaprdvei, iv a) ovk ecrri SrjpLLOvpyos' ayare

BrjULovpyos t) crof^o? rj dpxcov ousels' dpLaprdvei

Tore orav dp^oiv 17, dAAa Tra? y dv clttoi, on 6 larpos r]fiapr€ Kal 6 dp)(^cov rjp.apTe. tolovtov

ovv hri aoL kol e/xe VTToXa^e vvv Srj aTTOKpiveadaf

TO Se aKpi^iararov eKelvo Tvyxctvei 6v, tou

341 dpxpvra, Kad' oaov dp^oiv ian, fxrj dixaprdvetv,

p,r) dfiaprdvovTa Se to avTO) ^cXtlgtov TiOeadat,

TOVTO 8e TO) dpxofievo) TTOLrjTeov waTe, OTrep i^

dpxy]S eXeyov, SuKaLov Xeycv to tov KpeiTTOvos

TTOielv avpi(f>epov.

XV. YIev, riv 8' eyco, J) Spaavfiax^' Sokco ctoi (jVKO(f)avT€iv; Ilai'i' pikv ovv, €(f)r). O'Ul ydp fxe €^ iiTL^ovXrjs iv TOLs Xoyois KaKovpyovvTd ae

ipeadai d)S yjpdfirjv; Kv jxev oSv otSa, €(f>rj' Kal ov8ev ye aoL ttXIov earaf ovTe ydp dv fie XddoLs

B KaKovpyoJV, ovTe jxrj XaOdw ^idcraadaL tw Xoyco Bvvaio. Ovhe y dv eTTLX^ip'qaaLfjit, -qv 8' eycx). c3 /xa/capie. aAA' Iva jjirj avdts rfplv tolovtov

iyyevr)TaL, 8topicrat, rroTepcos Xeyeis tov dpxovTd

T6 /cat TOV KpetTTOva, TOV ojs erros elrrelv t] tov

dKpi^el Xoyo), ov^ vvv Srj eXeyes, ov to ^vix(f>epov

KpeiTTOvos ovTOs SiKaiov eoTai tco i^ttovl TTOielv.

Tov T<x) aKpi^euTdTO), ecfy-q, Xoyco dpxovra ovTa. TTpos TavTa KaKovpyei Kal (TVKO(f)dvTeL, et ti

C Bvvaaai' ovSev aov TrapiefxaL' dXX ov {jlt] olos t

^ tv probable conjecture of Benedictus : mss. 5.

" Cf. 365 D. * i.e., the one who in vulgar parlance is so ; cf. n^ pruj-art,

340 D,

56

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK I

man errs. For it is when his knowledge abandons hini that he who goes ^^Tong goes \^Tong—when he is not a craftsman. So that no craftsman, wise man, or ruler makes a mistake then when he is a ruler, though everybody would use the expression that

the physician made a mistake and the ruler erred. It is in this loose way of speaking, then, that you must take the answer I gave you a httle while ago. But the most precise statement is that other, that

the ruler in so far forth as ruler does not err, and not erring he enacts what is best for himself, and this the subject must do, so that, even as I meant from the start, I say the just is to do what is for the advantage of the stronger." XV. " So then, Thrasymachus,"said I, " my manner

of argument seems to you pettifogging ? " " It does," he said. " You think, do you, that it was with malice aforethought and trying to get the better of you unfairly that I asked that question ? " "I don't think it, I know it," he said, " and you won't make anything by it, for you won't get the better of me by stealth and, failing stealth, you are not of the force" to beat me in debate." " Bless your soul," said I, " I wouldn't even attempt such a thing. But that nothing of the sort may spring up between us again, define in which sense you take the ruler and stronger. Do you mean the so-called ruler * or that ruler in the precise sense of whom you were just now telhng us, and for whose advantage as being the superior it Mill be just for the inferior to act ? " "I mean the ruler in the very most precise sense of the word," he said. " Now bring on against this yoiu- ca\ils and your shyster's tricks if you are able. I ask no quarter. But you'll find yourself unable."

57

PLATO

1)5. Otei yap av fie, elrrov, ovtcd /jiaurjvai, caare gvpeiv €in)(€(,p€LP Xeovra koi avKO(f)avTelv Qpaav- fxaxov; Nw yovv, e(j)r], eTrex^lp-qaas, ovhev wv Kai ravra. "ASrju, rjv 8' iyd), rGiv tolovtcov. dAA' €1776 /jLOi- o Tcii OLKpL^eL Xoycx) laTpos, ov dpTi

eXeyes, Ttorepov XRVI^^'^'-^'^V^ eariv •^ rcJov Kap,v6v-

Tiov depanevTijg ; Kal Xdye top tu> ovtl larpov ovTa. TcDi/ KaiMVOvTCov, €(j)rj, depajrevT'qg. Ti Se Kv^epvqrrjs ; 6 opdcos Kv^epvqrrjs t'auTcSi^ ap^oiv

D eariv r^ vavTrjs; Navrcvv apxoiv. OvSev, otfiai, TOVTO VTToXoyLGTeov, on TrXel iu rfj vrfC, ouS' eVrt KXrjrdos vavrr]^- ov yap Kara to TrXelv KV^epi'Tjrrjs KaXelraL, dXXa Kara ttjv re)(yr]v /cat Tr]v ru)V vavrcju ap)(r]v. ^AXr)drj, €(f)r]. Ovkovv eKdaro) Tovrcov eari tl ^vfj,(f)epov ; riap'U ye. Ov Kal -q rexvr], '^i^ S* dy<^> ctti tovto) ni^vKev, iirl rw to ^vp.(f>ipov eKaaTcp t^rjTeZv re /cat eKTTopit,€iv; 'Etti

TOVTO), €(f)r]. 'Ap' ovv Kal iKaaTrj tcov Texvcov

eoTL TI, ^vpLcjiipov dXXo t) o tl /xaAicrra reAeat'

E elvai; Hcvs tovto epcjTas; "Qanep, ecjuqv eyoi,

" A rare but obvious proverb. C/. Schol. ad loc. and Aristides, Orat. Plat. ii. p. 143.

* Kai ravra — idque, normally precedes (cf. 404 c, 419 e, etc.). But Thrasymachus is angry and the whole phrase is short. Commentators on Aristoph. Wasps 1184, Frogs 704, and Acharn. 168 allow this position. See my note in A.J.P. vol. xvi. p. 234. Others : " though you failed in that too."

" Cf. infra 54:1 b, Euthyphro 11 e, Charm. 153 n. * Plato, like Herodotus and most idiomatic and elliptical

writers, is content if his antecedents can be fairly inferred from the context. Cf. 330 c rodro, 373 c, 396 b, 598 c rtxvCov, Protag. 327 c.

• Pater, Plato and Platonism, p. 242, fancifully cites this for " art for art's sake." See Zeller, p. 605. Thrasymachus

58

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK I

"Why, do you suppose," I said. " that I am so mad as to try to beard a Uon ^ and try the pettifogger on Thrasymachus ? " " You did try it just now," he said, " paltry fellow though you be." * " Something too much "^ of this sort of thing," said I. " But tell me, your physician in the precise sense of whom you were just now speaking, is he a moneymaker, an earnerof fees, or a healer of the sick ? And remember to speak of the physician who is really such," " A healer of the sick," he replied. " And what of the pilot—the pilot rightly so called—is he a ruler of sailors or a sailor ? " "A ruler of sailors." " We don't, I fancy, have to take into account the fact that

he actually sails in the ship, nor is he to be de- nominated a sailor. For it is not in respect of his sailing that he is called a pilot but in respect of his

art and his ruhng of the sailors." " True," he said. " Then for each of them <^ is there not a something that is for his advantage?" "Quite so." "And is it not also true," said I, " that the art naturally

exists for this, to discover and provide for each his advantage ? " " Yes, for this." " Is there, then, for each of the arts any other advantage than to be as perfect as possible * .'* " " What do you mean by

does not understand what is meant by saying that the art ( = the artist qua artist) has no interest save the perfection of its (his) own function. Socrates explains that the body by its very nature needs art to remedy its defects (Herod, i. 32, Lysis 217 b). But the nature of art is fulfilled in its service, and it has no other ends to he accomplished by another art and so on ad infinitum. It is idle to cavil and emend the text, because of the shift from the statement (341 d) that art has no interest save its perfection, to the statement that it needs nothing except to be itself (342 a-b). The art and the artist qua artist are ideals whose being by hypothesis is their perfection.

59

PLATO

et jj.€ epoLo, el i^apKel aonxari etvat, aajfiari t)

TTpoaheiTai tlvos, etVot/x' av on iravraTraai p-ev ovv TTpoahelrai. 8ia ravra /cat rj rex^r] iariv 17

larpiKT] vvv evpr]pievrj, otl crcJopid iari, TTOirqpov

/cat ovK i^apKet avro) roiovrw elvai. rovrcp ovv

oTTCos €KTTopit,ri TO, ^vp.(f)€povTa, ivl rovTw TTap-

ea-Keudadr] 7) rex^r]. ^ opdojs o-ot SoarcD, €^171^, 342 at- elnelv ovtco Xeycov, -q ov; *Op6cos, ecft-q. Ti

Se 87); avrrj rj larpLKri iari TTOvrjpd, rj aXXr] rt?

rexvn) ecrd" 6 tl npoaSeXraL rivos apeTTJs, coavep

d(/)^aA/xot oijjeojs /cat cSra olkotjs /cat 8ta ravra en

avrols Set rivos rexvr]? rrjs to ^vpi(f)epov et? raura^

OKeifjop^ivris re /cat eKTropiovcT-qg^ ; dpa /cat ev

avrfj rfi rexvrj evi rt? TTOvrjpla, /cat 8et eKaarrj

rexvr) aAArj? rexvr]S, Wts avrfj ro ^vpL(f)epov oKe- tjjerai, /cat rfj aK07T0vp.evr) erepag av roiavrrjs,

/cat rovr eariv diTepavrov; 7) avrT] avrfj ro gvp,-

B (f>epov cTKei/rerat ; rj ovre avrrjs ovre dX/\r]s Trpoa- Selrai eirl rr]v avrrjs irovripiav ro ^vp^^epov

aKoneiv ovre yap TTOvrjpia ovre dp^apria ovhep-ia

ouSe/xia rex^rj Trdpeariv, ovhe TrpoarjKeL rex^r)

ctAAo) ro ^vp-cbepov t,rjrelv TJ eKeivip ov rex^f] eariv,

avrrj he d^Xaf^rjg /cat a/cepato? eariv opdr] ovoa,

eojcjTTep av fj

eKacrrr] dKpt^rjs oXrj rj-nep eon; /cat

OKOTTei, e/cetVoj ro) dKpi^et Xoycp- ovrws t] dXXcos

e^et; Ovrcos, ^'^17, (f)ai.verat. OvK dpa, 77V 8' C iyo), larpLKYj larptKfj ro ^vp.(f)€pov aKonel aXXa

acupiarL. Nat, £^17. OvSe 'nnnKrj lirTrLKfj dAA

Ittttols' ovhe dXXr] Texvq ov8ep,ta eavrfj, ov8e

* A. M. Burnet improbably reads avra ravra with FD. * The future (q) is better than the present (A112).

60

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK I

that question ? " " Just as if," I said, " you should ask me whether it is enough for the body to be the body or whether it stands in need of something else, I would reply, ' By all means it stands in need. That is the reason why the art of medicine has now been invented, because the body is defective and such defect is unsatisfactory. To proWde for this, then, what is advantageous, that is the end for which the art was devised.' Do you think that would be a correct answer, or not ? " " Correct," he said. " But how about this ? Is the medical art itself defective or faulty, or has any other art any need of some virtue, quality, or excellence—as the eyes of \ision, the ears of hearing, and for this reason is there need of some art over them that will consider and provide what is advantageous for these very ends—does there exist in the art itself some defect and does each art require another art to consider its advantage and is there need of still another for the considering art and so on ad infinitum, or will the art look out for its own advantage ? Or is it a fact that it needs neither itself nor another art to consider its

advantage and provide against its deficiency ? For there is no defect or error at all that dwells in any art. Nor does it befit an art to seek the advantage of anything else than that of its object. But the art itself is free from all harm and admixture of evil, and is right so long as each art is precisely and entirely that which it is. And consider the matter in that ' precise ' way of speaking. Is it so or not ? " " It appears to be so," he said. " Then medicine," said I, " does not consider the advantage of medicine but of

the body ? " " Yes." " Nor horsemanship of horse- manship but of horses, nor does any other art look out

61

PLATO

yap TTpoaSeiTat, dAA' eKeivcp oS rexvr] eariv. OaiVerai, e07^, ovtcos. 'AAAa jU.Tyv', a> Qpaavfjiax^, apxoval ye at rexyat Koi Kparovaiv eKeivov, ovirep

€L(7L rexvai. Yivvexcoprjcrev ivravOa Kai /xctAa jxoyLg.

OvK apa ijTLar'qiJ.rj ye ovSepta to rod Kpeirrovos ^vfxcj)€pov OKOTTeZ oj)8' €7nrdTT€i, dAAa to tov

•D rJTTovo? re /cat dpxop.€Vov vtto iavrrjs. Hur-

ojfxoXoyrjae fiev /cat raura reXevTOjv, erre^^etpet 8e

TTepl avrd /xctp^eo-^ai • erreLhrj 8e wp-oXoyqaev,

"AAAo Tt ow, i^i' S' iyco, ovSe larpos ouSet?, Ka9 oaov tarpon, ro r(x> larpo) ^vpi^epov aKorrel ovS

eTrtTctTTet, dAAd to to) KapLVOvri; cu/xoAdyryTai

yap 6 aKpL^rjs larpos acofxarcov elvaL dpxojv dAA ov ;)^/3r^^aTtcrT'»ys'. rj ovx (vfxoXoyrjrat ; avv€(f)rj. OvKovv Kal 6 KV^epv-qrrjs 6 aKpi^rjs vavrcjv elvai

^ dpxcov dAA' ov vavriqg; ' QfioXoy-qraL . Ovk dpa 6 ye roiovros Kv^epvT^rrjg re /cat dpxojv ro rco

Kv^epVT^rrj ^vpL(^epov OKeiperal re /cat Trpoard^ei,

dAAd TO rip vavrrj re /cat dpxofievo). "Rvveffy-qae pLoyis. OvKovv, rjv 8' eyco, w Qpaavfxax^, ov8' dXXos ovSels ev ovSefxia dpxfj, /ca^' oaov dpxojv

eari, ro avrco ^vfx(f)epov oKOTrel ou8' emrdrrei,

dAAd ro roi dpxop^evcp /cat ch dv auro? Srjfxtovpyfj, /cat TTpos eKeZvo ^XeTTCov /cat ro e/cetVo) ^up(l>epov

/cat TTperrov, Kal Xeyei a Xeyei /cat rroLel a TTOtet

aTra^Ta.

343 XVI. 'ETretSi^ ovv evravda rjpiev rov Adyou /cat

" The next step is the identification of (true) politics with the disinterested arts which also rule and are the stronger. Cf. Xen. Mem. iii. 9. 11. ye emphasizes the argumentative implication of dpxovai to which Thrasymachus assents reluctantly; and Socrates develops and repeats the thought

62

J

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK I

for itself—for it has no need—but for that of which it is the art." "So it seems," he rephed. " But surely," Thras}Tnachus, the arts do hold rule and are stronger than that of which they are the arts." He conceded this but it went very hard. " Then no art considers or enjoins ^ the advantage ofthe stronger but every art that of the weaker which is ruled by it." This too he was finally brought to admit though he tried to contest it. But when he had agreed

— " Can we

deny, then," said I, " that neither does any physician in so far as he is a physician seek or enjoin the advantage of the physician but that of the patient } For we have agreed that the physician, ' precisely

'

speaking, is a ruler and governor of bodies and not a money-maker. Did we agree on that ? " He assented. " And so the ' precise * pilot is a ruler of sailors, not a sailor ? " That was admitted. " Then that sort of a pilot and ruler will not consider and enjoin the advantage of the pilot but that of the sailor whose ruler he is." He assented reluctantly. "Then," . said I, " Tlirasjinachus, neither does anyone in anyf office of rule in so far as he is a ruler consider and enjoin his own advantage but that of the one whom he rules and for whom he exercises his craft, and he k^eps his eyes fixed on that and on what is advan- tageous and suitable to that in all that he says and does."

XVI. When we had come to this point in the dis-

for half a page. Art is virtually science, as contrasted with empiric rule of thumb, and Thrasymachus's infallible rulers are of course scientific. " Ruler " is added lest we forget the analogy between political rule and that of the arts. Cf. Newman, Introd. Aristot. Pol. 244, Ijaics 875 c.

* It is not content with theoretic knowledge, but like other arts gives orders to achieve results. Cf. Politicua 260 a, c.

63

PLATO

TTdai KaTa(f)av€s ^v, on 6 rod BtKatov Xoyos et? TovvavTLOV nepLeiarT^Kei, 6 Qpaavfiaxos olvtI rov

anoKpiveadai, EtTre /i,oi, e^>7, c5 HcoKpares, TLrdr]

aoL eaTLv; Tt 84; -^v 8' iyu)- ovk aTTOKpiveaQai

XP'^v p.dXXov rj TOiavra epojrav; "On rot ae, e(f)r], Kopvl,cJL)vra Trepiopa koI ovk anopivrTei, Seofxevov,

OS ye avrfj ouSe Trpo^ara ovSe irocfieva yiyvaxTKeis.

"On Srj ri pLaXicrra; rjv 8' eyco "On olei tovs B TTOipbivas rj tovs ^ovkoXovs to tcov TTpo^aTCOv rj to

Tcuv ^ocov dyadov aKonelv Kal Tra)(vveiv avTovs

/cat depaTvevecv rrpos dWo tl ^XinovTas rj to TOiv SeaTTOTcov dyadov /cat to avrajv /cat Srj /cat tovs

ev Tols TToXecTLv dpxovTas, ol chs dXrjdcbs dp^ovaiv,

dXXcos TTOis rjyel SiavoeiaOai. npos tovs dpxopivovs

rj ctJCTTre/j dv tls Trpos npo^aTa Stare^eti], Kat aAAo Tl OKOTTetv avTovs Std vvKTOs /cat rjfxepas •^ tovto

C odev avTol co^eATjaovrat. /cat ovtco iroppcx) el nepi

" Thrasymachus first vents his irritation by calling Socrates a snivelling innocent, and then, like Protagoras {Protag. 334), when pressed by Socrates' dialectic makes a speech. He abandons the abstract (ideal) ruler, whom he assumed to be infallible and Socrates proved to be dis- interested, for the actual ruler or shepherd of the people, who tends the flock only that he may shear it. All political experience and the career of successful tyrants, whom all men count happy, he thinks confirms this view, which is that of Callicles in the Gorgias. Justice is another's good which only the naive and "innocent" pursue. It is better to inflict than to suffer wrong. The main problem of the Republic is clearly indicated, but we are not yet ready to debate it seriously.

^ Kopv^uivra L. & S., also s.v. xdpv^a. Lucian, Lexiphanes 18, treats the expression as an affectation, but elsewhere employs it. The philosophers used this and similar terms

64

THE REPUBLIC BOOK, I

cussion and it was apparent to everybody that his formula of justice had suffered a reversal of form, Thras)Tiiachus, instead of replying,** said, " Tell me, Socrates, have you got a nurse ? " " What do you mean?" said I. "Why didn't you answer me instead of asking such a question ? " " Because," he said, " she lets her Httle ' snotty ' run about drivel-

ling ^ and doesn't wipe your face clean, though you need it badly, if she can't get you to know '^ the difference between the shepherd and the sheep." " And what, pray, makes you think that ?

"

said I. " Because you think that the shepherds and the neat-herds are considering the good of the sheep and the cattle and fatten and tend them with anything else in view than the good of their masters and themselves ; and by the same token you seem to suppose that the rulers in our cities, I mean the real rulers,** differ at all in their thoughts of the governed from a man's attitude towards his sheep * or that they think of anything else night and day than the sources of their own profit. And you

(1) of stupidity, (2) as a type of the minor ills of the flesh. Horace, Sat. i. 4. 8, ii. 2. 76, Epictet. i. 6. 30 d\X' ai fj-v^ai fiov peovcn,

* Literally, " if you don't know for her." For the ethical dative cf. Shakes. Taming of the Shrew, i. ii. 8 " Knock m« here soundly." Not to know the shepherd from the sheep seems to be proverbial. " Shepherd of the people," like " survival of the fittest," may be used to prove anything in ethics and politics. Cf. Newman, Introd. Aristot, Pol. p. 431, Xen. 3/m. iii. 2. 1, Sueton. Vit. Tib. 32, and my note in Class. Phil. vol. i. p. 298.

•* Thrasymachus's real rulers are the bosses and tyrants. Socrates' true rulers are the true kings of the Stoics and Ruskin, the true shepherds of Ruskin and Milton.

• Cf. Aristoph. Clouds 1203 irpo^ar' dXkui, Herrick, "Kings ought to shear, not skin their siieep."

VOL. I .

»

65

PLATO

T€ Tov SiKatov Kal SiKaLoavvqg /cat aSt/cou re Kai

dSiKias, coCTTe dyvoels, otl rj fiev StKaLoavvr] Kai ro

SiKaiov dXXorpLov dyadou rco ovri, tov KpeiTTOvos

T€ Kal dpxovTos ^vix(f>€pov, oLKeia he tov Treido-

fievov T€ Kal VTTTjpeTovvTOs pXd^rj, rj 8e aStKita

TOVvavTLOV, Kal d.p)(et tojv cos dXrjdoJs evrjdiKciJv t€

Kai SLKalojv, ol S' dpxopievoL iroLovai to cKeivov

^viJ,(f>€pov KpeiTTOVos ovTOS, Kal evSaipiova CKeivov

D TTOiovaiv V7Trjp€T0vvT€s avTO), iavTOvg 8e ou8' oTTOjaTLOvv. aKOTTeladaL 8e, c5 evr^OeaTaTe 2cu-

KpaTcs, ovTa>al XP1> ^'^'- hcKaios dvrjp dSiKov

TTavTaxov eXaTTOv ex^i. TrpcoTOV jxev iv toIs Trpos

oAATyAous' ^vp-^oXaioLs, ottov dv 6 tolovtos tco

TOLOVTU) KOLvcov-qarj , ovSapLov dv evpotg iv Trj

SiaXvaei ttjs Koivcovias ttXcov e^ovTa tov hiKaiov

TOV dSiKov dAA' eXaTTOV eVetTa iv toi? TTpos ttjv TToXiv, OTav T€ TLvcs €Lacf)opal (Latv, 6 fiev SiKaios

aTTo Tcov Xaojv rrXiov elacjiipet,, 6 8' eXaTTOv, oTav

E T€ Xijifjeis, 6 fiev ouSeV, o 8€ ttoAAo, Kepbacvei. Kal yap OTav dpxT]v Tiva dpxj) e/carepos", tw fiev

" This (quite possible) sense rather than the ironical, " so far advanced," better accords with ayvods and with the direct brutality of Thrasymachus.

' T(p 6vTi like lis dXrjOQs, drexi'iis, etc., marks the application (often ironical or emphatic) of an image or familiar pro- verbial or technical expression or etymology. Cf. 443 d, 442 A, 419 A, 432 a, Laches 187 b, Phileb. 64 e. Similarly (TriTVfj.ov of a proverb. Archil, fr. 35 (87). The origin of the usage appears in Aristoph. Birds 507 tout' dp' ^Keiv' ifv touttos a\r]dQ9, etc. Cf. Anth. Pal. v. 6. 3. With ev-qdiKuv, however, ws dXrjdQs does not verify the etymology but ironically emphasizes the contradiction between the etymology and the conventional meaning, "simple," which Thrasymachus thinks truly fits those to whom Socrates would apply the full etymological meaning " of good character." C/. 348 c,

66

' THE REPUBLIC, BOOK I \ .

are so far out " concerning the just and justice and

the unjust and injustice that you don't know that justice and the just are hterally ** the other fellow's

good '^—the advantage of the stronger and the ruler, but a detriment that is all his own of the subject who obeys and serves ; while injustice is the contrary and rules those who are simple in every sense of the word and just, and they being thus ruled do what is for his advantage who is the stronger and make him happy by ser\ing him, but themselves by no manner of means. And you must look at the matter, my simple-minded Socrates, in this way : that the just man always comes out at a disadvantage in his relation with the unjust. To begin with, in their business dealings in any joint undertaking of the

two you will never find that the just man has the advantage over the unjust at the dissolution of the

partnership but that he always has the worst of it.

Then again, in their relations with the state, if there are direct taxes or contributions to be paid, the just

man contributes more from an equal estate and the other less, and when there is a distribution the one gains much and the other nothing. And so when each holds office, apart from any other loss the just

400 E, Laics 679 c, Thucyd. iii. 83. Cf. in English the con- nexion of " silly " with selig, and in Italian, Leopardi's bitter comment on dabbenaggine {Pensieri xxvi.).

' Justice not being primarily a self-regarding virtue, like

prudence, is of course another's good. Cf. Aristot. Eth. Xic.

1130a3; 1134b 5. Thrasymachus ironically accepts the formula, adding the cynical or pessimistic comment, "but one's own harm," for which see 392 b, Eurip. Heracleid. 1-5, and Isocrates' protest (viii. 32). Bion (Diog. Laert. iv. 7. 48) wittily defined beauty as " the other fellow's good " ; which recalls Woodrow Wilson's favourite limerick, and the definition of business as " I'argent des autres,"

67

PLATO

SiKalo) virapyei, /cat el /xrySe/xta olAAt^ ^rjfXLa, rd yc

OLKela Si o-ixeXeiav noxdrjpoTepcog ex^iv, ck Se rov

Srjfjioaiov p.r]hev oi^eAeta^ai Sio. to SiKaiov etvai,

Tipos Se TOVTOLs a.TT€)(6eadai. tols re OLKeiois /cat

rots' yvcopijjbOLs, orav p,7]Sev edeXr) avrots VTTrjpeTelv

TTapa TO St'/catov tco Se dbiKcp TrdvTa tovtcov

rdvavTLa virdp^ei. Xeyo) yap ovTrep vvv 817 eXeyov,

344 Tov fxeydXa bvvdfxevov irXeoveKTelv. tovtov ovv

oKOTTeL, eiTTep ^ovXei KpiveLv, oacp fidXXov ^vp.<j>epei

iSt'a avTO) dhiKov elvai t) to St/catov". TrdvTCOv Se

paoTa fiaO-qaei, idv cttI ttjv TeXecDrdTrjv dBcKiav

eXdrjs, 7] TOV fjL€v aSt/CT^aavra euSat/xoi^e'araTOV

TTOtei, TOWS' Se dSiKrjdevTas /cat dSt/cTjcrat ovk dv

ideXovras ddXicoTdrovs . eart Se tovto Tvpavvis,

Tj ov /cara ap-LKpov ToXXorpia /cat Xddpa /cat ^t'a

d<f)aipeiTaL, /cat tepa /cat oata /cat tSta /cat Srjp^oaLa,

B aAAo. ^vXXi^^SrjV (Lv e(f) eKaoTcp /xepet orai^ rt?

dSt/cT^aas pLT] Xddr], ^r]ptovTai. re /cat ov-etSTy e;;^et Ta

fieyiara' /cat ydp lepoavXoi /cat di^SpaTToSiarat

/cat Toix^P^X'^'' '^'^^ dTToaTep-qTal /cat /cAeVrat ot

Kara, /^teprj dStKoui/res TtDv toiovtojv KaKovpyrj-

fidTciiv KaXovPTai' eVetSdi' Se' Tt? Trpos rols rcov

ttoXltcov xPVf^'^^'' '^^^ avTovs dvhpaTTohiadpievos

BovXd)<yr]Tai, dvTL tovtcov twv aloxpcov 6vop,dTa>v

" For the idea that the just ruler neglects his own business and gains no compensating " graft " c/. the story of Dei'oces in Herod, i. 97, Democ. fr. 253 Dials, Laches 180 b, Isoc xii. 145, Aristot. Pol. v. 8. 15-20, For office as a means of helping friends and harming enemies cf. Meno 71 e, Lysias ix. 14, and the anecdote of Themistocles (Plutarch, Praecept.

68

.^

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK I ^'^^

^ ^

man must count on his own affairs " falling into dis- order through neglect, while because of his justice he makes no profit from the state, and thereto he will displease his friends and his acquaintances by his unwilhngness to serve them unjustly. But to the unjust man all the opposite advantages accrue. I mean, of course, the one I was just speaking of, the man who has the abihty to overreach on a large scale. Consider this t}"pe of man, then, if you wish to judge how much more profitable it is to him personally to be unjust than to be just. And the easiest way of all to understand this matter will be to turn to the most consummate form of injustice which makes the man who has done the wTong most happy and those who are wronged and who would not themselves will- ingly do wTong most miserable. And this is tyranny, which both by stealth and by force takes away what belongs to others, both sacred and profane, both private and public, not httle by httle but at one swoop.* For each several part of such wrongdoing the malefactor who fails to escape detection is fined and incurs the extreme of contumely ; for temple- robbers, kidnappers, burglars, swindlers, and thieves are the appellations of those who commit these several forms of injustice. But when in addition to the property of the citizens men kidnap and enslave the citizens themselves, instead of these opprobrious

reipub. per. 13) cited by Godwin {Political Justice) in the form: "God forbid that I should sit upon a bench of justice where my friends found no more favour than my enemies." Democr. (fr. 266 Diels) adds that the just ruler on laying down his office is exposed to the revenge of wrongdoers with whom he has dealt severely.

* The order of words dramatically expresses Thrasy- machus's excitement and the sweeping success of the tyrant.

69

PLATO

evSai/xoves Kai ixaKapioi KeKXrjvrai, ov fxovov vtto

C Tcov ttoXltcHv aAAa Kal vtto tojv aAAcoi/, ocrot av TTvOcovrai a'UTOv Trjv oXrjv dSiKLav rjSLKrjKOTa' ov

yap TO TTOielv to, a8i/ca dAAa ro -ndaxeiv (jio^ovfjie- voi oveSiS^ovaiv ol 6veihit,ovT€s ttjv dSiKiav, ovrcos,

<L TicoKpares, Kal la-)(yp6repov Kal iXcvOepicoTe-

pov Kal heoTTOTLKcorepov dScKia St/caiocrwTjs" earlv

LKavojs yiyvopiivrj, Kal oirep i^ o.pxrjs eXeyov, ro p.kv

Tov KpeLTTOvos ^vpL<f>€pov TO BiKaiov TvyxoLVCL ov,

TO 8' dSiKov iavTcp XvctltcXovv T€ Kal ^VfX<f)€pOV.

J) XVII. Taura eiTrdjv 6 QpacrvpLaxos iv va> elx^v aTTievai, uyairep ^aXavevs 'qp.uiv KaTavTXrjaas Kara Tu>v (VTCOV ddpoov Kal TToXvv TOV Xoyov . ov fxrjv eiaaav ye avTOv ol vapovTcs, dXX* TjvdyKaaav

vnopLeivai re /cat Trapaaxelv tojv elprjfxevcov Xoyov Kal Stj eycoye Kal avros Trdvv iSeofxrjv re Kal cIttov

Q. Sai/jLovLc Qpacrvfxax^, olov ipL^aXdjv Xoyov ev vo) ep^et? diTtevai,, Trplv StSa^at i/cavcos' tj fxadelv

ecre ovtojs €lt€ dXXojs ^x^l; ^ apuKpov oiet evrt-

E x^^P^^^ rrpdyfia Siopl^eadai, dXX' ov ^iov hiayoiyi^v

,

fj dv Siayofxevos eKaoTOS rjudJv XvaiTeXeaTaTrjv

t,(x)rjv ^cpT); 'Eyco yap olp-ai, e^t] 6 Qpaavfjiaxos, TOVTt dXXojs ^x^i'V; "Eot/cas', "^v 8 eyci, •^rot

rjjxiov ye ovSev K-qSeadai, ovSe tl <f>povTit,eiv eire

" The European estimate of Louis N-apoleon before 1870 is a good illustration. Cf. Theopompus on Philip, Polybius viii. 11. Euripides' Bellerophon (fr. 288) uses the happiness of the tyrant as an argument against the moral government of the world.

' Aristot. Eth. Nic. 1 130 b 15 uses the expression in a different sense.

* The main issue of the Republic. Cf. 360 d, 358 e and Gorg. 469 b.

•* Cf, Theophrastus, Char. xv. 19 (Jebb), Tucker, Life in

70

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK I

names they are pronounced happy and blessed * not only by their fellow-citizens but by all who hear the story of the man who has committed complete and entire injustice. *" For it is not the fear of doing '' but of suffering wTong that calls forth the reproaches of those who re\ile injustice. Thus, Socrates, injustice on a sufficiently large scale is a stronger, freer, and more masterful thing than justice, and, as I said in the beginning, it is the advantage of the stronger that is the just, while the unjust is what profits a man's self and is for his advantage." XVII. After this Thrasymachus was minded to

depart when like a bathman** he had poured his speech in a sudden flood over our ears. But the company would not suffer him and were insistent that he should remain and render an account of what he had said. And I was particularly urgent and said, " I am sur- prised at you, Thrasymachus ; after hvu-ling * such a doctrine at us, can it be that you propose to depart without staying to teach us properly or learn your-

self whether this thing is so or not ? Do you think it is a small matter ^ that you are attempting to deter- mine and not the entire conduct of life that for each of us would make living most worth while ? " " Well, do I deny it ? " " said Thrasymachus. " You seem to," said I, " or else ^ to care nothing for us and so feel no

Ancient Athens, p. 134. For the metaphor cf. 536 b. Lysis 204 D, Aristoph. Wasps 483. "Sudden," lit. "all at once."

* Cf. Eurip. Alcestis 680 ov ^aXdiv ovrus direi, ' Socrates reminds us that a serious moral issue is involved

in all this word-play. So 352 d, Gorg. 492 c, 500 c. Laches 185 A. Cf. infra 377 b, 578 c, 608 b.

' Plainly a protesting question, " Why, do I think other- wise ? " Cf. supra 339 d.

* For the impossibility of J. and C.'s '* or rather " see my note in A.J.P. vol. xiii. p. 234.

71

PLATO

Xetpov etre ^iXriov ^icoaofxeOa dyvoovvres o crv

^rjs etSeVai. dAA', tS 'yadd, TrpodvfjLov /cat rjfuv

345 ivhei^aadai' ovroi /ca/ccu? crot Keiaerai, o rt av

T^/za? TOcroucrSe ovras' evepyeriijarjs. iyOJ yap Srj

aoL Xeyoi to y' ifiov, on ov TreldopiaL ov8' oijuat dSt/ctat* Si,Kaioovv7]s KepSaXedorepov elvai, ovo eav

ea TLs avTTjv /cat pcrj hiaKcoXvr] TrparreLV a jSouAeraf

dAA', c5 'yade, earroj pcev dSt/co?, Suma^oj Se

dSiKelv T] rep Xavddueiv •»} to) Siapdx^o^dai, o/xcu?

e/xe ye ov Treidei <hs eWt tt^? St/catoawTj? /cepSa- B Xecorepov. TavT ovv /cat erepos tacos ns rjp-ivv

TTeTTOvdev, ov fJLOvos iyo). Trelaov ovv, co jxaKapie,

LKavcos r)p-ds, art ovk opdcos ^ovXevojxeda St/caio-

avvrjv dSt/cias' nept TrXeiovos TTOtovpevoi. Kat ttojs,

€(f)r], ere Treioco; el ydp ols vvv Srj eXeyov p,rj ire-

TTeiaai, ri ool ert Troi-qaoi; r) et? r-qv ipvxW ^^P^^ ivdu) Tov Xoyov; Md At", rjv 8' iycd, prj av ye' dXXd vpcoTOV jxev, a dv e'LTTrjs, efxpieve tovtois. •^

idv fxeTaTLdrj, cf)av€pd)s nerartdeao /cat rjjjids p^r]

C e^a-n-dra. vvv 8e opas, c5 Qpaavfxax^, ert ydp rd epLTTpoadev eTnaKeijjoipieda, on rov ws aXrjddJs tarpov TO TTpdJTOv 6piil,6p,evos rov cos aXr]dcos ttoi-

» Keherai of an investment perhaps. Cf. Plautus, Rudens 939 "bonis quod bene fit, baud perit."

'' Isocrates viii. 31 and elsewhere seems to be copying Plato's idea that injustice can never be profitable in the higher

sense of the word. Cf. also the proof in the Hipparchus that all true K^pdos is dyadov.

" Plato neglects for the present the refinement that the

unjust man does not do what he really wishes, since all desire the good. Cf. infra 438 a, 577 d, and Gorg. 467 b.

" Cf. 365 D. ' Thrasymachus has stated his doctrine. Like Dr. Johnson

72.

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK I

concern whether we axe going to live worse or better lives in our ignorance of what you affirm that you know. Nay, my good fellow, do your best to make the matter clear to us also : it will be no bad invest- ment " for you—any benefit that you bestow on such a company as this. For I tell you for my part that I am not con\inced, neither do I think that injustice is more profitable * than justice, not even if one gives it free scope and does not hinder it of its \nll.'^ But, suppose, sir, a man to be unjust and to be able to act unjustly either because he is not detected or can maintain it by violence,** all the same he does not convince me that it is more profitable than justice. Now it may be that there is someone else among us who feels in this way and that I am not the only one. Persuade us, then, my dear fellow, convince us satis- factorily that we are ill advised in preferring justice to injustice." " And how am I to persuade you ? " * he said. " If you are not convinced by what I just now was saying, what more can I do for you ? Shall I take the argument and ram ^ it into your head ?

"

" Heaven forbid ! " I said, " don't do that. But in the first place when you have said a thing stand by it," or if you shift your ground change openly and don't try to deceive us. But, as it is, you see, Thrasymachus—let us return to the previous ex- amples—you see that while you began by taking the physician in the true sense of the word, you did not

he cannot supply brains to understand it. Cf. Gorg. 489 c, 499 B, Meno 75 d.

' The language is idiomatic, and the metaphor of a nurse feeding a baby, Aristoph. Ecd. 7 1 6, is rude. Cf. Shakespeare, "He crams these words into my eats against the stomach of my sense."

' Cf. Socrates' complaint of Callicles' shifts, Gorg. 499 b-c, but cf. supra 334 e, 340 b-c.

73

PLATO

fxeva ovKeri coov Setv varepov aKpi^cbs <f)vXd^ai,

dXXa TTOt/xatVetr^ otet avrov to. Trpo^ara, Kad oaou

TTOLfjL'qV icTTLV, OX) TTpOS TO Tcbv TTpO^aTCOV ^eXriGTOV

pXeTToma, aAA' cScrTrep dairvixova tlvo. Kal /tcA-

Xovra iaridaeadai Trpos Trjv evcox^av, r] av irpos

D TO drrohoadai, ojOTtep xpr]p,amcnr\v dAA ov ttol- fieva. TTJ §6 7TOLfji€viKfj ov S'qTTOv dXXov rov fieXei

7], i(f>' (L rera/CTat, ottcos tovtu) to ^iXricnov

eKTropieZ' inel rd ye avrijg, u)(jt elvai ^eXTLarr],

t/cavcDs' B-qnov e/CTreTrdptcTTai, ecos y' dv [irjhev

ivher) Tov TTocfievLK-q elvai' ovtoj 8e <f»/AT7v eyojye

vvv Bt] dvayKOLOv etvai r)fuv o/JuoXoyelv, ndaav

dpx'^v, Kad^ daov dpx'^, pi'qhevl dXXo) to ^iXTiaTOV

aKOTT€iadai "q eKelvcp tu> dpxoixevco re Kal depa-

E Treuo/xeVo), ev t€ TToXtTLKTJ Kal ISLcoTiKfj OLpxjj- ov 8e Tovs dpxovTas iv Tat? TToXeat, tovs dX-qoaJs

dpxovTas, CKovTas otet dpx^iv; Mo. At" ovk, e(f>r],

aAA' €v ol8a.

XVIII. Ti Se; rjv S' iyco, w Qpacrvfiaxe, Tas dXXas dpxds OVK ivvoeis oti ouSet? ideXei apx^-iv

CKcov, dXXd jjiiadov aLTOvaLv, co? ovxl avTolaiv

cu^e'Aetav ecrofjievTjv eV tov dpx^i'V dXXd toXs ct/^X^'

346 jxevois; eVei TocrdvSe eiTre- ovxl iKdaT7]v p.4vTOi

(jtapikv eKdoTOTe tojv tcxvcov tovtco CTepav etvai,

* irotMaiVetv (tt yp in marg. A*)] iriaiveiv (A) might seem to fit SaiTviuL6va better but does not accord so well with Kad'

6(jov, etc. For the thought cf. Dio Chrys. Or. i. 48 R.,

who virtually quotes, adding lis i(pr] tis,

« The art = the ideal abstract artist. See on 342 a-c. Aristot. Eth. Nic. 1098 a 8 ff. says that the function of a

harper and that of a good harper are generically the same.

Cf. Crito 48 a.

74

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK I

tliink fit afterwards to be consistent and maintain with precision the notion of the true shepherd, but \i)u apparently think that he herds his sheep in his liuality of shepherd, not with regard to what is best tor the sheep, but as if he were a banqueter about to be feasted with regard to the good cheer or again with a view to the sale of them, as if he were a money-maker and not a shepherd. But the art of the shepherd " surely is concerned with nothing else than how to proxide what is best for that over which it is set, since its own affairs, its own best estate, are siu-ely sufficiently provided for so long as it in novvise

fails of being the shepherd's art. And in like manner I supposed that we just now were constrained to acknowledge that every form of rule * in so far as it is rule considers what is best for nothing else than that which is governed and cared for by it, alike in political and private rule. Why, do you think that the rulers and holders of office in our cities—the true rulers '^—willingly hold office and rule ? " "I don't think," he said, " I know right well they do."

XVIII. " But what of other forms of rule, Thrasy- machus ? Do you not perceive that no one chooses of his own will to hold the office of rule, but they demand pay, which implies that not to them will benefit accrue from their holding office but to those whom they rule ? For tell me this : we ordinarily say, do we not, that each of the arts is different from others

* Aristotle's despotic rule over slaves would seem to be an exception (Newman, Introd. Aristot. Pol. p. 245). But that too should be for the good of the slave ; infra 590 d.

« See on 343 b, Aristot. Eth. Xic. 1 102 a 8. The new point that good rulers are reluctant to take office is discussed to 347 E, and recalled later, 520 d. See Newman, I.e. pp. 244- 245, Dio Cass, xxxvi. 27. 1.

75

PLATO

TO) irepav rrjv SvvafXLV e^^eiv; Ka(, tS fjiaKapte, firj rrapa So^av airoKplvov, Iva tl Kal nepalvcofjLev.

AAAa TOVTO), €(f)rj, irepa. Ovkovv /cat dxjieXeiav eKacTTT] IBiav riva rip.lv Trapex^rat, dAA' ov kolv^v,

olov iarpLKT] p,€v vyUiav, Kv^epvrjTLKrj Se aojTqpLav

iv rep TrXeiv, Kal at aAAat ovtojs; Ilain; ye.

Ovkovv Kal p,La6coTLKr) pucrdov; avrrj yap avTTJs B rj Svvap-is' iq Tqv LaTpiKiqv av Kal nqv KV^epvTjTLKTjv

rrjv avTTjv KaXels; rj iavrrep ^ovXr] oLKpi^ws

Stopt'^eiv', wanep vrredov, ovSev ri fxdXXov, idv tls Kv^epvcov vyLYjg yiyvTjrai Sta ro ^vp.(f>€p€i,v avro)

TrXelv iv rfj daXdrTrj, eveKa tovtov /caAet? pioXXov

avrrjv larpiK-qv; Ov hrJTa, €(f)7).

OvSd y , olpLai, TTjv p,ia6a)TiKT]v, cdv vyialvr] ris p^iadapvcov. Ov

C Srjra. Tt 8e; rrjv larpLKrjv p,ta6apv7^riK-qv, iav iwjjievog Tt? p.iadapv7J; Ovk, €(f)r]. Ovkovv ttjv ye a)(f)dX€iav eKaarr^s ttjs T€xvr]s I8iav (hp.oXoyri- aa[jL€v elvai; "Earco, e(f)r]. "Hvrtva apa dxfyeXeiav KOLvfj (h^eXovvrai Travres ol 8r]p,iovpyoL, SijXov

OTL KOLvfj TIVL Ttp aVTCp TTpOCTXpOiP'^VOL ttTT* eKeLVOV

W(j>eXovvrai . "Eot/cev', ^4*1 • Oa^e^' 8e ye to

pLiadov dpwp.evovs o)(f>eX€iadai rovs 8r)p.iovpyovs

OLTTO Tov TTpoaxpTJcrdaL Tjj fjLicrdiOTLKfj TexvT) ylyve-

adai avTOLs- ^vv€(f)r) p^oyis. Ovk apa aTTO ttjs

" Cf. Gorg. 495 a. But elsewhere Socrates admits that the "argument" maybe discussed regardless of the belief of the respondent (349 a). Cf. Thompson on Meno 83 j>, Campbell on Soph. 246 d.

* As each art has a specific function, so it renders a specific service and aims at a specific good. This idea and the examples of the physician and the pilot are commonplaces in Plato and Aristotle.

* Hence, as argued below, from this abstract point of view wage-earning, which is common to many arts, cannot 76

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK I

because its power or function is different ? And, my dear fellow, in order that we may reach some result, don't answer counter to your real belief."

"

" Well, yes," he said, " that is what renders it different." " And does not each art also yield us benefit ^ that is peculiar to itself and not general," as for example medicine health, the pilot's art safety at sea, and the other arts similarly ? " " Assuredly." " And does not the wage-earner's art yield wage ? For that is its function. Would you identify medicine and the pilot's art ? Or if you please to discriminate * precisely ' as you proposed, none the more if a pilot regains his health because a sea voyage is good for him, no whit the more, I say, for this reason do you call his art medicine, do you ? " "Of com^e not," he said. " Neither, I take it, do you call wage- earning medicine if a man earning wages is in health." "Surely not." " But what of this r Do you call medicine wage-earning, if a man when giving treatment earns wages ? " " No," he said. " And did we not agree that the benefit derived from each art is peculiar to it ? " "So be it." he said. "Any common or general benefit that all craftsmen receive, then,

they ob\iously derive from their common use of some further identical thing." " It seems so," he said. " And we say that the benefit of earning wages accrues to the craftsmen from their further exercise of the wage-earning art." He assented reluctantly be the specific service of any of them, but must pertain to the special art tiiaduTiKij, This refinement is justified by Thrasymachus's original abstraction of the infallible crafts- man as such. It has also this much moral truth, that the good workman, as Ruskin says, rarely thinks first of his pay, and that the knack of getting well paid does not always go \»ith the ability to do the work welL See Aristotle on xp'?A«irio-ri(ci7, Pol. i. 3 (1253 b 14).

77

PLATO

D avTov rexvTjs iKaara) avrrj rj co^eAeia iariv, rj rod fxiadov XrjijjLs, aAA', el Set OLKpL^cos aKOTreZadai,

Tj ^jikv larpiKT] vyieiav ttolcI, rj 8e fxcadapvrjTLKrj

pnadov, Kal rj jiev oiKoSofiiKrj oiKiav, rj 8e jjucrOap-

VTjTiKrj avrfj eTTO/jLevrj jjnadov, Kat ai aAAai Trdaai

ovTO)' TO avrrjs eKaarrj epyov epya^erai Kal

co^eAet iK€Lvo, icf)' a> reVa/CTat. iav 8e [xrj jiiaSos

avrfj TTpoayiyvTjrai, ead^ o ri u)(f)eXelraL 6 Srjjxiovp-

yos 0,770 rijs t^X^V^> Oi) ^aiverai, ^(f>'^' ^Ap'

E ovv oi)8' (h^eXel rore, orav TrpoiKa epydt,rjrai

;

Otfiai eyoiye. Ovkovv, cS Qpaavjiaxe, rovro rjBrj

SijXov, on ovhejiia re-)(yrj ovhk apx^j ro avrfj <h(f}e.Xiixov TTapaaKevdt,ei, aAA', orrep TraAai iXeyo-

fj-ev, ro rip dpxojieva) /cat rrapaaK€vdl,€L /cat

imrdrrei, ro eKeivov ^vp.<jiepov rjrrovos ovros

(XKOTTOvaa, dAA' ov ro rod Kpeirrovos. 8td hrj

ravra eycoye, a) ^lAe Qpaavjiaxe, /cat dpri eXeyov

fxrjheva ideXeiv eKovra dpx^tv /cat rd dAAdrpta /ca/cd fierax^t'P^C^o-dai dvopdovvra, dXXd pnadov

347 alreZv, ort d jxeXXcuv /caAcus" rfj re^yrj rrpd^etv ovSe-

TTore avrw ro ^eXriarov rrpdrrei oi5S' iinrdrreL Kara rrjv rexvrjv emrdrrcov, dXXd ro) dp^ojievco' <x)v Srj eVe/ca, (hs koiKe, jxiadov helv vndpx^LV rots

fxeXXovaiv ideXrjaeiv dp^eiv, rj dpyvpiov ^ njxrjv,

rj l,rjjjLiav, iav firj dpxj)- XIX. Hcbs rovro Xeyeis, c5 HojKpares; e(f>rj 6

TXavKOjv. rovs picv yap Svo jxiadovs yiyvcoaKCD' rrjv 8e t,rjjxiav rjvriva Xeyets Kal cos eV jiiadov jiepeL

CLprjKas, ov ^vvTjKa. Tov rcbv ^eXriarcov dpa

" Acaxd = troubles, miseres, 517 d. For the thought cf. 343 E, 345 E, Xen. Mem. ii. 1. 8, Herod, i. 97.

* Cf. 345 E, Aristot. Eth. Nic. 1134 b 6.

78

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK I

" Then the benefit, the receiving of wages does not accrue to each from his own art. But if we are to consider it ' precisely ' medicine produces health but the fee-earning art the pay, and architecture a house but the fee-earning art accompanying it the fee, and so with all the others, each performs its own task and benefits that over which it is set, but unless pay is added to it is there any benefit which the craftsman receives from the craft ? " "Apparently not," he said. " Does he then bestow no benefit either when he works for nothing ? " "I'll say he does." " Then, Thrasymachus, is not this immediately apparent, that no art or office pro\ides what is beneficial for itself —but as we said long ago it provides and enjoins what is beneficial to its subject, considering the ad- vantage of that, the weaker, and not the advantage of the stronger ? That was why , friend ThrasjTnachus, I was just now saying that no one of his own will chooses to hold rule and office and take other people's troubles " in hand to straighten them out, but every- body expects pay for that, because he who is to exercise the art rightly never does what is best for himself or enjoins it when he gives commands accord- ing to the art, but what is best for the subject. That is the reason, it seems, why pay '' must be pro- vided for those who are to consent to rule, either in the form of money or honour or a penalty if they refuse."

XIX. " WTiat do you mean by that, Socrates ? "

said Glaucon. " The two wages I recognize, but the penalty you speak of and described as a form of wage I don't understand."^ " " Then," said I, " you don't

' Plato habitually explains metaphors, abstractions, and complicated definitions in this dramatic fashion. Cf. 352 e, 377 A, 413 A, 429 c, 438 b, 510 b.

79

PLATO

B fJLiaOov, €<J)rjv, ov ^vvicZs, 8t' ou apxovaiv ol iin- eiKeararoiy orav ideXcoGiv apx^iv. rj ovk olada, ort TO (jytXoTLfjiov re koI (f)i,Xdpyvpov elvai oveihos

Xeyerai re kolI eariv; "Kycoye, €(f)r]. Aia ravra Toivvv, rjv 8' ey-ctj, ovre p^pT^/xarcot' eveKa ideXovaiv

ap)(€Lv OL ayadoL ovre TLp,rjs' ovre yap (jiavepoJs TTparrofievoL rrjs OLpXV^ eveKa piodov fiLadcorol ^ovXovrai KeKXrjadai,, ovre Xddpa avrol e/c rrjs OLpx^s XafjL^dvovres tcXeTrraf oi)S' av rifMTJs eveKa'

C ov yap etat ^lAdrt/xoi. Set hrj avrol? dvdytcqv TTpoaelvai /cat l,7]piiav, el fieXXovcnv edeXetv dp^eiv odev KLvhwevet ro eKovra evl to dp)(etv levai dXXd

fXTj dvdyKr]v TrepifxeveLV alaxpov vevop.iadai. rrjg^

8e t,r)p,Las fxeyiarr) ro vtto TTOvrjporepov dpxeadai, edv fir) avrog edeXrj dpxeiv tjv heiaavres fxoi (jjaivovraL dpxeiv, orav apx^iaiv, ol imeiKels, Kal Tore epxovrai errl to apxeiv, ovx cu? ctt' dyaOov Ti lovre'S oi)S' CO? evrrad-qaovres ev avrcp, dXX d)s en avayKaiov /cat ovk exovreg eavrcbv ^eXriocnv

D eTTLTpeipai ovhe o/xotots'. enel Kivhwevei, ttoXls dvSpaJv dyadajv el yevoiro, Trepcfidx^jrov av elvai

TO fJiTj dpxecv, waTTep vvvl ro dpxetv, Kal evravd^

" C/. Aristot.PoL1318 b36. In a good democracy the better classes will be content, for they will not be ruled by worse men. Cf. Cicero, Ad Att. ii. 9 " male vehi malo alio guber- nante quam tam ingratis vectoribus bene gubernare"; Democ. fr. 49 D. : " It is hard to be ruled by a worse man

;

"

Spencer, Data of Ethics, § 77. * The good and the necessary is a favourite Platonic

antithesis, but the rjecessary is often the condicio sine qua nan of the good. Cf. 358 c, 493 c, 540 b. Laws 628 c-d, 858 A. Aristotle took over the idea. Met. 1072 b 12.

' This suggests an ideal state, but not more strongly than Meno 100 a, 89 b.

80

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understand the wages of the best men for the sake of which the finest spirits hold office and rule when they consent to do so. Don't you know that to be covetous of honour and covetous of money is said to be and is a reproach ? " "I do," he said. " Well, then," said I, " that is why the good are not \^-illing to rule either for the sake of money or of honour. They do not wish to collect pay openly for their service of rule and be styled hirelings nor to take it by stealth from their office and be called thieves, nor yet for the sake of honour, for they are not covetous of honour. So there must be imposed some compulsion and penalty to constrain them to rule if they are to consent to hold office. That is perhaps why to seek office oneself and not await compulsion is thought disgraceful. But the chief penalty is to be governed by someone worse" if a man will not himself hold office and rule. It is from fear of this, as it appears to me, that the better sort hold office when they do, and then they go to it not in the expectation of enjoyment nor as to a good thing,** but as to a necessary evil and because they are unable to turn it over to better men than themselves or to their like. For we may ven- ture to say that, if there should be a city of good men " only, immunity from office-holding would be as eagerly contended for as office is now,'^ and there it

* The paradox suggests Spencer's altruistic competition and Archibald Marshall's Upsidonia. Cf. infra 521 a, 586 c, Isoc. vii. 24, xii. 145 ; Mill, On Representative Government, p. 56 : *' The good despot . . . can hardly be imagined as consenting to undertake it unless as a refuge from intolerable evils

;

' ibid. p. 200 : " Until mankind in general are of opinion with Plato that the proper person to be entrusted with power is the person most unwilling to accept it."

VOL. I G 81

PLATO

ai' Korat^avk'S yeveadai, on rco ovri olXtjOlvos ap^ojv ov tt4<^vkg to avro) avi.i(f)€pov OKOTretadai,

oAAa TO TO) dp^Ofxewo)- toare ttoLs a.v 6 yiyvoicrKcov

TO ax^eXetadai fxdXXov eXocro VTr* dXXov •^ dXXov

dxfieXaJp 77payfjLara €X^i-v- tovto pikv ovv eyojye E ovSafifj avyxojpdj Qpaavp-dxco, ws to SiKaiov eWi

TO TOV KpeiTTOVOS ^VjX(f)€pOV. dXXd TOVTO fiev St)

/cat elaavdi's aKei/jopieda- ttoXv 8e fioL BoKei ix€lt,ov

ttvai, o vvu Ae'yei Qpaavfxaxos, tov tov olBlkov

^Lov (f>d(7Kcov elvai KpetTTOj rj tov tov SiKaiov, ov

ovv TTOTcpov, rjv 8' iyw, c5 VXavKOiv , alpei Kai

TTOTepws dXr]deaTepoj<; 8ok€l aoi Xeyeudai; Tov

TOV hiKaiov eycoye, e(f)7], XvaiTeXeaTcpov ^iov

348 elvat.. "H/coyo-a?, yjv 8* iyco, daa dpTi Qpaav-

/j-axos dyadd StrjXde to) tov dhiKov; "H/couora,

6(^17, dAA* ov TTeido/jLaL. BoyAet ovv avTOV rret-

6iofM€v, dv Swco/xeOd rrr] i^evpeiv, ws ovk dXrjdrj Ae'yei; Ilais" ydp ov ^ovXopiai; r) 8' o?. *Av p-ev

Toiwv, Tjv 8* iyoi, dvTLKaTaTeivavreg Xeycofxev

avTcp Xoyov napd Xoyov, daa av dyadd e;(et to hiKaiov elvai, /cat avOis ovtos, /cat aAAov rjp,€LS,

apidpielv Seijaec Tdyadd /cat pbeTpelv, daa cKdTepoL

B ev cKaTepo) Xeyop-ev, /cat rjSrj ScKaaTajv tlvcov tcov SiaKpivovvTCov Se-qaop-eda- dv 8e coGTrep dpTi dvop,o-

Xoyovp,€voi trpos oAATjAoy? aKonciJp^ev, dp.a avToi

' fl<Tav6is lays the matter on the table. Cf. 430 c. The suggestiveness of Thrasymachus's definition is exhausted, and Socrates turns to the larger question and main theme of the Republic raised by the contention that the unjust life is happier and more profitable than the just.

* This is done in 358 d if. It is the favourite Greek

82

O V"

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK I * \^ Wi-Hx -Vl

would be made plain that in very truth the true ruler does not naturally seek his own advantage but that of the ruled ; so that every man of understand- ing would rather choose to be benefited by another than to be bothered \\ith benefiting him. This point then I by no means concede to Thrasymachus, that justice is the advantage of the superior. But that we \^ill reserve for another occasion." A far weightier matter seems to me Thrasymachus's present state- ment, his assertion that the hfe of the unjust man is better than that of the just. Which now do you choose, Glaucon ? " said I, " and which seems to you to be the truer statement ? " " That the hfe of the just man is more profitable, I say," he repUed. " Did you hear," said I, " all the goods that Thrasymachus just now enumerated for the hfe of the unjust man?

"

" I heard," he said, " but I am not convinced." - " Do you wish us then to try to persuade him, supposing we can find a way, that what he says is not true .'' " " Of course I wish it," he said. " If then we oppose ^ him in a set speech enumerating in ^ turn the advantages of being just and he replies and we rejoin, we shall have to count up and measure the goods listed in the respective speeches and we shall forthwith be in need of judges to decide between us. But if, as in the preceding discussion, we come to terms with one another as to what we admit in the inquiry, we shall be ourselves both judges and

method of balancing pros and cons in set speeches and anti- thetic enumerations. Cf. Herod, viii. 83, the StaX^ftis (Diels, Vorsokratiker ii. pp. 334-34.5), the choice of Heracles (Xen. Mem. ii. 1), and the set speeches in Euripides. With this method the short question and answer of the Socratic dia- lectic is often contrasted. C/. Prolog. 329 a, 334-335, Gorg. 461-462, also Gorg. 471 e, Cratyl. 437 d, TheaeUt. 171a.

83

PLATO

T€ SiKaaral Kal piqTopes icrofieda. Haw fxev ovv, €(f)r). Uorepiog ovv aoi, rjv 8' cyto, dpea/cet;

XX. "Wl 8i], rjv S' iyco, c5 Qpacrvfiaxe, a/no- Kpivai rjjjuv i^ dpxyjs' rr]v reXeav dSLKiav reAea?

ovar]g SiKaioavvr^s XvaLreXearepav (f>r)g etvat;

C riai'i' fi€v ovv /cat (ftrjj^u, e^rj, /cat 8t' a, etp-qKa. Oepe hrj to roiovhe irepl avT(jL>v ttcus Aeyei?; to pL€v 7TOV dp€Trjv avTolv /caAei?, to 8e /ca/ciav;

IIcos" yap ov; Ovkovv ttjv fiev BiKatoavvrjv dpeTqv, TTjV 8e aSt/ciW KaKLav; Et/cd? y', e^^, a) rihiaT€, eTTeiBrj /cat Aeyoj dSt/ciai^ fxev XvaLTeXelv, 8t/cato-

avvrjv 8' ou. 'AAAd ti /xt^v; Touvavriot', ^ 8' os". ^H TT^i' St/catoCTui^p' KaKiav; Ovk, dXXd Trdvv yevvaiav ev-qdeiav. Ttjv dStKiav dpa KaKO'qdeiav

D KaXels; Ovk, dAA' ev^ovXiav, ^^rj. *H /cat (f)p6vi- /jLot aoi, (L Qpaavixax^, Sokovctlv elvai /cat dya^ot

OL dSt/coi; or ye TcXecos, e(f)r), otoi re dSt/cetv, tto- Aet? re /cat e^t-Tj hwafxevoi dvdpcoTTcov i30' iavTovs

Troi€ia6aL' av he olei p,e taws tovs to. ^aXdvTia

dTTOTefivovTas Xeyeiv. XvaiTeXel fiev ovv, -^ 8' og,

Kal Ta TOiavTa, eavrrep Xavddvrj- ecrrt 8e ovk d^ta E Adyou, dAA' d vvv 8rj eXeyov. Tovto fievToc, €<f)r)v, OVK ayvocb 6 rt ^ovXei Xeyeiv dXXd rdSe idavjxaaa,

" Thrasymachus's " Umwertung aller Werte" reverses the normal application of the words, as Callicles does in Gorg. 491 E.

' Thrasymachus recoils from the extreme position. Socrates' inference from the etymology of ev-qOeia {cf. 343 c) is repudiated. Injustice is not turpitude (bad character) but —discretion. ev^ovXia in a higher sense is what Protagoras teaches {Protag. 318 e) and in the highest sense is the wisdom of Plato's guardians (infra 428 b).

84

TH£ republic, book II ;^^ pleaders." " Quite so," he said. " Which method do you hke best ? " said I. " This one," he said. XX. " Come then, Thrasymachus," I said, "go back

to the beginning and answer us. You affirm that per- fect and complete injustice is more profitable than justice that is complete.' " I affirm it," he said, " and have told you my reasons." " Tell me then how you would express yourself on this point about them. You call one of them, I presume, a virtue and the other a vice ? " " Of course." " Justice the \-irtue and injustice the vice ? " " It is likely," you innocent, when I say that injustice pays and justice doesn't pay." " But what then, pray ?

"

" The opposite," he replied. " What ! justice \ice ? "

" No, but a most noble simphcity ^ or goodness of heart." " Then do you call injustice badness of heart ? " " No, but goodness of judgement." " Do you also, Thrasymachus, regard the unjust as in- telligent and good ? " " Yes, if they are capable of complete injustice," he said, " and are able to sub- ject to themselves cities and tribes of men. But you probably suppose that I mean those who take purses. There is profit to be sure even in that sort of thing," he said, " if it goes undetected. But such things are not worth taking into the account, but only what I just described." " I am not unaware of your mean- ing in that," I said ; " but this is what surprised me,*

" Socrates understands the theory, and the distinction between wholesale injustice and the petty profits that are not worth mentioning, but is startled by the paradox that injustice will then fall in the category of virtue and wisdom. Thrasymachus affirms the paradox and is brought to self- contradiction by a subtle argument (349-350 c) which may pass as a dramatic illustration of the game of question and answer. Cf. Introd. p. x.

ys 1

PLATO

€L iv dpeTrjs Kal ao<j>ias Ttdrjs fiepei ttjv dhiKiav,

Trjv 8e SiKaLoavvTjv iv rots ivavrlois. *AAAa ttolvv ovTOi Tid-qfii. TovTO, -^v S' iyo), rjSr) arepecorepov,

o) iralpe, Kal ovkctl paSiov ex^tv o ri ris eiTrr).

el yhp XvcnreXelv fxev rrjv dSiKLav crcdeao, KaKiav jxevTOi ^ aia^pov avro oijioXoyeis etvai, ioanep

dXXoL Tives, el-)(op-ev dv tl Xeyeiv Kara to. vofii^o- fxeva XeyovTCS' vvv Be SrjXos el on <f)'qcr€is avro /cat KaXov Kai laxvpov elvai Kal raAAa avTU) Trai/ra

349 TTpoad'qcjeLg, d rjfiets to) SiKaico TTpoaeTLdefxev, eireL-

hiq ye Kal iv dperrj avro Kal ao(j)ia iroXfirjaas delvai. ^AXrjdecrraTa, e^t], pbavrevei. 'AAA' ov

juevTOi, Tjv 8' iy(x), diroKvqreov ye rep Xoycp iire^-

eXdelv aKOTTOVfxevov, ecus dv ae VTToXafx^dvio Xeyeiv

aTTep BLavoei. ip,ol yap Sokcls av, co Spacrvfiax^y drexvcjs vvv ov OKcoTneiv, dXXd rd SoKovvra Ttepi

TTJs dXyjOetas Xeyeiv. Tt 8e croi, e(f)rj, rovro

hia<f}epei, elre p,OL SoKel eXre firj, aAA' ov tov Xoyov

B iXeyxeis; OvSev, rjv 8' iyco. dXXd roBe jxoi TTeipd) en Trpos tovtoi? dTTOKpivaadai' 6 BiKaios TOV BiKaiov BoKel ri aoi dv ideXeiv irXeov exeiv;

" rjSij marks the advance from the affirmation that injustice is profitable to the point of asserting that it is a virtue. This is a " stiffer proposition," i.e. harder to refute, or possibly more stubborn.

*" e.g. Polus in Gorg. 474 ff., 482 d-e. C/. Isoc. De Pace 31. Thrasymachus is too wary to separate the KaKdv and the aiffxpo" ^^^ expose himself to a refutation based on con- ventional usage. Cf. Laws 627 d, Polit. 306 a, Laws 662 a.

" Cf. supra on 346 a. ' irepi TTJi dXr;^eias suggests the dogmatic titles of sophistic

and pre-Socratic books. Cf. Antiphon, p. 553 Diels, Campbell on Theaetet. 161 c, and Aristot. Met. passim.

86

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK I

that you should range injustice under the head of virtue and wisdom, and justice in the opposite class." " Well, I do so class them," he said. " That," said I, "is a stiffer proposition," my friend, and if you are going as far as that it is hard to know what to answer. For if your position were that in- justice is profitable yet you conceded it to be \-icious and disgraceful as some other ** disputants do, there would be a chance for an argument on conventional principles. But, as it is, you obviously are going to affirm that it is honourable and strong and you will attach to it all the other qualities that we were assigning to the just, since you don't shrink from putting it in the category of \-irtue and ^nsdom." " You are a most veritable prophet," he replied. " Well," said I, " I mustn't flinch from follo\*'ing out the logic of the inquiry, so long as I conceive you to be saying what you think.'' For now, Thrasymachus, I absolutely believe that you are not * mocking ' us but telling us your real opinions about the truth.**

"

" What difference does it make to you," he said, " whether I beheve it or not ? Why don't you test the argument ? " " No difference," said I, " but here is something I want you to tell me in addition to what you have said. Do you think the just man would want to overreach* or exceed another just

• In pursuance of the analogy between the virtues and the arts the moral idea TrXeove^ja (overreaching, getting more than your share; see on 359 c) is generalized to include doing more than or differently from. English can hardly reproduce this. Jowett's Shakespearian quotation {King John rv. ii. 28),

WTien workmen strive to do better than well. They do confound their skill in covetousness,

though apt, only illustrates the thought in part,

87

PLATO

OvSafxojs, €(f>rj' ov yap dv rjv darelos, wairep vvv, KoX €vij6r)s. Tt Se; rrjs St/catas' irpa^ecos; OySe T'jjs" SiKaias, ^(f>f]- Tov 8e dSiKov iroTepov d^ioZ dv TrXeoveKTclv /cat rjyolro SiKatov elvai, rj ovk dv

•qyotro SiKaiov; 'Hyoir' dv, ^ 8' o?, Kal d^Loi, dW OVK dv SvvaiTO. 'AAA' ov rovro, -qv 8' eyu),

C ipcoTO), aAA' ei rov fxev StKalov ixrj d^toX TrXeov ^x^i-v [XT]Se ^ouAerai o SiKaios, rov 8e aSiKov;

'AAA' ovTcos, ^(f>T]) ^'x^i. Tt 8e 8'?^ o dSiKos; dpa a^tot Tov SiKalov TrXeoveKrelv /cat rrjs St/caias'

Trpd^ewg; 11 coy yap oy/c; e(^^, o? ye TravTOiV TrXiov ex^iv d^tot. Ou/cow Kat d8i/cou dvdpco- 7TOV T€ /cat TTpd^eojs 6 dSiKos TrXeoveKTT^aet, /cat

d/itAAT^CTerat cu? drrav'TWi' TrXelcrrov avTos Xd^rj;

"Eo-Tt ravra.

XXI. ^Q.h€ Srj XeycDj-iev, €(f)r)v 6 8i/caios rov fxev OfjLolov ov TrXeoveKTcl, tov 8e dvoixolov, 6 8e d8i/co?

D Tou re 6p,OLOV /cat tou dvofxolov. "ApLara, ^4>f}y eipr]Kas. "Ecrrt 8e ye, ^<j)riv, (f>povLii6s re /cat

dya^oj d d8t/co?, d 8e Si/caio? ovSerepa. Kat Tovr , €(f)r), €v. OvKovv, rjv 8' e'yco, /cat eot/ce rd)

^povipup Kal TO) dyad<p 6 dSiKos, 6 8e St/catoj ou/c

€Oi,K€v; Tlcbs yap ov /ne'AAet, e07y, d tolovtos cov Kal ioLKevai rot? tolovtois, d 8e />f)7 ioiKevat;

KaAdj?. TOLovTos dpa iarlv e'/cdrepo? avrcov OLOirep €oiKev. 'AAAd Tt /xe'AAet; e0?^. Eiev, cS Gpacrd-

" The assumption that a thing is what it is like is put as an inference from Thrasymachus's ready admission that the unjust man is wise and good and is like the wise and good. Jevons says in " Substitution of Similars " : " Whatever is true of a thing is true of its like." But practical logic requires the qualification "in respect of their likeness." Socrates,

88

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK I

man ? " " By no means," he said; " otherwise he would not be the dehghtful simpleton that he is." " And would he exceed or overreach or go beyond the just action ? " " Not that either," he replied. " But how would he treat the unjust man— M'ould he deem it proper and just to outdo, over- reach, or go beyond him or would he not ? " " He would," he said, " but be wouldn't be able to." " That is not my question," I said, " but whether it is not the fact that the just man does not claim or wish to outdo the just man but only the unjust ? " " That is the case," he rephed. " How about the unjust then ? Does he claim to overreach and outdo the just man and the just action ? " " Of course," he said, " since he claim* to overreach and get the better of everything." " Then the unjust man will overreach and outdo also both the unjust man and the unjust action, and all his endeavour will be to get the most in everything for himself." " That is so." XXI. " Let us put it in this way," I said ; " the

just man does not seek to take advantage of his hke but of his unlike, but the unjust man of both." " Ad- mirably put," he said. " But the unjust man is in- telhgent and good and the just man neither." " That, too, is right," he said. " Is it not also true," I said, " that the unjust man is Hke the intelhgent and good and the just man is not ? " " Of course," he said, " being such he will be Uke to such and the other not." "Excellent. Then each is such " as that to which he is Uke." " What else do you suppose ?

"

however, argues that since the just man is like the good craftsman in not overreaching, and the good craftsman is good, therefore the just man is good. The conclusion is sound, and the analogy may have a basis of psycholc^cal truth ; but the argument is a verbal fallacy.

89

PLATO

ficLX^' fiovaiKov Be Ttva Ae'yei?, erepou 8e dfxovaov "Eyojye. Horepov ^poviyiov kol TTorcpov acjipova; Tov fxev fjLOVcrtKov 8t]7tov (f)p6vt[xov, tov Se ajxovaov a.(f)pova. OvKovv Kal arrep ^povipLov, ayadov, a Be a^pova, KaKov; Nat. Tt Se tarpi-Kov; ou;^ ovTcos; OvTcos. AoKcX av ovv ris aoi, cS aptcrre, fiovGLKos dvrjp appLOTrofxevos Xvpav ideXecv puovai- Kov dvBpos €v TTJ imrdaei Kal dveacL rcvv x^pBdii' TrXeoveKTelv 7) d(iovv nXeov ex^^-v; Ovk epoiye. Tt Be; dp.ovaov ; 'AvdyKTj, e<f)r], Tt Se larpi-

350 Kos; ev rfj eBcoBfj 7) TToaei edeXetv dv tl larpiKov

TrXeoveKrelv •)} dvBpos r} TTpdyp,aTos; Ov BrJTa. Mr} larpiKov Be; Nat. Ilept Tracrrj? Se opa eiriaT'qp.iqs re /cat dveTnarrjp^oavvris , et ris aoi

BoKel eTTiar-qpnov oaricrovv TrXeio) dv edeXeiv alpei-

adai iq oaa dXXos eTTtar-qpcov t] Trpdrreiv •^ Xeyeiv, Kal ov ravrd tco opoLco eavrco et? rrjv avTrjv TTpd^LV. 'AAA' tCTojs",

€(f)''^, dvdyKTj TOUTO ye ovtcos

ex^LV. Tt Se o dveTTiaTripiCLiv ; ovxj. 6p,OLCos p.ev

J3 eTTiarrjpiovos TrXeoveKTTjaeiev dv, ofioLOJs Be dvcTTt-

aTqpiovos ; "lao)?. '0 Se eTTia'rqp.ojv ao(f)6s; Oi]-

/xi. '0 Se ao<f>6s dyados; ^rjp,L '0 apa dyados re Kal ao<j>6s tov fiev ofioLov ovk ideX-qaei rrXeov-

» C/. 608 E, Gorg. 463 e, Protag. 332 a, 358 d, Phaedo 103 c, Soph. 226 b, Phileb. 34 e, Meno 15 d, 88 a, Ale. I. 128 B, Cratyl. 385 b. The formula, which is merely used to obtain formal recognition of a term or idea required in the argument, readily lends itself to modern parody. Socrates seems to have gone far afield. Thrasymachus answers quite confidently, ^yt-rye, but in 517x01; there is a hint of bewilder-

ment as to the object of it all. * Familiar Socratic doctrine. Cf. Laches 194 v. Lysis

210 D, Gorg. 504 d. ' wXeoveKTeiv is here a virtual synonym of tX^ov ^x^iv. The

90

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK I

he said. " Very well, Thrasymachus, but do you recognize that one man is a musician " and another unmusical ? " "I do." " Which is the intelligent and which the unintelhgent ? " " The musician, I presume, is the intelligent and the unmusical the imintelligent." " And is he not good in the things in which he is intelligent * and bad in the things in which he is unintelligent ? " " Yes." " And the same of the physician ? " " The same." " Do you think then, my friend, that any musician in the tuning of a lyre would want to overreach '^ another musician in the tightening and relaxing of the strings or would claim and think fit to exceed or outdo him ?

"

" I do not." " But would he the unmusical man ? "

" Of necessity." he said. " And how about the medical man ? In prescribing food and drink would he want to outdo the medical man or the medical procedure?" " Surely not." " But he would the un- medical man? " " Yes." " Consider then with regard to all •* forms of knowledge and ignorance whether you think that anyone who knows would choose to do or say other or more than what another who knows would do or say, and not rather exactly what his like would do in the same action." " Why, perhaps it must be so," he said, " in such cases." " But what of the ignorant man—of him who does not know ? Would he not overreach or outdo equally the knower and the ignorant ? " " It may be." " But the one who knows is \\ise ? " " I'll say so." " And the wise is good ? " " I'll say so." " Then he who is good and wise will not wish to overreach

two terms help the double meaning. Cf. Laws 691 a TXeor-

' Generalizing from the inductive instances.

91

PLATO

€KT€lv, Tov §€ avofioLov T€ Kal ivavTiov. "Eoi/cev,

€017. *0 8e KaKos re /cat ajxadrig rov re ofioLOV Kal rov ivavTLov. Oait'erai. Ovkovv, co Qpaav-

lio-X^y W ^' ^y^j o dSiKOs y]jx1v rod avofiotov re /cat ofjiOLov TrXeovcKrel; ^ ovx ovrcos eXeyes; "Eyojye,

C €(f>r], '0 8e ye St/cato? rov fxev ofxotov ov rrXeov- eKrrjaei, rov he dvofxoiov; Nat. "Eoi/cev a/ja, t^v

S' eyco, o /x,ev Si/catos' roi ao<f}a) /cat dya^oj, o Se

aSt/coy TO) KaKO) Kal afxadeZ. Kti'SweJet. 'AAAa

/x-)7i' (hixoXoyovfxev, <L ye ofxoios eKarepos ei.7],

roiovrov Kal eKarepov elvai. 'Q-fioXoyovfjiev yap. *0 p,ev dpa St/cato? rjpXv dvarre^avrai, d)v dyados

re Kal ao(f>6s, 6 8e dSt/co? dpuadiq's re Kat /ca/co?.

XXII. '0 Se Qpaavp^axos (hpioXoyrjae fxev Trdvra D ravra, ovx d)S eyd> vvv paSicos Xeyco, dXX* eA/co-

fievos Kal fioyLs, fierd ISpcjros davfxaarov oaov,

are Kal depovs ovros' rare Kal elhov eyco, irpo-

repov he ovttco, Qpaavp^axov epvdpicovra. eireihrj

he ovv hicoixoXoyrjadfjieda rrju hiKaLoavvrjv dperrjv

etvai Kal ao<f>iav, rrjv he dhcKiav KaKiav re /cat

djjLadiav, Filev, -^v S' eyo), rovro fxev rjpuv ovroj

Keiadio, e(f)apLev he hrj Kal laxvpov elvai rijv

dhiKLav 7] ov fxe/jivqcrat,, cS QpaavfJLax^; Me/iV'i^-

jLtat, e(f>r]' dAA' e/xotye ovhe a vvv Ae'yet? dpeoKei, E /cat ex^JO TTepl avra)v Ae'yetv. ei ovv Xeyoifxi, ev

otS' on, h-qjxrjyopelv dv /xe (f)airjs' •^ ovv ea pie

' C/. 334 a. " C/. Protag. 333 b. " Cf. the blush of the sophist in Euthydem. 297 a. <* The main paradox of Thrasymachus is refuted. It will

be easy to transfer the other laudatory epithets iffxvpiy, etc.,

from injustice back to justice. Thrasymachus at first refuses

92

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK I

his like but his unlike and opposite." " It seems so," he said. " But the bad man and the ignoramus will overreach both Uke and unlike ? " " So it appears." " And does not our unjust man, Thrasymachus, over- reach both unlike and like ? Did you not say that .''

"

" I did," he replied. " But the just man will not overreach his like but only his unhke ? " " Yes." " Then the just man is like the wise and good, and the unjust is like the bad and the ignoramus." " It seems likely." "But furthermore we agreed that each is such as that to which he is like." " Yes, we did." "Then the just man has turned out" on our hands to be good and ^vise and the unjust man bad and ignorant." XXII. Thrasymachus made all these admissions not

as I now lightly narrate them, but with much baulk- ing and reluctance * and prodigious sweating, it being summer, and it was then I beheld what I had never seen before—Thrasymachus blushing." But when we did reach our conclusion that justice is virtue and wisdom and injustice \'ice and ignorance, " Good," said I, " let this be taken as established.** But we were also affirming that injustice is a strong and

potent thing. Don't you remember, Thrasymachus ? "

" I remember," he said ; " but I don't agree with what you are now saying either and I have an answer to it, but if I were to attempt to state it, I know very well that you would say that I was delivering

a harangue.* Either then allow me to speak at such

to share in the discussion but finally nods an ironical assent to everything that Socrates says. So Callicles in Gorg. 510 a.

• This is really a reminiscence of such passages as Theaetet.

162 D,Protag. 336 b, Gorg. 482 c, 494 d, 513 a flf., 519 d. The only justification for it in the preening conversation is 348 A-B.

93

PLATO

elTTelv oaa ^ovXofjLaL, rj, el jSoyAei ipcoTav, ipcLra' eyo) 8e crot, (Lcnrep rats ypaval rals rovs fMvdovs Xeyovaais, euv ipw Kal Karavevaopiai koX dj/a- vevarofxai. M-qSafxojs, -^v 8' iyco, Trapd ye ttju aavTov So^av. "Qare aot, e<f)rj, apioKeiv, eirei- hrjTTep 01)K ids Xeyeiv. kultol tl aAAo jSoJAei; Ovhkv /xa Ata, -^v S' eyco, dAA' etrrep rovro ttoltj- aeis, TTOief ey<h 8e epwrrjaa). 'E/scora S-q. Tovto Toivvv epcoTU), orrep aprt, tva Kal e^rjs SiaaKeipd)-

351 ixeda rov Xoyov, ottoIov ti rvyxavei ov SiKaLoavvq

vpos ahiKiav. eXex^y) yap ttov, on /cat hvvaTOi- repov /cat laxvporepov etr] d8i/cta St/catoauj^?'

vvv 8e y', e(f>riv, elirep ao(f>La re /cat aperrj iari

SiKaLoavvT), paSicos, OLfxat, (f)avT](Terai Kal laxvpo-

repov dSt/cta?, €7T€t,S-qTT€p earlv dfxadla rj dStKt'a.

ovSeis dv en rovro dyvorjaeiev, dXX ovri ovrois aTtXaJs, c5 Qpaavpiax^, eycoye eTndvfjiw, dXXd rfjSe TTT) aKeipaaOaL' ttoXiv (f)aL7)s dv dSiKov elvai Kal

B dAAa? TToXeLs eTTix^ipeZv hovXovadai dSiKOJs Kal KaraSeSovXcbaOai, ttoXXols 8e /cat y<^' eavrfj ex^i-v 8ovXo}aap,€vr]v ; Ucos yap ovk; e<j)rf /cat rovro ye rj dpiarrj pidXiara TTOtrjaeL Kal reXecorara ovcra

dSiKos. IS/iavddvo), etfyrjv, on aos ovros "qv 6 Xoyos' dXXd ToSe nepl avrov crKOTrdj' TTorepov rj Kpetrrojv ytyvo/xevr) ttoXls TToXecos dvev SiKaioavvrjs

rrjv SvvanLV ravrrjv e^et, ^ dvdyKT] avrfj fxerd C 8iKaLoavvT]s ; Et jxev, eff)!^, (Ls ov dpn eXeyes

' So Polus in Gorff. 461 d. ' Cf. Gorg. 527 a. " Cf. 331 c, 386 B, Instead of the simple or absolute

argument that justice, since it is wisdom and virtue, must be stronger, etc., than injustice, Socrates wishes to bring out the deeper thought that the unjust city or man is strong not

S4

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK I

length as I desire," or, if you prefer to ask questions, go on questioning and I, as we do for old wives * telling their tales, will say ' Very good ' and will nod assent and dissent." " No, no," said I, " not counter to your own belief." "Yes, to please you," he said, " since you don't allow me freedom of speech. And yet what more do you want ? " " Nothing, indeed," said I ; " but if this is what you propose to do, do it, and I will ask the questions." " Ask on, then." " This, then, is the question I ask, the same as before,,

,

so that our inquiry may proceed in sequence. What I P' \ is the nature of injustice as compared with justice ?l VNwj^ For the statement made, I beUeve, was that injustice I is a more p>otent and stronger thing than justice.! o / ^ But now," I said, " if justice is wisdom and virtue, it will easily, I take it, be shown to be also a stronger thing than injustice, since injustice is ignorance—no > one could now fail to recognize that—but what I want is not quite so simple <^ as that. I wish, Thrasy- machus, to consider it in some such fashion as this. A city, you would say, may be unjust and try <-v . to enslave other cities unjustly, have them enslaved

*''

and hold many of them in subjection." " Certainly," he said ; " and this is what the best state will chiefly do, the state whose injustice is most com- plete." " I understand," I said, " that this was your view. But the point that I am considering is this

:

whether the city that thus shows itself superior to another will have this power -without justice or whether she must of necessity combine it with jus- tice." " If,'' " he rephed, " what you were just now because but in spite of his injustice and by virtue of some saving residue of justice.

•* Thrasymachus can foresee the implications of either theory.

95

PLATO

€X€i, rj SiKaiocTvvr] (jo(j>ia, fxera SiKaLoarvinrjs' ei

8' CVS eyo) eXeyov, fiera dSi/cta?. Ildvu dyafiai,

^v 8' eyco, J) Qpaavfxax^, °''"' ^^'^ eTTiveveis fxovov Kal dvaveveis, aAAa /cat aTTOKpivei tto-vv KaXcog. Sot yap, €cf)r), ;\;a/Dt^O|Uat. XXIII. El) ye au ttolwv aAAa 81) /cat rdSe fioi

XOLpiaai /cat Aeye* So/cet? dv rj ttoXlv r) crTpaTOTreSov

t] Xrjards t] /cAcTrra? ^ aAAo rt edvos, oaa Kotvfj 6771 Ti epx^rat, dSt/cajs", vpd^ai, dv ri Bvvaadai, el

D dSt/cotei' dAATyAoy?; Ou S-j^ra, 7^ 8' os. Tt 8' et fiT] dSiKolev; ov fxdXXov; Hdvv ye. SraCTet? yap 7TOV, o) Qpaav/Jiaxe, r) ye dSt/cta /cat fiLOT] /cat fidxas ev dAAT^Aots' Trapexei, rj Be SiKaLoa-vvr)

ofxovoLav /cat <f>iXiav y] ydp; "Karco, ^ 8' o?, tt'a (70t jXTj Si,a(f>€pa>fjiai. 'AAA' ev ye av ttoicjv,

c5 dpiare. roSe 8e /not Aeye- apa et rovro epyov d8t/cia?, fucros epLTToieZv ottov dv evij, ov Kal ev

eXevdepoLS re Kal 8ouAot? eyyiyvofxevT] fxtaelv

TTotijcret dAATyAous' /cat araaidt^eiv /cat dhvvaTOVs

E etp-at KOLvrj y.er dXXiqXijJv TrpdrreLv; Yldvv ye. Tt 8e; dv ev Svolv eyyevrjrai, ov SioiaovTaL Kat

IxiaijcrovcTt Kal ex^pol eaovrat, dXXijXois re Kat

Tot? 8t/catots'; "Eo-ovrat, ecfirj, ^Edv Se Sr], co

' For the thought cf. Spencer, Data of Ethics, § 144: "Joint aggressions upon men outside the society cannot prosper if there are many aggressions of man on man within the society; " Leslie Stephen, Science 0/ Ethics, Chap. VIII.

§ 31 : "It (the loyalty of a thief to his gang) is rather a kind of spurious or class morality," etc.; Carlyle: "Neither James Boswell's good book, nor any other good thing . , . is or can be performed by any man in virtue of his badness, but always solely in spite thereof." Proclus, In Rempub.

96

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK I

ajang holds good, that justice is wisdom, with jus- tice ; if it is as I said, with injustice." " Admirable, Thrasymachus," I said; "you not only nod assent and dissent, but give excellent answers." " I am trying to please you," he replied. XXIII. " Very kind of you. But please me in one

thing more and tell me this : do you think that a city,** an army, or bandits , or thieves, or any other group that attempted any action in common, could accompUsh anything if they wronged one another ? " " Certainly not," said he. " But if they didn't, wouldn't they be more likely to ? " " Assuredly." " For factions, Thrasymachus, are the outcome of injustice, and hatreds and internecine conflicts, but justice brings oneness of mind and love. Is it not so ? " " So be it," he replied, " not to differ from you." " That is good of you, my friend ; but tell me this : if it is the business of injustice to engender hatred wherever it is found, will it not, when it springs up either among freemen or slaves, cause them to hate and be at strife with one another, and make them incapable of effective action in common ? " " By all means." " Suppose, then, it springs up between two, will they not be at outs with and hate each other and be enemies both to one another and to the j ust ? " " They will," he said. " And then will you tell me that if

KroU i. 20 expands this idea. Dante {Convivio i. xii.) attributes to the Philosopher in the fifth of the ethics the

saying that even robbers and plunderers love justice. Locke {Human Understanding i. 3) denies that this proves the principles of justice innate : " They practise them as rules of convenience within their own communities," etc. Cf. further Isoc xii. 226 on the Spartans, and Plato, Protag. 222 B, on the inconveniences of injustice in the state of nature, rjSiKovv aSXrjXovs.

VOL. r H 97

PLATO

Oavfidaie, iv evl eyyevqrai dSt/cta, yLCov firj dnoXel

Tr]v avrrjs SvvafXLV, 7} ovhev rJTrov e^et; MtjScv

'^TTOv ix^Tco, ^cjirj, OvKovv ToidvSe rivd ^atVerai

exovaa rrjv Buvafiiv, olav, w dv eyyevTqraL, etre TToAet Tivl eire yeuei etre arparoTreSa) etVe ctAAo)

352 6tu)Ovv, TTpwrov [Mev dSvvarov avro TTOielv Trpdrreiv

ixed' avTov Bid to aracndt^eiv koL hia^epeadai,

eri 8' ixdpov etvai, eavrco t€ Kai ro) evavriip

TTOVTi Kai to; St/cato); ovx ovrcog; Yldvv ye.

Kai iv ivl S-q, ot/xai, ivovaa ravra TrdvTa TTOL-qaei, dnep TT€(f)VK€v epydt,€a9at' Trpcurov jxkv dhvvarov

avTOv Trpdrreiv TTOLr]aei araaLdl,ovTa /cat ov^

opLOVOovvra avTov iavr<x>, eTreira ixdpov Kai eavrco

Kai Tols St/cat'ot?* ry ydp; Nat. At/caiot Se y B elalv, a> (^iXe, /cat ol deoi; "^arcoaav, ecjin). Kai

deoZs dpa exOpos eWat o aSt/cos", c5 @paavp.ax€, 6 §e SiKaios (f)tXos. Kvcoxov rov Xoyov, e(f)7j, dappcov OX) ydp eycoye croc evavriojaopiai, Iva pLT) rolahe dTrexdojfxaL. "Wl Stj, -^v 8' eyo), Kai Ttt Aoi77a fiOL rrjs eartdaeios dTTorrX'qpcoiJOV dTTO-

KptvopLevos coGTTep Kai vvv. on fiev ydp Kai

" The specific function must operate universally in bond or free, in many, two or one. The application to the individual reminds us of the main argument of the Republic. Cf. 369 A, 434 D, 441 c. For the argument many, few or two, one, cf. Laws 626 c.

* Plato paradoxically treats the state as one organism and the individual as many warring members {cf. Introd. p. xxxv). Hence, justice in one, and being a friend to oneself are more than metaphors for him. Cf. 621 c, 416 c, 428 D, Laws 626 e, 693 b, Epist. vii. 332 d, Antiphon 556. 45 Diels ofiovod irpbs eavruv. Aristotle, Eth. A^ic. v. 11, inquires

whether a man can wrong himself, and Chrysippus (Plutarch, Stoic. Repvg. xvi.) pronounces the expression absurd.

'^ This is the conventional climax of the plea for any

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK I

injustice arises in one^it will lose its force and function >r will it none the less keep it ? " " Have it that it ^eeps it," he said. " And is it not apparent that its oroe is such that wherever it is found in cit}^, family, t-amp, or in anything else, it first renders the thing incapable of co-operation with itself owing to faction and difference, and secondly an enemy to itself* and to its opp>osite in every case, the just ? Isn't that so?" " By all means." " Then in the individual too, I presume, its presence will operate all these effects which it is its nature to produce. It will in the first place make him incapable of accomplishing anything because of inner faction and lack of self-agreement, and then an enemy to himself and to the just. Is it not so ? " " Yes." " But, my friend, the gods too ^ are just." " Have it that they are," he said. " So to the gods also, it seems, the unjust man will be hateful, but the just man dear." " Revel in your discoiirse," he said, " without fear, for I shall not oppose you, so as not to offend your partisans here." " Fill up the measure of my feast,"* then, and complete it for me," I said, " by continuing to answer as you have been doing. Now that

moral ideal. So Aristotle, Eth. Nic. 1179 a 24, proves that the ffo^os being likest God is dfo<f>t.\i<rTaT(n. Cf. Democ. fr. 217 D. fiovvoi 6fo<pi\^€i 5crots exdpcv rh aiiKtlv \ infra 382 e, 612 E, P/u766.39e, Laws 716 d. The" enlightened " Thrasy- machus is disgusted at this dragging in of the gods. Cf. Theaetet. 162 d Oeovs re ei's to fif<Tov dyovrts. He is reported as saying (Diets p. 544. 40) that the gods regard not human affairs, else they would not have overlooked the greatest of goods, justice, which men plainly do not use.

* ecTTidffeuj keeps up the image of the feast of reason. Cf. 354 A-B, Lysii 211c, Gorg. 52-2 a, Phaedr. 227 b, and Tim. 17 A, from which perhaps it became a commonplace in Dante and the Middle Ages.

99

PLATO

ao(f)c6T€poi Kal dfxeLvovs /cat Suvarcarepot TrpdrTeiv

ol StVatot (j)aLvovrai, ol Se aSt/cot ovhcv TrpdrreLV

C ju-er' dAAi^Aojv otot t€, aAAd 817 /cat ovs" ^a^ei' eppconevcos TTCoTTOTe tl jxer' dXX'qXojv kolvjj Ttpd^ai

dSt/cof? ovTa?, TOVTO ov TTavrdTTaaLv dXr]d€s

Xeyop,ev ov yap dv dTreixovTO dX\-qXcov Kop^ihrj 6uT€g dSt/coi, dAAd SrjXov on ivrjv rig avrols 8t- Kaioavvq, rj avrovs inoUi, jxajroL Kal dXX-qXovs ye

/cat ecf) ovs rjeaav a/xa aStKetv, St r]v eirpa^av

d eirpa^av, a}pp,rjaav he inl rd dSt/ca dSt/cta

rjp.Lfi6xdrjpot, 6vT€S, €7ret 01 ye Trap.TToi'ripoi /cat

D TeAea>? dSt/cot reAeo)? etcrt /cat Trpdrreiv dhdvaroi' ravTa fiev ouv on ovrcos e;\;et, p,avddva>, dXX' ovx wg av TO 7Tpd)TOV endeao. el Se /cat dpLeivov t,a)aiv ol 8t/catot tcx)v dhiKcov /cat evhaipbovioTepoi

elaiv, onep to vaTepov TrpovdefMeda aKeif/aadai,

aK€7TT€ov. (f>aLvovTaL p,ev ovv /cat vvv, ojs ye /xot

So/cei, e^ cSi' elpriKapbev opicos 8' ert ^eXnov OKeTTTeov. ov yap Trepl tov eiriTv^ovTog 6 Xoyos, dXXd Trepl tov ovTiva TpoTTOv XP^ ^fj^- ^kottcl Sij,

e(f)r]. Hkottw, rjv 8 iyco' /cat poi Xeye- 80/cet tL

E aoi elvat lttttov epyov; "E/xotye. ^A/)' ovv tovto

" For the idea cf. the argument in Protag. 327 c-d, that Socrates would yearn for the wickedness of Athens if he found himself among wild men who knew no justice at all.

'' The main ethical question of the Republic, suggested in 347 E, now recurs.

' Similarly 578 c. What has been said implies that injustice is the corruption and disease of the soul (see on 445 a-b). But Socrates wishes to make further use of the argument from ipyov or specific function.

"* Cf. on 344 D, supra, pp. 71 f. « See on 335 d, and Aristot. Eth. Nic. i. 7. 14. The

virtue or excellence of a thing is the right performance of

100

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK I

the just appear to be wiser and better and more capable of action and the unjust incapable of any common action, and that if we ever say that any men who are unjust have \igorously combined to put something over, our statement is not altogether true, for they would not have kept their hands from one another if they had been thoroughly unjust, but it is ob\ious that there was in them some justice which prevented them from "WTonging at the same time one another too as well as those whom they attacked ; and by dint of this they accomplished whatever they did and set out to do injustice only half corrupted" by injustice, since utter rascals com- pletely unjust are completely incapable of effective

action—all this I understand to be the truth, and not what you originally laid do^vn. But whether it is also true * that the just have a better hfe than the unjust and are happier, which is the question we afterwards proposed for examination, is what we now have to consider. It appears even now that they are, I think, from what has already been said. But all the same we must examine it more carefully." For it is no ordinary "* matter that we are discussing, but the right conduct of life." " Proceed A\-ith your inquiry," he said. " I proceed," said I. " Tell me then—would you say that a horse has a specific work * or function ? " "I would." " Would you be willing its specific function. See Schmidt, Ethik der Griechen, i. p. 301, Newman, Introd. Aristot. Pol. p. 48. The following argument is in a sense a fallacy, since it relies on the double meaning of life, physical and moral (c/. 445 b and Cratyl. 399 d) and on the ambiguity of ev n-paTTeiv, " fare well " and " do well." The Aristotelian commentator, Alexander, anim- adverts on the fallacy. For tpyov cf. further Epictet. Z>w. i. 4. 11, Max. Tyr. Di». ii. 4, Musonius, apud Stob. 117. 8, Thompson on ideno 90 e, Plato, Lnxca 896 d, Phaedr. 246 b.

101

PLATO

av deirjs Kal lttttov /cat aXXov orovovv epyov, o

av 7] fiovo) eKeivo) TTOtrj ns rj dpiara; Ov fiav- ddvcx), e^Tj. 'AAA' c58e- ead* otu) av aAAoj tSots'

7] o<j)daXp.ols ; Ov Srjra. Tt Se; d/coJcrats' aAAoi T] ojcnv; OuSa/xcus'. Ovkovv StKatcos av ravra

TOVTcov <^aZjxev epya elvat; Udvv ye. Ti 8e;

353 fJ-axai,pa av dfxneXov KXrjfia aTTOTipLOis /cat afxlXr)

Kai aXXoLs TToXXols; Ylws yap ov; 'AAA' ovhevi

y av, olfxai, ovtco KaXcos, d)s SpeTrdvco rw errt TOVTO epyaadevTL. AXrjdrj. ^Ap' ovv ov rovro

rovTov epyov d-qoonev; Qrjcrofjiev fxev ovv.

XXIV. Nvv B-q, olfxaL, dfieLvov av jxddois o apTL 7]pci}rcov Trvvdavofievos, el ov rovro CKdorov

€17] epyov, o dv "q fMovov ri -q KaXXiara rcov d?<Xa>v

aTTepydt,7]raL. 'AAA', e07^, fiavddvo) re /cat p,oi

B 8o/cet rovro cKdarov Trpdyp-aros epyov elvai, YiLev, Tjv S eycu* ovkovv /cat dperrj So/cet ooi elvai

eKaaro), coTrep Kal epyov ri ttpooreraKrai; tcop^ev

8e em rd avrd ttoXlv. 6(f>daXpLdjv, (fyapuev, eariv epyov; "Ecttiv. *A/)' ovv /cat dperrj 6(f)daXp.(Ji)v

ecrriv; Kat dper-q. Tt Se; <jjra)v "qv ri epyov;

Nat. Ovkovv kol dperrj ; Kat dperrj. Tt Se

Trdvrcov Trepi rcbv aAAa>i^; ov)( ovrw; Ovrco.

"E;^e §7^* a/)' av irore ojxjjiara ro avrcbv epyov

C KaXcbs dTTepydaacvro jirj e^ovra rTjv avrcbv oiKeiav dper-qv, dXX dvrl rrjs dperijs KaKcav; Kai ttcD? dv;

e(f)7j- rv(f)X6rrjra yap tocos Xeyeis avn rTJs oipecog.

"Hris, 'qv 8' eyo), avrcbv -q dperrj- ov yap ttco

102

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK I

to define the work of a horse or of anything else to be that which one can do only Avith it or best with it ? " "I don't understand," he replied. " Well, take it this way : is there anything else with which you can see except the eyes ? " " Certainly not." " Again, could you hear with anything but ears ?

"

" By no means." " Would you not rightly say that these are the functions of these (organs) ? " " By all means." " Once more, you could use a dirk to trim \ine branches and a knife and many other instru- ments." " Certainly." " But nothing so well, I take it, as a pruning-knife fashioned for this purpose." " That is true." " Must we not then assume this to be the work or function of that ? " " We must." XXIV. " You will now, then, I fancy, better appre-

hend the meaning ofmy question when I asked whether that is not the work of a thing which it only or it better than anything else can perform." " Well," he said, " I do understand, and agree that the work ofanything is that." " Very good," said 1. " Do you not also think that there is a specific virtue or excellence of

everything for which a specific work or function is appointed ? Let us return to the same examples. The eyes we say have a function ? " " They have." " Is tihere also a virtue of the eyes ? " " There is." " And was there not a function of the ears ? ' " Yes." " And so also a \irtue ? " " Also a virtue." " And what of all other things ? Is the case not the same ?

"

" The same." " Take note now. Could the eyes possibly fulfil their function well if they lacked their own proper excellence and had in its stead the defect ? " " How could they ? " he said ; " for I presume you meant blindness instead of vision." " Whatever," said I, " the excellence may be. For

103

PLATO

rovTO epcoTcb, dAA' ei rfj oiKeia fiev aperfj to

avTCov epyov ev ipydaerai, to, ipya^ofxeva, KaKta

he KaKOJS. ^AXrjdcs, ^^y], rovro ye Xeyeis. Ovkovv /cat cora arepofxeva rrjs avrcbv dperrjs KaKcos to

avTCov epyov dTrepydaerai; Udvv ye. TlOefiev D ovv /cat TaAAa Trdvra els tov avTov Xoyov; "E/xoiye

hoKel. "\di hrj, iierd ravra roSe aKeijjai' ipvx^s eari TL epyov, o a'AAo) tojv ovtcov owS' dv ivl Trpd^ais,

otov TO ToiovSe- TO evLfxeXeladai /cat apx^tv /cat

^ovXeveadai, /cat to. Totaura Trdvra, ead^ otco dXXcp

r) 4'^Xl\ St/catoj? dv aura aTroSot/xev /cat <f)aLp,€v

i8ta €Keivr]s elvat; OvSevl dXXo). Tt S' av to

^fjv; i/ivxyjs (f)'i]crofiev epyov elvai; MaAtcrra y*,

e^r], Ovkovv /cat dpeT-qv (f)ap,€v Tiva ^v-xrjs E elvai; ^ajxev. *A/d' ovv rroTe, c5 Qpaarvfiaxe, ^^XV '^^ a.VTrjg epya ev dnepyaaeTai aTepofxevr] TTJg OLKeias dpeTrjs, ^ dSvvaTov; 'ASvvaTov. AvdyKT] dpa KaKrj ^vxfj KaKOJS dpx^i'V /cat eTTLfieXeladai, Trj 8e dyadfj irdvTa raura ev TrpdTTeiv. *AvdyKT]. Ovkovv dpeTr^v ye ^vvex<J^py]- aajxev ijivx^js elvai StKaioovvrjv, KaKiav 8e dhtKiav;

^vvexojprjaapuev ydp. 'H fxev dpa St/cat'a i/jvxrj /cat o St/cato? dvrjp ev ^layaeTai, /ca/cdij he 6

dhiKos. OatVerat, ^(f>V>

xo-'^'d tov adv Xoyov.

354 AAAo. pb7]v d ye ev t,cx)v /xa/captos" re /cat evhalpicov,

6 he 1X7] TdvavTia. Ylcos ydp ov; '0 piev St/caioy apa evhaipLCx)v, 6 S' dhiKOS ddXios. 'Earcocrav,

" Platonic dialectic asks and affirms only so much as is needed for the present purpose.

'' For the equivocation c/. Charm. 172 a, Gorg. 507 c, Xen. Mem. iii. 9. 14, Aristot. Eth. Nic. 1098 b21, Newman, Introd. Aristot. Pol. p. 401, Gomperz, Greek Thinkers

104

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK' I

I have not yet come * to that question, but am only asking whether whatever operates will not do its own work well by its own virtue and badly by its own defect." " That much," he said, " you may safely affirm to be true." " Then the ears, too, if deprived of their own virtue will do their work ill ?

"

" Assuredly." " And do we then apply the same principle to all things ? " "I think so." " Then next consider this. The soul, has it a work which you couldn't accomplish with anything else in the world, as for example, management, rule, dehbera- tion, and the like, is there anything else than soul to which you could rightly assign these and say that they were its peculiar work ? " " Nothing else." " And again life ? Shall we say that too is the function of the soul ? " " Most certainly," he said. " And do we not also say that there is an excellence or virtue of the soul ? " " We do." " Will the soul ever accomplish its own work well if deprived of its own virtue, or is this impossible ? " " It is im- possible." " Of necessity, then, a bad soul will govern and manage things badly while the good soul will in all these things do well.* " " Ofnecessity." " And did we not agree that the excellence or virtue of soul is justice and its defect injustice ? " " Yes, we did." " The just soul and the just man then will live well and the unjust ill ? " " So it appears," he said, " by your reasoning." " But furthermore, he who lives well is blessed and happy, and he who does not the contrary." " Of course." " Then the just is happy and the unjust miserable." "So be (English ed.), 11. p. 70. It does not seriously affect the validity of the argrument, for it is used only as a rhetorical confirmation of the implication that Kaxus ipxfw, etc = misery and the reverse of happiness.

105

PLATO

€<pr). AAAa firjv adXiov ye elvai ov AucrtTeAet, evSaLfiova Be. Ilcbs yap ov; OvScttot* apa, (L jxaKoipie Qpaa-v/xax^, XvaireXearepov dSt/cta 8t-

KaioavvTjg. Tavra S-q aoi, ^j)rj, cu HcoKpares, el(TTtdadoi ev tols Bei^StSeiot?. 'Ttto aov ye, rjv 8' eyw, c5 Qpaavfxax^, iTretSij p.oi Trpdos eyevov KaL )(aXeTraLvo)v eiravaco. ov fievroi KaXcos ye

B etarta/Liat, 8t' ifiavrov, dAA' ov Sid ae' dXX wairep ol Xixvoi Tov atel irapa^epoixevov oLTroyevovTai

dp7Tdl,ovTes, TTplv TOV TTporepov fxerplcDS aTToXavaai,

/cat eyu) fioi Sokco ovtco, irplv o to rrpcoTOV eoKO-

TTovfxev evpeZv, to SiKaiov 6 tl ttot' eartV, d(f)e[jLevos

eKCLvov opixrjaai eTTt to OKeifjacrdat Ttepl avTov,

eiTe KaKia ioTi Kal dfj,adta etre ao^ia /cat dperq,

/cat ifiTrearovTOS av voTepov Xoyov, ort AucrtreAe-

QTepov T] dSt/cta t^? Si/catoaui^S', ovk dTreoxofxriv TO firj OVK eTTt TOVTO eXdelv drr^ e/cetVou, cooTe jjloi

C vvvl yeyovev e/c tov StaXoyov fjL-qbev elSevaf OTTOTe ydp to hiKaiov firj olda o eoTL, '^X'^^fi etCTO/xat etre dpeT-q rt? ovaa Tvy^dvei etre /cat

ov, Kal TTOTepov 6 exojv avTO ovk evSaifJicov ioTiv

Tj evSatficov

.

" For similar irony cf. Gorg. 489 d, Euthydem. 304 c. * Similarly Holmes {Poet at the Breakfast Table, p. 108)

of the poet : " He takes a bite out of the sunny side of this and the other, and ever stimulated and never satisfied," etc. Cf. Lucian, Demosth. Encom. 18, Julian, Orat. ii. p. 69 c, Polyb. iii. 57. 7.

106

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK I

it," he said. " But it surely does not pay to be miserable, but to be happy." " Of course not." " Never, then, most worshipful Thrasymachus, can injustice be more profitable than justice." " Let this complete your entertainment, Socrates, at the festival of Bendis." " A feast furnished by you, Thrasy- machus," I said, " now that you have become gentle with me and are no longer angry." I have not dined well, however—by my own fault, not yours. But just as gluttons ^ snatch at every dish that is handed along and taste it before they have properly enjoyed the preceding, so I, methinks, before finding the first object of our inquiry—what justice is—let go of that and set out to consider something about it, namely whether it is vice and ignorance or wisdom and virtue ; and again, when later the \-iew was sprung upon us that injustice is more profitable than justice I could not refrain from turning to that from the other topic. So that for me the present outcome of the discussion " is that I know nothing.** For if I don't know what the just is,« I shall hardly know whether it is a \-irtue or not, and whether its possessor is or is not happy."

* Hirzel, Der Dialog, i. p. 4, n. 1, argues that 5taX(i7ou here means " inquiry " (ErdrUrung\ not the dialogue with Thrasymachus.

* For the profession of ignorance at the close of a Socratic dialogue cf. Charm. 175 a-b. Lysis 222 d-e, Protag. 361 a-b, Xen. Mem. iv. 2. 39. Cf. also Introd. p. x.

* Knowledge of the essence, or definition, must precede discussion of qualities and relations. Cf. Meno 71 b, 86 d-e. Laches 190 b, Gorg. 448 e.

107

B

357 I. *E'yco fiev ovv ravra el-noiv (vfxrjv Xoyov

aTTrjXXdxdo.!.' TO 8' "^v dpa, cos eoi/ce, Trpooi^iov.

6 yap TXavKcov del re avSpeioTaros cov rvyxdvet

TTpos aTTavra, Kal Srj Kai Tore tov Qpacrvfiaxov

TTjv dnopprjcnv ovk aTreSe^aro, dAA' €cf)r]' 'Q,

HcoKpareg, noTepov rjfidg ^ovXei SoKelv TreTTeiKevai,

B Tj cos aX7]dd)s TTelaai, on Travrl rpoTTCp dp,eiv6v icTTi SiKatov etv-at •^ dSiKov; 'Q.s dXr]6a>s, cIttov,

eyojy dv eXoLpirjv, el iir^ e/JLol etrj. Ov tolvvv, €(/)7), TTOLets o ^ovXet. Xeye yap fioi- dpd aoi SoKel

ToiovSe Ti etvai dyadov, o Se^acfied dv e^^i'V ov

rd)v aTTo^aivovTCOv €(f)Lefievot,, dAA' avro avrov

eveKa d(X7Ta(,6ixevoi ; otov to xP-ipeiv Kal at

r^hoval oaai d^Xa^els /cat fjurjSev els tov eTretra

Xpdvov 8td ravTas yiyveTai dXXo rj xclpeiv exovTa.

" So in Philebus lie, Philebus cries off or throws up the sponge in the argument.

^ Aristotle borrows this classification from Plato (Topics 118 b 20-22), but liking to differ from his teacher, says in one place that the good which is desired solely for itself is the highest. The Stoics apply the classification to " preferables "

(Diog. Laert. vii. 107). Cf. Hooker, Eccles. Pol. i. 11. Elsewhere Plato distinguishes goods of the soul, of the body,

108

BOOK II

I. When I had said this 1 supposed that I was done with the subject, but it all turned out to be only a prelude. For Glaucon, who is always an intrepid, enterprising spirit in everything, would not on this occasion acquiesce inThras}'Tnachus's abandonment •*

of his case, but said, " Socrates, is it your desire to seem to have persuaded us or really to persuade us that it is without exception better to be just than unjust ? " " Really," I said, " if the choice rested

with me." " Well, then, you are not doing what you wish. For tell me : do you agree that there is a kind of good *' which we would choose to possess, not from desire for its after effects, but welcoming it for its own sake ? As, for example, joy and such pleasures as are harmless*^ and nothing results from them after- wards save to have and to hold the enjoyment." " I

and of possessions {Laws 697 b, 727-729) or as the first Alcibiades puts it (131) the self, the things of the self, and other things.

* Plato here speaks of harmless pleasures, from the point of view of common sense and prudential morality. Cf. Tim. 59 D afierafj^XifTov tjSovtjv, Milton's

Mirth that after no repyenting draws.

But the Republic (583 d) like the Gorgiaa (493 E-49-t c) knows the more technical distinction of the Philebus (42 c ff., 53 c flF.) between pure pleasures and impure, which are conditioned by desire and pain.

109

PLATO

CKfioLye, '^v S' eyo), So/cet ti etvai roiovrov. Tt

Se; o avTO re aurou X^P''^ ayaTTOJ/jLev /cai tcSi'

aTT* avTov ytyvojjbevwv ; olov av to (f>pove'iv Kal

TO opav Kal TO vyiatveiv to, yap ToiavTO. ttov Si'

dfji(f)6Tepa aaTTal,6ixeda. Nat, eiTTOv. TptTov Se

opas TL, '^<f>i), ethos dyadou, iv a> to yvjxvdl^eadai

Kal TO KdpLvovTa laTpeveadai /cai tarpeuCTts' t€

Kal 6 dXXos ;\;pi7/x.aTiCT/xds'; raura yap iiTLTTova (^at/xer dv, dxfiiXelv Se rjfxds, Kal avTa [xev eavTcov

D €V€Ka ovK dv be^aifxeda ^x^iv, tcov 8e jxiadcbv re Xdpi-v Kal Tcbv dXXcov oaa yiyveTai art avTcov.

"EcTTi yap ovv, €(f)r]v, Kal tovto TpiTov. aXXd tl S-q; 'Er TTOtcp, e(f)r], tovtcov ttjv SiKaioavvrjv

358 Tidrjs; 'Eyco /xev ot/xat, rjv 8' eyco, ev tco KaXXiaTO),

o Kal hi avTO Kal hid Ta yiyvofxeva dri" avTOV dyaTTTjTeov tco fxeXXovTi fiaKapto) eaeadat. Ov Toivvv So/cet, e(j)r], toZs ttoXXoZs, aAAa tov eTTiTTOvov

€lBovs, o fXLadcbv 6^ €V€Ka Kal evSoKLfiT^aecov Sta

So^av iTTLTTjSevTeov, avTO Se St' avTO (f>evKT€ov

ihs ov ;^aAe7roi^.

II. OtSa, '^v S' iyo), otl So/cet ovto), Kal TrctAai

V7t6 Qpaavjjidxov d>s tolovtov ov i/reyerat, aSt/cta S'

eTTaLveLTai,^ • dAA' iyo) Tt?, d)s eoiKe, hvap,adr]s- I^i

B Siy, e(j)ri, aKovaov Kal ijxov, idv aoL raura SoKrj. Qpaavp,axos ydp jjloi ^atVerat TTpwiahepov tov heovTos VTTo GOV oxTTTcp 6(f)i,s KrjXr]drjvai, , ifiol 8e

* ddiKia S' iTraiveiTai A omits.

" Isoc. i. 47 has this distinction, as well as Aristotle. ^ Some philosophers, as Aristippus (Diog. Laert. x. 1. 138),

said that intelligence is a good only for its consequences, but the opening sentences of Aristotle's Metaphysics treat all forms of knowledge as goods in themselves.

110

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK II

recofifnize that kind," said I. " And again a kind that we love both for its o^^^l sake and for its consequences," such as understanding,* sight, and health ? '^ For these I presume we welcome for both reasons." " Yes," I said. " And can you discern a third form of good under which falls exercise and being healed when sick and the art of healing and the making of money generally ? For of them we would say that they are laborious and painful yet beneficial, and for their own sake we would not accept them, but only for the rewards and other benefits that accrue from them," " Why yes," I said, " I must admit this third class also. But what of it ? " "In which of these classes do you place justice } " he said. " In my opinion, I said, " it belongs in the fairest class, that which a man who is to be happy must love both for its o^^^l sake and for the results." " Yet the niultitude," he said, " do not think so, but that it belongs to the toilsome class of things that must be practised for the sake of rewards and repute due to opinion but that in itself is to be shunned as an affliction."

II. " I am aware," said I, " that that is the general opinion and Thrasymachus has for some time been disparaging it as such and praising injustice. But I, it seems, am somewhat slow to learn." " Come now," he said, " hear what I too have to say and see if you agree with me. For Thrasymachus seems to me to have given up to you too soon, as if he were a serpent** that you had charmed, but I am not yet satis-

* Plutarch (1040 c) says that Chrysippus censured Plato for recognizing health as a good, but elsewhere Plato ex- plicitly says that even health is to be disregarded when the true interests of the soul require it.

•* For Plato's fondness for the idea of Kij^eiv cf. The Unity of Plato's Thought, note 300.

Ill

PLATO

ovTTOi Kara vovv rj aTroSei^i? yiyove Trepl eKarepov

inidv^ici) yap aKovaai, tl t ecmv CKarepov /cat nva €)(€L Svvap,Lv avTO Kad^ avTO evov iv rfj i/jv^fj, tovs

Se fiicrOovs Kal ra yiyvofieva citt' avrojv edaai x^^' peiv. ovrcoal ovv 7TOLr]aoj, iav /cat aol Sokjj- irr-

C avavecoaofiai top Qpaavfia-xov Xoyov, /cat irpcoTOv fiev ipco SiKaioavjrqv olov elvai <f>aai /cat odev yeyo-

vevaL- hevrepov 8e ort rravres avro ol €7nTT]B€vovTes

aKovres iTTLT-qSevovatv ws avayKalov aAA' ovx cos ayadov rpiTOv Se ort elKOTWs avro Spcoac itoXv yap ajxeivcov apa 6 rov dSiKov t] 6 rov St/catou

pios, (hs XeyovGLv. eTrei ep^oLye, c5 HwKpares, ovri

So/cet ovrois' airopoi pevroi 8i,aredpvXr]p,€vos ra

(Lra, aKovcov Qpaavp,dxov /cat p.vpia>v aXXoiv, rov

D Se vTTep rrjs St/catoawTjs' Xoyov, (Ls djxeivov aSt/cta?, ovSevos rrco aKrjKoa d)s ^ovXopaf ^ovXop,ai Se

avro Kad" avro iyKa)p,Lat,6fX€vov d/coucrat. p^dXiara 8' olp,ac av GOV TTvdeadai' 8i6 Karareivas ipco rov dSiKov piov iTTatvcov, eliroiv Se ivSei^op^at. aoi, ov

rpoTTOv av ^ovXop.ai /cat aov aKoveiv aScKLav p,€v

ijjeyovros, St/catocrwyyv Se eTraivovvros . aAA' opa,

et orot ^ovXofievcp a Xeyco. IldvTa}v p.dXiara, -qv

E S' iyo)' rrepl yap nvos av fxaXXov iroXXdKis ris vovv exoiv p^atpot Xeycov /cat dKOvcov; KaAAtara,

e^T^, Ae'yets" /cat o TrpdJrov ecfirjv ipeZv, rrepl rovrov

" Cf. infra 366 e. "• Cf. supra 347 c-d. " Cf. Phileb. 66 e. Plato affirms that the immoralism of

Thrasymachus and Callicles was widespread in Greece. Cf.

112

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK II

fied with the proof that has been offered about justice and injustice. For what I desire is to hear what each of them is and what potency and effect it has in and of itself dwelUng in the soul," but to dismiss"" their rewards and consequences. This, then, is what

'

I propose to do, with your concurrence. I wall renew the argument of Thrasymachus and will first state what men say is the nature and origin of justice ; secondly, that all who practise it do so reluctantly, regarding it as something necessary * and not as a good ; and thirdly, that they have plausible grounds for thus acting, since forsooth the life of the unjust

man is far better than that of the just rnan—as they say ; though I, Socrates, don't believe^ it. Yet I am disconcerted when my ears are dinned by the arguments of Thrasymachus and innumerable others."^ But the case for justice, to prove that it is better than injustice, I have never yet heard stated by any as I desire to hear it. What I desire is to hear an encomium on justice in and by itself. And I think I am most hkely to get that from you. For which reason I will lay myself out in praise of the hfe of injustice, and in so speaking will give you an example of the manner in which I desire to hear from you in turn the dispraise of injustice and the praise ofjustice. Consider whether my proposal pleases you." " Nothing could please me more," said I ; " for on what subject would a man of sense rather delight to hold and hear discourse again and again ? " " That is excellent," he said

;

" and now hsten to what I said would be the first topic

Introd. x-xi, and Gorg. 511b, Protag. 333 c, Euthydem. 279 B, and my paper on the interpretation of the TimaeuSt AJ.P. vol. ix. pp. 403-404.

VOL.1 I lis

PLATO

aKove, otov re tl^ /cat odev yeyove ScKaioavvrj.

7T€(j)VK€vaL yap 8t^ (j)aaL to jxev ahiK^lv dyadov, to 8e a8t/cet(T^at KaKov, ttXcovl Se /ca/coj VTrep^dXXeiv

TO dSiKelo-dai t] dyado) to dSiKeZv, wot eTretSav dAA7^Aoi's' aSt/cajcTt re koX dSi/ccDi^ai /cat d/Ltc^orepajv

y^voiVTai, TOLS jxr] Swajj-evois to fiev iKcl)€vyeLV

359 TO Se alpelv So/cet Auo-treAeit' ^vvdeaOai dAAi^Aot?

/xt^t' dSt/cetv" jLt'^jr' dSt/cetcr^at. /cat ivTevdev Srj

dp^aadai vofxovs TiOeadai /cat ^vvdr^Kas avrdij^,

/cat ovofiaaac to vtto tov vofiov eTrtVay/xa vopup-ov

T€ Kal Si/catov, /cat eii'at 817 TavT-qv yeveaiv re /cat

ovatav SiKaioavvr]? , jjieTa^v ovaav tov piev dpiuTOV

ovTos, edv dSiKcov pirj 8t8aj StK-qv, tov 8e KaKioTOV,

idv dSiKovpevos TtpcopeiaOai dSvvaTog fj,

to 8e

St/caiof €v pLeacp ov tovtojv dp(f)OT€pcov dyairdadai

B ov)(^ (hs ayadov, dXX' a»? dppaxjTLo, tov dSiKelv Tipicopievov eTret tov Svvdpevov avTo ttol€lv /cat cvs dXrjOoJs dvSpa ovS' dv ivi ttotc ^vvdeadac to pi,-qT€

dSiKeXv jMi^re d8t/cetCT^af pLau'eadai yap dv. rj pikv ovv 8r] (^vaig SLKaLoavvqg , S HcoKpaTes, avT'q re /cat TocauTrj, /cat ef cSv- 7re^u/ce rotayra, ci? d

Adyo?.

III. 'Q? Se /cat ot iTriTTjSevovTes dhwapbia tov

aSiKeiv aKovTes avTO eTnTr^SevovoL, /xdAiCTT* dv

aLodoLpieda, el TocovSe TTOt-qaaipLev Trj SiavoLO.'

Tt OLov re D.

" Glaucon employs the antithesis between nature and law and the theory of an original social contract to expound the doctrine of Thrasymachus and Callicles in the Gorgias. His statement is more systematic than theirs, but the principle is the same ; for, though Callicles does not explicitly speak of a

114

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK II

—the nature and origin of justice. By nature," they say, to commit injustice is a good and to suffer it is an evil, but that the excess of e\il in being ^^Tonged is greater than the excess of good in doing wrong. So that when men do ^\Tong and are WTonged by one another and taste of both, those who lack-the power to avoid the one and take the other determine that it is for their profit to make a compact with one another neither to commit nor to suffer injustice ; and that this is the beginning of legislation and of covenants between men, and that they name thecofnnrandment of the law the lawful and the just, and that this is the genesis and essential nature of justice—a com- promise between the best, which is to do wTong ^vith impunity, and the worst, which is to be wTonged and be impotent to get one's revenge. Justice, they tell us, being mid-way between the two, is accepted and approved, not as a real good, but as a thing honoured in the lack of vigour to do injustice, since anyone who had the power to do it and was in reality ' a man ' would never make a compact with anybody neither to wrong nor to be WTonged ; for he would be mad. The nature, then, of justice is this and such as this, Socrates, and such are the conditions in which it originates, according to the theory.

III. " But as for the second point, that those who practise it do so unwillingly and from want of power to commit injustice—we shall be most hkely to appre- hend that if we entertain some such supposition as

social contract, he implies that conventional justice is an agreement of the weak devised to hold the strong in awe (Gorg. 492 c), and Glaucon here affirms that no really strong man would enter into any such agreement. The social contract without the immoral application is also suggested in Protag. 322 b. Cf. also Crito 50 c, f.

115

PLATO

C S6vT€s i^ovaiav eKarepa) rroielv 6 ri dv ^ovXrjrai,, TO) re BiKaio) /cat Tip ahiKix), eir' eTraKoXovdiqaai-

fi€V decvixevoL, ttol -q iindv^ia eKarepov d^ei. in*

avro(f)(Lpcp ovv Xd^oifiev dv top hiKaiov tco dSi/coi et? ravTOV lovra Sto. Trjv irXeove^iav, o Trdaa (f>vaLg hiajKeiv 7T€(f)VK€V to? dyadov, vojxiv Se jSta rrap-

ayerat ctti rrjv tov laov TLfXTJv. etrj 8' dv rj e^ovaia r]v Xeyco roidSe p.dXiara, el avroZs yevocro olav

T) TTore (f>aat Swafiiv rtv Trjyov tov Avbov vpoyovo) yeveadai. elvai fiev yap avTOV votp^eva OrjTevovTa irapa tco totc AuSta? dpxovri, 6p,^pov 8e ttoXXov y€Vop,€vov /cat aeiap-ov payrjvat ri ttJs yijs Kal

yeveadai ;^aCT/xa /caro. tov tottov t) evep,ev ISovTa

Se /cat davp,daavTa Kara^rjvai, Kal ISelv dXXa re

817 p,vdoXoyovai davp^aard /cat lttttov ^^Xkovv kolXov, dvpiSas exovra, /ca^' a? iyKvipavTa ISeZv evovTa veKpov, (hs (f>aLveadai, pLelt^oj ^ /car'

E dvdpcoTTOv, TOVTOV Se dXXo p,ev ovSev,^ Trepl Se tjj X^i-pi- XP^^^^^ SaKTvXj.ov, ov 7TepteX6p.evov eK^rjvai,, avXXoyov Se y€vop,evov rols TTOtp^eatv elajdoros, iv i^ayyeXXoiev Kara firjva^ tu) ^aaiXel ra Trepl rd

* &X\o fikv ovSev A ; the translation tries to preserve the idiomatic ambiguity of the text : fX"" ov5ev of II would explicitly affirm the nakedness of the corpse.

' The antithesis of (pinxis and v6fj.o^, nature and law, custom or convention, is a commonplace of both Greek rhetoric and Greek ethics. Cf. the Chicago Dissertation of John Walter Beardslee, T/w Use of cfuJais in Fifth Century Greek Liter- ature, ch. X. p. 68. Cf. Herod, iii. 38, Pindar, quoted by Plato, Gorg. 484 b. Laws 690 b. 715 a ; Euripides or Critias, Frag, of Sisyphus, Aristoph. Birds 755 flf., Plato, Protag. 337 D, Gorg. 483 e, Laws 889 c and 890 d. It was misused by ancient as it is by modern radicals. Cf. my interpretation of the Timaeus, A.J.P, vol. ix. p. 405. The ingenuity of

116

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK II

this in thought : if we grant to each, the just and the unjust, Hcence and power to do whatever he pleases, and then accompany them in imagination and see whither his desire will conduct each. We should then catch the just man in the very act of resorting to the same conduct as the unjust man because of the self- advantage which every creature by its nature pursues as a good, while by the convention oflaw " it is forcibly diverted to paying honour to ' equality.'^ The licence that I mean would be most nearly such as would result from supposing them to have the powerwhich men say once came to the ancestor of Gyges the Lydian/ They relate that he was a shepherd in the service of the ruler at that time of Lydia, and that after a great deluge of rain and an earthquake the ground opened and a chasm appeared in the place where he was pasturing ; and they say that he saw and wondered and went down into the chasm ; and the story goes that he beheld other marvels there and a hollow bronze horse with little doors, and that he peeped in and saw a corpse within, as it seemed, of more than mortal stature, and that there was nothing else but a gold ring on its hand, which he took off and went forth. And when the shepherds held their customary assembly to make their monthly report to the king about the

modern philologians has tried to classify the Greek sophists as distinctly partisans of vofios or ^I'crts. It cannot be done. Cf. my unsigned review of Alfred Benn in the New York Nation, July 20, 1899, p. 57. * Cf. Gorg. 508 a.

' So manuscripts and Proclus. There are many emenda- tions which the curious will find in Adam's first appendix to this book. Herod, i. 8-13 tells a similar but not identical story of Gyges himself, in which the magic ring and many other points of Plato's tale are lacking. On the whole legend cf. the study of Kirby Flower Smith, A.J.P. voL xxiii. pp. 261-282, 361-387, and Frazer's Pans. iii. p. 417.

117

PLATO

rroLfxvia, d(f)i,K€adat Kal eKelvov exovra tov SaKrv-

Xiov. Kadrnievov ovv jxera TOJv aAAojt' rv)(^eLV rrjv

acfievhovriv tov SaKTvXiov Trepiayayovra vpos iav-

Tov els TO etaco rrjs x^^P^^' tovtov 8e yevo/jLcvov

360 o.<j)avr\ avrov yeveadai rots 7TapaKadr)fX€VOLs , Kal

StaXeyeaOai co? Trept oixofJ-evov. /cat tov davfJidl^eLV

T€ Kal ttolXlv €7ni/»7^Aa0a>v'Ta tov SaKTvXtov oTpeif/aL

e^io TTjv a(f>€vS6vrjv, Kal a-TpeipavTa ^avepov ye-

veadaL. Kal tovto ivvo-qaavTa aTToneipdadai tov

haKTvXiov, el TavTTjv exoc ttjv Bvvap,iv, Kal avTO)

OVTO) ^VfJL^aiveLV, aTp€(f)ovTL p.ev elaco ttjv a(f)€v-

boinjv dSi^Aoj ylyveadai, e^w Se Si^Aoi. alado-

fxevov 8e evdvs hiaTrpd^aodai twv dyyeXwv yev4-

B crdai Tcbv rrapd tov ^aaiXea- iXdovTa 8e Kal ttjv yvvalKa avTOV pLOLxevaavTa, pLGT eKetvqs eni-

dep.evov T<x> ^aaiXel aTTOKTelvat, /cat tyjv dpx^jv /cara-

axelv. el ovv Svo toiovtco Sa/CTfAtco yevoiadrjv,

Kal TOV fxev 6 8t/cato? TrepidetTO, tov 8e o d'Si/cos',

ovSels dv yevoiTO, d)S 86^€L€v, ovtcos dSa/xavTcvos,

OS dv fielveiev ev ttj hiKaioavvr] /cat ToXp^rjaeiev

direxeodai TOJv aXXoTptcov /cat fiiq aTTTeadai, e^ov

avTU) Kal €K TTJs dyopds dSecDs' o tl ^ovXoito Xafx-

C ^dvetv, Kal elaiovTi els Tas olKias avyyiyveaOai OTcp ^ovXoLTO, Kal aTTOKTivvvvai Kal €K Sea/xcov

Xveiv ovaTivas ^ovXolto, Kal rdAAa TrpaTTeiv ev

Tols dvdpcoTTOts loodeov dvTa. ovtcd Se hpcbv ovhev

dv hid^opov TOV eTepov ttolol, dAA' errl TavTOv

toiev dpL(f)6Tepoi. KaiToi, fxiya tovto TeKi.i-qpi,ov dv

° Mr. H. G. Wells' The Invisible Man rests on a similar fancy. Cf. also the lawless fancies of Aristoph. Birds 785 ff.

US

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK II , Hi r. h:.'_

flocks, he ako attended wearing the ring. So as he sat there it chanced that he turned the collet of the ring towards himself, towards the inner part of his hand, and when this took place they say that he became invisible" to those who sat by him and they spoke of him as absent ; and that he was amazed, and again fumbling with the ring turned the collet outwards and so became visible. On noting this he experimented >vith the ring to see if it j>ossessed this \irtue, and he found the result to be that when he turned the collet inwards he became in\isible, and when outwards \isible ; and becoming aware of this, he immediately managed things so that he became one of the messengers who went up to the king, and on coming there he seduced the king's wife and with her aid set ujjon the king and slew him and possessed his kingdom. If now there should be two such rings, and the just man should put on one and the unjust the other, no one could be found, it would seem, of such adamantine * temper as to persevere in justice and endure to refrain his hands from the possessions of others and not touch them, though he might with impunity take what he wished even from the market- place, and enter into houses and lie with whom he pleased, and slay and loose from bonds whomsoever he would^^d jn an other things conduct himself among mankind as the equal of a god.- And in so acting he wouH do' rib' differently from the other man, but both would pursue the same course. And yet

* The word is used of the firmness of moral faith in Gorg. 509 A and i?€p. 618 e.

* iabdim. The word is a leit-motif anticipating Plato's rebuke of the tragedians for their praises of the tyrant Cf. infra 568 a-b. It does not, as Adam suggests, foreshadow Plato's attack on the popular theology.

119

PLATO

(paLT] Tt?, ort, ovoeig ckcov oiKaios aAA avayKaL,o-

fievos, CO? OVK ayadov iSia ovrog, eTiei ottov y av OLrjrai eKaarog olos re eaeadai, aSi/cetr, dSiKeZv.

D XvaiTcXelv yap Sr) oterai Trds dvrjp ttoXv fidXXov tSia rrjv dhtKLav Trjs SiKaioavv-qg , dXr}6rj olofxevos,

(hs (f)T^a€i 6 vept Tov TOLOurov Xoyov Xeycov evret

€1 TLs rotavrr^s e^ovaias eTriXa^opbevos fjirjhev vrore

iOeXoi dSLKTJaai fxrjSe dipairo rcov aXXorpicov,

ddXnjoTaTOs fi€v dv So^eiev elvai tols aladavo-

fxeuois Kal dvo7]T6Taros, eTraivolev 8' dv avrov

dXXyjXcov ivavriov i^aTTarcovreg dXX-qXovs Sta tov

TOV dhiKelaOai cf)6^ov. ravra jxev ovv 8r) ovtcjs.

E IV. Tt^v" 8e KpiGiv avrrjv tov ^lov nepi Sv Xeyo- fX€V, idv SiaGTrjacofxeda rov re hiKaiorarov Kal

TOV dhiKcoraTov, oloi t eaofieda Kplvai opdcos' el

8e fi-q, ov. Ti? ovv Srj tj SidaTaaig ; T]8e' fxrjhev

d(f)aipcb(xev fXiJTe tov dScKov dno ttjs aSt/cia?, /A7^T€ TOV SiKalov (XTTO TTJs 8LKaLoavv7]s, ttAAtt TcXeov

eKarepov els to eavTOV emr-qSevfia Tidcofxev.

TrpcoTov fiev ovv 6 dSiKog wairep ol heivot hrjpnovp-

yol TTOieLTO)' olov KV^epv^T-qg aKpog rj larpos Ta

Te dSvvaTa ev ttj Tex^rj Kal Ta Bward hiaiadd- 361 veTai. Kal toZs p-ev eTTix^ipei, Ta he id, eVt 8e

idv dpa TTT] G(f)aXfj, iKavos iTravopdovadaf ovtco

Kal 6 dStKos iTTix^i'POJV opddjg tols dScK'^fxaat.

XavdaveTCj, el pLeXXei a(f)68pa aSt/co? elvac- tov

" Of. supra 344 a, Gorg. 492 b. * aiadavofj-ivois suggests men of discernment who are not

taken in by phrases, " the knowing ones." Cf. Protag. 317 a, and Aristoph. Clouds 1241 rots eiboaiv.

' Cf. GoTQ. 483 B, 492 a, Protag. 327 b, Aristot. Rhet. ii. 23. <» Cf. infra 580 b-c, Phileb. 27 c.

120

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THE REPUBLIC, BOOK II

this is a great proof, one might argue, that no one J is just of his own will but only from constraint, in the

||

belief that justice is not his personal good, inasmuch as every man, when he supposes himself to have the power to do wTong, does wrong. For that there is far more profit for him personally in injustice than in justice is what every man believes, and believes truly, as the proponent of this theory will maintain. For if anyone who had got such a licence within his grasp should refuse to do any wrong or lay his hands on others' possessions, he would be regarded as most pitiable " and a great fool by all who took note of it,** though they would praise him '^ before one another's faces, deceiving one another because of their fear of suffering injustice. So much for this point.

IV. "But to come now to the decision** between our two kinds of life, if we separate the most completely just and the most completely unjust man, we shall be able to decide rightlv, but if not, not. How, then, is this separation to oe made ? Thus : we must subtract noticing of his injustice from the unjust man or of his justice from the just, but assume the per- fection of each in his own mode of conduct. In the first place, the unjust man must act as clever crafts- men do : a first-rate pilot or physician, for example, feels the difference between impossibilities * and possibilities in his art and attempts the one and lets the others go ; and then, too, if he does happen to trip, he is equal to correcting his error. Similarly, the unjust man who attempts injustice rightly must be supposed to escape detection if he is to be alto- gether unjust, and we must regard the man who is

• Cf. Quint, iv. 5. 17 " recte enim Graeci praecipiunt non tentanda quae effici omnino non possint."

121

PLATO

oAiaKo^evov 8e (f)avXov rjyqTeov la'x^a.r'q yap dSiKta SoKelv SiKaiov elvai firj ovra. Soreov ovv

TO) reAeo)? aSt'/co) tt]v TeXeajraT-qv dStKiav, Kal

ovK a(f)aLp€T€OV, aAA' iareov rd p,eytara dSi/cow- ra TTjv fieyiar-qv 86^av avro) TrapeaKevaKevai els

B SLKaioavvrjv, /cat idv dpa acjidXXrjrai ri, irrav- opoovadai, Swaro) elvai, Xeyeiv re Ikovu) ovri irpos TO TTeLdeiv, idv ri firjvvr]raL rwv d^LKrjfidrcov, Kal ^idaaadat oaa dv jStaj hi-qrai, hid re dvhpeiav Kal

pojfXTjv Kal 8id TTapaaKetrfjV (^iXiov Kal ovaias.

TovTov Se ToiovTov devTCs rov StKaiov nap* avrov

laraJpLev rco Xoyco, dvSpa drrXovu Kal yevvalov,

Kar Aia)(vXov ov Sokclv dXX elvai dyadov ideXovra. a(f>aLp€r€ov 6rj to Sok€lv. el yap So^ei St/catos

C eivat, eaovrai avra> Tijxal Kal Scopeal Sokovvti roiovrcp etvai' dSrjXov ovv, etre tov St/catof etre

ToJv Scopedjv re Kal rifiajv eveKa roiovros etrj.

yvfXvojTeos 8r) Trdvrcov ttXt^v ScKaioavvqs, /cat

7TOL7jT€os evavTLOis SiaKelpLevos TO) TTporepcp- [xrjSev

yap dSiKCov So^av exerco ttjv fieylarT'qv dSiKLas, Lva

jj ^e^aaavLafxevos els SiKaioavvqv rw firj

reyyeadai vtto /ca/coSo^ias' Kal rcov dn' avrrjs yi-

yvojxevcov dXX ltco djxerdararos p^expi davdrov, D So/ccuv fjiev elvai dhiKos 8ta ^lov, d)v Se SiKatos,

Iv dpLcjiorepoi, els to ea^arov eXrjXvdoTes, o [xev

" Cf. Emerson, Eloquence : " Yet any swindlers we have known are novices and bunglers. ... A greater power of face would accomplish anything and with the rest of the takings take away the bad name."

* Cf. Cic. Be offic. i. 13. 122

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK II

caught as a bungler." For the height of injustice * is to seem just without being so. To the perfectly unjust man, then, we must assign perfect injustice and withhold nothing of it, but we must allow him, while committing the greatest WTongs, to have secured for himself the greatest reputation for j ustice

;

and if he does happen to trip,*' we must concede to him the power to correct his mistakes by his ability to speak persuasively if any of his misdeeds come to light, and when force is needed, to employ force by reason of his manly spirit and vigour and his provision of friends and money ; and when we have set up an unjust man of this character, our theory must set the just man at his side—a simple and noble man, who, in the phrase of Aeschylus, does not wish to seem but be good. Then we must deprive him of the seeming.** For if he is going to be thought just he will have honours and gifts because of that esteem. We cannot be sure in that case whether he is just for justice' sake or for the sake of the gifts and the honours. So we must strip him bare of everything but justice and make his state the opposite of his imagined counterpart.* Though doing no wrong he must have the repute of the greatest injustice, so that he may be put to the test as regards justice through not softening because of ill repute and the consequences thereof. But let him hold on his course unchangeable even unto death, seeming all his life to be unjust though being just, that so, both men attaining to the limit, the one of injustice,

* Cf. Thucyd. viii. 24 on the miscalculation of the shrewd Chians.

"* As Aristotle sententiously says, Spoj 5^ rov Tp6s hb^av 8 X^vBaviiv fjif\\(ov ovK 8lv IXolto (Rhet. 1365 b 1, Topics iii. 3. 14).

• For the thought c/. Eurip. Hel. 270-271.

123

PLATO

biKaioavvrjs , 6 8e dSt/cta?, Kptvcovrai OTTorepos

avTotv evSaifioveaTcpog

.

V. BajSat, '^v 8' iydi), co <f>iX€ VXavKcov, (vs eppctiixevojs iKarepov oxmep av^piavra els ttjv Kpiaiv eKKadatpeis rotv avSpolv. 'Q.s pidXtar* , €(j)rj,

ovvapLai. ovTOLv 8e roiovrow, 013861^ en, cos iyco- p.aL, ^(aXeTTOv iTre^eXdelv rep Xoyoj, otos eKarepov

E ^to? €Tnp,€V€t. XeKriov ovv koL St) kov dypoi- KOTepctis XeyrjTai, firj e/xe oiov Xeyeiv, a> Hoj-

KpaTGs, aXXa rovs iiraLvovvras 7rp6 8tKaLoavvr]s aoiKiav. ipovai 8e rdSe, otl ovtoj hiaKeipuevos

o SiKaios pLaaTiywaerai, arpe^Xwaerai, SeS-qaerai,

362 eKKavdrjcrerai Td)(f)6aXpco , reXevraJv Trdvra KaKo. vadcbv dt'aCT;^tv8yAey^7yCTeTai, /cat yvioaerai, on OVK eivai SiKaiov dXXd SoKelv Set ideXeiv to Se rov AloxvXou ttoXv rjv dpa opdorepov Xeyeiv Kara rov dhiKOV. ra> ovn yap ^rjaovai rov dSiKov, aire €mrr]8evovra TrpdypLa dXrjdeias exop-evov koi ov

TTpos So^av ^cvvra, ov Sokclv dSiKOv dAA' elvat edeXeiv,

^adelav dXoKa Sid <f)pevds Kapirovpievov,

g e^ •^S" rd KeSvd ^Xaardvei jSouAeu/xara, TTpojrov p,€v dpx^tv iv rfj iroXei hoKovvn SiKatco €tvai, eTTeira yapLelv orrodev dv ^ovXrjrai, CKSihovat

€LS ovs dv ^ovXr)rai, ^vp^dXXetv, Koivojvelv ols

dv edeXrj, Kal irapd ravra Trdvra oj^eXeZadai Kephaivovra rep p,rj Svaxepaiveiv rd dSt/ceti^- els

" Cf. infra 540 c. " Cf. infra 613 e, Gorg. 486 c, 509 a, Apol. 32 d. The

Greeks were sensitive to rude or boastful speech. " Or strictly " impaled." Cf. Cic. De Rep. iii. 27. Writers

on Plato and Christianity have often compared the fate of Plato's just man with the Crucifixion. 124

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK 11^ .--'J^.J/'^ui'k.

the other of justice, we may pass judgement which of the two is the happier."

V. "Bless me, my dear Glaucon," said I, "how strenuously you polish off each of your two men for the competition for the prize as if it were a statue !**" " To the best of my ability," he replied, " and if such is the nature of the two, it becomes an easy matter, I fancy, to unfold the tale of the sort of life that

awaits each. We must tell it, then ; and even if my language is somewhat rude and brutal,'' you must not suppose, Socrates, that it is I who speak thus, but those who commend injustice above justice. What they will say is this : that such being his disposition

the just man -will have to endure the lash, the rack, chains, the branding-iron in his eyes, and finally, after every extremity of suffering, he will be crucified,*'

and so will learn his lesson that not to be but to seem just is what we ought to desire. And the saying of Aeschylus'* was, it seems, far more correctly appUcable to the unjust man. For it is literally true, they will say, that the unjust man, as pursuing what clings closely to reality, to truth, and not regulating his hfe by opinion, desires not to seem but to be unjust,

Exploiting the deep furrows of his wit From which there grows the fruit of counsels shrewd,

first office and rule in the state because of his reputa- tion for justice, then a wife from any family he chooses, and the giving of his children in marriage to whomsoever he pleases, dealings and partnerships with whom he will, and in all these transactions advantage and profit for himself because he has no squeamishness about committing injustice ; and so

*i

Septem 592-594.

125

1

PLATO

dyojvas roivvv lovra /cat tSta /cai SrjiJLoaia irepi-

yiyveadai koI rrXeoveKrelv rcov e-xQpcJov, irXeov-

€Krovvra he TrXovretv Kat rovs re cfiiXovg ev

C TTOielv /cat Tovg i)(dpovs ^XaTTTeiv, Kal Oeolg Ovacas /cat dvad-qfJiaTa LKavois Kal jJieyaXoTrpeTTCos dv€iv

T€ Kal dvaridivai, /cat depaTreveiv rov SiKalov

TToXi) dfieivov rovs Oeovs /cat rtov dvdpcoTTOiv ovs

dv ^ovXrjTai, axTTC Kal OeocfjtXearepov avrov etvat

pidXXov TTpoaT^KCLv e/c Tojv €lk6tcov T] tov SlKaLOV.

ovroi (fiaoLv, d) ILcoKpares, Trapd dedjv Kai Trap

dvdpcoTTcov Tcp dhtKcp irapeaKevdadai rov ^iov

dfjueivov 7) Tip hiKaicp.

VI. Taur' eliTovTos rov TXavKcovos, iyd) fxev D iv v<p elxov TL Xeyeiv rrpos ravra, 6 8e dSeA^o?

avTov 'ASet/xavTO?, Ov tl ttov otet, 6^17, c5 2a»- Kpareg, LKavdjs elpijadat Tiepl rod Xoyov; 'AAAa Tt piTiv; eiTTOv. Auto, '^ 8' ds, ovk eipiqrai o jjidXiara eSet p'q6r]vai. Ovkovv, ^v 8 eyd), to

Xeyopuevov, d8€Xcf)6s av8pt Trapei-q- ojare Kal gv,

et Tl oSe eAAeiTret, indp^vve. Kairoi e/xe ye t/cam

/cat TCI VTTo TOVTOV piqdivTa /caTaTraAataat /cat

E a8waTOi' TTOirjaai ^orjOeXv SiKaioavvrj . /cat os", Oi5SeV, e(f)r], Xeyeig, dXX eVt /cat Ta8e a/coye* Set ydp hieXdelv rjjjLds Kal rovs ivavrtovg Xoyovs d>v oSe eiTTev, ol SiKaiocrvvrjv [xev iiraivovaiv, dSiKiav

8e ipeyovatv, tv' t? cra^earcpov fxoi So/cet jSouAe-

CT^at rAau/cojr. XiyovoL 8e' ttou /cat TrapaKeXevovrai

Trarepes re vleai /cat ndvres ol rivd)v Kr)S6p,evoL,

" Cf. supra on StS d, 349 b, " Cf. supra 333 d. " fieyaXoirpeirws. Usually a word of ironical connotation

in Plato. •* Cf. Euthyphro 12 e ff. and supra 331 b, ^ec^ Ovalas, where

126

'i (X tHE REPUBLIC, BOOK II

they say that if he enters into lawsuits, pubUc or private, he ^\'ins and gets the better of his opponents, and. getting the better,^ is rich and benefits his friends and harms his enemies ^ ; and he performs sacrifices and dedicates votive offerings to the gods adequately and magnificently,*^ and he serves and pays court ^ to men whom he favours and to the gods far better than the just man, so that he may reasonably expect the favour of heaven * also to fall rather to him than to the just. So much better they say, Socrates, is the life that is prepared for the unjust man from gods and men than that which awaits the just."

VI. When Glaucon had thus spoken, I had a mind to make some reply thereto, but his brother Adeimantus said, " You surely don't suppose, Socrates, that the statement of the case is complete t " " Why, what else?" I said. " The very most essential point," said he, " has not been mentioned." " Then," said I, " as the proverb has it, ' Let a brother help a man ' ^—and so, if Glaucon omits any word or deed, do you come to his aid. Though for my part what he has already said is quite enough to overthrow me and incapacitate meforcoming to the rescue ofjustice." " Nonsense," he said, " but listen to this further point. We must set forth the reasoning and the language of the opposite party, of those who commend justice and dispraise injustice, if what I conceive to be Glaucon's meaning is to be made more clear. Fathers, when they address exhortations to their sons, and all

the respectable morality of the good Cephalus is virtually identical with this commercial view of religion.

* Cf. supra 352 b and 613 a-b. ' dSeX^s dvSpi irapeiri. The rhythm perhaps indicates a

proverb of which the scholiast found the source in Odyssey xvi. 97.

127

PLATO

363 CD? XP^ SiKaiov etvai, ovk avro SiKaLoavvrjv in- aLvovvres, aAAa rag oltt* avrrjs evSoKLfjirjaeig, tva SoKovvTt SiKrato) elvai yiyvriraL airo Trjs So^t]?

apxo.1 T€ Kal ydfiOL /cai ocraTrep TXavKcov SirjXdev

dpTL (XTTO Tov evSoKifielv ovra rep ahiKcp} inl

TrXeov 8e ovtol to. rcJov So^cbv Xeyovai' ras yap TTapa Oecjv eySo/ci/xrycrets efx^aWovres a(f)dova

exovai, Xiyeiv ayadd, rots oaiois a. ^aot deovs Si86vat, coa-nep 6 yevvaZos 'HatoSo? re /cat "O/xtj-

B pos <^a(TLV, 6 piev rds Spvg rols St/caiot? rovs deovs TTOietv

OLKpas p-ev T€ (f)€p€LV ^aXdvovs, /xecTCTa? 8e p,eXiauas

CLpoTTOKOL 8' olcs, (firjaiv, pLoXXois KaTa^e^ptdaai,

Kal dXXa Srj 77oAAd dyadd tovtcov ixopLCva' Trapa- irTXrjai^a Se Kal 6 erepos' ware rev ydp ^r^aiv

rj ^aaiXrjos dpivp,ovos , oare deovSrjs

evBiKias dvexDOi, (jyeprjai 8e yaZa p^eXaiva

C TTvpovs Kal Kpidds, fipid-QOi 8e SevSpea KapTTCO, TLKTT} 8' €p,7TeSa p,rjXa, ddXaaaa 8e Trapexj] Ix^^^-

Movaralos Se tovtcov veaviKcorepa Tayadd Kal 6

^ dSiKif) recent mss. : cf. 362 b : the SiKai(f} of A and 11 can be defended.

" Who, in Quaker language, have a concern for, who have charge of souls, Cf. the admonitions of the father of Horace, Sat. i. 4. 105 ff., Protag. 325 d, Xen. Cyr. i. 5. 9, Isoc. iii. 2, Terence, Adelphi 414 f., Schmidt, Ethik der Griechen, i. p. 187, and the letters of Lord Chesterfield passim, as well as Plato himself. Laics 662 e,

* Hesiod, Works and Days 232 f.. Homer, Od. xix. 109 if. ' Cf. Kern, Orphicorum Fragmenta, iv. p. 83. The son is

possibly Eumolpus.

128

A^

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK II

those who have others in their charge," urge the '*^''^* \0' ik^^^i\c<i.

necessity of being just, not by praising justice itself, but the good repute -with mankind that accrues from it, the object that they hold before us being that by seeming to be just the man may get from the reputation office and alliances and all the good things that Glaucon just now enumerated as coming to the unjust man fi-om his good name. But those people draw out still further this topic of reputation. For, throwing in good standing with the gods, they have no lack of blessings to describe, which they affirm the gods give to pious men, even as the worthy Hesiod and Homer ^ declare, the one that the gods make the oaks bear for the just

:

Acorns on topmost branches and swarms of bees on their mid-trunks,

and he tells how the Flocks of the fleece-bearing sheep are laden and weighted

with soft wool,

and of many other blessings akin to these ; and similarly the other poet : Even as when a good king, who rules in the fear of the

high gods, Upholds justice and right, and the black earth yields him

her foison. Barley and wheat, and his trees are laden and weighted

with fair fruits. Increase comes to his flocks and the ocean is teeming with

fishes.

And Musaeus and his son'' have** a more excellent * For the thought of the following cf. Emerson, Compensa-

tion: "He (the preacher) assumed that judgement is not executed in this world ; that the wicked are successful ; that the good are miserable; and then urged from reason and scripture a compensation to be made to both parties in the next life. No oiFence appeared to be taken by the congrega- tion at this doctrine."

VOL. I K 129

PLATO

vlos avTOV TTapa decov SiSdaat Tot? St/catot?* ei?

"AiSou yap dyayovres to) Adyoj /cat KaraKXivavres

/cat avfJLTTOGiov Ta>v oglwv KaraaKevaaavreg ear€-

D cf)aua)p.€uovg ttolovgl t6i> aTravra xpo^ov rjSr] hiayeiv jxeOvovrag, rjyr]crdix€VOL /caAAtcrrov dperrjs ixiadov

fxedrju alojvLov ol S' ert tovtwv jJiaKporepous

diToreivovaL^ pnadovs Trapd decov TraiSa? yap

naihoiv (f)aal /cat yevos KaroTTiaOev XciTreadai rov

ooiov /cat evopKov. ravra Srj /cat aAAa roiavra

iyKioyndt^ovai hiKaioavvrjV' rovs Be avocrLovs av

/cat dSiKovs ets tttjXov riva KaTopvrrovaiv ev

"AtSoy /cat KoaKLVcp vhu>p dvayKa^ovat (fiepeiv, ert

E re l,(ji)vra'5 els /ca/ca? Sd^a? ayoi'Tes', aTrep VXavKa)v TTepl TOiv hLKaia)v ho^at^opLevcjv he aSt/cajv 8ifjX6e

TtpLOJp-qfxaTa, ravra rrepl rcbv dhiKOiv Xeyovaiv,

aAAa Se ovk exovaiv. 6 piev ovv eTraivos /cat o

ijjoyos ovrog eKarepcov.

VII. rTpd? Se roTjrois crKei/jaL, cb HcoKpares, dXXo

av el8os X6ya>v Trepl St/catoawryS" Te /cat aSt/cta?

364 iSt'a re Xeyofxevov /cat utto TTOi-qrcav . vdvreg yap

e^ evog aropcaros vpivovaiv, cos KaXov puev rj ao)(f)po-

avvT] re Kal StKaLoavvrj, ;^aAe7rdi' p,evroL /cat

eTTLTTOvov dKoXaoia he /cat dhiKta rjhv puev /cat

evTTeres Kr-qaaadat,, ho^rj he pLOVOV /cat vopiO) at-

axpov. XvaireXearepa he raJv St/catcov rd aSi/ca

^ airoTtivovaiv AIIS: airorlvovaiv q.

<• veaviKtbrepa is in Plato often humorous and depreciative,

Cf. infra 563 e yeacu-r}. '' avuwoaiov tO)v oaluv. Jowett's notion that this is a jingle

is due to the English pronunciation of Greek. ' Kern, ibid., quotes Servius ad Virgil, Aen. iii. 98 " et nati

130

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK 11

song" than these of the blessings that the gods bestow on the righteous. For they conduct them to the house of Hades in their tale and arrange a symposium of the saints,'' where, reclined on couches and crowned \nth wreaths, they entertain the time henceforth with wine, as if the fairest meed of virtue were an everlasting drunk. And others extend still further the rewards of virtue from the gods. For they say that the children's children '^ of the pious and oath-keeping man and his race thereafter never fail. Such and such-like are their praises of justice. But the impious and the unjust they bury in mud** in the house of Hades and compel them to fetch water in a sieve,* and, while they still live, they bring them into evil repute, and all the sufferings that Glaucon enumerated as befalling just men who are thought to be unjust, these they recite about the unjust, but they have nothing else to say.^ Such is the praise and the censure of the just and of the unjust. VH. " Consider further, Socrates, another kind of

language about justice and injustice employed by both laymen and poets. All with one accord reiterate that soberness and righteousness are fair and honourable, to be sure, but unpleasant and laborious, while licen- tiousness and injustice are pleasant and easy to win and are only in opinion and by convention disgraceful. They say that injustice pays better than justice, natorum" and opines that Homer took //. xx. 308 from Orpheus.

" Cf. Zeller, Phil. d. Gr. i. pp. 56-57, infra 533 d, Pkaedo 69 c, commentators on Aristoph. Frogs 146.

' Cf. my note on Horace, Odes iii. 11. 22, and, with an allegorical application, Gorg. 493 b.

' Plato elsewhere teaches that the real punishment of sin is to be cut off from communion with the good. Theaetet. 176 D-E, Laws 728 b, infra 367 a.

131

PLATO

COS" iTTL TO TTXrjdos Xiyovot, Koi TTOvrjpovs nXovaiovs

Koi aXXas hvvdjxei's €)(ovTas euSat/xovt^etv' /cat

TLjjiav evx^poJ? edeXovai hrjiioaia re /cat tSta, tous"

B Se drtju.a^eit' Kat virepopav, ol av irrj aadevelg re /cat 7T€vr)T€s (Laiv, opoXoyovvres avrovg d/xetVou?

eiv'at Tcbv irepcov. rovroiv he navTiov ol nepl deutv

re Xoyoi /cat dperrjs davpLaaLcoraTOL Xeyovrai, d>s

dpa /cat deal ttoXXols p-ev dyadolg 8uaTV)(las re /cat ^iov KaKov evetpav, rolg §' evavriois evavriav

p,olpav. dyvprai Se /cat pcavreLS ern TrXovaicov

dvpas lovres Treidovaiv co? eoTi Trapd acjiiai Swa/Lttj

e/c decov Tropt^o/xeVrj dvaiais re /cat eTTcpSais, etre

C TL dSiKrjpd Tov yeyovev avrov rj TvpoyovoiV, a/cet- CT^at p,ed^ rjSovaJv re /cat eoproiv, edv re TLva

i)(dp6v 7Tr]p,rjvat, eOeXrj, puerd apuKpcov SaTravatv

opLOLOJS St'/catop' dSt/coj ^Xdtpeiv, eTraycoyais tlgl

/cat KaraSeapLoig rovs deovs, o)s <l>aut, Treidovres

a^Laiv 1)777]perelv. rovToig he Trdai rols Aoyot?

p.dpTvpag 7TOt.r]rds eTrdyovrai, ol p,ev /ca/ctaj Trepi

ev7Tereias hihovres, co?

rrjv p,ev KaKOTTjra /cat iXahov eoTiv eXeadai

J) prjChlaJS' Xeir] p,ev oho?, pdXa S' iyyvdi vaUf Trjs S' dperrjs Ihpcora deol 7Tpo7TdpoLdev edrjKav

Kat Tiva ohdv piaKpdv re /cat dvdvrr]' ol he rrjs rdjv

" The gnomic poets complain that bad men prosper for a time, but they have faith in the late punishment of the wicked and the final triumph of justice.

'' There is a striking analogy between Plato's language here and the description by Protestant historians of the sale of indulgences by Tetzel in Germany. Rich men's doors is proverbial. C/. 489 b.

" Cf. Mill, " Utility of Religion," Three Essays on Religion, p. 90: "All positive religions aid this self-delusion. Bad religions teach that divine vengeance may be bought off by 132

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK if'»'^''^r^^ ^\*-

for the most part, and they do not scruple to fehcitate bad men who are rich or have other kinds of power and to do them honour in pubhc and private, and to dishonour and disregard those who are in any way weak or poor, even while admitting that they are better men than the others. But the strangest of all these speeches are the things they say about the gods " and \irtue, how so it is that the gods themselves assign to many good men misfortunes and an evil life, but to their opposites a contrary lot ; and begging priests ^ and soothsayers go to rich men's doors and make them believe that they by means of sacrifices and incantations have accumulated a treasure of power from the gods "^ that can expiate and cure ^nth pleasurable festivals any misdeed of a man or his ancestors, and that if a man wishes to harm an enemy, at slight cost he will be enabled to injure just and unjust ahke.. since they are masters of spells and enchantments ** that constrain the gods to serve their end. And for all these sayings they cite the poets as witnesses, with regard to the ease and plentifulness of vice, quoting :

Evil-doing in plenty a man shall find for the seeking

;

Smooth is the way and it lies near at hand and is easy to enter

;

But on the pathway of virtue the gods put sweat from the first step,*

and a certain long and uphill road. And others cite offerings or personal abasement." Plato, Laws 885 d, anticipates M ill. With the whole passage compare the scenes at the founding of Cloudcuckootown, Aristoph. Birds 960- 990, and more seriously the mediaeval doctrine of the " treasure of the church " and the Hindu tapas.

* In Laws 933 d both are used of the victim with irt^SaU, which primarily applies to the god. Cf. Lucan, Phars. vi. 493 and 527. • Hesiod, Works and Bays 287-289.

133

PLATO

deoiv VTT* dvdpcoTTCov TTapaycoyrjs tov "Ojxrjpov [xap-

Tvpovrat, oTi /cat e/ceipo? eiTre

Atarot 84 T€ /cat Oeol avroi,

KOI rovs fiev dvaiaiai koL ej);;^ci»Aar? ayavaZaiv

E Xot^fj re KVLcrp re TraparpajTrcba dvOpcoTroi Xiaaofxevoi, ore k€v tls VTrep^-qrj Kal dixap-rrj.

^L^Xcov 8e ofxaSov Trapexovrat Movcraiov /cat 'Op-

(f}€a)s, HeX-qvTjg t€ /cat Movacov iyyovtov, cos (f>aat,

Kad' aj dvrjTToXovat,, Treidovres ov jxovov tStaJras'

oAAo. Kal TToXeig, wg dpa Xvaei? re /cat KadappLot dSiK-qixdrcov Std dvaicov /cat TratSta? riSovdJv etcri

365 /i.ev ert l^ajatv, etcrt Se /cat reXevT-qaacriu, a? 817

TeAera? /caAoyati^, at tojv e/cet /ca/ca)v aTToAuouCTtv

rjp,ds, pir] duaavras 8e 8etm rrepipevei. VIII. Taura TTai^Ta, €<^t7, cS ^I'Ae Haj/cpaTe?,

TOtayTa /cat roaavra Xeyopeva dperij? nepL Kal

KaKtas, cos dvdpcoTTOC Kal deol nepl avrd kxovcrt

TLprjs, ri olop^eda dKovovaas vioiv ijjvxds irotitv,

oaroL €V(f)V€Ls Kal LKavol inl Trdvra rd Xeyojjieva

wdTTcp €.TTL7Tr6jX€VOi (TvXXoyLaaadai ef avrcbv,

B TTOLOS TIS dv (X)V Kal TTJ] TTOpevdcls TOV ^LOV Ol? dptara SUXdoi; Xeyot yap dv e/c tojv clkotcov

TTpos avTov /card IltVSapot' eKclvo to

» Iliad, ix. 4.97 ff. adapted. * S/xadov, lit. noise, hubbub, babel, here contemptuous.

There is no need of the emendation dp/jLadov. Cf. infra 387 a, and Kern, Orphicorum Fragmenta, p. 82 ; cf. John Morley, Lit. Studies, p. 184, " A bushel of books."

" Cf. Laws 819 b. " Cf. Unity of Plato's Thought, p. 25: "His (Plato's)

imagination was beset by the picture of some brilliant young

134

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK II

Homer as a witness to the beguiling of gods by men, since he too said :

The gods themselves are moved by prayers. And men by sacrifice and soothing vows. And incense and libation turn their wills Praying, whene'er they have sinned and made trans-

gression. ^

And they produce a bushel ^ of books of Musaeus and Orpheus, the offspring of the Moon and of the Muses, as they affirm, and these books they use in their ritual, and make not only ordinary men but states believe that there really are remissions of

sins and purifications for deeds of injustice, by means of sacrifice and pleasant sport <^ for the living, and that there are also special rites for the defunct, which they call functions, that deUver us from evils in that other world, while terrible things await those who have neglected to sacrifice.

VIII. " Wliat, Socrates, do Ave suppose is the effect of all such sayings about the esteem in which men and gods hold \irtue and \ice upon the souls that hear them, the souls of young men who are quick-witted and capable of flitting, as it were, from one expres- sion of opinion to another and inferring from them all the character and the path whereby a man would lead the best life ? Such a youth <* would most hkely put to himself the question Pindar asks, ' Is it by

Alcibiades standing at the crossways of life and debating in his mind whether his best chance of happiness lay in accept- ing the conventional moral law that serves to police the vulgar or in giving rein to the instincts and appetites of his own stronger nature. To confute the one, to convince the other, became to him the main problem of moral philosophy." Cf. Introd. x-xi ; also " The Idea of Good in Plato's Republic," p. 214..

135

PLATO

TTorepov Slko. reZ)(os vifjiov

7] CKoXials airdrais

ava^as /cat ifxavTOv ovtco 7T€pL(f)pd^ag Stasia); ra fxev yap Xeyo/xeva St/caio) fxev ovri pLoi, idv fXT] Kai hoKU),^ 6(f>€Xos ovSev (f>aaLV elvai, ttovovs

oe Koi ^-qpLLas (f)av€pds' aSi/coj Se 86^av SLKaioavvrjs

7TapacrK€vauap.€va) OeaTreuLos ^iog Xeyerai. ovkovv,

C €7T€LSrj TO 8oK€LV, COS Sr^AoUCTl [JLOL ol aO(f)Ol,, /Cat rdv dXddeiav ^tarat /cat Kvptov evSaifxovias, €7rt

TOVTo Srj rpcTTriov oXojs' rrpoOvpa p-kv /cat crxrjp-o.

kvkXo) TTepl ifxavTov aKiaypa<f>iav dp^rrjs Trepi-

ypaTTTeov, ttjv Se rov aocfxjjTdrov 'Ap;^tAd;(ou

dXa)7T€Ka IXktIov i^OTTiadev K€pSaXeav /cat ttolklXt^v.

dXXd ydp, ^Tjai rig, ov pdhiov del Xavddveiv

KaKov ovra. ovhe ydp aAAo ovBev evrrereg,

D (f)'qaop,eVy Ta>v p,€ydXcov' aAA' dpujos, et /xeAAo^Ltev ev^aipLOvrjaeiv, ravrrj Ireov, cu? ra t-X^ ''"^^

XoycDV (f>ipei. cttI ydp to Xavddveiv ^vvcop.oaias

T€ /cat iraipeias avvd^op,ev, elai re Treidovs 8t-

hdoKaXoi ao(f)Lav SrjfjL-qyopLK-qv re /cat SLKavtKrjv

SiSovres, e^ (I>v rd [xev TTeiaop^ev, rd Se ^taaop,eda,

o)? TrXeoveKrovvres Slktjv p,rj Sihovat. dXXd orj

deovs ovre XavOdvetv ovre ^idaaaOai Svvarov.

OVKOVV, el jxev pLrj elaiv rj p,7]8ev avrols tcov av-

^ eav 117) Kal doKui] cf. Introd. xlix. ^ai' Kai fir} 5okGi would,

unless we assume careless displacement of the Kai, mean " if I also seem not to be (just)."

<» (pavipa fTjjLtj'a is familiar and slightly humorous. Cf. Starkie on Aristoph. Acharn. 737.

* Simonides, Fr. 76 Bergk, and Eurip. Orest. 236.

136

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK II

justice or by crooked deceit that I the higher tower shall scale and so hve my life out in fenced and guarded security ? ' The consequences of my being just are, unless I likewise seem so, not assets,'^ they say, but habilities, labour and total loss ; but if I am unjust and have procured myself a reputation for justice a godlike life is promised. Then since it is ' the seeming,' as the wise men * show me, that ' masters the reality ' and is lord of happiness, to this I must devote myself without reserve. For a front and a show <= I must draw about myself a shadow- outline of virtue, but trail behind me the fox of the most sage Archilochus,** shifty and bent on gain. Nay, 'tis objected, it is not easy for a wTong-doer always to lie hid.* Neither is any other big thing facile, we shall reply. But all the same if we expect to be happy, we must pursue the path to which the footprints of our arguments point. For with a view to lying hid we will organize societies and political clubs,/ and there are teachers of cajolery' who impart the arts of the popular assembly and the court-room. So that, partly by persuasion, partly by force, we shall contrive to overreach with impunity. But against the gods, it may be said, neither secrecy nor force can avail. Well, if there are no gods, or they

" A Pindaric mixture of metaphors beginning with a portico and garb, continuing with the illusory perspective of scene- painting, and concluding with the crafty fox trailed behind.

^ Cf. Fr. 86-89 Bergk, and Dio Chrysost. Or. 55. 285 R. KepSaXfav is a standing epithet of Reynard. Cf. Gildersleeve on Find. Pyth. ii. 78.

' Cf. my review of Jebb's " Bacchylides," Class. Phil., 1907, vol. ii. p. 235.

^ Cf. George Miller Calhoun, Athenian Clubs in Politico and Litigation, University of Chicago Dissertation, 1911.

' Lit. persuasion. Cf. the definition of rhetoric, Gorg. 453 a.

137

PLATO

E 9pco7TLV(jov /xe'Aet, ovS'^ rjfui' fjieXrjTeov rod Xavddveiv el 8e etcrt re /cat einixeXovvrai, ovk dXXoOev rot

avTovs tcT^iev rj dKr]K6afjiev ^ €K re tcov Xoywv /cat TCOV yeveaXoyqadvTOJV ttoitjtcov' ol 8e aurot

ovTOC XeyovGLv, (vs elalv otot dvaiais t€ /cat

ev)(a)XaLS dyavfjai /cat dvaO-q^xaai Trapdyeadat

auaTTeLOofievof otg r] dfxcfiOTepa -^ ovSerepa Tret-

crreov el S' ovv ireioreov, dSt.Kr]T€OV Kal dvreov

366 CLTTO Tcjv dSiKrjjjLdrcDV. Si/catot fiev yap ovres a^Ty/xtoi VTTo decbv iaofxeda, rd S' e^ dSt/ctaj KepSrj aTTCoaopLeda' aSt/cot 8e Kephavovp^ev re /cat

Xtacjofievoi inrep^alvovres /cat dpiaprdvovreg Tret-

^om-e? ayroi)? a^7]/xtot aTraAAa^OjU-ev'. aAAa yap ei' "AtSou SiKrjv hdxTopLev atv dv evddhe dSt/ojcrcD/xev,

r) avrol -q TratSe? Traihojv. dXX d> (f>lXe, <j)rjaei Aoyt^o/xevo?, at reAerat av peya hvvavrai^ /cat ol

B Auatot 0€ot, to? at fieyicrrat TToXets Xeyovat /cat ot ^ecup' TratSej, TTOirjral /cat 7Tpo(f>rjrai, rojv 6ea>v

yevopievoL, ot ravra ovrcas ex^iv p,-qvvovacv.

IX. Kara rtVa ovv en Xoyov BLKatoavvrjv av TTpo pLeyiarrfg dSt/ctas" alpoLp,ed^ dv; 7]V eav per

evaxT^poavvqs Kt^hr^Xov KriqawpeOa, /cat Trapa

deals /cat Trap' dvOpwTTOis npd^opev Kara vovv

^djvres re /cat reXevriijaavres, d)s 6 rcov ttoAXiov

^ ov5' q: Kai A. This is the simplest and most plausible text. For a possible defence of Kai cf. Introd. p. xlix.

^ aB fi^ya. SvfavTai : A omits.

" For the thought compare Tennyson, " Lucretius" :

But he that holds The Gods are careless, wherefore need he care Greatly for them ?

Cf. also Eurip. J.A. 1034-1035, Anth. Pal. x. 34. * €/ Verres' distribution of his three years' spoliation of

138

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK II

do not concern themselves with the doings of men, neither need we concern ourselves with eluding their observation." If they do exist and pay heed, we know and hear of them only from such discourses and from the poets who have described their pedigrees

.

But these same authorities tell us that the gods are capable of being persuaded and swerved from their course by ' sacrifice and soothing vows ' and dedications. We must believe them in both or neither. And if we are to believe them, the thing to do is to commit injustice and offer sacrifice from the fruits of our wrong-doing. ** For if we are just, we shall, it is true, be unscathed by the gods, but we shall be putting away from us the profits of injustice ; but if we are unjust, we shall win those profits, and, by the importunity of our prayers, when we trans- gress and sin we shall persuade them and escape scot-free. Yes, it will be objected, but we shall be brought to judgement in the world below for our un- just deeds here, we or our children's children. ' Nay, my dear sir,' our calculating friend "^ will say, ' here again the rites for the dead<^ have much efficacy, and the absolving di\inities, as the greatest cities declare, and the sons of gods, who became the poets and prophets *

of the gods, and who reveal that this is the truth.' IX. " On what further ground, then, could we prefer

justice to supreme injustice .'' If we combine this with a counterfeit decorum, we shall prosper to our heart's desire, with gods and men, in life and death, as the words of the multitude and of men of the highest Sicily, Cic. In C. Verrem actio prima 14 (40), and Plato, Lairs 906 c-d, Lysias xxvii. 6.

* His morality is the hedonistic calculus of the Protagora$ or the commercial religion of " other-worldliness."

* For these TtXerai c/. 365 a. * Or rather " mouthpieces."

139

PLATO

re /cat aKpcov Xeyo^evos Xoyog. e/c Srj ttolvtcov

Tcov elp-Qfievcvv ris iJLr])(^avrj , c5 ILajKpares, St/cato-

C avmrjv np^av ideXcLv, a> ti? hvvayns VTrdpx^i tjjvx'rjs T] ;^/37y/xaTa>v 7} acLpLaros ri yevovs, dXXa p,rj yeXdv €7TaLvovp,ev'qg aKovovra; cu? S17 TOi ei ns ex^i ipevhi] fiev d7TO(f)rjvai d elp-qKap^ev, LKavoJs 8e eyv(OK€v on dpiOTOv SiKatoavvrj , TToXX-qv ttov avyyvojp.rjv ex^L /cat OVK opyi^erat rols aSt/cots', aAA' olSev, on ttXtjv et ns deia (f)va€i hvax^po-ivoiv TO dhiKelv r) €7nar'qp,rjv Xa^d)V dirix'^TCii avrov,

D TUiv ye (lAAcov ouSet? eKcjv St/caios", dAA' utto ai'av'Spta? "^ yrjpojs rj tlvo? dXXrjs dadeveia^ ipeyei

TO dSi/cetr, dSvvarcJov avro Spav. cos Se, SrjXov

o yap TTpdJrog tojv tolovtcvv els Svvapav eXdojv TTpdjTos dSiKel, Kad^ ocrov dv olos t' 7y. /cat tovtojv

dnavTCov ovSev ctAAo atrtov iq eKelvo, odevirep

airas 6 Xoyos ovros ojp[XT]ae /cat rcpSe /cat ep.oi

npos oe, & YidiKpares , el-neXv, on, c5 Oavpdaie, E TTavTcov vp,cov, oaoi eiraiveTaL <^are SLKaioavvrjs

elvai, drro tcov e^ dpXTJS rjpcocov dp^djjievoL, ocrojv

XoyoL AeAet/x^eVot, P'^XP^ '^^^ ^^^ dvdpcoiTCDU

ovSels TTioTTOTe eifje^ev dSt/ctav ouS' eTT-pveae

hLKaLoavvTjv dXXcos rj Sofa? re /cat Tipds /cat

Sojpeds Tcts" aTr' aurojv yiyvopbivas' avTO 8

eKaTepov ttj avTOV Swdpet ev ttj tov exovTos fpvxfj evov /cat Xavddvov deovs Te /cat avOpayrrovs

oySet? TTcoTTOTe out^ ev TTOi-qaei ovt* ev IhioLS XoyoLS

erre^rjXdev LKavdjs tco Xoyco, (hs to pev p,eytaTOV

KaKOiv oaa laxei ^^xh ^^ o-^tjj, SiKaLocrvvr] 8s

367 peyiCTTOv dyadov. el yap ovtcos eXeyeTO e'f dpx^js

« Aristoph. Clouds 1241. " Cf. Gorg. 492 a.

140

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK II

authority declare. In consequence, then, of all

that has been said, what possibility is there, Socrates, that any man who has the power of any resources of mind, money, body, or family should consent to honour justice and not rather laugh" when he hears her praised ? In sooth, if anyone is able to show the falsity of these arguments, and has come to know with sufficient assurance that justice is best, he feels much indulgence for the unjust, and is not angry with them, but is aware that except a man by inbgrn_di\'inity of his nature disdains injustice, or,4javing won to knowledge, refrains from it, no one else is willingly just, but that it is from lack of manly spirit or from old 4ge.or some other weakness '' that men dispraise injustice, lacking the power to practise it. The fact is patent. For no sooner does such an one come into the power than he works injustice to the extent of his ability. And the sole cause of all this is the fact that was the starting-point of this entire plea of my friend here and of myself to you, Socrates, pointing out how strange it is that of all you self-styled advocates of justice, from the heroes of old whose discourses survive to the men of the present day, not one has ever censured injustice or commended justice otherwise than in respect of the repute, the honours, and the gifts that accrue from each. But what each one of them is in itself, by its own inherent force, when it is within the soul of the possessor and escapes the eyes of both gods and men, no one has ever adequately set forth in poetry or prose—the proof that the one is the greatest of all evils that the soul contains within itself, while justice is the greatest good. For if you had all spoken in this way from the beginning and from our youth up

141

PLATO

VTTO TTavTCov vfjLoJv Kai €K v4iov rjfids eTTetOere, ovk av dXXrjXovs e^vXarTOjxev [xtj dSiKelv, dAA' avros

aVTOV rjv eKaarog dpiaros (f)vXa^, SeStcb? /xt) dSiKcov Ta> fieyiGTW KaKO) ^vvolkos

fj. ravra, c5 Soj-

KpaTes, tacos Be /cat ert TOVTotv ttAcio) Qpaavfxaxos re /cat aAAo? ttov tls vrrep SiKaioavinjs re /cat

dSt/cia? Xeyoiev dv, pi€Taarp€(f)Ovres avrolv rrjv

BvvafiLV, (f)opT(,KCi>s, (x)S ye fiot So/cet* dAA' eyo),

B ovBev yap ae 8eo/xai dTTOKpuTTTecrdat, aov eTndvp.a)V aKovaat ravavria, ws BvvafiaL jxaXiaTa Karareivas Xeyo). fjLTj ovv r^plv fxovov euBet^rj r<2) Xoyco, on hiKaioavvrj dSt/ctaj Kpelrrov, dXXd ri TTOtovaa CKarepa rov e^ovra avrrj 8i' avrrjv 7] fiev KaKov,

7] he dyadov eart,' rds Be Bo^ag d(^aipei, oioirep VXavKUiv BieKeXevaaro. el yap fxrj dtpaip-qaeig eKarepojdev rag dXr^Oeis, rag Be ipevBels TrpoadiqaeLs,

oi) TO BiKaiov (f)t^aoiJLev erraivelv ae, dXXd to BoKelv,

C ovBe TO dBiKov elvai, ifieyeLV, dXXd to BoKeiv, /cat napaKeXeveaOai dBiKov ovra Xavddvetv, Kal opuo-

XoyeZv Qpa<TviJ.d)(a), OTt, to fiev BiKaiov dXXorpiov

dyadov, ^vpL(f)epov tov KpeiTTOvos, to Be oBlkov

avTO) p.ev ^vficjiepov Kal XvcrireXovv, rco Be rjTTOVL

d^vix<^opov. eTreiBr] ovv d)iioX6yqaas tcov fxeyLOTajv

dyadwv etvai BiKacoavvqv, d tcov re dTTO^aLvovTCov dn* avTOJv eveKa d^ca KeKTrjadai, ttoXv Be jxaXXov

avrd avTCov, olov dpav, dKoveiv, (jypovelv, /cat

D vyiaiveiv Bri, /cat oai* dXXa dyaOd yovifxa ttj av- TCJbv (f)V(jei dAA' ov Bo^jj eari, tout' ovv avTO

€7Talveaov BiKaioavvrjg, o avTT] St avr-qv rov

<• Cf. supra 363 e. " Cf. supra 343 c. • Adam's note on ydvtfxa : i.q. yvTiaia is, I think, wrong.

142

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK II

had sought to convince us, we should not now be guarding against one another's injustice, but each

would be his own best guardian, for fear lest by working injustice he should dwell in communion with the greatest of evils." This, Socrates, and perhaps even more than this, Thras}'Tnachus and haply another might say in pleas for and against justice and injustice, inverting their true potencies, as I beheve, grossly. But I—for I have no reason to hide anything from you—am lapng myself out to the utmost on the theory, because I wish to hear its refutation from you. Do not merely show us by argument that justice is superior to injustice, but make clear to us what each in and of itself does to its possessor, whereby the one is e\il and the other good. Biit do away with the repute of both, as Glaucon urged. For, unless you take away from either the true repute and attach to each the false, we shall say that it is not justice that you are praising but the semblance, nor injustice that you censure, but the seeming, and that you really are exhorting us to be unjust but conceal it, and that you are at one with ThrasjTiiachus in the opinion that justice is the other man's good,*" the advantage of the stronger, and that injustice is advantageous and profitable to oneself but disadvantageous to the inferior. Since, then, you have admitted that justice belongs to the class of those highest goods which are desirable both for their consequences and still more for their own sake, as sight, hearing, intelligence, yes and health too, and all other goods that are productive " by their very nature and not by opinion, this is what I would have you praise about justice—the benefit which it and the harm which

143

PLATO

e^ovTa ovLvqcTC Kat dSiKia ^XaTrrei' fxiadovg 8e /cai Sd^aj Trapes a'AAots' iTraivelv. <x)s iyo) ru)v

fxev aXXcvv dvacr)(OLfi,rjv dv ovrcos iTTatvovvrcov

SiKatoavvrjv Kal ipeyovTcov dSiKLav, Sofa? re irepl avTcbv Kat fxicrdovg iyKco/jiia^ovrcov Kal XoiSopovv-

roWy GOV Se ovk dv, el [jltj av KeXeuoig, Slotl E TTavra tov ^iov ovhkv aAAo gkottcov hieX-qAvOas t)

TOVTO. pLTj OVV T^flLV evSei^Tj flOVOV TO) XoyCp , OTL

SiKaioavvT] dSiKtas Kpelrrov, dAAa /cat ri TTOiovaa CKarepa tov exovra avrrj 8t' auTT^v, edv re XavOdvrj

eav re jxr) deovs re Kal dvdpwTTOvs, r) fiev dyadov,

rj Se KaKov eanv. X. Kai iydi dKovaas del ptev St] rrjv <j>vaLV rov

re VXavKcovos Kal rov ^ASetpidvrov rjydpLrjv, drdp

368 OVV Kat, rore Ttdw ye rjaO-qv Kal elirov Ov KaKcos et? vpidg, CO Tralhes eKeivov rov dvhpos, rrjv dpx^v rdjv eXeyeicov eiroL-qcrev 6 TXavKcovog epaarrjs,

evSoKtpi-qaavras irepl rrjv Meyapol /ia;^r/v, eiTTCov

TTtttSes ^ApLGTOjvos, KXeLvov deZov yevos dvBpog.

rovro pioi, c5 ^I'Aot, ev hoKel €X^t,v' Trdvv yap delov ireTTovdare, el pb-q TreTreiade dhiKiav SiKaioauvrjs

apiecvov etvat, ovra> Svvdpievoi elTrelv vrrep avrov.

B 8oKeire h-q p,oc d)S dXrjdcos ov TreTreladai. reK- pLaipopiai he eK rod dXXov rov vpieripov rpovov,

" Cf. infra 506 c. * Cf. my note in Class. Phil. 1917, vol. xii. p. 436. It does

not refer to Thrasymachus facetiously as Adam fancies, but is an honorific expression borrowed from the Pythagoreans.

' Possibly Critias, * Probably the battle of 409 B.C., reported in Diodor. Sic.

xiii. 65. Cf. Introd. p. viii. * The implied pun on the name is made explicit in 580 c-D.

144

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injustice inherently works upon its possessor. But tlie rewards and the honours that depend on opinion, leave to others to praise. For while I would listen to others who thus commended justice and dis- paraged injustice, besto\\'ing their praise and their blame on the reputation and the rewards of either, I could not accept that sort of thing from you unless you say I must, because you have passed your entire hfe ^ in the consideration of this very matter. Do not, then, I repeat, merely prove to us in argument the superiority of justice to injustice, but show us what it is that each inherently does to its possessor —whether he does or does not escape the eyes of gods and men—whereby the one is good and the other e\il."

X. While I had always admired the natural parts of Glaucon and Adeimantus, I was especially pleased by their words on this occasion, and said: "It was ex- cellently spoken of you, sons of the man we know,* in the beginning of the elegy which the admirer '^ of

Glaucon wTote when you distinguished yourselves in the battle of Megara •*

—

Sons of Ariston,' whose race from a glorious sire is god-like.

This, my friends, I think, was well said. For there must indeed be a touch of the god-like in your dis- position if you are not convinced that injustice is

preferable to justice though you can plead its case in such fashion. And I beUeve that you are really not convinced. I infer this from your general char-

Some have held that Glaucon and Adeimantus were uncles of Plato, but Zeller decides for the usual view that they were his brothers. Cf. Ph. d. Gr. ii. 1, 4th ed. 1889, p. 392, and Abhandl. d. Berl. Akad., 1873, Hlst.-Phil. Kl. pp. 86 ff.

VOL. I L 145

PLATO

eVei Kara ye avrovs tovs Xoyovs "qTrlarovv av v/jllv oaco Be fiaXXov TTtaTevo), roaovTco fxaXXov

aTTopco 6 Ti -)(piqaa)jiaf ovre yap ottco? ^oiqOa) e;^co* BoKO) yap [XOL dSuvaros elvai- cn^/Ltetov Se fiOL, on. a TTpog Qpaavfiaxov Xeycov u)p.rjv aTio^atvetv, d)S dfieivov hiKaLoavvT] dSt/ctas", ovk drreSe^aade jxov

OVT av OTTOJS piy] ^orjd-^aoj ep^Of SeSoi/ca yap, firj C ov8* OCTLOV 7) TrapayevojJLevov hiKaioavvr] KaKrjyopov-

p-evrj anayopeveLV /cat jxtj ^oiqdeiv en epurveovra Kal Svvdfxevov <j)deyyea6aL. Kpdncrrov ovv ovtojs

oTTCos Swa/xat emKovpelv aurfj. 6 re ovv TXavKcjv

Kal ol aXXoL eheovTO Travrl rpoTrcp ^orjdrjaai Kal

firj aveivaL rov Xoyov, dXXd hiepewTqaaaQaL n re eoTLv eKdrepov Kal Trepl rrjs co^eAeta? avTolv

rdX-rjOes rrorepcDS exet. eLTTOV ovv onep efiol eSo^ev,

on To ^-qTTjiJLa a> eTTixetpovfiev ov (f)avXov dAA' D o^v pXenovTos, (VS ep.ol ^aiverai. e-neihri ovv

Tjnels ov SetvoL, SoKel fxoL, -^v 8' eyo), roLavrrjv

TTOLTiaaadai t^rjrrjaiv avrov, otavrrep dv el irpoaera^e

ns ypafx/xara apuKpd Troppojdev dvayviovai firj TTavv o^v ^XeTTOvaiv, eTreird ns evevoiqaev, on rd avrd ypdfxixara ean ttov Kal dXXodi pieil^co re koX ev fJLet^ovL, epfiaiov dv e(f>dvr], ot/xai, eKeZva

irpcbrov dvayvovras ovrcos emaKOTTelv rd eXdrTW, el rd avrd ovra rvyxdvei. Haw fiev ovv, e^r) 6

E 'ASeifiavTos' dXXd tL tolovtov, to HwKpares, ev rfj Trepl to hiKaiov ^qT'^aei Ka6opq.g; 'Eyco aot,

e(f)7]v, epw. SiKaioavvq, ^a/^eV, ean jiev dvBpos evos, ean. 8e ttov Kal dXr]g TToXeixts; Yldvv ye, rj 8' OS. OvKovv /xet^ov TToXis evos dvSpos; Met^oi',

« So Aristot. Eth. Nic. i. 2. 8 (1094 b 10).

146

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acter, since from your words alone I should have

distrusted you. But the more I trust you the more I am at a loss what to make of the matter. I do not know how I can come to the rescue. For I doubt my abiUty for the reason that you have not accepted the arguments whereby I thought I proved against Thrasymachus that justice is better than in- justice. Nor yet again do I know how I can refuse to come to the rescue. For I fear lest it be actually impious to stand idly by when justice is resiled and be "famt^heaTted "and cot defend her so long as one has breath and can utter his voice. The best thing, then, is to aid her as best I can." Glaucon, then, and the rest besought me by all means to come to the rescue and not to drop the argument but to pursue to the end the investigation as to the nature of

each and the truth about their respective advantages. I said then as I thought : " The inquiry we are undertaking is no easy one but calls for keen \ision, as it seems to me. So, since we are not clever persons, I think we should employ the method of search that we should use if we, with not very keen vision,~^ere- bidden to read small letters from a distance, and then someone had observed that these same letters exist elsewhere larger and on a larger surface. We should have accounted it a godsend, I fancy, to be allowed to read those letters first, and then examine the smaller, if they are the same." " Quite so," said Adeimantus ; *' but what analogy to this do you detect in the inquiry about justice ?

"

" I will tell you," I said : " there is a justice of one man, we say, and, I suppose, also of an entire city?" " Assuredly," said he. " Is not the city larger " than the man ? " " It is larger," he said. " Then, per-

14.7

PLATO

ecf>r). "lacos Toivvv irXeioiv av StKaioavvr) iv rco

[xeL^ovi eveirj kol pacjv KarafxaOelv. el ovv

369 ^ovXeade, Trpcbrov iv rat? TToXeai ^rjT'^crcoiJiev

TTolov TL iuTLv eTTCtTa ovTCos eTTta/cei/faJ/xe^a /cat

€V evt eKaaro), ttjv tov fjiei^ovos ofjioiorrjra iv rfj Tov iXdrrovog tSea imaKOTTOVvres . 'AAAa /toi So/cet?, €(f>rj, KaXaJg Xeyeiv. ^Ap^ ovv, -qv 8' iyco,

€L yiyvofxivriv ttoXlv deaaatp^eda Xoyo), /cat Tr)V

SiKaioavvr^v avrijs 'iboLp,€v av yLyvop,€vrjv /cat Tqv

aSt/ctav; Ta;i^' av, rj 8' os. Ovkovv yevopiivov avTOv iXirlg evTreriarepov tSetv o t,r]rovp.€v;

B rioAu ye. Ao/c€t ovv xp'^^o-i- e77t;^etp7jcrat Trepalveiv

;

oipuai pbkv yap ovk oXiyov epyov avro elvac GKOTTeZre ovv. "Ecr/ceTTTat, e^ry d ASelpiavTOS'

dXXa p,7j dXXcos TTOiei. XI. Tlyverai roivvv, tJv 8' eyco, ttoAis', ojs

iyippLaL, iTreihy] rvyxdveL rjpLcJov eKaaros ovk

avTapKrjg, dXXd ttoXXcov ivSe-qg' iq tlv* otet ap)(r]V dXXT]v ttoXlv OLKLl,eiv; OvSepLLav, i) 8' 6s. Ovtco

C Sr] dpa TTapaXapL^dvcov aAAo? aAAov in* dXXov, TOV 8' ctt' aAAou xP^^^^t TToXXdJv 8e6p,evot, ttoXXovs

els piiav olkt^civ dyeipavres kolvcovovs re Kal

^oTjdovs, ravTTj rfj ^vvotKia idepLeda ttoXlv ovop,a.

rj ydp; Yidvv p.ev ovv. MeTa8tS6DCTt hrj dXXos dXXo), et Tt pLerahihcoaiv, rj pLeraXapL^dvei , OLop,evos

avTcp dpieivov elvai. Ildvv ye. "16l Si], -qv 8'

iyw, Tip Xoyo) i^ ^PXV^ 7Tot(bp,ev noXcv. TTOi-qaei

" Lit., coming into being. Cf. Introd. p. xiv. So Aristot. Pol. i. 1 , but iv. 4 he criticizes Plato.

^ " C'est tout reflechi." " Often imitated, as e.g. Hooker, Eccles. Pol. i. 10

:

*' Forasmuch as we are not by ourselves sufficient to furnish

148

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK II

haps, there would be more justice in the larger object and more easy to apprehend. If it please you, then, let us first look for its quahty in states, and then only examine it also in the individual, looking for the likeness of the greater in the form of the less." " I think that is a good suggestion," he said. " If, then," said I, " our argument should observe the origin " of a state, we should see also the origin of justice and injustice in it ? " " It may be," said he. " And if this is done, we may expect to find more easily what we are seeking ? " " Much more." " Shall we try it, then, and go through with it ? I fancy it is no slight task. Reflect, then." " We have reflected,* " said Adeimantus ; " proceed and don't refuse."

XI. "The origin of the city, then," said I, "in my opinion, is to be found in the fact that we do not severally suflice for our own needs,*^ but each of us lacks many things. Do you think any other prin- ciple establishes the state ? " " No other," said he. " As a result of this, then, one man calling in another for one service and another for another, we, being in need of many things, gather many into one place of abode as associates and helpers, and to this dwelling together we give the name city or state, do we not .'' " " By all means." " And between one man and another there is an interchange of giving, if it so happens, and taking, because each supposes this to be better for himself." " Certainly." " Come, then, let us create a city from the beginning, in our

ourselves with a competent store of things needful for such a life as our nature doth desire . . . therefore to supply these defects ... we are naturally inclined to seek communion and fellowship with others ; this was the cause of men uniting themselves at first in civil societies."

149

PLATO

D ov; AAAct fxr^v Trpcor-q ye /cat fieyLcrrr] roJv p^peicDt' T] TTJs Tpo<f)rjs rrapaoKevrj rod elvai re Kal t,fjv €V€Ka. HavraTTaai. ye. Aevrepa Srj oLK-qaecos, rpiTTj Se iadijros Kal rcbv tolovtcov. "Eart ravra. Oepe St^, -^v S' iyo), ttcos tj ttoXis apKeaet, irrl Toaavrr]v TrapaaKevrjv ; aXXo t6 yeojpyog fiev ets, 6 8e OLKoSofios, aXXos 8e' tls ix/xivrr]?; 7} /cat aKVTOTopLOV avToae Trpoad-qaofiev rj tiv* aX\ov rcbv Trept ro acofjia depairevTiqv ; \iavv ye. Etry

8 av * q ye dvayKaiordrr] ttoXls e'/c reTrdpojv rj

E rrevre dvSpcov. (I>atVeTat. Tt 817 ow; eVa e/ca- aroi^ TovTiov Set to ayrou epyov aTraat koivov Kararidevai, olov rov yecopyov eva ovra napa- OKevdl^eiv <jLria rerrapai /cat TerpanXdcnov xpdvov re /cat ttovov dvaXioKeiv errl oirov TrapaaKevfj, /cat

dWoLs KoivcoveZv; -q d/xeX-qaavra eavraj fxovov 370 reraprov [xepog TTOieZv rovrov rov airov ev rerdprcp

fiepeL rov xpovov, rd 8e rpta, ro p.ev €7tI rfj rrjs OLKias TrapaaKevfj hiarpi^eiv, ro 8e Ip-arlov, ro

8e vTToSrjiJidrcov, Kal fir) dXXois Koivoivovvra

TrpdyjJLara ^X^^^> ^'^ avrov 8t' avrov rd avrov TTpdrreiv; Kal 6 *A8etyu.avT0? ecjirj 'AAA' tcrcDS',

c3 HcoKpares, ovrco paov r) 'Ketvcog. OuSeV, rju 8' eyo), /Jid At droTTOv. evvod) ydp Kal avros elrrovros aov, on rrpdJrov fiev (f)verat, eKaaros ov

B ndvv dfjioios e'/cao-TOj, aAAci 8ta0ep6uv rrjv (f>vaLv, dXXog €77 dXXov epyov rrpd^LV. rj ov 80/cet aoi;

" Aristotle says that the city comes into being for the sake of life, but exists for the sake of the good life, which, of course, is also Plato's view of the true raison d'etre of the State. Cf. Laws 828 d and Crito 48 b.

* It is characteristic of Plato's drama of ideas to give this 150

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK II

theory. Its real creator, as it appears, will be our needs." "Obviously." " Now the first and chief of our needs is the provision of food for existence and life."" "Assuredly." " The second is housing and the third is raiment and that sort of thing." " That is so." " Tell me, then," said I, " how our city will suffice for the provision of all these things. Will there not be a farmer for one, and a builder, and then again a weaver ? And shall we add thereto a cobbler and some other purveyor for the needs of the body ? " " Certainly." " The indispensable minimum of a city, then, would consist of ibur or five men." " Apparently." " What of this, then ? Shall each of these contribute his work for the common use of all ? I mean shall the farmer, who is one, provide food for four and spend fourfold time and toil on the production of food and share it with the others, or shall he take no thought for them and provide a fourth portion of the food for himself alone in a quarter of the time and employ the other three- quarters, the one in the provision of a house, the other of a garment, the other of shoes, and not have the bother of associating vrith other people, but, himself for himself, mind his o\\ti affairs } " ^ And Adeimantus said, " But, perhaps, Socrates, the former way is easier." " It would not, by Zeus, be at all strange," said I ; " for now that you have mentioned it, it occurs to me myself that, to begin ^vith, our several natures are not all alike but different. One man is naturally fitted for one task, and another for

kind of rhetorical advantage to the expression of the view that he intends to reject. In what follows Plato anticipates the advantages of the division of labour as set forth in Adam Smith, with the characteristic exception of its stimulus to new inventions. Cf. Introd. xv.

151

PLATO

"E/Ltotye. Tt Se; rrorepov kolXXiov Trpdrroi av rig els cov rroXXas Te^vas ipyal,6fi€vos, rj orav /Litav' ety; Urav, r] d 09, ei? /iiav. AAAa /xtjv, oi/xai, /cai ToSe S77A0V, cu?, eai' ti? tij/o? Trapiy

epyov Kaipov, SioXXvrai. ArjXov yap. Ov yap, oljJLai, ideXei ro TTparropievov ttjv rov Trpdrrovros a)(oXrjv TTeptfieveiv, dXX' dvdyKrj rov Trpdrrovra

C ra> TTpaTTopceva) erraKoXovOelv fxri iv napepyov fiepei. 'AvdyKT). 'E/c §17 rovrcvv irXeioi re eKacrra

yiyverai /cat KdXXiov Kal paov, orav els ev Kara (f>vaiv /cat iv Kaipa>, axoXrjv ribv dXXojv dyoiv,

TTpdrrrj. WavrdTTO.ai p-kv ovv. WXeiovcov hrj, tS

'ASetjuavre, Set ttoXltiJjv -^ rerrdpiov eVt rds napaoKevdg wv eXeyop,ev 6 yap yecopyos, d)S eoiKev, ovK avros TTOiiqcrerai eavrco ro dporpov, el pLeXXei

P KaXov elvai, ovSe (Tp,Linjrjv ovSe rdXXa opyava oaa V^pl yewpyiav owS' av 6 olkoSojjlos- ttoXXcov Se Kttt rovrcp Set" (Laavrcos S' o V(f)dvr7]s re /cat o

aKvror6p.os. ^AX7]drj. TeKroves Srj Kal ;^aA/C7y9 /cat roiovroL rives ttoXXol hrjpiovpyol, kolvcovoI

"fjpuv rod ttoXlxvlov yiyvop^evoi, avxvov avro TTOlOVaiV. UdvV p,€V ovv. 'AAA' OVK dv TTO) Ttdw ye peya ri etrj, 01)8'' et avrols ^ovkoXovs re Kal iroip-evas rovs re dXXovs vopeas rrpoadelpev,

E tva OL re yewpyol em ro dpovv e^oiev ^ovs, ol re oIkoSoj-col rrpos rds dya)yds perd rdJv yecopywv )(pT]a9ai VTTot,vyiOLs, ixfydvrat Se /cat OKvroropLoi

Se'p/xaCTt re Kal epiois. Ovhe ye, -q 8' os, ap.iKpd TToAtj av eirj exovaa irdvra ravra. 'AAAa p-y]v, rjv 8' eyoi, /carot/cto-at ye avrrjv rrjv ttoXiv els roLOvrov rorrov, ov eTreiaaycxyyipoiv p,r) Se-qaerai,

^ ov5' add. Hermann: it Is better but not indispensable. 152

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK II

another. Don't you think so ? " "I do." " A^ain, would one man do better working at many tasks or one at one ? " " One at one," he said. " And, fur- thermore, this, I fancy, is obvious—that if one lets shp the right season, the favourable moment in any task, the work is spoiled." " Obvious." '" That, I take it, is because the business will not wait upon the leisure of the workman, but the workman must attend to it as his main affair, and not as a by-work." " He must indeed." " The result, then, is that more things are produced, and better and more easily when one man performs one task according to his nature, at the right moment, and at leisure from other occupations." " By all means." " Then, Adeimantus, we need more than four citizens for the provision of the things we have mentioned. For the farmer, it appears, will not make his ovvTi plough if it is to be a good one, nor his hoe, nor his other agricultural implements, nor will the builder,who also needs many ; and similarly the weaver and cobbler." "True." "Carpenters, then, and smiths and many similar craftsmen, associating themselves with our hamlet, will enlarge it considerably." " Cer- tainly." " Yet it still wouldn't be very large even if we should add to them neat-herds and shepherds and other herders, so that the farmers might have cattle for ploughing," and the builders oxen to use with the farmers for transportation, and the weavers and cobblers liides and fleeces for their use." " It wouldn't be a small city, either, if it had all these." " But further," said I, " it is practically impossible to estabhsh the city in a region where it will not

" Butcher's meat and pork appear first in the luxurious citj', 373 c. We cannot infer that Plato was a vegetarian.

153

PLATO

a^eBov TL dSvvaTov. ^ASvvarov ydp. Ylpoaherjoei

dpa eVt Kal dXXcov, ot e^ dXXr]s TToXecos avrfj KOfxiaovGLV Sv Selrai. Ae^aet. Kat firjv k€v6s dv LT] 6 SiaKovos, jjLTjSev dyoiv a>v CKelvoi, Seovrat,

371 Trap' J)v dv KoiiLt,o)VTaL a)v dv avrois xp^^^^t kcvos

dveicnv. rj yap; Ao/cet juot. Act St) rd o'Ikol p,rj fxovov iavrois TTOieiv iKavd, dXXd /cat ota /cat oaa eKeivois d)v dv Secovrai. Act ydp. UXeiovcov St] yeoipyCi)v re /cat tcov dXXcov SrjjjiiovpydJv Set

rjpXv rfj TToAet. HXeiovcov ydp. Kat Srj Kal rdjv dXXo)v ScaKovcov ttov tcov re elaa^ovrcov Kal i^-

a^6vra>v eKaara' ovroi he elaiv epLiropoi' rj ydp;

Nat. Kat ifiTTopuyv Srj Berjaofxeda. Hdvu ye. Kai idv fiev ye Kara ddXarrav r^ cfXTTopia yLyvrjTai,

B avxvdJv Kal dXXcov TrpoaSe-qaeTai tcov imaTrjfjLOvcov TTJs TTepl TTjV ddXaTTOv ipyaaias. Y^vxvdyv /xeWot.

XII. Tt Se St^ iv avTjj ttj 77oAet; ttcos dXXijXoLS

p,€Ta8co(TovcrLV Sv dv cKaaTOL ipydl,ci}VTai ; cLv 8rj eVe/ca /cat KoivcMviav TTOiriadpLevoi ttoXlv cpKtaa-

fxev. ArjXov Si^, ^ 8' os, otl ttcoXovvtcs Kal (LvovfxevoL. ^Ayopd Srj rjpLV Kal v6pnap.a ^u/x- ^oXov Trjs aAAay^j eVe/ca yej^TJcrerat e'/c_ tovtov.

C Ilavi; pL€v ovv. "^Kv ovv /co/xtaa? o yecopyog els TTjv dyopdv Ti cLv TTOtet, ri rt? a'AAos' Tchv Srjfjitovpycov,

fjirj els Tov avTov XP^^^^ V'^V T'ots' Seo/ieVots Ta

Trap* avTOV dXXd^aodai, dpyiqaei ttjs avTov

hripuiovpyias KaOijp^evos ev dyopd; OvSap^cbg, ^

S' OS, dAA' etCTtP" ot TOVTO opdJvTes eavTovs eirl

TTjv SiaKoviav TaTTOvai TavTrjv, iv p,ev Tois

opddJs oiKovpievaLs rroXecrL ax^Sov ti oi dadeve-

" Aristotle adds that the medium of exchange must of itself have value {Pol. 1257 a 36).

154

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK II

need imports." " It is." " There will be a further need, then, of those who will bring in from some other city what it requires." " There will." " And again, if our ser\itor goes forth empty-handed, not taking with him any of the things needed by those from whom they procure what they themselves require, he will come back \vith empty hands, will he not ?

"

" I think so." " Then their home production must not merely suffice for themselves but in quality and quantity meet the needs of those of whom they have need." " It must." So our city will require more farmers and other craftsmen." " Yes, more." " And also of other ministrants who are to export and import the merchandise. These are traders, are they not ?

"

" Yes." " We shall also need traders, then." " Assuredly." " And if the trading is carried on by sea, we shall need quite a number of others who are expert in maritime business." " Quite a number."

XII. "But again, within the city itselfhow will they share with one another the products of their labour ? This was the very purpose of our association and estabhshment of a state." " Obviously," he said, " by buying and selling." " A market-place, then, and money as a token " for the purpose of exchange will be the result of this." " By all means." " If, then, the farmer or any other craftsman taking his products to the market-place does not arrive at the same time with those who desire to exchange with him, is he to sit idle in the market-place and lose time from his own work ? " " By no means," he said, " but there are men who see this need and appoint themselves for this service—in well-conducted cities they are generally those who are weakest ^ in body

* Similarly Laws 918-920.

155

PLATO

araroL to, CTco/xara /cat dxp^toC tl aAAo epyov TTparreiv. avrov yap Set fxevovrag avrovs Trepl

D Ty]v dyopav ra [xev dvr apyvptou dXXd^aadaL rots' Tt Seo/jLCVOLS a7To8oa9ai, rots Se dvrl av dpyvpiov StaAAarreit', ocrot tl Seovrat Trpiaadai. Avtt]

dpa, rjv 8' iyo), rj XP^^^ Kam^Xcov rjyuv yiveaiv

ifMTTOiet TTJ TToAet. ^ ov KaTT-qXovs KaXovfxev TOVS TTpos (hv^v T€ /cat TTpdauv BtaKovovvras ISpVfxevovs

iv dyopa, rovg Se TrAat^ra? CTrt rds TroAet?

ifjLTTopovs ; Ildvu fxev ovv. "Ert 817 rtves, (hs

€yd)jj.ai, eicn Kat aAAot 8ta/covot, ot dv rd [xev rrjs

E ScavoLas fJi'q Trdvv d^toKotvdovrjroc wat,, ttjv 8e rov Gwixaros taxvv iKavrjv ctti tovs ttovovs exoiaiv

ot S-q vcoXovvres ttjv ttjs: laxvos xP^'-^^> '''V^ rLp,r)v ravTTjv /jbicrdov KaXouvres, /ce/cAi^vrat, d)s

iycajxaL, paaQcorot,' rj yap; Udvv /xcv ovv. IIAr^- pcofia Srj TToXed)^ eLOLV, d)S eot/ce, /cat jJnadcoroL.

Ao/cet fxoL. 'Ap' ovv, CO Aheijxavre, TJSrj 'qfxlv

rjv^rjrai, rj ttoXis, ojgt etvai reXea; "locos. Hov ovv dv 7TOT€ iv avTjj elrj rj re St/catocrun^ /cat rj

dSiKia; Kttt TtVi dp,a eyyevojievr] cLv icTKefifieda;

372 'Eyco fiev, €(f)r), ovk ivvodj, c3 Sco/cpare?, et fJLt^ TTOV iv avrcvv tovtcxjv XP^'-^ ''"'^^ ''"fj '^P'^S dXXr^Xovs.

'AAA' 'iacos, rjv 8' iyco, KaXcos Xiyeis' /cat oKeTTreov

ye /cat ouk arroKvrjriov. rrpwrov ovv aKeipcLfxeda,

Tiva rpoTTOv SiaiTTJaovrai ol ovrcx) rrapeoKevacrpiivoL.

dXXo TL -q alrov re rroLovvres /cat otvov /cat lp,dria

/cat VTroS'ijixara, /cat olKoSo/Jt-ricrdpievoi oiKias,

depovs jJiev rd rroXXd yv/xvoi re /cat dvvTToSrjroi

ipydoovrai, rod he x^'-P^djvos rip.^Leap.evoi re /cat

" Aristotle {Pol. 1354 b 18) says that those, the use of whose bodies is the best thing they have to offer, are by nature 156

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK II

aiid those who are useless for any other task. They must wait there in the agora and exchange mc^ey tor goods A^-ith those who wisli to sell, and gooris for money ynih as many as desire to buy." " This need, then," said I, " creates the class of shopke epers in our city. Or is not shopkeepers the namo we give to those w'ho, planted in the agora, serve us-

in buying and selling, while we call those who roam from city to city merchants ? " " Certainly." " And there are, furthermore, I believe, other servitors who in the things of the mind are not altogether worthy of our fellowship, but whose strength of body is sufficient for toil ; so they, selUng the use of this strength and calling the price wages, are designated, I believe, wage-earners, are they

not?" "Certainly." " Wage-earners, then, it seems, are the complement that helps to fill up the state."" " I think so." " Has our city, then, Adeimantus, reached its full growth and is it complete ?

"

" Perhaps." " Where, then, can justice and injustice be found in it ? And along with which of the con- stituents that we have considered does it come into the state ? " "I cannot conceive, Socrates," he said, " unless it be in some need that those very constituents have of one another." " Perhaps that is a good suggestion," said I ; "we must examine it and not hold back. First of all, then, let us consider what will be the manner of life of men thus provided. Will they not make bread and wine and garments and shoes ? And they \\'ill build themselves houses and carry on their work in summer for the most part unclad and unshod and in ^\inter clothed slaves. Cf. Jesus of Sirach xxxviii. 36 avtv avrQv ovk oiKiadriTeTai 7r6Xt?. So Carlyle, and Shakespeare on Caliban

:

"We cannot miss him " {Tempest, i. ii.) 157

PLATO

B VTTohehe^iivoL LKavoJs; OpiifsovTai Se e/c f.L€V tCiv Kpldfiv aX(f)tTa aKeval,6iievoL, ck 8e riJbv TTvpwv

aXevpfl, TO. p-kv Trei/javre?, ra 8e p.a^avr€s, fMal^as

yevvai'-o-S Kal dprovg eVt Ka\ap.6v riva Trapa-

^aXXSfJi^voi -^ (f)vXXa Kadapd, KaraKXivevres ctti

aT'~p(iSa)v iarpcoixevoiv pLiXaKc re /cat fxvppLvais,

evojxf]<^ovTaL avroi re Kai rd TxatSta, eTrnnvovTe^ rov oLVov, eaTe(f>avcoijLevoL Kal vpLVovvres tovs

deovs, "qSecog ^vvovres aAAT^Aoi?, ovx vrrkp rr]v

C ovaiav TToiovpievoi rovs TToiSas, evXa^ovp.evoi. Treviav tj TToXep-ov;

XIII. Kat o VXavKOiv inroXa^cov, "Avev oifsov,

€(f>r], d)S eoiKag, notels rovs dvSpag eaTLajp.evovg.

AXrjdrj, rjv 8' iyd), Xeyeis. eTreXadopuqv on Kal oipov e^ovoLv dXas re St^Aoj^ on Kal e'Aaa? /cat rvpov Kal ^oX^ovg /cat Xd)(ava, ota Srj iv dypotg eifjrjp^ara, eip-qaovraL' Kal rpay-qp-ard ttov rrapa-

dtjaofxev avTols rcov re q-vkcov Kal ipe^ivdcov Kal

D Kvdp,cov, Kal p.vpra /cat (f>r]yovs ctttoSioucti tt/do? to TTvp, p.€Tpi(jos VTTOTTLvovreg- Kal ovTco Si,dyovTes

Tov ^Lov iv elpy^vr) pierd vyieiag, wg elKog, yrjpaiol reXevrdJvres dXXov tolovtov ^lov toi? eKyovoig

TTapaScoaovaiv. Kal os, Et 8e vcov ttoXiv, co Jlco-

Kpares, ^^^, KareoKevat^es, ri dv avrds dXXo rj

ravra exopral,eg ; 'AAAa tto)? XPV> V^ ^' ^y^> ^

TXavKCov; "Anep vop-H^erai, €<^rf eVt re kXlvwv KaraKeladai, ot/xat, rovg pueXXovras p.-?) raXanTUi-

E peladaiy Kal aTro rpane^ajv SetTTvelv Kal oipa drrep Kal ol vvv exovai Kal rpayrjpLara. Etev, rjV 8'

" 6\j/ov is anj-thing eaten with bread, usually meat or fish, as Glaucon means ; but Socrates gives it a different sense.

''

Cf. Introd. p. xiv. By the mouth of the fine gentleman, 158

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK II

id shod sufficiently ? And for their nourishment they 'v^ill provide h^eal from their barley and flour

from their wheat, abd kneading and cooking these

they \\ill serve noble cakes and loaves on some arrangement of reed?^ or clean leaves, and, rechned

on rustic beds strewii -with bryony and myrtle, they vri\\ feast with their children, drinking of their wine

thereto, garlanded ar,(l singing hymn? to the gods in pleasant fellowship, no^ '-'-orpttinjr offspring beyond their means lest they fall into poverty or war ?

"

XIII. Here Glaucon broke in: " No relishes " appar- ently,"he said, " forthe menyou describe asfeasting." " True," said I ; " I forgot that they will also have

relishes—salt, of course, and olives and cheese ; and onions and greens, the sort of things they boil in the countr}', they will boil up together. But for dessert we ^^^ll serve them figs and chickpeas and beans, and they will toast myrtle-berries and acorns before the fire, washing them do>\'n A\ith moderate potations ; and so, living in peace and health, they wll probably die in old age and hand on a hke life to their offspring." And he said, " Ifyou were founding a city of pigs,* Socrates, what other fodder than this would you provide .'' " " Why, what would you have, Glaucon ? " said I, " What is customary," he rephed; " they must rechne on couches, I presume, if they are not to be uncomfortable, and dine from tables and have made dishes and sweetmeats such as are now

Glaucon, Plato expresses with humorous exaggeration his own recognition of the inadequacy for ethical and social philosophy of his idyllic ideal. Cf. Mandeville, Preface to Fable of the Bees :

A golden age must be as free For acorns as for honesty.

159

PLATO

eyu), fxavddvco- ov ttoXiv, cos ^olk€, OKOTToufjiev

fxovov OTTOis ylyverai, aXXa Kf^l Tpv(f)coaav ttoXlv. icrws ovp ovSe Aca/cajj c;\;ei- crKOTrovvres yap /cat TOLavT7]v Tax* ^^ KarihoLfxev t"'^v t€ SiKaioavvrjv Kat, aSiKLav otttj ttotc rals Trv'^Aecrii/ ificfjuovraL. r)

fX€v ovv aXvidiVT] ttoXls So','^€t /ACH et^at rjv 8t-

eXrjXvda[jL€v, J>aTnsp vyi-qs ris ' ei S' av ^ovXeade Kai (jjXeyjjiaLVOvcTov 7T6X^\,^<.ajp'qa(jt)fi€v, ovbeu drro-

373 KcoXvei. ravra yap Sij riaiv, a)s So/cet, ouk i^- apKeaei, ov8 avr-q rj hiaira, dXXd KXlvai re irpoa- euoprai Kal rpaTve^at Kai TtlAAa OKevrj, Kal oijja 8r)

/cat fxvpa /cat dvfiLafiaTa /cat eralpai Kal TTefji/jLara,

e/caCTTa Tovra>v TTavroSaTrd' /cat Stj /cat a to

TTpcJTOv eXeyofiev ovkctl to. dvayKala OcTeov, ot/cta? re /cat t/xarta /cat VTTohrjpLaTa , dXXd Tiqv t€ t,ojypa(f>iav Kivi^reov /cat Trjv iroLKLXiav^ Kal ^pvaov

Kai €X4(f)avTa Kai TrdvTa ra rotaura ktt]T€ov. -^ ydp;

B Nat, e<j)rj. OvKovv jjiei^ovd t€ av Trjv ttoXiv Set TTOieZv; €K€Lvr] ydp 7] vyieivr] ovkctl CKavq, dAA' rjSrj oyKov e/XTrAijcrrea /cat rrXT^dovg, a ou/cert tov dvayKaiov eveKd iaTLV ev Talg TToXeacv, olov ot re

drjpevral TrdvTes, ot re fiifi-qrai, ttoXXoI /xev ot Trepl

ra o'X'^P'Ctrd re Kal ;)(pdj/>taTa, TroAAot 8e ot Trepl

^ Kai TTiv iroLKiXLav 11 : A omits.

" On flute-girls as the accompaniment of a banquet cf. Symp. 176 e, Aristoph. Ach. 1090-1092, Catullus 13. 4. But apart from this, the sudden mention of an incongruous item in a list is a device of Aristophanic humour which even the philosophic Emerson did not disdain : " The love of little maids and berries."

* TO. dvayKala predicatively, " in the measure prescribed by

160

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK II

use." " Good," said I, " I understand. It is r merely the origin of a city, it seems, that we • considering but the origin of a luxurious city, rhaps that isn't such a bad suggestion, either. r by observation of such a city it may be we could

v.ii-cem the origin of justice and injustice in states. The true state I believe to be the one we have described—the healthy state, as it were. But if it is your pleasure that we contemplate also a fevered state, there is nothing to hinder. For there are some, it appears, who will not be contented with this sort of fare or ^\'ith this way of life ; but couches will have to be added thereto and tables and other furniture, yes, and rehshes and mjTrh and incense and girls " and cakes—all sorts of all of them. And the requirements we first mentioned, houses and garments and shoes, will no longer be confined to necessities,* but we must set painting to work and embroidery, and procure gold and ivory and similar adorimients, must we not ? " " Yes," he said. " Then shall we not have to enlarge the city again ? For that healthy state is no longer sufficient, but we must proceed to swell out its bulk and fill it up with a multitude of things that exceed the requirements of necessity in states, as, for example, the entire class of huntsmen, and the imitators,*^ many of them occupied with figures and colours and many with music—the neccssitj'." Cf. 369 d " the indispensable minimum of a city." The historical order is: (1) arts of necessity, (2) arts of pleasure and luxurv, (3) disinterested science. Cf. Critiaa 110 a, Aristot. Met. 981 b 20.

' dripevrai and /xifi-riTai are generalized Platonic categories, including much not ordinarily signified by the words. For a list of such Platonic generalizations cf. Unity of Plato's Thought, note 500.

VOL. I M 16

1

PLATO

fiovaiKT^v, TTOLTjrai T€ /cat TovTcov VTTTjpeTai, paijj-

ojSot, VTTOKpnai, ^(opevrai, ipyoXd^oi, oKevoiv re

C TTavToSaTTOJV SrjfXLovpyoL, tcov re dXXcov Kal tcov

TTcpl rov yvvaiKeiov Koapiov. Kal Sr) Kal SiaKovojv

ttXciovcov Serjaop-eOa. rj ov SoKel Sei^aeiv TratS-

aycoyaJv, tltBcov, rpocfxvv, KopLpbcoTpicov, Kovpemv,

Kat av oi/joTTOiojv re Kal pLayeipojv ; en 8e /cat

av^coTcbv TTpoaSerjaopLeda' rovro yap rjpuv iv rfj

TTporepa TroAet ovk ivrjv eSet yap ovSev iv Se

Tavrrj Kal tovtov TrpoaSe-^creL, Sei^aec Se /cat tcDp'

dXXcov Po(TKrjp,dTCOV irapiTToXXcjov , et ns avrd eSerat.

J) Tj ydp; Yld)s yap ov; Ovkovv Kal larpcov iv

XpeiaLs ia6p.e0a ttoXv p.dXXov ovrco hiaircLpievoi 'q

ws TO TTporepov; IToAu ye.

XIV. Kat T] X^P^ ""^^ ^ Tore iKavrj Tp€(f)eiv tovs

Tore ap^iKpd Srj i^ LKavrjs ecrraf t] ttojs Xiyop.ev;

OvTCOs, €<f)r]. Ovkovv rrjs tcov TrX-qoiov x(^po-s rjpuv

dTTorp^rjreov, et /xeAAo/zei' LKavrjv e^eiv vepueiv re

icai dpovv, Kal iKelvoig av rrjs rjixcTepas, idv Kal

iKcZvot d(j)d>aLV avrovs inl XPVP''^'''^^ Krijcnv

E aTTeipov, V7T€p^dvT€s rov TCOV dvayKaia)v opov;

WoXXrj dvdyKT], i(j>'i), to HwKpares. UoXep.'qaopiev

" Contractors generally, and especially theatrical managers. * The mothers of the idjllic state nursed their own children,

but in the ideal state the wives of the guardians are relieved of this burden by special provision. Cf. infra 460 d.

162

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK II

poets and their assistants, rhapsodists, actors, chorus- dancers, contractors "—and the manufacturers of all kinds of articles, especially those that have to do with women's adornment. And so we shall also want more servitors. Don't you think that we shall need tutors, nurses wet '' and dry, beauty-shop ladies, barbers " and yet again cooks and chefs ? And we shall have need, further, of s\%ineherds ; there were none of these creatures •* in our former city, for we had no need of them, but in this city there \vi\\ be this further need ; and we shall also require other cattle in great numbers if they are to be eaten, shall we not ? " " Yes." " Doctors, too, are something whose services * we shall be much more likely to require if we hve thus than as before ?

"

" Much." XIV. " And the territory, I presume, that was then

sufficient to feed the then population, from being adequate will become too small. Is that so or not ?

"

" It is." " Then we shall have to cut out a cantle' of our neighbour's land if we are to have enough for pasture and ploughing, and they in turn of ours if they too abandon themselves to the unlimited ^ acqui- sition of wealth, disregarding the limit set by our necessary wants." " Ine\itably, Socrates." " We

' The rhetoricians of the empire liked to repeat that no barber was known at Rome in the first 200 or 300 years of the city.

•* Illc^ical idiom referring to the swine. C/. infra 598 c. • XP"*'s ' Greek idiom could use either singular or plural.

Cf. 410 A ; Phaedo 87 c ; Imws 630 e. The plural here avoids hiatus.

' Cf. Isocrates iii. 34. ' Cf. 591 D. Natural desires are limited. Luxury and

unnatural forms of wealth are limitless, as the Greek moralists repeat from Solon down. Cf. Aristot. Politics 1257 b 23.

163

PLATO

TO fiera tovto, co TXavKcov; t] ttcD? ecrrai;

OuTCos, ^(l>f]- Kai firjSev ye ttco Xeyojjjiev, rjv 8 iyd), iirjT* ei ti KaKov fiiJT* el dyadov 6 TToXcfios epydt^erai, dAAa Tocrovrov yuovov, on TToXefiov av yeveaiv evp-qKa^iev, i^ (Lv fidXicrra rats noXeai /cat

tSi'a. Kal hrjuoata} /ca/ca yiyverai, orav yiyvriTai.

riai'D /xev ovv. "Ert 817, cS ^iXe, jxell^ovos rrjg tto-

374 Aeco? Set ovri afUKpw, dXX' oXo) aTparoirehco, o

e^eXdov vnep rrjg ovaias aTrdar^s /cat virep (Lv vvv

Srj eXeyojJLev Sta/xa;^etTat rots' eTTiovaiv. Ti 8e; 'q 8' OS" auTOt ov;^ LKavoi; Ouk, el av ye, rjv 8'

iyo), Kal rjp,els drravTes (hiioXoyqcTaiJLev KaXcos,

rjviKa eTrXdrrofiev rrjv ttoXiv (LjJioXoyovfiev 8e ttov,

el jxep-vrjaat, dSuvarov eva TToXXds /caAcD? epya-

^eoOaL Te^vas. ^AXrjdrj Xeyeig, e(f>r]. Tt ovv; "^v

B 8' iyo)' rj Trepl tov TToXejjiov aycovia ov re^^vLK'q SoKeZ elvai; Kal fidXa, €<f)r]. ^H ovv ti, GKVTiKrjs Set i^aXXov Kr'jSeadat. rj rroXejjiiKrjs ; OvSafjicog.

'AAA' dpa TOV p,ev aKVTOT6p,ov hieKOiXvop^ev p,'qTe

^ Kal idiq. Kai drj/aofflg. 11.

" The unnecessary desires are the ultimate cause of wars. Phaedo GQ c. The simple life once abandoned, war is in- evitable. " My lord," said St. Francis to the Bishop of Assisi, " if we possessed property we should have need of arms for its defence" (Sabatier, p. 81). Similarly that very dissimilar thinker, Mandeville. Cf. supra on 372 c. Plato recognizes the struggle for existence (Spencer, Data of Ethics, § 6), and the " bellum omnium contra omnes," Lnws 625 E. Cf. Sidgwick, Method of Ethics, i. 2 : " The Republic of Plato seems in many respects sufficiently divergent from the reality. And yet he contemplates war as a permanent, unalterable fact to be provided for in the ideal state." Spencer on the contrary contemplates a completely

164

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK II

shall go to war" as the next step, Glaucon—or what will happen ? " " What you say," he said. " And we are not yet to speak," said I, " of any evil or good effect of war, but only to affirm that we have further ^

discovered the origin of war, namely, from those things from which " the greatest disasters, public and private, come to states when they come." " Cer- tainly." " Then, my friend, we must still further enlarge our city by no small increment, but by a whole army, that will march forth and fight it out with assailants in defence of all our wealth and the luxuries we have just described." " How so ? " he said ; " are the citizens themselves "* not sufficient for

that ? " " Not if you," said I, " and we all were right in the admission we made when we M-ere moulding our city. We surely agreed, if you remem- ber, that it is impossible for one man to do the work of many arts well." " True," he said. " Well, then," said I, " don't you think that the business of fighting is an art and a profession ? " " It is indeed," he said. " Should our concern be greater, then, for the cobbler's art than for the art of war ? " " By no means." " Can we suppose,* then, that while we were evolved society in which the ethics of militarism will dis- appear.

* i.e. as well as the genesis of society. 369 b. " e^ (Lv : i.e. iK toutwv i^ Sjy, namely the appetites and the

love of money. '' Cf. 567 E TL 54 ; avT60ei>. In the fourth century " it was

found that amateur soldiers could not compete with pro- fessionals, and war became a trade" (Butcher, Demosth. p. 17). Plato arrives at the same result by his principle " one man one task " (370 a-b). He is not here " making citizens synonymous with soldiers " nor " laconizing " as Adam saj-s.

• For the thought of this afortiori or ex eontrario argument ef. 421 A.

165

PLATO

yeojpyov imx^ipelv elvaL ajxa fXTJre V(f)dvTrjv fXT^re OLKoSo/xov dXXa aKVTOTOfjiou,^ tva Sr) rjpXv to rrjg aKUTiKTJg epyov KaXibs yiyvoiro, kol tcov dXXcov evL eKaarco cocravrios ev dTTeSiSofJiev, npo? o i7Te(f>vK€t, eKacrros /cat icf)' S e/xeAAe rajv dXXcov

C axoXrjv dyojv 8ta ^iov avro ipya^ofxevos ov TTapieis rovs Kaipovs koXCj'S dTTepydl,eadaL- rd Se 017 Trepl Tov TToXejxov rrorepov ov nepl TrXeiarov eariv ev drrepyaadevTa; rj ovrco paStov, ware Kai yecopya)V rts" a/ia TToXejJLLKOs earai Kol

cfKVTOTOfMOJv Kai dXXrjp Texvqv tjvtivovv ipyal,6-

fxevos, TTerreuTLKOs Se r) Kv^evriKog tKavd)s owS' av eis yevoLTo pi-q avro tovto e/c TraiSos eTnrrj- oevojv, dXXd rrapepyo) ;^p66/xep'os"; /cat daviba piev

J) Xa^cbv rj Ti dXXo rdJv TToXepLiKcov oirXoiv re /cat opyauojv avd-qpiepov oTrXtTLKrjs t) tlvos dXXrjs p^d^rfS Tcov Kara TroXepiov iKavos earat dya>vi.aTi^s, tcjv oe dXXix)v opydvcov ovSev ovSeva SrjpiLovpyov ov8e dOXrjTTjv Xr](f)dev TTOitjaeL, ovB' earac ;^/37^CTtyLtoi' rep

pL7)T€ TTJV €771(7X7^pLTjV eKdoTOV Xa^OVTL jLlTJTe ry]V pLeXerrjv LKavrjv Trapaaxop-eva); YloXXov yap dv, ^ S' OS, rd dpyava rjv d^ta. XV. OuKovv, rjv S' eyco, oaco p^eytarov to twv

E (f)vXdKcov epyov, ToaovTcp axoXrjs re tiov dXXcov TrXeLaTrjs dv eirj Kai av Texvr]S re /cat e77t/ieAeta? pLeyiarrj's Seop-evov. Ot/xat eywye, rj 8' 6s. ^A/a'

^ dXXd aKHTOTo/xov II : not indispensable, and A omits.

" IVa drj ironical. * Cf. 370 B-c. ' The ironical argument ex contrario is continued with

fresh illustrations to the end of the chapter. " Cf. on 467 A.

166

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK II

at pains to prevent the cobbler from attempting to be at the same time a farmer, a weaver, or a builder instead of just a cobbler, to the end that" we might have the cobbler's business well done, and similarly assigned to each and every one man one occupation, for which he was fit and naturally adapted and at which he was to work all his days, at leisure * from other pursuits and not letting slip the right moments for doing the work well, and that yet we are in doubt whether the right accomplishment of the business of war is not of supreme moment ? Is it so easy <^ that a manwho is cultivating the soil will be at the same time a soldier and onewho is practising cobbhng or any other trade, though no man in the world could make himself acompetent expert at draughts or the dice who did not practise that and nothing else from childhood <* but treated it as an occasional business ? And are we to believe that a man who takes in hand a shield or any other instrument of war springs up on that very day a competent combatant in heavy armour or in any other form of warfare—though no other tool will make a man be an artist or an athlete by his taking it in hand, nor will it be of any service to those who have neither acquired the science* of it nor sufficiently practised themselves in its use ? " " Great indeed," he said, " would be the value of tools in that case !'"

XV. " Then," said I, " in the same degree that the task of our guardians » is the greatest of all, it would require more leisure than any other business and the greatest science and training." " I think so," said he.

• For the three requisites, science, practice, and natural ability cf. Unity of Plato's Thought, note 396, and ray paper on <I>iVtj. MeXerr/, 'ETritrT^^uT;, Tr. A. Ph. A. vol. xL, 1910.

* Cf. Thucyd. ii. 40. » First mention. Cf. 428 d note, 414 b.

167

PLATO

ovv ov KaL (f)va€cos iTnrrjSeias els avro to imTij-

oevfia; Ucijg S' ov; 'Idfierepov St] epyov av eirj,

CO? koLKev, e'lTTep oloi t' ecr/xeV, eKXe^aadai, rives

re KaL rroZai (jyvaeis eTnTT^SeLai elg TToXeojg (f)vXaK'qv.

Hfierepov pbivroi. Mo. Ata, fjv 8' eya», ovk dpa (jyavXov TTpdypLa r^pdpieda- o/xcos 8e ovk d77o8et-

375 Xtareov, oaov y dv Svvapiis TrapeLKrj. Ov yap ovv, ecfyf]- Otei ovv ri, ^v 8' eyd), hia^epeiv (f)vaiv yevvaiov uKvXaKos ets (f)vXaKrjv veaviaKov ev- yevovs; To ttoZov Xeyets; Olov o^vv re ttov Sei avroLv eKarepov elvai rrpos atadrjcrtv Kal eXa^pov

TTpos ro aladav6f.ievov BcwKdOeiv, Kal laxvpov av,

idv Ser) eXovra Sta/xap^eo-^at. Aet yap ovv, e^f], Trdvrojv rovrcov. Kat ixtjv dvhpeZov ye, etirep ev /jLaxeZrai. IlcD? 8' ov; 'ArSpeto? 86 etvai, dpa edeXrjaeL 6 jjct] dvfioeiSrjg e'ire Ittttos elre kvcov tj

B aAAo oriovv t^cbov; r) ovk evvevorjKas, d)S ajxaxov re KaL avLKrjrov dvfios, ov Trapovros ^v^r] irdaa

TTpos TTavra d(f)o^6s re earL Kal d'qrrrjros; Ei^-

vevo-qKa. To. fxev roivvv rod acofxaros olov Set rov

(f)vXaKa elvai, SrjXa. Nat. Kat fjLrjv Kal rd rrjs fpvx'rjs, OTL ye dvpLoeLSij. Kat rovro. IT a)? ovv, rjv 8' eyd), & VXavKOiv, ovk dypLOL dXXrjXoLS re eaovraL KaL rots dXXoLs TToAtrats", dvres tolovtol

rds (jivaeLs; Ma Ata, rj 8' ds, ov paSlcos. 'AAAa C fievroL 8et ye Tvpos piev rovs oIkclovs irpdovs avrovs

" aiadavd/xevov : present. There is no pause between per- ception and pursuit.

* In common parlance. Philosophically speaking, no brute is brave. Laches 196 d, infra 430 b.

* Anger (or the heart's desire ?) buys its wUI at the price of life, as Heracleitus says (Fr. 105 Bywater). Cf. Aristot. Eth. Nic. 1 105 a 9, 1 1 16 b 23.

168

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK II

" Does it not also require a nature adapted to that very pursuit ? " "Of course." " It becomes our task, then, it seems, if we are able, to select which and what kind of natures are suited for the guardianship of a state." "Yes, ours." " Upon my word," said I, " it is no light task that we have taken upon our- selves. But we must not faint so far as our strength allows." " No, we mustn't." " Do you think," said I, " that there is any difference between the nature of a well-bred hound for this watch-dog's work and that of a well-born lad ? " " What point have you in mind ? " "I mean that each of them must be keen of perception, quick in pursuit of what it has apprehended," and strong too if it has to fight it out with its captive." " Why, yes," said he, " there is need of all these qualities." " And it must, further, be brave * if it is to fight well." "Of course." "And will a creature be ready to be brave that is not high-spirited, whether horse or dog or anything else ? Have you never observed what an irresistible and invincible thing is spirit,*^ the presence of which makes every soul in the face of everything fearless and un- conquerable } " " I have." " Tlie physical qualities

of the guardian, then, are obvious." "Yes." "And also those of his soul, namely that he must be of high spirit." " Yes, this too." " How then, Glaucon," said I, " will they escape being savage to one another <* and to the other citizens if this is to be their nature ? " " Not easily, by Zeus," said he. " And yet we must have them gentle to their friends

' Cf. Spencer, Psychology § 511: "Men cannot be kept unsympathetic towards external enemies without being kept unsvmpathetic towards internal enemies." For what follows cf. Dio Chrys. Or. i. 44 R., Julian, Or. ii. 86 D.

169

PLATO

eii^at, irpog 8e tows' TToXefxiovs xciAe77oys" et 8e ju-"*?,

ov TTepifxevovatv dXXovs a(f)ds StoAe'crai, dAA' aurot

<f)6rjaovTaL avTO Spdaavreg. 'AXr]dT], €(f)r]. Tt ow, •^t' 8' eyco, TTOL-qcrofjiev ; TtoOev dfia Ttpdov /cat

fjLeyaXoOvixov rjOos evp-qaofiev ; evavria yap ttov dvpLoeLhel Trpaela (f)vais. OatVerat. 'AAAa fievTOi

TOVTOiv oTTOTcpov dv areprjTaL, 0uAa^ dyaOos ov

fiTj yevqraf ravra 8e dSvvdrois €oiK€, kol ovroi

D 817 ^v/jL^aLvet, dyadov ^uAa/ca aSwaroi^ yeviadai. ¥s.Lvhvvevei, €(/)r]. /cat eyct) dTToprjaas re /cat ctti-

aKeifjdfjLcvos rd efnrpoadev, At/catco? ye, i^v 8' eyc5,

c5 0iAe, dnopovp^ev rjs ydp rrpovdefieda cIkovos

a7T€XeL(f>drjixev. Ilais" Aeyets; Ovk ivon^aajxev, on etoti' apa (fyvaets, olas rjixels ovk (h'q6r]p,€v, exovaai rdvavria ravra. Y\.ov h-q; "ISoi pbkv dv ris /cat

iv aAAot? ^wots", ov /xeW ai^ rJKicrra iv co 'qpiels

E TTape^dXKopLev rep (f)vXaKt. olada ydp ttov rojv yevvatcDV kvvcov, on rovro (fyvaei avrcov ro "^dog, TTpos pLcv rovs avvT^deis re /cat yvcopijxovs co? oiov

re TTpaordrovs elvat,, Trpos 8e rovs ayvcoras

rovvavriov. Ot8a fievroi. Touto jxev dpa, rjv 8

iyco, Svvarov, /cat ov Trapd ^vaiv t;r]rovpLev roiov-

rov elvai rov (f)vXaKa. Ovk eoiKev. XVI. ^Ap' ovu aoL So/cet eVi rou8e TrpoaSeiadai o

(fjvXaKiKOs eaop.evo'S, Trpos rep 6vp.oei,SeL en Trpoa- veveadai (f)iX6ao(j>os rrjv (fyvaiv; YidJs hiq^ ; €(f>r]' ov

^ 5rj q: others 5e' or ye.

" The contrast of the strenuous and gentle temperaments is a chief point in Platonic ethics and education. Cf. Unity 0/ Plato's Thought, nn. 59, 70, 481.

170

V THE REPUBLIC, BOOK II

and harsh to theirenemies ; otherwise they ^^'ill not await their destruction^aT the hands of others, but will be first themselves in bringing it about." " True," he said. " What, then, are we to do ? " said 1 " Where shall we discover a disposition tJiat is at / once gentle and great-spirited ? For there appears to be an opposition * between the spirited type and the gentle nature." " There does." " But yet if one lacks either of these qualities, a good guardian he never can be. But these requirements resemble impossibilities, and so the result is that a good guardian is impossible." " It seems hkely," he said. And I was at a standstill, and after reconsidering what we had been saying, I said, " We deserve to be at a loss, my friend, for we have lost sight of the comparison that we set before ourselves.* " " What do you mean ? " " We failed to note that there are after all such natures as we thought impossible, en- dowed with these opposite qualities." " WTiere ?

"

" It may be observed in other animals, but especially in that which we Ukened to the guardian. You surely have observed in well-bred hounds that their natural disposition is to be most gentle to their familiars and those whom they recognize, but the contrary to those whom they do not know." " I am aware of that." " The thing is possible, then," said I, " and it is not an unnatural requirement that we are looking for in our guardian." " It seems not." X\T. " And does it seem to you that our guardian-

to-be will also need, in addition to the being high- spirited, the further quahty of ha\ing the love of wisdom in his nature ? " " How so ? "^ he safdT " r3on't

* Plato never really deduces his ai^ument from the imagery which he uses to illustrate it.

171

PLATO

376 y^P €wou). Kat tovto, ^v 8' iyo), iv toXs Kval KaTotpei, o /cat a^iov Oavfidarai rov drjpiov. To TToiov; Ov fiev dv tSr) dyvcoTa, ;(aAe77atVei, ovSev oe KaKov TTpo7T€7T0vdcos^ • OV S' dv yva)pL[xov, daird- ^erai, Kav fjirjSev TTcvrrore vtt* avrov dyadov ttc- TTOvdrj. Tj OV7TCO TOVTO eOaufxaaag; Ov Trdvv, €cf)r], fi^xpi- TOVTOV 7rpo(jea-)(ov tov vovv otl Se ttov Spa TavTa, SrjXov. 'AA,\a firjv KOfxijjov ye (j^aiveTai to

B nddos avTOV Trjg cfivaeojs /cat d>s dXrjOiog ^i\6ao<j>ov

.

Yifj hri; *"Ht, Tjv S' eyo), oijjLv ovSevl aAAoi ^iXrjV

/cat ixdpdv Sta/cptVet, rj tw ttju [xev KaTafxadelv, Trjv 8e dyvoTJaai' KaiTot ttcos ovk dv ^iXoyiaOes e'irj, avveaet re /cat ayvoia 6pLl,6fX€vov to re ot/cetov /cat

TO dXXoTpiov; OySa/xcDs", ^ S' o?, ottcos ov. AAAa fievTOL, €LTrov iyo), to ye cfjiXofxades /cat (f)iX6ao(f)ov TavTov; TavTOV ydp, e(f)r). Ovkovv 6appovvT€s Tidayfiev /cat iv dvdpcoTrcp, el fxeXXei

C TTpos Tovs OLKeiovs /cat yvcopipLOVs Trpdos tls eaeaOai, (fivaei ^iX6ao(j)ov /cat (j)iXofxadrj avTov Selv

etvai; Tidoj/JLev, e(f)-Q. OtAoao^o? §17 /cat dvfxoeLSrjs /cat Tail's /cat taxvpog rjfiXv ttjv c^vaiv earat o

fieXXajv KaXos Kdyados ecreadai (f)vXa^ TToXeojs; WavTdiTaai fxev ovv, ^.^i)' Ovtos piev Srj dv ovtcos VTrdpxoL' dpeifjovTai. he Srj rjfuv oStoi. /cat TratSeu-

^ wpoireiroi'0d)s 11.

" (piXocro^ov : etymologically here, as a;s dXrjOQs indicates. " Your dog now is j'our only philosopher," says Plato, not more seriously than Rabelais (Prologue): " Mais vistes vous oncques chien rencontrant quelque os meduUaire: c'est comme dit Platon, lib. ii. de Rep., la beste du monde plus philosophe." Cf. Huxley, Hume, p. 104 : "The dog who barks furiously at a beggar will let a well-dressed man pass him without opposition. Has he not a ' general idea ' of rags and dirt associated with the idea of aversion?" Diimmler 172

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK II

aj)prehend your meaning." " This too," said I, " is something that you will discover in dogs and which is worth our wonder in the creature." " What ? " " That the sight of an unknown person angers him before he has suffered any injury, but an acquaintance he will fa^vn upon though he has never received any kindness from him. Have you never marvelled at that ? " "I never paid any attention to the matter before now, but that he acts in some such way is obvious." " But surely that is an exquisite trait of his nature and one that shows a true love of wisdom."

"

" In what respect, pray ? " " In respect," said I, " that he distinguishes a friendly from a hostile aspect by nothing save his apprehension of the one and his failure to recognize the other. How, I ask you,'' can the love of learning be denied to a creature whose criterion of the friendly and the alien is intelligence and ignorance ? " " It certainly cannot," he said. " But you will admit," said I, " that the love of learning and the love of wisdom are the same ?

"

" The same," he said. " Then may we not confidently lay it down in the case of man too, that if he is to be in some sort gentle to friends and familiars he must be T)y nature a lover of wisdom and of learning ?

"

"Let us so assume," he replied. " The love ofwisdom,- then, and high spirit and quickness and strength will be combined for us in the nature of him who is to be a good and true guardian of the state," " By all means," he said. " Such, then," I said, "would be the basis'' of his character. But the rearing of and others assume that Plato is satirizing the Cynics, but who were the Cynics in 380-370 b.c. ?

* Kairoi TTws : humorous oratorical appeal. Cf. 360 c kolltol. * Cf. 343 E. v-irdpxoi marks the basis of nature as opposed

to teaching.

173

PLATO

diqaovTai, riva rpoirov; /cat dpd rt TTpovpyov 'qplv

D iarlv avTo aKo-novai irpos to KariSelu, ovirep eVe/ca TtdvTa GKOTToujjLev, hiKaioavvrjv re /cat aStKtav' rtVa

rpoTTOv €V TToAet ytyj^erat; tva jxrj iwjxev iKavov

Xoyov ^ avxvov Ste^tco/xev. /cat o tou VXavKoivo^

d8eX.(f)6g riai'U fiev ovv, €(f)rj, eyayye TrpoahoKO)

TTpovpyov elvai et? tovto ravrrjv ttju aid^Lv. Ma Ata, riv 8' €y(xj, a) <f)i\€ ^ASeifxavre, ovk dpa a<j>eTeoVy ouS' et jxaKporepa rvyxd-vet ovaa. Ov yap ovv. Idi ovv, (jjairep iv jjivdu) /xvOoXoyovvres

E re /cat axoXrjv dyovreg Xoycp TraLSevcofiev tovs dvSpas. 'AAAa XPV- XVII. Ti? ovv Tj TTatSeta; ^ ;;^aAe7roi' evpelv

^eXrio) TTJg. vtto rov ttoXXov xP^^^^ €vpr][ji€vr]<;;

eoTL Se TTOV rj jxev CTrt acofiaai yvfMvaarcKTJ , r] 8'

67rt ^vxfi pLovaiKiq. "Ectti ydp. ^Ap' ovv ov fxovai-

KTJ TTporepov dp^ofieda TraiSevovrcs "^ yvixvaoTLKfj

;

ricDs" 8' ov; Moucri/c^S' 8' etVaji'^ Ti6r]g Xoyovs, 17 ou; "Eya;ye. Aoycoi' 8e 8tTToi' elSos, to /tev

dXrjdes, ijjevSos 8' erepov; Nai. Ylaihevreov 8'

377 ei' dpi<j)orepois, TTporepov 8' et" toi? i/jevSecnv; Ov fiavddvo), €(f)r), ttws Aeyet?. Oi) [xavddvei?, rjv 8

eyco, OTt TTpdJrov rols Traihiois fivOovg Xeyofiev,

TOVTO 8e TTOV d)5 TO oXoV €LTT€lv ifjCvSoS, €Vl 8e /Cttt

^ etTrd)!' All : elTroy v.

" Cf. Introd. pp. xxi-xxii, and Phaedr. 276 e. '' Plato likes to contrast the leisure of philosophy with the

hurry of business and law. Cf. Theaetet. 172 c-d. " For the abrupt question cf. 360 e. Plato here prescribes

for all the guardians, or military class, the normal Greek education in music and gymnastics, purged of what he considers its errors. A higher philosophic education will prepare a selected few for the office of guardians par excellence

174

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK II

these men and their education, how shall we manage that ? And ^vill the consideration of this topic advance us in any way towards discerning what is the object of our entire inquiry—the origin of justice and injustice in a state—our aim must be to omit

thing of a sufficient discussion, and yet not to \y it out to tiresome length ? " And Glaucon's

rother rephed, "Certainly, I expect that this in-

quiry will bring us nearer to that end." " Certainly,

then, my dear Adeimantus," said I, " we must not abandon it even if it prove to be rather long." " No,

must not." " Come, then, just as if we were hng stories or fables" and had ample leisure,* let

us educate these men in our discourse." " So we must." -f[ -%., i'

.

* .

XVII. "WTiat, then, isour education?" Orisithard to find a better than that which long time has dis- covered ? "* Which is, I suppose, gymnastics for the body * and for the soul music." " It is." "And shall we not begin education in music earUer than in g}"m- nastics?" "Ofcourse." "Andundermusicyou include tales, do you not ? " "I do." " And tales are of two species, the one true and the other false ? " " Yes." " And education must make use of both, but first of the false ' ? " "I don't understand your meaning." " Don't you understand," I said, " that we begin by telhng children fables, and the fable is, taken as a or rulers. Quite unwarranted is the supposition that the higher education was not in Plato's mind when he described the lower. Cf. il2 a, 429 d-430 c, 497 c-d. Unity of Plato's Thought, n. 650.

* For this conservative argument cf. Politieus 300 b. Lores 844 a.

• Qualified in 410 c. fiowiK-f) is playing the lyre, music, poetry, letters, culture, philosophy, according to the context.

' A slight paradox to surprise attention. 175

PLATO

aXrjOr}; -npoTepov Se fivOoi? rrpos ra Traihia r^ yvjxvaaiois y^pojixeda. "Ectti ravra. Tovro 8r) eXsyov, OTL fiovcnKrjg Trporepov aTrreov rj yvfxva-

(TTiKrjg. OpOoiSy ^(j^V-

OvKovv olad* on o.pXV TTavTos epyov pbeyiarov, dXXoJS re Srj /cat via) Kal

B airaXcp otcoovv; ixaXiaTa yap hr] tot€ TrXdrreTai Kai ivSverai tvttos, ov dv rt? ^ovXrirai ivarjpL-q-

vaadai eKaarco. Ko/miStj /xer ovv. ^Ap' ovv paSlcos

ovTCo Trapiqaoixev rovs eTnrvxovras vtto raJv ein-

rv^ovrajv jxvdovs TrXaadevrag aKovecv rovs TralSas Kal Xafx^dv€LV iv rals i/jvxcus OJS evrt to ttoXv

evavTiag Bo^as eKelvaig, a?, iTretSdv reXeoidwaiv,

ex^i-v olrjGOfxeda Selv avTovs; OuS' oTTioarLOVv TTaprjaofjiev. Ylpcorov Sr) 7jfx.lv, (Ls eoiKev, €7Tt-

C crraTTjrdov tols pLvOoTToiols, /cat ov fxev dv KaXoi TTOLrjacoaiv, eyKpireov, ov 8' dv puf^, aTTOKpiriov

Tovs 8' eyKpiOevras Treiaopiev rag Tpocf)ovs re /cat

pLT^Tepas Xeyeiv toZs Traial /cat TtXarreLV rds tfivxds avTcjv rots pvdoig ttoXv pbaXXov ^ ra acjpara rals X^pcTLV, u)v 8e vvv XeyovoL rovs ttoXXovs eK^Xr^reov.

Iloioys' 87^; i(f>'f]- 'Eiv roLs pieit^oaiv, rjv 8' iyd),

pLvdois oijjopiGda Kal rovs eXdrrovg. 8et yap 817 rov avrov rvTTOv etvat Kal ravrov Svvaadai rovs t€

D p,€L^ovs Kal rovs iXdrrovs. 17 ovk o'Ul; "Eycoy',

" Cf. Laws 753 E, 765 e, Antiphon, fr. 134 Blass. ' Cf. Laws 664: b, and Shelley's

" Specious names Learned in soft childhood's unsuspecting hour,"

perhaps derived from the educational philosophy of Rousseau. * The image became a commonplace. Cf. Theaetet. 191 d,

Horace, Ep. ii. 2. 8, the Stoic Tvirucm (v \pvxv, and Byron's " Wax to receive and marble to retain." 176

I

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK II

whole, false, but there is truth in it also ? And we make use of fable with children before gymnastics." " That is so." " That, then, is what I meant by saying that we must take up music before gym- nastics." " You were right," he said. " Do you not know, then, that the beginning in every task is the chief thing," especially for any creature that is young and tender ^ ? For it is then that it is best moulded and takes the impression " that one wishes to stamp upon it." " Quite so." " Shall we, then, thus lightly suffer'' our children to listen to any chance stories fashioned by any chance teachers and so to take into their minds opinions for the most part contrary to those that we shall think it desirable for them to hold when they are grown up ? " "By no manner of means will we allow it." " We must begin, then, it seems, by a censorship over our story- makers, and what they do well we must pass and what not, reject. And the stories on the accepted list we will induce nurses and mothers to tell to the children and so shape their souls by these stories far rather than their bodies by their hands. But most of the stories they now tell we must reject." " What sort of stories ? " he said. " The example of the greater stories," I said, " will show us the lesser also. For surely the pattern must be the same and the greater and the less must have a like tendency. Don't you think so ? " "I do," he said ; " but I

^ Cf. the censorship proposed in Laws 656 c. Plato's criticism of the mythology is anticipated in part by Euripides, Xenophanes, Heracleitus, and Pji:hagoras. Cf. Decharme, Euripides and the Spirit of his Dramas, translated by James Loeb, chap. ii. Many of the Christian Fathers repeated his criticism almost verbatim,

VOL. 1 N 177

PLATO

cfpt]' aAA' ovK evvoo) ovhk rovs ixeiljOVs rivas Xeyeig.

Ovs 'HaioSos re, eiTTov, koI "Ofxr^pos rjixlv iXeyerr^v /cat OL aXXoi TTOLTjrat. oSroi yap ttov fivdovs rots

avdpcoTTois i/jevSeXg avvTidevres eXeyov re koI Xeyov-

aiv. riotous' Siq, rj S' 6s, Kal ri avribv fieficfiofjievos

Xeyeis; "OTrep, rju 8' iyo), XPV '^'^^ Trpcorov /cat

fxaXiGTa pi€fx(f)€a6ai, a'AAcos" re Kat idv Ti? p-rj KaXoJs

E ipevSrjTai,. Tt tovto; "Orav eiKa^r) tls KaKcos rep Xoytp TTcpl deojv re Kal rjpcowv otoi elaiv, cjairep

ypa(f)evs pbtjSev eoiKora ypd(f)a>v ols av 6/xota

^ovX-qdfj ypdipai. Kat ycip, e^ry, opdojs e;\;et ra

ye Totavra p,ep.(f>eadat. dXXd ttcDs" Btj Xeyop,ev /cat

TTola; Y{pu)Tov p-ev, rjv 8' eyo), to p^eyiarov Kat

TTepl Tcov pLeyiarojv ifievhos 6 eliroiv ov KaXoJS

eipevaaro, cos Ovpavos re elpydaaTO a (jyiqaL hpdaai,

avrov 'HatoSo?, o re av V^povos (Jos erLpnapiqaaro

378 avrov ra he Stj rod Ys^povov epya /cat rrddrj vtto

rod vleos, oi58' av el rjV dXrjdrj, <pp,7]v Setv paStois

ovrcD Xeyeodai irpos d^povds re /cat veovs, dXXd

pidXiara piev aiydaOai, el he dvdyKrj rts rjv Xeyecv,

8t' dTTopprjraiv aKoveiv (hs oXLyiarovs, dvaapevovs

ov xo^pov, dXXd ri p,eya /cat drropov dvpa, ottcos o

ri eXaxloroLs ovve^rj aKovaai. Kat ydp, rj 8 os,

ovroi ye ol Xoyoi x^XerToi. Kat ov Ae/creot y , B €(f)rjv, (L ^Ahetpiavre, iv rfj rjpierepa noXei, ovhe XeKreov vecp aKovovn, (hs dhiKcov rd eaxo.ra ovhev

" Theogony 151-181. "" Conservative feeling or caution prevents Plato from pro-

scribing absolutely what may be a necessary part of traditional or mystical religion.

* The ordinary sacrifice at the Eleusinian mysteries. Cf. 178

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK II

don't apprehend which you mean by the greater, either." " Those." I said, " that Hesiod ^ and Homer and the other poets related to us. These, methinks, composed false stories which they told and still tell to mankind." " Of what sort ? " he said; " and with what in them do you find fault ? " " With that," I said, " which one ought first and chiefly to blame, especially if the Ke is not a pretty one." " WTiat is that ? " " When anyone images badly in his speech the true nature of gods and heroes, like a painter whose portraits bear no resemblance to his models." " It is certainly right to condemn things like that," he said; "but just what do we mean and what particular things ? " " There is, first of all," I said, " the greatest lie about the things of greatest concernment, which was no pretty invention of him who told how Uranus did what Hesiod says he did to Cronos, and how Cronos in turn took his revenge ; and then there are the doings and sufferings of Cronos at the hands of his son. Even if they were true I should not think that they ought to be thus lightly told to thoughtless young persons. But the best way would be to bury them in silence, and if there were some necessity* for relating them, that only a very small audience should be admitted under pledge of secrecy and after sacrificing, not a pig.*" but some huge and unprocural^le victim, to the end that as few as possible should have heard these tales." " Why, yes," said he, " such stories are hard sayings." " Yes, and they are not to be told, Adeimantus, in our city, nor is it to be said in the hearing of a young man, that in doing

Aristoph. Aeham. 747, Peacs 374-375 : Walter Pater, Denut&r and the Pig.

179

PLATO

av Oavfiaarov ttolol, o?5S' av dSiKovvra Trarepa

KoXdt,0}v iravrl rpoTTCo, aAAa 8pa>rj dv orrep deojv ol irpcoTOL T€ Kal pLeycaroL. Ov p,d rov Ata, rj 8' os, ouSe avTO) pLot Sofcet eTriri^Seta elvai XeyeLv. OvSe ye, "^v S' iycL), to Trapdrrav, cos Oeol deots ttoAc-

pLOvai T€ Kal iin^ovXevovaL /cat pbd^ovrai- ovhk

C ydp dX-qdrj- et ye Sei r)p,LV rovs pieXXovras rrjv TToXiv (jyvXd^eiv acaxtcrTOv vopblt^eiv to pahiois d^Xt]-

XoLs dTTexddveaOaf ttoXXov Set yLyavTOpia)(Las re

pLvdoXoyrjTeov avTolg Kal ttolklXtcov, Kal dXXas

€)(Opas TToAAa? Kal iravTohaTTas dewv re Kal rjpwcov

npos avyyeveis re Kal oIk€lovs avTcov dXX' e't

7TWS p-eXXopiev ireiaeiv, cos ouSei? najTroTe ttoXittjs

€Tepos €T€pq) d7Tri-)(deTO ouS' eart tovto daiov,

D TOiavTa pdXXov Trpos ra TratSta evdvs Kal yepovai Kai ypavoL, /cat npea^vTepoLg yiyvop,€voLS, Kai tovs

TTOL-qTas iyyvs tovtcdv dvayKaoTcov XoyoTToielv.

"Upas 8e Seopiovs vtto vUos Kal 'H^atWou pttpeis V7TO TTaTpOS, p-dXXoVTOS TTJ p-qTpl TV7TTOpL€V7J dpLV-

velv, /cat deopLaxicLS oaas "0p,7]pos TreTToirjKev ov

" Plato does not sympathize with the Samuel Butlers of his day. Cf. Euthyphro 4 b, Crito 51b.

' The argument, whether used in jest or earnest, was a commonplace. Cf. Schmidt, Ethik der Oriechen, i. 137, Laws 941 B, Aeschyl. Eumen. 640-641, Terence, Eunuchus 590 " At quem deum ! . . . ego homuncio hoc non facerem." The Neoplatonists met the criticism of Plato and the Christian Fathers by allegorizing or refining away the immoral parts of the mythology, but St. Augustine cleverly retorts {De Civ. Dei, ii. 7): "Omnes enim . . . cultores talium deorum . . . magis intuentur quid lupiter fecerit quam quid docuerit Plato."

" Cf. the protest in the Euthyphro 6 b, beautifully trans- lated by Ruskin, Aratra Pentelici § 107 : " And think you that there is verily war with each other among the gods? 180

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the utmost wrong he would do nothing to surprise anyBody7 nor again in punishing his father's " wTong- doings to the hmit, but would only be following the example of the first and greatest of the gods.*" " No, by heaven," said he, " I do not myself think that they are fit to be told." " Neither must we admit at all," said I, " that gods war with gods "^ and plot against one another and contend—for it is not true either—if we wish our future guardians to deem nothing more shameful than lightly to fall out with one another ; still less must we make battles of gods and giants the subject for them of stories and embroideries,'* and other enmities many and manifold of gods and heroes toward their kith and kin. But if there is any likelihood of our persuading them that no citizen ever quarrelled with his fellow-citizen and that the very idea of it is an impiety, that is the sort of thing that ought rather to be said by their elders, men and women, to children from the beginning and as they grow older, and we must compel the poets to keep close to this in their compositions. But Hera's fetterings * by her son and the hurling out of heaven of Hephaestus by his father when he was trying to save his mother from a beating, and the battles of the gods ^ in Homer's verse are things

And dreadful enmities and battles, such as the poets have told, and such as our painters set forth in graven sculpture to adorn all our sacred rites and holy places. Yes, and in the great Panathenaia themselves the Peplus, full of such wild picturing, is carried up into the Acropolis—shall we say that these things are true, oh Euthyphron, right-minded friend ?

"

•* On the Panathenaic WirXoj of Athena. • The title of a play by Epicharmus. The hurling of

Hephaestus, 11. i. 586-594. ' //. XX. 1-74; xxi. 385-513.

181

PLATO

napaheKTeov els ttji' ttoXcv, ovt iu virovoiais 7Te7TOir]iJL€vas ovre avev vttovoicov. 6 yap veog ovx olos re Kpiveiv 6 ri re VTTOvoia /cat o pirj, aAA' a av TTjXtKovTog a)v Xd^rj ev rals So^aig, hvaeKVLTrrd

E re Kol dixerdarara (f>LXel yiyveodai. ayv hrj lotos eveKa vepl iravros noi-qreov, d Trpwra 6.Kovovaiv, 6 Tt KoXXiara fxepLvOoXoyripieva vpos dperrjv aKoveiv. XVIII. "EiX^i- ydp, €(l)r), Xoyov. aAA' et tls av

Kal Tavra epcorcprj rjpLds, ravra drra earl Kal rives OL pivdoiy rivas av ^at/xei^; Kal eyoj etTTOv ^Q.

ASeijxavre,ovK eapev TTOirjral eyco re Kal av ev rat

379 TTapovri, aAA OLKLarat voXecos- OLKiaralg 8e rovs fiev rvTTOVs Tvpoa-qKet elhevai, ev ols Set pivOoXoyelv

rovs TTOi'qrds, rtap ovs edv ttoiwolv ovk einrpeTT- reov, ov p.r]v avrois ye TTOirjreov puvdovs. ^OpOaJs, e^rj- aAA' avro Srj rovro, ol rvTTOi Trepl deoXoyias rives dv elev; Toioihe ttov rives, rjv S' eyay olos

rvyxdvet o deos <x>v, del hrjTTOv drrohoreov, edv re

ris avrov ev eireoi ttoltj edv re ev peXeoiv^ edv re ev rpayojSia. Aet ydp. Ovkovv dyaOos 6 ye deos ro)

B ovri re Kal XeKreov ovrcos; Tt p.i]v; 'AAAa fjbrjv ovSev ye rcov dyadcov fiXa^epov. rj ydp; Ov p,OL hoKel. 'Ap' ovv, o fiTj ^Xa^epov, BXaTrrei; OySa-

^ idv re ev /xiXeffiv II : om. A.

" vTToi'OLa : the older word for allegory : Plutarch, De Aud. Poet. 19 E. For the allegorical interpretation of Homer in Plato's time cf. Jebb, Homer, p. 89, and Mrs. Anne Bates Hersman's Chicago Dissertation: Studies in Greek Allegorical Interpretation.

*" The poet, like the rhetorician {Politicus 304 d), is a ministerial agent of the royal or political art. So virtually Aristotle, Politics 1336 b.

' The ye implies that God is good ex vi termini. "* It is characteristic of Plato to distinguish the fact and

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that we must not admit into our city either wrought in allegory " or without allegory. For the young are not able to distinguish what is and what is not allegory, but whatever opinions are taken into the mind at that age are wont to prove indelible and unalterable. For which reason, maybe, we should do our utmost that the first stories that they hear should be so composed as to bring the fairest lessons of \irtue to their ears."

XVIII. " Yes, that is reasonable," he said ; " but if again someone should ask us to be specific and say what these compositions may be and what are the tales, what could we name ? " And I replied, " Adei- mantus, we are not poets,* you and I at present, but founders of a state. And to founders it pertains to know the patterns on which poets must compose their fables and from which their poems must not be allowed to de\iate ; but the founders are not required

themselves to compose fables." " Right," he said

;

" but this very thing—the patterns or norms of right speech about the gods, what wauld^Jth-ey. be ?

"

"Something like this," I said,. _ '.'.The-true quality of. God we must always surely attribute- -io him whether we compose in epic, melic, or tragic verse." " We must." " And is not God of course*^ good in reality and always to be spoken of** as such ? " " Cer- tainly." " But further, no good thing is harmful, is it ?

" "1 think not." '* Can what isjadt harmful

the desirability of proclaiming it. The argument proceeds by the minute links which tempt to parody.

Below TO dyaSov, followed by ov8' apa ... 6 dfos, is in itself a refutation of the ontological identification in Plato of God and the Idea of Good. But the essential goodness of God is a commonplace of liberal and philosophical theology, from the Stoics to Whittier's hymn, ** The Eternal Goodness."

183

PLATO

fxcos. "O 8e fjirj jSAaTTTCi, KaKov ti TTOtel; OuSe rovro. "0 8e ye fxrjSev KaKov Trotet, oi5S' ai^ tivo? eirj KaKOV alriov; Dais" yap; Tt Se; dxjiiXiixov ro dyadov; Nat. Amov' apa evrrpaytas ; Nat. Ouk apa TravTCDV' ye atTtot' to dyadov, dXXd ro)v fxev ev exovTOJV aiTLov, rcov Se KaKwv dvaLTiov. Ilai'-

C TeXojs y , €017. Oj)S' dpa, r\v V iyo), 6 deos, eVeiSi^ dyadov, TrdvTOiv dv etr) airios, d)S oi TroAAot Ae'-

yovaiv, dAA' oXiycov fiev rolg dvdpcoTTOcs atrto?, ttoA-

AcDt' 8e dvaiTtos' ttoXv yap eXaxTOi rayadd rojv KaKcov Tjixlv Kal TU)v p.kv dyadcbv ovSeva dXXoi'

aLTLareov, rtov Se KaKcbv d'AA' drTa Set l^rjreiv rd atria, dAA' ov rov deov. ^AXrjdearara, 'e<})rj, hoKels

fioi Ae'yetf . Ovk dpa, rjv S' iyo), dTToheKreov ovre D 'OpLTjpov ovr dXXov TTOLrjTOV ravT-qv ttjv dpiapriav

irept Tovs Oeoix; dvoT]TOJS dp-aprdvovTOs Kal Xeyovros

CU? SotOt TTldoL

KaraKetarai iv Ato? ouSei

Krjpiov ejUTrAeiot, d p.€v iaOXcov, avrdp o SeiAdiv

Kal (S p,ev dv p.i^as 6 Zeu? Sdj dp.(f>OT€poiv

,

d'AAore /zeV re KaKw 6 ye Kvperai, dXXore S' eV^Ao),

o) 8' di^ jLtTy, dAA' aKpara rd erepa,

" Anticipates the proclamation of the prophet in the final myth, 617 e: alria eXofievov debi dvainos. The idea, elabor- ated in Cleanthes' hymn to Zeus, may be traced back to the speech of the Homeric Zeus in Od. i. 33 e^ rjfxeGiv yap <j)a<TL KCLK lfj.fj,€vai. St. Thomas distinguishes : ' Deus est auctor mali quod est poena, non autem mali quod est culpa."

* A pessimistic commonplace more emphasized in the 184

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK II

harm ? " " By no means." " Can that which does not harm do any evi\ ? " " Not that either." " But that which does no e\il would not be cause of any e\il either ? " " How could it ? " " Once more, is the good beneficent ? " " Yes." " It is the cause, then, of welfare ? " " Yes." " Then the good is not the cause of all things, but of things that are well it is the cause—of things that are ill it is blameless." " Entirely so," he said. " Neither, then, could God," said I, " since he is good, be, as the multitude say, the cause of all things, but for mankind he is the cause of few things, but of many things nof the cause." For good things are far fewer * with us than evil, and for the good we must assume no other cause than God, but the cause of evil we must look for in other things and not in God." " What you say seems to me most true," he replied. " Then," said I, " we must not accept from Homer or any other poet the folly of such error as this about the gods when he says '^—

Two urns stand on the floor of the palace of Zeus and are filled with

Dooms he allots, one of blessings, the other of gifts that are evil,

and to whomsoever Zeus gives of both commingled

—

Now upon evil he chances and now again good is his portion,

but the man for whom he does not blend the lots, but to whom he gives unmixed evil

—

Laws than in the Republic. Cf. Laws 896 e, where the Manichean hypothesis of an evil world-soul is suggested.

' II. xxiv. 5:27-532. Plato, perhaps quoting from memory, abbreviates and adapts the Homeric quotation. This does not justify inferences about the Homeric text.

185

PLATO

Tov 8e KaKTj ^ov^pojaTis eVi x^^^*^ S^ci^ iXavvei'

E oyS' cos rafjiias rjixlv Xevg

dyadcbv re KaKcov re rervKrai.

XIX. T'171' Se roJv opKcov Kai OTTOvSajv avyxvmv, rjv 6 HdvSapos avvex^^v, edv ns

<j)fj hi *Adr]vds re

Kal Aids yeyovevai, ovk eTraLvecrofjieda- ov8e dear.

380 ^'ptp- re Kal KpiuLV hid Qepuros re Kal Atos" oi58' av, ws AlaxvXos Xeyei, eareov dKoveiv rovs veovs, on

deos puev alriav (fivei ^porols,

orav KaKcbcraL Sai/xa TrafXTnjhrjv deXrj.

dAA' edv rig ttoljj, ev of? ravra rd lapL^ela eueari, rd rrjs Nto^Ty? rrddrj rj rd IleXoTnScbv t^ rd TpcoLKd 7] rL dXXo rcov roiovrcov, -q ov deov epya eareov avrd Xeyeiv, r] el deov, e^evpereov avrois ax^hov ov vvv rjjxels Xoyov t^qrovp^eVy Kal XeKreov, cog 6 puev

B deos hiKaid re Kal dyadd elpydt,ero , ol he covivavro KoXat,6p,evoL. cos he ddXioi piev ol hiKTjv hihovres.

r^v he hrj 6 hpcov ravra Oeos, ovk eareov Xeyeiv rov TTOLrjrtjv dXX ei piev on eherjQriaav KoXdaecos Xeyoiev, cos ddXioi ol KaKoL, hihovres he hiK-qv

(h<f>eXovvro vrro rod deov, eareov KaKcov he alnov

" The line is not found in Homer, nor does Plato explicitly say that it is. Zeus is dispenser of war in II. iv. 84.

" II. iv. 69 ff. " Ipif re Kal Kplaiv is used in Menex. 237 c of the contest of

the gods for Attica. Here it is generally taken of the theo- machy, II. xx. 1-74, which begins with the summons of the gods to a council by Themis at the command of Zeus. It has also been understood, rather improbably, of the judge- ment of Paris.

"* For the idea, " quem deus vult perdere dementat prius,"

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Hunger devouring drives him. a wanderer over the wide world,

nor will we tolerate the saying that

Zeus is dispenser ahke of good and of evil to mortals."

XIX. " But as to the violation of the oaths ^ and the truce by Pandarus, if anyone affirms it to have been brought about by the action of Athena and Zeus, we will not approve, nor that the strife and contention « of the gods was the doing of Themis and Zeus ; nor again must we permit our youth to hear what Aeschylus says

—

A god implants the guilty cause in men When he would utterly destroy a house,**

but if any poets compose a ' Sorrows of Niobe,' the poem that contains these iambics, or a tale of the Pelopidae or of Troy, or anything else of the kind, we must either forbid them to say that these woes are the work of God, or they must devise some such interpretation as we now require, and must declare that what God did was righteous and good, and they were benefited * by their chastisement. But that they were miserable who paid the penalty, and that the doer of this was God, is a thing that the poet must not be suffered to say ; if on the other hand he should say that for needing chastisement the wicked were miserable and that in paying the penalty they were benefited by God, that we must allow. But as to saying that God, who is good, c/. Theognis 405, Schmidt, Ethik d. Griechen, i. pp. 235 and 247, and Jebb on Soph. Antig. 620-624.

• Plato's doctrine that punishment is remedial must apply to punishments inflicted by the gods. Cf. Prolog. 324 b, Gorg. 478 e, 480 a, 505 b, 525 b, infra 590 a-b. Yet there are some incurables. Cf. infra 615 e.

187

PLATO

<f)dvai deov tivi, yiyveadai ayadov ovra, 8ia-

fiax^reov Travrl rpoTTW jji-qre tlvo. Xeyeiv ravra Iv

T7J avrov TToAet, el jue'AAet evvofi'qaeadai, [x-qrc tlvo. C oLKoveLV, fJirjre veojrepov fjiii]T€ Trpea^vrepov, p,rjT Iv

IX€Tp(p ixT]T€ dvev fJt,€Tpov fjLvdoXoyovvra, d)S ovre

oaia dv Xeyofxeva, el Xeyoiro, ovre ^vp,(f)opa rjplv

ovre avpL<f)Oiva avra avTols. ^vp-iprjcfiog aoi eljjLt,

€<f)ri, Tovrov rou vofxov, /cat /xot dpeaKei. Ovtos fjuev roLvvv, rjv 8 eyco, els dv e'lrj tcjv irepl deovs

vofJLCOv re Kal tvttcov, ev a> Sei^crei rovs Xeyovras

Xeyeiv /cat tovs TTOiovvras TTOielv, fxrj Trdvrcov atriov

TOP deov dXXd rdjv ayadcov. Kat fidX', ^(f>f], diro-

D xpi]. Tt 8e 817 o 8ei)Tepo? o^e; dpa yorjra rov deov otet eti^at /cat oiov e^ eTn^ovXi]? (fjavrd^eadai

aAAore ev dXXais I8eai,s, rore jxev avrov yiyvo-

fxevov Kal dXXdrrovra ro avrov ethos ets TToXXds

fjLop(f)ds, rore 8e rjiJids dirarcovra /cat TTOiovvra irepl

avrov roiavra BoKelv, i] dnXovv re etvai /cat Trdvrcjov

rJKiara rrjs eavrov ISeag eK^aiveiv; Ovk e^oj, e(f)T], vvv ye ovrws enrelv. Tt 8e roSe; ovk dvdyKrj, einep ri e^Lorairo rrjs avrov ISeas, rj avro vcf)^

E eavrov fxedlaraadac -q vtt' dXXov; 'Amy/C7y. Ovk- ovv VTTO fjiev d'AAoy rd dpcara e^ovra -rJKLara dXXoLovraL re /cat KiveZraL; olov adjpa vtto atriiov

" Minucius Felix says of Plato's theology, Octav. chap, xix

:

" Platoni apertior de deo et rebus ipsis et nominibus oratio est et quae tota esset caelestis nisi persuasionis civilis non- nunquam admixtione sordesceret."

* The two methods, (1) self-transformation, and (2) pro- duction of illusions in our minds, answer broadly to the two methods of deception distinguished in the Sophist 236 c.

" Cf. Tim. 50 b, Cratyl. 439 e. Aristotle, H. A. i. 1. 32,

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becomes the cause of evil to anyone, we must con- tend in every way that neither should anyone assert this in his own city if it is to be well governed, nor anyone hear it, neither younger nor older, neither telling a story in metre or without metre ; for neither would the saying of such things, if they are said, be holy, nor would they be profitable to us or concordant with themselves." " I cast my vote with yours for this lawV* he said, " and am well pleased with it." " This, then," said I, " will be one of the laws and patterns concerning the gods ** to which speakers and poets will be required to conform, that God is not the cause of all things, but only of the good." " And an entirely satisfactory one," he said. " And what of this, the second. Do you think that God is a wizard and capable of manifesting himself by design, now in one aspect, now in another, at one time '' himself changing and altering his shape in many transformations and at another decei\ing us and causing us to beheve such things about him ; or that he is simple and less likely than anything else to depart from his own form ? " "I cannot say oifhand," he replied. " But what of this : If anything went out from "^ its own form, would it not be displaced and changed, either by itself or by something else ? " " Necessarily." " Is it not true that to be altered and moved"* by something else happens least to things that are in the best condition, as, for example, a body by food

applies it to biology : to yewaiov ian rb fir] i^iaTaixtvov €k ttjs avTov 0i(rea;s. Plato's proof from the idea of perfection tiiat God is changeless has little in common with the Eleatic argument that pure being cannot change.

•* The Theaetetns explicitly distinguishes two kinds of motion, qualitative change and motion proper (181 c-d), but the distinction is in Plato's mind here and in CrcUyl. 439 e.

189

PLATO

re /cat ttotojv Kai ttovcov, /cat ttclv cfyvrov vtto

elXtjaewv re /cat dveixojv /cat tcov toiovtcov Trad-q-

fidrcDV, ov TO vyilararov /cat laxvporarov i^/ctara

381 dXXoLovrai ; Hws 8' ov; ^vx^ju Se ov ttjv dv- Speiordr-qv /cat (fipovifJLCDrdT'qv tJklctt^ dv ri e^ojdev

vados rapd^eU re /cat dAAotajcretev; Nat. Kai li7]v vov Kai rd ye ^vvdera rrdvra aKevr] re /cat OLKoSofi-^fjiaTa /cat dpi(f)ieap,aTa} Kara top avrov Xoyov, rd ev elpyaapiiva koL ev ixovra vtto xpovov re /cat tcov dXXcov rraOiqjxdTOJV rJKiorTa aAAotourat.

Effrt St) TavTa. Yidv Srj to /caAto.? ^xov rj (fivaeu rj

B 'T^Xni '^ diJi(f)OTepoL5 iXax^CTTrjv fiCTa^oXr^v vtt' dXXov evhex^Tai. "Eot/cer. 'AAAa pLrjv 6 deos ye /cat Td Tov deov TravTT] dpiOTa exet. Ilcbg 8' ov; TavTjj

liev hi] T^KLCTTa dv TroAAd? p.op(j)d? taxoi 6 deos.

"H/ctcrra ST^ra.

XX. 'AAA' dpa avTO? avTov [xeTa^dXXot dv Kai aAAoiot; A'qXov, e(f>rj, otl, e'lTrep dAAotourat. Ild-

Tepov ovv cTrl to ^eXTiov re /cat koXXiov /LterajSdAAet

eavTov Tj eTTL to ^etpor /cat to atcr;^toi^ iavTov;

C 'AvdyKT], e^Tj, eirl to x^^pov, ecTrep dAAoiouraf ov ydp TTov ivSed ye ^iqaofjiev tov deov KctAAous ^ apeTTJs elvai. 'OpOoTaTa, rjv 8' iyco, Xeyeis' Kai

ovTCOs exovTOs SoKel dv tls ool, w 'ASeifxavTe, eKCiiv avTOV x^^P^ TTOielv otttjovv t) ded)V t) dvdpoj-

TTCov; ^ASvvaTov, e(f>r]. ^ASvvaTOV dpa, e(j)'r]v, Kai

dech edeXeiv avTov dAAotow, dAA', d>s eoLKe, /cctA-

AtCTTO? /cat dpiOTOs d)v elg to SvvaTov e/cao-ro?

^ Kai diJ.(pte<Tjj.aTa H : om. A.

« Cf. Laws 765 e. ' rapd^eie suggests the drapa^ia of the sage in the later schools.

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and drink and toil, and plants " by the heat of the sun and winds and similar influences—is it not true that the healthiest and strongest is least altered ?

"

" Certainly." " And is it not the soul that is bravest and most intelhgent, that would be least disturbed *•

and altered by any external affection ? " " Yes." " And, again, it is surely true of all composite im- plements, edifices, and habiliments, by parity of reasoning, that those which are well made and in good condition are least hable to be changed by time and other influences." " That is so." " It is uni- versally " true, then, that that which is in the best state by nature or art or both admits least alteration by something else." " So it seems." " But God, surely, and everything that belongs to God is in every way in the best possible state." " Of course." " From this point of \iew, then, it would be least of all likely that there would be many forms in God." " Least indeed." XX. "But would he transform and alter himself?"

" Obviously," he said, " if he is altered." " Then does he change himself for the better and to some- thing fairer, or for the worse "* and to something ugher than himself ? " " It must necessarily," said he, " be for the worse if he is changed. For we surely will not say that God is deficient in either beauty or excellence." " Most rightly spoken," said I. "And if that were his condition, do you think, Adeimantus, that any one god or man would of his own will worsen himself in any way?" " Impossible," he replied. "It is impossible then," said I, " even for a god to wish to alter himself, but, as it appears, each of them being

• Trav Stj generalizes from the preceding exhaustive eniun- eration of cases. C'f. 3S2 e, Parmen. 139 a.

* So .\ristoL Met. 1074 b 26. 191

PLATO

avTcDv jxevei del aTrAaj? iv rfj avrov yL,op(j>fi. "Azracra, e^TJ, dvdyKr} efiotye So/cet. Mi^Set? dpa,

D ')]u S eyco, ct) dpicrre, Xeyerco "qyilv tcov 7TOLr)Ta)i>, cos

deol ^eivoLCTLV iotKoreg dXXoSaTrolai

TravTOLoi TeXedovres €7Ti,arpoj(f)Oj(n TToXrjag'

jjLTjbe UpcoTecos /cat ©ertSos' KaraijjevSecrda) jx-qSeCs,

/xTjS' iv Tpaycphiais p-rfh^ iv rots dXXoLs TrotTy/xacrti'

eicrayeVct) "Hpav T^AAotcojiteVryj' at? lepeiav dyei- povaav

lua^ov Apyeiov TTorafiov TratcrtP' ^loScopois'

E /cat aAAa roiavra ttoAAo. /xt^ t^/xii' ijjevSeadcoaav' ftr^S' au WTTO Tovrcov dvaTTeiOopLCvai at pLrjrepeg Ta rraiSta e/cSei/xarowTO)!^, Xiyovaai rovs puvdovs KaKcos, cos

dpa deoi nves TrepLep^ovrat, vvKTCop ttoXXols pivots /cat TTavTohaTToZs IvSaXXofievoc, tva jjLrj a/xa p.ev etf

deovs pXacTcjiTjpLcocnv, a/xa Se tou? TratSa? aTTepyd'

^covrai SeiXorepovg. Mrj ydp, e(f>rj. 'AAA' dpa, rji

S' iyco, avTOL pbev ol deoi elaiu oloi p,r^ pbeTa^dXXecv

rjplv he TTOLovat SoKelv a(f}ds TravroBaTTOvs (f)aLveadai

i^anaTcZvTes /cat yorjrevovres ; "IcroJS", e^ry. Tt 382 Se; tjv S' iyco' ipevheadai, deos edeXoi dv r) Xoyco

7] epycp (f>dvTaap,a TrpoTeivcov; Ovk otSa, 7) 8' 6?. Ou/c olada, rjv S' iyco, on to ye cos dXrjdcos ipevSos, el otov re tovto el-nelv, rrdvTes deoi re /cat dv-

OpcoTTOi fiiaovcTLv; Ilcos, ^(f>f], Xeyeis; Ovtcos, "^v 8' iyco, OTL ra> KvpicoTarco ttov eavrcjjv ipevBeadat

" Cf. Tim. 42 e ^fievev, which suggested the Neoplatonic and Miltonic paradox that the divine abides even when it goes forth.

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the fairest and best possible abides " for ever simply in his own form." " An absohrtelj necessary conclusion to my thinking." " No poet then/' i said, " my good friend, must be allowed to tell us that

The gods, in the likeness of strangers. Many disguises assume as they visit the cities of mortals.''

Nor must anyone tell falsehoods about Proteus *

and Thetis, nor in any tragedy or in other poems bring in Hera disguised as a priestess collecting alms ' for the Hfe-giving sons of Inachus, the Argive

stream.'** And many similar falsehoods they must not tell. Nor again must mothers under the influence of such poets terrify their children * with harmful

tales, how that there are certain gods whose appari- tions haunt the night in the likeness ofmany strangers from all manner of lands, lest while they speak evil of the gods they at the same time make cowards of the children." " They must not," he said. " But," said I, " may we suppose that while the gods them- selves are incapable of change they cause us to fancy that they appear in many shapes deceiving and practising magic upon us ? " " Perhaps," said he. " Gansider," said I ; " would a god wish to deceive, or lie, by presenting in either word or action what is only appearance ? " " I don't know," said he. " Don't you know," said I, " that the veritable lie, if the expression is permissible, is a thing that all

gods and men abhor ? " " What do you mean ? "

he said. " This," said I, " that falsehood in the most * Od. xvii. 485 486, quoted again in Sophist 216 b-c C/.

Tim. 41 A. * Cf. Od. iv. 456-8. Thetis transformed herself to avoid

the wooing of Peleus. Cf. Pindar, Nem. iv. ^ From the Zavrpiai of Aeschylus. ' Rousseau also deprecates this.

VOL. I O 193

n PLATO

Kal 7T€pL TO. Kvpicorara ovSels ckcov edeXcL, aXXa

TrdvTCov ndXiara (j>o^eZrai e/cet avro KeKrijcrdai.

Ovbe vvv vco, rj S' 6s, fiavdava). Oiei yap ri p,e, B e(f)rjv, aejjLVOv Xeyeiv iyd) Se Xeyco, otl rfj ipv)(fj

TTcpl TO. ovra ipevSeadal re Kai eipevadai Kal

dfiaOrj etvaL /cat evravQa ^x^t-v re Kai K€KTrja6ai

TO iftevdos rrdvreg -^Kt-ara av Se^atvTO Kal jxiaovaL

fxdXiara avro iv rw rotovrcp. IloAu ye, e^y], 'AAAo. pir]v opdorard y av, 6 vvv Sr] eXeyov, rovro cos dXrjdcbs ifjevSos KaXoZro, rj ev rfj ihvxfj dyvoia

rj rod ei/jevapLevov ertel ro ye ev rols Xoyois jxi- p^rjjjid ri rov iv rfj ipvxfj earl TTa6rjp.aros Kal

C varepov yeyovos etBcoXov, ov rrdw aKparov ifjevSos. Tj ovx ovra)s; Yldvv p,ev ovv.

XXI. To [xev Srj TO) ovri ipevSos ov jxovov vtto decov dXXd Kal vtt^ dvOpcoTTCov puGelraL. AoKel pboi. Ti Se S-q; ro ev rols Xoyois ijjevhos rrore Kal rw Xprjoip^ov, ujare pi,rj d^iov elvai piiaovs; dp* ov

TTpos re rovs noXepilovs, Kal rcov KaXovfieva)v

(f>iXcov orav Sta jxaviav rj rLva dvoiav KaKov ri e7Tt;)^eipct;crt Trpdrreiv, rore dTTorpoirrjs eveKa ws

I) (f)dpp,aKov ;\;/3T7cri/xov' yiyverai; Kal ev ats vvv Sr)

eXeyo/xev rals pivdoXoyiais Std ro (jltj elSevat, otttj

rdXrjdes exec Trepl rcov iraXaicov, d(f>op,OLOVvres rco

aXrjOel ro ipevSog 6 ri p-dXiara ovrco XPV^^P'OV TTOLOvfiev; Kal jxdXa, ^ S' os, ovrcos e^ei. Kara ri hrj ovv rovrcov rco deep ro ipevSos XRV^''^-^^)

" Cf. Aristot. De Interp. i. 1-2 icm nh oZ'v to. ev rrj ^wvri twv iv T-Q V"^x5 Tra6r]fj.dTui> avfj-jioXa. Cf. also Cratyl. 428 D, infra 535 E, Laws 730 c, Bacon, Of Truth: "But it is not the lie that passes through the mind but the lie that sinketh in and settleth in it that doth the hurt."

* Cf. Phaedr. 245 a fxvpia tCiv iraXaiuiv Ipya Kocfj-oiaa toih

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vital part of themselves, and about their most vital concerns, is something that no one wilhngly accepts, but it is there above all that everyone fears it." " I don't understand yet either." " That is because you suspect me of some grand meaning," I said; "but what I mean is, that deception in the soul about realities, to have been deceived and to be blindly ignorant and to have and hold the falsehood there, is what all men would least of all accept, and it is in that case that they loathe it most of all." " Quite so," he said. " But surely it would be most wholly right, as I was just now saying, to describe this as in very- truth falsehood—ignorance namely in the soul of the man deceived. For the falsehood in words is a copy" of the affection in the soul, an after-rising image of it and not an altogether unmixed falsehood. Is not that so ? " " By all means." XXI. " Essential falsehood, then, is hated not only

by gods but by men." " I agree." "But what of the falsehood in words, when and for whom is it serviceable so as not to merit abhorrence ? Will

it not be against enemies ? And when any of those whom we call friends owing to madness or folly attempts to do some •WTong, does it not then become useful to avert the e\il—as a medicine ? And also in the fables of which we were just now speaking owing to our ignorance of the truth about antiquity, we liken the false to the true as far as we may and so make it edifying.^ " " We most certainly do," he said. " Tell me, then, on which of these grounds falsehood would be serviceable to God. iiri-^L-yvoiJjetiovs irat5ei)ei, Isoc. xii. 149 and Livy's Preface. For xP^'M-ov cf. Politicus 274 e. We must not infer that Plato is trying to sophisticate away the moral virtue of truth-telling.

195

PLATO

TTorepov Bia to firj elSevai ra TraAatd d(f>ofjLoia)v av ipevSoLTo; TeXoiov jxevr^ dv eir], €(f)r). IlotrjTrjs

fxev apa iftevS-qs iv dew ovk evt,. Ov fxoi SokcI. E 'AAAa SeStcoj Tovg ix^povs ifsevSoLTo; IloAAoi; ye

Set. 'AAAa St' oIkclcov avotav rj fxaviav; 'AAA' onsets',

€(f)-q, Tcbv dvo-qrcov /cat fiaivofievcov 9eo(f>iXrjs.

Ovk dpa eariv ov eveKa dv deos ipevSoLTO. Ovk ecTTiv. Yldvrr) dpa dipevSeg to Sacnoviov re /cat TO Oelov. narTaTTaat fxev ovv, e(f)r]. Ko/xtS7y apa d deos aTrXovv /cat dXrjdes ev t€ epyo) /cat iv Xoyo),

/cat ouTe auTO? fxedlaTaTac ovre aAAoy? e^aTrara,

ovre Kara (jiavraalas ovre Kara Xoyovs ovre /cara 383 arjixetcov TTOjJiTras, ovd VTrap ovt ovap. OuVo)?, e^ry,

CjLtotye /cat avro) (^aiverat. aov Xeyovros- Suy^^oipet?

apa, ecjiTjV, rovrov Bevrepov tvttov etvai' iv a) Set 77ept

^ecDv /cat Xeyeiv /cat Trotetv, to? fit^re avrovs yorjras

ovras TO) fji€Ta^dXXeiv iavTovs p-rfre ^qfids i/jevSeai

TTapdyeiv iv Xoyto ^ iv epycv; ^vyxojpdj. FIoAAd

apa 'Op.7jpou iTTatvovvres dXXa tovto ovk irr- aiveaofMeda, r-qv rov ivvrrvlov TTOfXTTrjv vtto Aioj

to) 'Aya/xe/xt'oi'f ouSe Atap^yAou, drav (jyfj

-q Qiris B Tov 'AttoAAoj iv Tot? auT^? ydjiOLs dSovra

ivhareladai, rag eds euTratSta?,

voacDV T dTTeipovs /cat fiaKpaicovas ^iovg.

^vixTTavrd r eLTTCJV Oeo^tXelg ijxdg tv^o-s

TTaidv* iTrev(f)iqiJir]aev , evdvjjiiov ijxi.

Kdyd) TO ^oi^ov delov dipevBes crTo/xa

-qXTTtl^ov elvai, fjiauTLKfj ^pvov Tex^rj.

" Generalizing after the exhaustive classification that precedes.

' II. ii. 1-34. This apparent attribution of falsehood to Zeus was an " Homeric problem " which some solved by a

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Would he because of his ignorance of antiquity make false Ukenesses of it ? " " An absurd supposition, that," he said. " Then there is no lying poet in God." " I think not." " Well then, would it be through fear of his enemies that he would He ?

"

" Far from it." " Would it be because of the folly or madness of his friends ? " " Nay, no fool or madman is a friend of God." " Then there is no motive for God to deceive." " None." " So from every point of view ^ the diWne and the divinity are free from falsehood." " By all means." " Then God is altogether simple and true in deed and word, and neither changes himself nor deceives others by visions or words or the sending of signs in waking or in dreams." " I myself think so," he said, " when I hear you say it." " You concur then," I said, " in this as our second norm or canon for speech and poetry about the gods,—that they are neither wizards in shape-shifting nor do they mislead us by falsehoods in words or deed ? " "I concur." " Then, though there are many other things that we praise in Homer, this we ^nll not applaud, the sending of the dream by Zeus ^ to Agamemnon, nor shall we approve of Aeschylus when his Thetis " avers that Apollo, singing at her wedding, ' foretold the happy fortunes of her issue '

—

Their days prolonged, from pain and sickness free. And rounding out the tale of heaven's blessings. Raised the proud paean, making glad my heart. And I believed that Phoebus' mouth divine. Filled w ith the breath of prophecy, could not lie.

change of accent from dlSofiev to SiSdney. Cf. Aristot. Poetics 1 i6l a 22.

" C/. Aeschyl. Fray. 350. Possibly from the 'OxXwr cp^tf.

197

PLATO

o 8', avTos viiva)v, avros iv doivrj rrapcov,

avTos raS' €LTra)V, avros icrriv 6 Kravwv rov TratSa tov i^iov.

C orav Tig roiavra Xeyj] Ttepl decov, )(aXeTTavovixev t€ /cat -)(op6v ov Sioaofiev, ouSe tous" dthaaKaXovs

idaofxev inl TraiSeta -^^prjcrOaL twv vioiv, €i [xeX- Xovacv rjfjLiv ol cjivXaKes deoae^els re koL detoi

yiyveadai, Kad^ ocrov dvdpcoTTa) cttI TrXeiarov otov

T€. UavroLTTaaLv, €(f}rj, eyojyc roiis rvirovs rov-

Tovs crvyx(Jopa) /cat ca? vofiois dv )(pa)p.r]v.

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But he himself, the singer, himself who sat At meat \*ith us, himself who promised all, Is now himself the slayer of my son.

When anyone says that sort of thing about the gods, we shall be wroth with him, we will refuse him a chorus, neither will we allow teachers to use him for the education of the young if our guardians are to be god-fearing men and god-like in so far as that is possible for humanity." " By all means," he said, " I accept these norms and would use them as canons and laws."

199

386 !• Ta fjL€v S-q TTepl deovs, rjv 8* eyw, TOiavr arra, cos eoiKev, aKovariov re Koi ovk aKovareov

€v6vs eK TTaihojv roZs deovs re TLixtjaovai, /cat

yoveas ttjv re dAAr^Acuv (fnXiav fir) irepl afiiKpov

TTOiTjcrofievois. Kai otfiai y', e(f)r), opdats rjfJLiv

<j>aLveadai. Tt 8e Siy; el fxeXXovcriv elvat dvhpeloL,

dp ov Tavrd re XeKTeov /cat ota avrovs TTOirjaat

B TjKLara rov ddvarov hehievai; "q r^yel rivd ttot av •yeveaOai dvSpelov, e^ovra iv avrcp tovto to Set/Lta;

Ma Ata, rj S' os, ovk eyojye. Tt Se; rdv "AtSoy "qyovjxevov elvai re koX heivd etvai otet, rivd davdrov

dSerj eaeaOat /cat ev rats fxdxdts atprjaeadaL Trpo

tJtttjs re Kal SovXetas ddvarov; Ov^afxaJS' Aei

B-q, cos eoiKev, rjpids e-niararelv /cat Trepl rovrtov

TOW fjLvdcov roLS eTTLxeipovai Xeyeiv, /cat Seta^at fXT] XoiSopelv aTrXcos ovrcos rd ev "AtSou, dXXd jxdXXov

C enatvelv, d)s ovr* dXrjdfj Xeyovras ovr co^eXifxa rols fieXXovai fjuax^p-ois eaeadai. Aet jxevroi, e(f>7].

" We may, if we choose, see here a reference to the virtue of piety, which some critics fancifully suppose was eliminated by the Euthyphro. Cf. Unity of Plato's Thought, note 58.

* For the idea that death is no evil cf. Apology, in fine, 200

Ill

T. " Concerning the gods then," said I, " this is the L t of thing that we must allow or not allow them to

hear from childhood up, if they are to honour the gods* and their fathers and mothers, and not to hold their Iriendship with one another in light esteem." " That was our view and I beheve it right." " WTiat then uf this ? If they are to be brave, must we not extend our prescription to include also the sayings that will make them least hkely to fear death ? Or do you suppose that anyone could ever become brave who had that dread in his heart ? " " No indeed, I do not," he rephed. " And again if he beheves in the reahty of the underworld and its terrors,^ do you think that any man will be fearless of death and in battle will prefer death to defeat and slavery ? " " By no means." " Then it seems we must exercise supervision " also, in the matter of such tales as these, over those who undertake to supply them and request them not to dispraise in this undiscriminating fashion the hfe in Hades but rather praise it, since what they now tell us is neither true nor edifying to men who are destined to be warriors." " Yes, we must," he said. " Then,"

Laws 727 d, 828 d, and 881 a, where, however, the fear of hell is approved as a deterrent.

« C/. 377 B.

201

PLATO

E^aAeii/'o/i.ei' apa, '^v S' eyco, oltto rovSe rov

eiTovs ap^afxevoi Trdvra to, Toiavra,

^ovXoifjLTjv K CTTapovpos iojv drjTevefjiev ctAAo) au8pl Trap' olkX^pco . . .

7] irdaiv veKveacrt Kara(j>dipiivoLaLV dvdaaetv

/cat TO

D OLKia 8e durjTolaL /cat d^amrotat (fiavetrj cr/zepSaAe", evpcoevra, rd re aTvyeovai deoi rrep'

Kal

(X) TTOTTOi, rj pd Ttj ecTTt /cat €tv 'AtSao hopLOiaL tpv)^rj Kal elBcoXov, drdp (j)p4v€s ovk evi TrdjXTrav

Kal TO

otcp 7T€TTVva9at, ral 8e cr/ciai dtaaovai'

" Spoken by Achilles when Odysseus sought to console him for his death, Od. xi. 489-491. Lucian, Dialog. Mort .18, develops the idea. Proclus comments on it for a page. Cf. Matthew Arnold's imitation in " Balder Dead " :

Hermod the nimble, gild me not my death

!

Better to live a serf, a captured man. Who scatters rushes in a master's hall Than be a crown'd king here, and rule the dead

;

Lowell, " After the Burial "

:

But not all the preaching since Adam Has made death other than death ;

Heine, Das Buck Le Grand, chap. iii. ; Education of Henry Adams : " After sixty or seventy years of growing astonish- ment the mind wakes to find itself looking blankly into the void of death . . . that it should actually be satisfied would prove . . . idiocy." Per contra, cf. Landor:

Death stands beside me whispering low I know not what into my ear. Of his strange language all I know Is, there is not a word of fear

;

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said I, " beginning x^ath this verse we will expunge everything of the same kind :

Liefer were I in the fields up above to be serf to another Tiller of some poor plot which yields him a scanty sub-

sistence,

Than to be ruler and king over all the dead who have perished,"

and this :

Lest unto men and immortals the homes of the dead be uncovered

Horrible, noisome, dank, that the gods too hold in abhor- rence,"

and :

Ah me ! so it is true that e'en in the dwellings of Hades Spirit there is and wraith, but within there is no under-

standing,*

and this :

Sole to have wisdom and wit, but the others are shadowy phantoms,"*

and the passage of the Cratylus 403 d, exquisitely rendered by Ruskin, Time and Tide xxiv. : " And none of those who dwell there desire to depart thence—no, not even the sirens

;

but even they the seducers are there themselves beguiled, and they who lulled all men, themselves laid to rest—they and all others—such sweet songs doth death know how to sing to them."

* II. XX. 64. SetVas ij.t] precedes. * II. xxiii. 103. The exclamation and inference {'pa) of

Achilles when the shade of Patroclus eludes his embrace in the dream. The text is endlessly quoted by writers on religious origins and dream and ghost theories of the origin of the belief in the soul.

^ Od. x. 495. Said of the prophet Teiresias. The pre- ceding line is.

Unto him even in death was it granted by Persephoneia.

The line is quoted also in Meno 100 a.

203

PLATO

Koi

ifjvxr) 8' CK pedecov Trrafjievr) "AiSoaSe ^ejS^/cei,

ov TTorixov yoocoaa, Aittouct' dvSpoTrjra /cat rj^-qv

387 Kal TO

ipvx'Tj Se Kara )(dov6s, rjvre Kairvo?,

aJp^ero rerpiyvta'

(hs S' ore vvKreplSes t^^x^ dvrpov OeaTrecrioio

rpit,ovaai TTOTeovrai, iiTei /ce tls dTTOTTecrrjatv

opfiadov e/c TrdTprjs, dvd t dXh-qX-Qaiv exovrai,

COS" ctt rerpiyvlaL dp, -rjeaav.

B raura /cat rd rotaura iravra TrapaiTrjaopLeQa "Opirjpov re /cat rous" aAAou? TTOtrjTds p.r] ;YaAe7rat-

vetv ai' SLaypd(f)a)p,ev, ovx to? oi5 TTOtrjTiKa /cat

T^Sea Tot? 77oAAots' a/coueiv, dAA' oaco TToi-qriKioTepa,

roaovTcp rJTTOv dKovareov rraial /cat avhpaaiv, ovs

Set iXevdepovs elvai, SovXelav davdrov p,dXXov

TT€<j)0^rjp.evovs . naj^TaTraCTt jLtev ovv.

II. OvKovv eVt /cat to. 77ept ravra ovop^ara

Trdvra rd Seivd re /cat (f}0^epd dirofiXrirea, kcokv-

C Toyj T€ /cat CTTuyas" /cat ivepovs Kal dXi^avras, /cat

" Said of the death of Patroclus, 11. xvi. 856, and Hector, xxii. 382 ; imitated in the last Hne of the Aeneid " Vitaque cum gemitu fugit indignata sub umbras," which is in turn expanded by Masefield in "August 1914." Cf. Matthew Arnold in " Sohrab and Rustum "

:

Till now all strength was ebb'd and from his limbs Unwillingly the spirit fled away. Regretting the warm mansion which it left, And youth, and bloom, and this delightful world;

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and :

Forth from his limbs unwilling his spirit flitted to Hades, Wailing its doom and its lustihood lost and the May of its

manhood,"

and :

Under the earth like a vapour vanished the gibbering soul,*

and :

Even as bats in the hollow of some mysterious grotto Fly with a flittermouse shriek when one of them falls from

the cluster

Whereby they hold to the rock and are clinging the one to the other,

Flitted their gibbering ghosts."

We will beg Homer and the other poets not to be angry if we cancel those and all similar passages, not that they are not poetic and pleasing ** to most hearers, but because the more poetic they are the less are they suited to the ears of boys and men who are destined to be free and to be more afraid of slavery than of death." " By all means."

II. " Then we must further taboo in these matters the entire vocabulary of terror and fear, Cocytus *

named of lamentation loud, abhorred Styx, the flood of deadly hate, the people of the infernal pit and of

Bacchyl. v. 153-4:

TTvfiaTOP S^ irviwv BdKpvffa T\d/j.ci}p

d7\adi' ^jSa;' TrpoXeiiruv.

" Cf. II. xxiii. 100. * Od. xxiv. 6-10. Said of the souk of the suitors sJain by

Odysseus. Cf. Tennyson, " Oenone "

:

Thin as the bat-like shrillings of the dead. "* Cf. Theaetet. 177 c ovk d-riSiffTepa 6.Koieiv. ' >iilton's words, which I have borrowed, are the best

expression of Plato's thought.

205

PLATO

aAAa oaa rovrov rod tvttov ovofxa^oixeva ^piTTetv St) TToiei oaa erif Trdvras rovs oLKovovras. Kal laois €u e;)^et irpos aXko tl- rjfjiels 8e inrep rcbv

(j}vXa.KO}v (f)0^oviJieda, fxr) e/c rrjs roiavTTjs (ftpiK-qs

depfxorepot Kal pbaXaKcorepoi rod Sdovros yevwvrai

7]pZv. Kat opdcos y , ^^V' ^ojSou/ze^a. 'A(^- acperea dpa; Nai. Tov 8e evavriov tvttov tovtois XcKTeov T€ /cat TTOcqreov; A'^Aa Bij. Kal tovs

D oSvpfjiovs dpa i^aiprjaonev /cat rovs olktovs rovg rwv iXXoyLfjLCJV dvSpcov; ^AvdyKt), e^-q, elirep Kal rd TTporepa. S/co77et 817, rjv S eyco, et opddJs i^aipT^crofiev t) ov. (f)afJL€V 8e S-q, otl 6 eTvtet/n^s'

dvr)p rep CTTtet/cet, ovTrep /cat eratpos iari, rd

redvdvai ov Seivov rjyTJaerat. ^afxev yap. Ovk dpa VTTcp y cKetvov cus" Beivov tl TrevovOorog oSupotr' dv. Ov Srjra. AAAct fxrjv Kal roSe Xeyofiev, d)S 6 roiovros fidXtara avros avrw avr"

E dpKTjs TTpds rd ev t^fjv, /cat Sta^epovTCu? rcov dXXwv qKiara irepov Trpoahelrai. ^AXr]drj, '^^'T). "H/cto-r'

ap' avro) Setvov areprjdrjvai vleos "^ dSeXc/iov r]

1 oVa Itt] is a plausible emendation of Hermann, referring to annual recitations of rhapsodists and performances of tragedy. The best mss. read ilis okrai, some others ws otov re. Perhaps the words are best omitted.

" (ftplTTBiv and (}>piKr) are often used of the thrill or terror of tragedy. Cf. Soph. El. 1402, O.T. 1306, Aeschyl. Prom. 540.

" Some say, to frighten the wicked, but more probably for their aesthetic effect. Cf. 390 a d 5i riva aWrjv i]dov7]v Trap^X^'"' Laws 886 c ei fiiv et's &\\o tl KaXws ij nr; koXQs ^x^'-

« dep/j-drepoi contains a playful suggestion of the fevei

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the charnel-house, and all other terms of this type, whose very names send a shudder " through all the hearers every year. And they may be excellent for other purposes,*" but we are in fear for our guardians lest the habit of such thrills make them more sensi- tive '^ and soft than we would have them." " And we are right in so fearing." " We must remove those things then ? " " Yes." " And the opposite t\-pe to them is what we must require in speech and in verse ? " " Ob\-iously." " And shall we also do away with the wailings and lamentations of men of repute ? " " That necessarily follows," he said, " from the other." " Consider," said I, " whether we shall be right in thus getting rid of them or not. What we affirm is that a good man '^ will not think that for a good man, whose friend he also is, death is a terrible thing." "Yes, we say that." "Then it would not be for his friend's « sake as if he had suffered something dreadful that he would make lament." " Certainly not." " But we also say this, that such a one is most of all men sufficient unto himself '^ for a good life and is distinguished from other men in having least need of anybody else." " True," he replied. " Least of all then to him is

following the chill; cf. Phaedr. 251 a. With fiaXaKurrepoi the image passes into that of softened metal ; cf. 41 1 b. Laics 666 B-c, 671 B.

•* That only the good can be truly friends was a favourite doctrine of the ancient moralists. C/. Lysis 214 c, Xen. Mem. ii, 6. 9, 20.

' Cf. Phaedo 117 c "1 wept for myself, for surely not for him."

' aLiTdpKr]s is the equivalent of iKavbi avrcf in I/ysis 215 a. For the idea rf. Menex. 247 e. Self-sufficiency is the mark of the good rnan, of God, of the universe (2'im. 33 d), of happiness in Aristotle, and of the Stoic sage.

207

PLATO

Xpr)[xdTa)v -q dXXov rov ToJv tolovtcov. "H/ctCTra

fievTOi. "Hkictt' dpa /cat oSvperat, ^epet^ Se d)s TTpaorara, orav rt? avrov roiavTH] ^vpi^opa Kara-

Xd^T]. IToAu ye. ^Opdcos a/a' dv i^acpolfiev rovs

dpiqvovs Tcbv 6vo[xaarTa)v dvhpcbv, yvvai^l 8e airo-

388 StSot/xef, /cat ouSe Tayrat? (T77oy8atatS', /cat ocrot

/ca/cot Tcav di^Spajv, iva tj/juv hva)(epaLvaicnv opLOia

rovTois TTOielv ovs S"*^ (f)afX€v im <j}vXaKfi rrjs p^oJpa? rpe(j)eLV. ^Opdcbs, €(l)rj. YidXiv 8rj 'Ofi'qpov re

Serjaofieda /cat tcov dXXtov ttolt^tcvv [xrj TTOielv

'A^i'XXea Beds TTotSa

ctAAor' inl TrXevpds KaraKeifJievov, dXXore S' ayre

V7TTLOV, aAAore Be Trprjvfj,

Tore S' opdov dvaardvra

a>t4ovT aAvovr errt (7iv aAo? arpvyeroLO,

B /xr^Se d[icf)or€pr]aL )(epaLv eXovra koviv atdaXo- eaaav x^vajxevov /ca/c Ke(f)aXrjs, /xT^Se aAAa /cAai-

ovTct re /cat oSvpopievov, oaa /cat oia e/cetvos

eTToi-qae' [xrjhe Hpiafiov iyyvs decbv yeyovora

XLTavevovrd re /cat /cyAtvSd/xevov' /cara Kovpov,

i^ovofxaKXTjSrjv ovopidt^ovr dvSpa eKaarov.

^ ddiperai, ^^pet] this conjecture of Stallbaum reads more smoothly : the mss. have 65vp€<rdai (pepeiv.

" Cf. the anecdotes of Pericles and Xenophon and the comment of Pater on Marcus Aurelius in Marius the Epicurean. Plato qualifies the Stoic extreme in 603 e. The Platonic ideal is fj^Tpioirddeia, the Stoic airddeia,

» Cf. 398 E.

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it a terrible thing to lose son " or brother or his wealth

or anything of the sort." " Least of all." " Then he makes the least lament and bears it most moderately when any such misfortune overtakes him." " Certainly." " Then we should be right in doing away with the lamentations of men of note and in attributing them to women,** and not to the most worthy of them either, and to inferior men. in order that those whom we say we are breeding for the guardianship of the land may disdain to act like these." "We should be right," said he. "Again then we shall request Homer and the other poets not to portray Achilles, the son of a goddess, as,

Lying now on his side, and then again on his back. And again on his face,'

and then rising up and

Drifting distraught on the shore of the waste unharvested ocean,"*

nor as clutching with both hands the sooty dust and strewing it over his head,* nor as weeping and lamenting in the measure and manner attributed to him bv the poet ; nor yet Priam/ near kinsman of the gods, making supplication and rolling in the dung.

Calling aloud unto each, by name to each man appealing.

• The description of Achilles mourning for Patroclus, II, xxiv. 10-12. C/. Juvenal iii. 279-280:

Noctem patitur lugentis amicum Pelidae, cubat in faciem mox deinde supinus.

* //• xxiv. 12. Our text of Homer reads divei-effK d\iWi» irapa div dX6j, ov5i fiiv ijois. Plato's text may be intentional burlesque or it may be corrupt.

' //. xviii. 23-34. When he heard of Patroclus's death. f Jl. xxii. 414-415.

VOL. I p 209

PLATO

TToXv 8' en Tovrojv fidXXov Serjaofxcda ji'qTOi dcovs ye TTOielv oBvpofievovs /cat XeyovTas

C cjfJLOL ey<h beiXij, to/xot SvaapLaroroKeLa'

€L 8 oSv deovs, fi'qTOi rov ye fjiiyiaTov rwv decov ToXfirjaai ovtcos dvojjLOLcos ixip-iqaaadai, coare' co

TTOTTOi, (f>dvaL,

rj ^iXov dvSpa SicoKoixevov rrepl durv

o<f)daXpiOLaLV opcbpuai, ifxov 8' oXo(f)vpeTat rJTop'

/cat

at at iywv, ore fxoi Tiap7Tr)86va <j>iXraTOV dvhpcjv

D //.ot/D* VTTo YlarpoKXoLO MevotTtaSao Saprjvai. III. Et yap, CO (f>iXe 'ASelpLavre, rd roLavra rjfuv

ol vioi OTTovSij dKovoL€v /cat [XT) KarayeXcpev a>?

dva^Lcos XeyofxevcDV, crxoXfj dv iavrov ye Tt? dv-

dpojTTOv ovra dva^Lou -qytjaaLro rovrcov /cat ein-

TrX'Q^eiei', el /cat evLoi, avro) roiovrov t) Xeyeiv r]

TTOielv, dXX ovhev alaxw6p.evos ovhe Kaprepcbv ttoX- Xovs €7tI apLiKpotai TTaOrjjxaaL Oprjvovs dv aSot /cat

E ohvpixovs. ^AXrjOeoTaTa, e(f)r), Xeyeig. Aet 8e ye ovx> d)s dpri -qpuv 6 Xoyog eaiqpLaLvev cb ireiaTeov,

ecu? dv TLS '^p-dg dXXo) koXXlovl TreLar). Ov yap ovv 8el. 'AAAd p.7]v ouSe (fiiXoyeXojrds ye 8et

» Thetis in II. xviii. 54. " Cf. 377 e. " //. xxii. 168. Zeus of Hector. "* //. xvi. 433-434. Cf. Virgil's imitation. Am. x. 465 ff.,

Cicero, Be Div. ii. ch. 10, and the imitation of the whole passage in Matthew Arnold's " Balder Dead."

* I nave imitated the suggestion of rhythm in the original which with its Ionic dative is perhaps a latent quotation from tragedy. Cf. Chairemon, oiiSeis iirl crfiiKpoiffi Xvirelrai (To<p6i, N.-^ fr. 37.

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And yet more than this shall we beg of them at least not to describe the gods as lamenting and

crying,

Ah, woe is me, woeful mother who bore to my sorrow the bravest,"

and if they will so picture the gods at least not to have the effrontery to present so unlikely a likeness *

of the supreme god as to make him say : Out on it, dear to my heart is the man whose pursuit

around Troy-town I must behold with my eyes while my spirit is grieving

within me,' and : Ah, woe is me ! of all men to me is Sarpedon the dearest. Fated to fall by the hands of Patroclus, Menoitius' off-

spring. *

III. " For if, dear Adeimantus, our young men should seriously incline to listen to such tales and not laugh at them as unworthy utterances, still less Ukely would any man be to think such conduct unworthy of himself and to rebuke himself if it occurred to him to do or say anything of that kind, but without shame or restraint full many a dirge for trifles would he chant* and many a lament." " You say most truly," he replied. " But that must not be, as our reasoning but now showed us, in which we must put our trust until someone convinces us with a better reason." " No, it must not be." " Again, they must not be prone to laughter.^ For

' The ancients generally thought violent laughter un- dignified. Cf. Isoc. Demon. 15, Plato, Laws 732 c, 935 b, Epictet. Encheirid. xxxiii. 4, Dio Chrys. Or. 33. 703 R. Diog. Laert. iii. 26, reports that Plato never laughed excessively in his youth. Aristotle's great-souled man would presumably have eschewed laughter {Eth. iv. 8, Rhet. 1389 b 10), as Lord Chesterfield advises his son to do.

211

PLATO

ett'ttt. CT;^eSoi' yap orav tls ^4"''fi ^^X^P^ ylXcori,

laxvpav Kal ixera^oXrjv t,r)T€L to toiovtov. AoKet

/Ltot, e^^. Ovre dpa dvdpcoTTOVs d^iovs Aoyou 389 KparovfjLevovs vtto yeXcoTOs dv Tt? TTotfj, arro-

BeKTeov, TToXv 8e rJTTOV, idv deovg. IloAy fxevroi,

iq o OS. UvKovv Up,rjpov ovoe ra roiavra \aTTO- Se^ofxeda rrepl ^ecup-],

da^earos S' a/a' ivcbpro yeXcos fiaKapecrai Oedlcnv,

(OS tbov "H^aicrror Sta Scofiara TTonrvvovra,

ovK aTToSeKTeov Kara tov aov Xoyov. Et av, €(f>r], B ^ovXcL ifjLov TiOevac- ov yap ovv Srj dTTobeKreov.

AAAa fxrjv Kal dXi]d€tdv ye TTCpl ttoXXou TTOirjTeov. et yap opdcos iXeyofxev dprt Kal rco ovn deoXai fxav dxprjcrrov i/jevSog, dvdpcoTTOLS Se ;(p7^at/xov d)s iv

(fyappiaKov etSet, SrjXov, otl to ye roiovrov larpols

Soreov, ISicoraLS 8e ovx drrreov. ArjXov, e^y].

ToLs dpxovai St] rrjs TToXeojs e'lTrep rialv dXXoLs

TTpoai^KeL if/evSeadaL fj TToXepuioiv "q ttoXitcov eve/ca

en (x)(j)eXeLa rrjs TToXecog- rols Se aAAot? ndatv ovx C arrreov tov toiovtov, dXXd rrpos ye 8r) tovs tolov-

Tovs dpxovTas IhicjoTT] ^evaaadai TavTov Kal ixell,ov

dpLapTrjfia cjjrjaoiJiev fj KafivovTi. Tvpos carpov r]

daKOVVTL TTpOS TTaihoTpi^TjV TTepl TCJV TOV aVTOV

"In 563 E Plato generalizes this psychological principle. '' This laughter of the Homeric gods has been endlessly

commented upon. Hegel allegorizes it. Mrs. Browning (" Aurora Leigh ") says

:

And all true poets laugh unquenchably Like Shakespeare and the gods.

Proclus, In Rempub. i. 127 Kroll, says that it is an expression of the abundance of the divine energy. It is a commonplace repeated by George Eliot that the primitive sense of humour

212

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK III

ordinarily when one abandons himself to \-iolent laughter his condition provokes a %"iolent reaction."

"

" I think so," he said. " Then if anyone represents men of worth as overpowered by laughter we must not accept it, much less if gods." " Much indeed," he repUed. " Then we must not accept from Homer such sayings as these either about the gods :

Quenchless then was the laughter'' that rose from the blessed immortals

When they beheld Hephaestus officiously puffing and panting.

—^we must not accept it on your ^^ew.'' " " If it pleases you to call it mine," he said ; " at any rate we must not accept it." " But further we must surely prize truth most highly. For if we were right in what we were just saying and falsehood is in very deed useless to gods, but to men useful as a remedy or form of medicine,'* it is ob\ious that such a thing must be assigned to physicians, and laymen should have nothing to do with it." " Ob\'iously," he replied. " The rulers then of the city may, if anybody, fitly lie on account of enemies or citizens for the benefit * of the state ; no others may have anything to do with it, but for a laj-man to lie to rulers of that kind we shall affirm to be as great a sin, nay a greater, than it is for a patient not to tell his physician or an athlete his trainer the truth

of the Homeric gods laughs at the personal deformity of Hephaestus, but they really laugh at his officiousness and the contrast he presents to Hebe. Cf. my note in Class. Phil. xxii. (1927) pp. 222-223.

' Cf. on 334 D. ' Cf. 382 d. * Cf. 334 B, 459 D. A cynic might compare Cleon's plea

in Aristoph. Knights 1226 ^70; S" fK\eirTov ex' dya6i2 ye t§ TToXd. Cf. Xen. Mem. ii. 6. 37, Bolingbroke, Letters to Pope, p. 1 72.

213

PLATO

acofiaros TTaOyjixaTiov ^rj rdX-qdrj Xeyeiv, 'q Trpos

KV^epvTJrrjv Trepl rrjg vecog re Kal toji' vavTcbv pnq

ra ovra Xeyovri, orrcos r) avro? jj rig riov ^vv-

vavrcx)v Trpd^ecos e'xei. 'AXrjdearara, e<f>r]. *Av D dp' dXXov Tivd XapL^avT) ifjevSofxevov iv Trj ttoXcl

Tcbv ot St]fxLovpyol eaai,

fxdvTiv T] lr]Trjpa kukcov ^ reKrova Sovpojv,

KoXdaei (hs iTTLT-qSevfia clcrdyovra rroXetog axjTrep

vecjg dvarpeiTTLKov re Kai oXedpiov. Eai^ ye, tj 8' OS, €771 ye Xoyo) epya TeXrJTat. Ti 84; aa}(f)po- avvTjs apa ov Sei^cret rjixlv tols veaviais; Ylcos S oij ; Jlw(f)poauyrjg 8e co? rrX-qdei ov rd rocdoe

/xeyicrra, dpxdvTOJV p,kv vTTrjKoovg elvai, avrovs 8e

E dpxovras tojv Trepl ttotovs Kal d^pohiaia Kai Trepi ehcoZd? rjhovcov; "E^otye So/cet. Ta hr] Toidhe <j)rjao}xev, olfxat,, KaXojs Xeyeadac, ota Kal 'O/xi^/ao)

Aiofi-qS-qs Xiyei,

rerra, ohotttj rjao, e/xo) 8' eTnTreWeo jjivvu),

Kal rd TOVTCov ixdfieva, rd

[laav jxevea Trveiovres *Axo.ioC]

oiyfj SetSiore? ay]p.dvropas,

390 Kal oaa dXXa roiavra. KaAcD?. Tt 8e; ra roiaSe

" Od. xvii. 383-384. Jebb, Homer, p. 69. * The word is chosen to fit both ship and state. Cf.

434 E, 442 B : and Alcaeus apitd Aristoph. Wasps 1235, Eurip. Phoen. 888, Aeschines iii. 158, Epictet. iii. 7. 20.

" That is, probably, if our Utopia is realized. Cf. 452 a et irpd^eTai. ^ X^yerai. Cf. the imitation in Epistles 357 a elirep ^pya ^nl vi^ iyiyvero.

** For the mass of men, as distinguished from the higher

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THE REPUBLIC, BOOK III

about his bodily condition, or for a man to deceive the pilot about the ship and the sailors as to the real condition of himself or a fellow-sailor, and how they fare." " Most true," he replied. " If then the ruler catches anybody else in the city lying, any of the craftsmen

Whether a prophet or healer of sickness or joiner of timt>ers,''

he will chastise him for introducing a practice as subversive ''and destructive of astate as it is of a ship." " He \n\\," he said, " if deed follows upon word.<^

"

" Again, will our lads not need the \-irtue of self-

control ? " "Of course." " And for the multitude "*

are not the main points of self-control these—to be obedient to their rulers and themselves to be rulers *

over the bodily appetites and pleasures of food, drink, and the rest ? " "I think so." " Then, I take it, we will think well said such sayings as that of Homer's Diomede :

Friend, sit down and be silent and hark to the word of my bidding,'

and what follows •

Breathing high spirit the Greeks marched silently fearing their captains,"

and all similar passages." " Yes, well said." " But what of this sort of thing ?

philosophical virtue. Often misunderstood. For the mean- ings of (rij<ppo<Ti'VTj cf. my review of Jowett's Plato, A.J.P. vol. xiu. (1892) p. 361. Cf. Unity of Plato's Thouffht, p. 15 and n. 77.

* In Gorg. 491 d-e, Callicles does not understand what Socrates means by a similar expression.

' II. iv. -112. Diomede to Sthenelos. * In our Homer this is //. iii. 8, and criyy kt\. iv. 431.

See Howes in Uarvard Studies, vi. pp. 153-237.

215

PLATO

olvo^apes, Kvvos o/JLixar^ ^X^^> xpo.^^'^v S' iXd(f)oio

/cat ra tovtcov i^rjs 3,pa KaXws, /cat oaa ctAAa ri? €V Aoyoj ^ iv TTOtTjcret etprj/ce veavtevfxara tStcoTcor et? dpxovrag; Ov /caAaj?. Oj) yap, ot^Ltat, et? ye aiO(j)pouvvr]v veots eTnrrjSeia OLKOveiv et 8e rti^a

dXXrjv rjSovrjv TTapex^rai., OavfxaaTov ovhiv rj ttcvs aoi ^atVerat; Ovrcos, ecfy-q.

IV. Ti 8e; TTOLGLV dvhpa rov aof^cLraTOV Ae- yoi'Ttt, cu? 8o/cet awTo) /caAAtcrTOV eti^at volvtojv,

orav TTapaTrXetaL coat rpaTre^at

B airov /cat Kpeicov, p^edv S' e'/c Kprjrrjpos a.(f)V<j(JO}V olvoxoos (l)oper}cn /cat eyx^^J] SeTrdeaai,

So/cet CTOt eTTtTrjSetov ett-at Trpos ey/cpareiai^ eavrov

o.KO'ueLV vecp; i] to

XijjLcp S ot/CTtcTTOi' davieiv /cat TTOTfxov iTTiaTTelv;

ri Ata, Kadevhovrojv raJv dXXcuv deaJv re /cat

dvdpioTTCov /cat pLOVos eyprjyopo)^ a i^ouXevaaro,

C TOUTCuv' navrajv pabtajs einXavdavoixevov Sta tt^j' Toit' di^poSiaricov eTTidvpLiav, /cat ovrcos eKTrXayevra

ISovra rrjv "Hpav, cScrre /x^S' et? to hcop,driov edeXeiv eXdeiv, dAA auTOU ^ovX6p,€vov ;^a^at ^yy- ytyvecrdai, /cat Xeyovra cos ovrcos vtto eTTidvpiias

ex^Tai, cos ov8 ore ro rrpcorov e(f)oiroiv Trpos

dXXriXovs

" II. i. 225. Achilles to the commander-in-chief. Aga- memnon. Several lines of insult follow.

* Cf. Philebus 42 c. " Cf. Gorgias 482 c. '' Odysseus in Od. ix. 8-10. For TrapawXeiai the Homeric

text has irapa 8^ irXijOua-i. Plato's treatment of the quotation

216

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK III

Heavy with wine with the eyes of a dog and the heart of a fleet deer,"

and the lines that follow,* are these well—and other impertinences " in prose or verse of private citizens

to their rulers ? " " They are not well." " They certainly are not suitable for youth to hear for the inculcation of self-control. But if from another point of view they yield some pleasure we must not be surprised; or what is your view of it ? " " This," he said.

IV . " Again, to represent the wisest man as saying that this seems to him the fairest thing in the world,

When the bounteous tables are standing Laden with bread and with meat and the cupbearer ladles

the sweet wine Out of the mixer and bears it and empties it into the

beakers.'*

—do you think the hearing of that sort of thing will conduce to a young man's temperance or self-control ? or this :

Hunger is the most piteous death that a mortal may suffer.*

Or to hear how Zeus^ lightly forgot all the designs which he de\'ised, awake while the other gods and men slept, because of the excitement of his passions, and was so overcome by the sight of Hera that he is not even wilUng to go to their chamber, but wants to lie \\-ith her there on the ground and says that he is possessed by a fiercer desire than when they first consorted with one another,

is hardly fair to Homer. Aristotle, Pol. 1338 a 28, cites it more fairly to illustrate the use of music for entertainment (8taya>y^). The passage, however, was liable to abuse. See the use made of it by Lucian, Parasite 10.

• Od. xii. 342. / II. xiv. 294-341.

217

PLATO

(f)LXovs Xijdovre roKrjas;

ovSe "Apecos re kol 'A(/)pohirrjs vtto 'H^aicrToy

SeafjLOV 8t' erepa roiavra. Ov p,a tov Ata, rj 8' og, D ov fjioi, (^atVerat eTTLT-qSetov. 'AAA' et ttov nveg,

rjv 8' iyo), Kaprepiat npos aTravra /cat Xiyovrai Koi TTpdrrovrai vtto iXXoyijjuov di'Spojv, deareov re

/cat OLKovareov, olov /cat ro

arrjdos Se irXirj^as KpaSlrjv rjvnraTTe fxvdcp'

rerXadt Srj, Kpahir]' /cat Kvvrepov dXXo ttot* erXyj^.

UavraTTaat, jxev ovv, etjir]. Ov p-kv Srj ScopoSoKovs ye iardov elvat rovs dvSpas ovSe (/)iXoxp'f}P'dirovs.

E OvSap,cos- Oi)8' aareov aurot? ort

Sojpa deoijs Treidei, Scop atSotous' ^aaiXTJas'

ovhe TOV TOV 'Ax^'XXeajs TraiBaycoyov OotVt/ca

irraLveTeov , cos pLeTptcos eXeye avp^ovXevcov avTco

Sctjpa piev Xa^ovTL inapvveiv toIs ^A)(aLoXg, dvev hk

hojpcov prj 0.77aXXoLTTeadat Trjg pL-qvios. ouS' avTOV

TOV 'A;^tAAea d^Lcoaopev ou8' opboXoyqaopev ovtco

(f)LXo)(prjpaTov elvai, cocrre Trapa tov 'Ayapepvovos

Scbpa Xa^elv, /cat Tipirjv av Xa^ovTa veKpov oltto-

391 Aueiv, aAAco? 8e ^17 deXeiv. Ovkovv 8t/caior ye,

€(f)r], iiraLveXv to, rotaura. ^Okvco Se ye, -^v 8'

eyo), 81' "Opirjpov Xeyeiv, otl ovSi* oaiov rauTct ye

Kara 'Ap^iAAe'aj? ^dvai /cat aAAcov XeyovTcov Tret-

Beadai, /cat ay ct*? 77p6s" top' 'AttoAAo} €L7T€v

" Od. viii. 266 ff. '' May include on Platonic principles the temptations of

pleasure. Cf. Laws 633 d. Laches 191 d-e. " Od. XX. 17-18. Quoted also in Phaedo 94 d-e. ** Suidas s.v. BQpa says that some attributed the line to

218

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK III

Deceiving their dear parents.

Nor will it profit them to hear of Hephaestus's fettering of Ares and Aphrodite ** for a like motive." " No, by Zeus," he said, " I don't think it will." " But any words or deeds of endurance in the face of all odds * attributed to famous men are suitable for our youth to see represented and to hear, such as :

He smote his breast and chided thus his heart, ' Endure, my heart, for worse hast thou endured.' • "

" By all means," he said. " It is certain that we cannot allow our men to be acceptors of bribes or greedy for gain." " By no means." " Then they must not chant :

Gifts move the gods and gifts persuade dread kings.**

Nor should we approve Achilles* attendant Phoenix * as speaking fairly when he counselled him if he received gifts for it to defend the Achaeans, but without gifts not to lay aside liis wrath ; nor shall we think it proper nor admit that Achilles ^ himself was so greedy as to accept gifts from Agamemnon and again to give up a dead body after receiving payment" but otherwise to refuse." " It is not right," he said, " to commend such conduct." " But, for Homer's sake," said I. " I hesitate to say that it is positively impious * to affirm such things of Achilles and to believe them when told by others ; or again to beh'eve that he said to Apollo

Hesiod. Cf. Eurip. Medfa 964, Ovid, Ars Am. iii. 653, Otto, Sprichw. d. R<}m. 233.

« See his speech, 77. ix. 515 ff. ' Cf. II. xix. 278 ff. But Achilles in Homer is indifferent

to the gifts. ' //. xxiv. 502, 555, 594. But in 560 he does not explicitly

mention the ransom. * Cf. 368 b.

219

PLATO

e^Xa^ds fx eKaepye, decuv oXowTare rravrajv rj a av TiaaL/jLrjv, ec fioi, Swa/xt? ye Trapeirj'

B Kal CO? TTpos Tov TTorafxov, Oeov ovra, OLTreiOws elx^ KaL fjiaxeordai erotpiog -qv /cat av ras rov erepov TTorafiov UTTepx^Lov Upas rptxag

UarpoKXa) rjpto'C, €(f>r], Kofjurjv OTraaai/xi (f)ep€adai,

v€Kpcp ovTL, Kal COS cS/jaffe tovto, ov Treiariov.

TOLS re av "E/cropo? eX^eis Trepl to aijfjia to Ila- TpoKXov Kai TOLS Tojv t,coyprjd€VT(ov CTciayas" els ttjv TTvpdv, ^vfiTTavTa TavTa ov <j)rjaop,ev dXyjOrj elprj-

C adaL, ovh idaojxev Treideadai rovs rjixeTcpovs (Jos Axi-XXevs, Oeds cov irals Kal YirjXews, aax^poveaTd-

Tov Te KaL Tpirov diro Ato?, Kal vtto tco CTo^coraTO) Xetpcovt Te9pa[jLfxevos, ToaavTTjs r^v Tapax^js vXecos,

oiOT ex^i-v iv avTO) voa-q/xaTe hvo ivavTLO) dXXrjXoLV,

dveXevdepLav fieTOL cfiLXoxprjfxaTLas Kal av inrep-

rj(f)avLav dedJv t€ Kal dvOpcoTTCov 'OpddJs, ^<f>f]j XeyeLs.

V. Mt^ tolvvv, Tjv 8' eyco, /xrySe raSe TreLdcofxeOa

/XT^S' idjfiev XeyeLv, d>s Q-qaevs YloaeLScovos vlos

D IleLpLdovs Te Alos a)pixriaev ovtws eirl Setvaj apvayds, /xrjSe tlv' dXXov deov nalSd Te Kat, -qpo)

" n. xxii. 15. Professor Wilamowitz uses dXoiirare to prove that Apollo was a god of destruction. But Menelaus says the same of Zeus in //. iii. 365. Cf. Class. Phil. vol. iv. (1909) p. 329.

" Scamander. II. xxi. 130-132. " //. xxiii. 151. Cf. Proclus, p. 146 KroU. Plato ex-

aggerates to make his case. The locks were vowed to Spercheius on the condition of Achilles' return. In their context the words are innocent enough.

" II. xxiv. 14 ff. ' II. xxiii. 175-176.

220

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK III

Me thou hast baulked, Far-darter, the most pernicious of all gods,

Mightily would I requite thee if only my hands had the power."

And how he was disobedient to the river,^ who was a god, and was ready to fight ^^^th him, and again that he said of the locks of his hair, consecrated to

the other river Spercheius :

This let me give to take with him my hair to the hero, Patroclus,'

who was a dead body, and that he did so we must not believe. And again the trailings ** of Hector's body round the grave of Patroclus and the slaughter *

of the living captives upon his pyre, all these we will affirm to be lies, nor will we suffer our youth to believe that Achilles, the son of a goddess and of Peleus the most chaste ^ of men, grandson ' of Zeus, and himself bred under the care of the most sage Cheiron, was of so perturbed a spirit as to be affected with two contradictory maladies, the greed that becomes no free man and at the same time over- weening arrogance towards gods and men." " You are right," he said.

V. " Neither, then," said I, " must we believe this or suffer it to be said, that Theseus, the son of Poseidon, and Peirithoiis, the son of Zeus, attempted such dreadful rapes,'' nor that any other child of a

' Proverbially. Cf. Find. l^em. iv. S^, v. 26, Aristoph. Clouds 1063, and my note on Horace iii. 7. 17.

' Zeus, Aeacus, Peleus. For the education of Achilles by Cheiron <•/. II. xi. S3-2, Pindar, Nem. iii., Eurip. LA. 926-927, Plato, Hipp. Miji&r 371 d.

* Theseus was assisted by Peirithoiis in the rape of Helen and joined Peirithoiis in the attempt to abduct Persephone. Theseus was the theme of epics and of lost plays by Sophocles and Euripides.

221

PLATO

roXixrjaai. av heiva kol aae^rj epydaaadai, ota vvv

Karai/jevSovrai, avruiv aAAa TrpoaavayKo.t.CDiiev rovg TTOnqras r} fJir) tovtcov avra epya (f)dvai r]

rovTOvg firj elvaL deojv Tralbas, diJi.cf)6T€pa Se fJLT]

Xdyeiv, fiTj^e ripZv eTn)(€ipeZv Treideiv rovs viovs,

d)s ol deol KaKo. yevvcocn, Kal rjpcjes dvdpcoTTCov

t" ovSev ^eXriovs. oTrep yap iv rots' vpoadev eAe-

yofjiev, ovd^ ocrta ravra ovt dXrjdij- eTreSetfaftev' ydp 7TOV, OTL CK deixiv KaKO. yiyveadai dhvvarov. ITaj? ydp ov; Kai fX'qv rols ye aKovovai jSAajSepa* 7ra? ydp iavrco ^vyyvcopLrjv e^et KaKw ovti, irei- adels (hs dpa roLavra TrpdrrovJi re /cat eTrparrov /cat

ol Oecbv dyx^cTTTopoi,

"ZjTjvos iyyvs, Sv /car ISaXov ndyov Aio? TTarpcpov ^cofxo? ear iv aWepi,

Kal ov 7T(x) a^LV i^lrrjXov alpbi SaLpiovcov.

(x)V ev€Ka TTavareov rovs roiovrovs p-vdovs, /xr^ r^/xtv 392 TToXXrjv ev^epeiav evriKrcoai rots veois TTOvr]pias-

K.opLi,8fj p.ev ovv, €(f)r]. Tt ovv, '^v S eycu, ert

XoLTTOV elSos Xoyoiv rrept, opt^opievois olovs re

XeKreov /cat pLrj; rrepl ydp dedju cLs Set Xeyeadai

etpjjrai, /cat Trepl Saipiovcov re /cat -qpojcov /cat rdjv

iv "AlSov; Ilai^Li p,ev ovv. Ovkovv /cat jrepl dvdpcx)-

TTOiV rd XoLTTOV eirj av; ArjXa 817. 'ABvvarov

Stj, a> (f)tXe, rjpLLV rovro ye iv rw Trapovri ragai. I\.d)s; "On ot/xat rjpids ipelv, (hs dpa Kai TToirjraL

D /cat XoyoTTOLol /ca/ccDy Xeyovai Trepl dvdpcoTTOJV ra

" Plato was probably thinking of this passage when he wrote the last paragraph of the Critias.

" From Aeschylus's Niobe. ' Cf. my note in Class. Phil. vol. xii. (1910) p. 308.

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srod and hero would have brought himself to accom- plish the terrible and impious deeds that they now falsely relate of him. But we must constrain the poets either to deny that these are their deeds or that they are the children of gods, but not to make both statements or attempt to persuade our youth that the gods are the begetters of evil, and that heroes are no better than men. For, as we were saying, such utterances are both impious and false. For we proved, I take it, that for e\il to arise from gods is an impossibility." "Certainly." " And they are furthermore harmful to those that hear them. For every man will be very lenient with his own misdeeds if he is convinced that such are and were the actions of

The near-sown seed of gods. Close kin to Zeus, for whom on Ida's top Ancestral altars flame to highest heaven. Nor in their life-blood fails " the fire divine.*

For which cause we must put down such fables, lest they breed in our youth great laxity ^ in turpitude." " Most assuredly." " What type ofdiscourse remains for our definition of our prescriptions and proscrip- tions } We have declared the right way of speaking about gods and daemons and heroes and that other world?" "Wehave." "Speech, then, about men would be the remainder." " Ob\iously." " It is impossible for us, my friend, to place this here.'* " " Why ? " " Because I presume we are going to say that so it is that both poets and writers of prose speak wrongly about men in matters of greatest moment, saying

'' Or possibly " determine this at present." The prohibi- tion which it would beg the question to place here is made explicit in Tjgws 660 £. Cf. Laws 899 d, and supra .S64 b.

223

PLATO

fxeyLara, on elalv aSt/coi fiev, evSaifjioves Se ttoAAo/, BiKaiot, Be aOXioL, /cat cos XvcnreXel to aSt/cetV, iav

Xavddvrj, 17 8e 8i/<:aiocri;i^ dAAorptov /u.ei' dya^dt',

ot/ceta 8e t,7]jxia' /cat rd /uei' rotaura dTrepeti' Ae- yeiv, TO. 8' ivavria tovtcov vpoard^eLV aSeii' re

/cat fivdoXoyeXv •^ ou/c otet; Eu /tei' ow, €(f)r], otSa. OyKow edi' ofXoXoyfjs 6pda)<; fie Xeyeiv, (fyT^aco ae (hfioXoyrjKevaL d TzdAat t,T]roviJiev

;

C ^Opdajs, e(f)r], vireXa^eg. Ou/cow Trepi dvdpcvTTCOv OTi rotovTovs Bel Xoyovs Xeyeadai, Tore 8t-

ofioXoyrjao/jieda, orav evpcufjiev, olov eari 8i/cato-

avvrj, /cat (hs (f)vaei XvatreXovv to) exovrt, edv re

BoKjj edv T€ firj tolovtos etvai; 'AAT^^eWara, ecfir]. VI. Td fiev Brj Xoycov Trepi e)(^eTCx} reXos, to Be

Xd^ecos, COS eyatjxaL, pLerd tovto OKeineov, /cat rjpuv

d T€ XeKreov /cat (hs XeKreov iravreXcos iaKeifierai,. /cat d *ABeLjj.avTos, Tovto, rj 8' os, ov pavddvco o

D Tt Xeyeis. 'AAAd pLevroi, rjv 8' iyco, Set ye. tcrcu? ovv' r^8e p,dXXov etaet. dp ov TrdvTa, baa vtto

pLvdoXoyoiv ri ttoltjtojv Xeyerai, BL-qy-qaLS ovaa

TvyxdveL iq yeyovoTOJV iq ovtcov t] peXXovTCvv; Tt

ydp, ecfyrj, dXXo; *Ap' ovv oi3;^t tJtol aTrXfj Bi-qyT^aei 7] Bid fiLpL-qaecos ycyvopLevr) ^ 8t' dp,(f)OTepo}v Trepai-

vovaiv; Kat tovto, tj 8' ds, ert 8eoyLtat aa^earepov jxadeiv. TeXolos, rjv 8* eyco, eot/ca StSdcr/caAos"

" \6yu)v here practically means the matter, and Xe^ewy, which became a technical term for diction, the manner, as Socrates explains when Adeimantus fails to understand.

" Cf. Aristot. Poet. 1449 b 27. * All art is essentially imitation for Plato and Aristotle.

But imitation means for them not only the portrayal or description of visible and tangible things, but more especially the communication of a mood or feeling, hence the (to a modern) paradox that music is the most imitative of the arts. 224

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that there are many examples of men who, though unjust, are happy, and of just men who are ^^Tetched, and that there is profit in injustice if it be concealed, and that justice is the other man's good and your own loss ; and I presume that we shall forbid them to say this sort of thing and command them to sing and fable the opposite. Don't you think so ? " " Nay, I well know it," he said. " Then, if you admit that I am right, I will say that you have conceded the original point of our inquiry ? " " Rightly appre-

hended," he said. " Then, as regards men that speech must be of this kind, that is a point that we will agree upon when we have discovered the nature of justice and the proof that it is profitable to its possessor whether he does or does not appear to be just." " Most true," he replied.

VI. " So this concludes the topic of tales." That of diction, I take it, is to be considered next. So we shall have completely examined both the matter and the manner of speech." And Adeimantus said, " I don't understand what you mean by this." " Well," said I, " we must have you understand. Perhaps you will be more Ukely to apprehend it thus. Is not everything that is said by fabulists or poets a narration of past, present, or future things ?

"

" What else could it be ? " he said. " Do not they proceed ^ either bv pure narration or by a narrative that is effected through imitation,'' or by both ?

"

" This too," he said, " I still need to have made plainer." " I seem to be a ridiculous and obscure

But Plato here complicates the matter further by sometimes using imitation in the narrower sense of dramatic dialogue as opposed to narration. An attentive reader will easily observe these distinctions. Aristotle's Poetics makes much use of the ideas and the terminology of the following pages.

VOL. I Q 225

PLATO

etvai Kal daacfj-qg. waTrep ovv ol ahvvaTOi Xeyeiv,

E ov Kara oXov aAA' arroAa^cov fxepos ri Treipdao^iai aoL €v Tovro) S7]Xa)aai o ^ovXoyLai. Kai fioi eiVe*

eTTLaracrai ttjs lAtaSos to, Trpcora, iv ots 6 ttoi7]T7]s

(f)r)ai Tov fxev ^pva'qv SelaOat, rov ^Ayayicjxvovos

aTToXvaai ttjv Ovyarepa, rov Be x^XeTraiveLV, tov

393 8e, eTTecSrj ovk irvyxo-ve, Karevx^adai rojv 'AxcuoJv irpos rov deov; "Eycoye. Otod' ovv on fi^XP'' H'^^ rovrcov rcov €7t6jv

Kal iXiaaero Trdvras 'Axo.i'Ovs,

ArpetSa 8e [xdXiara Svco, Koap.'qrope Xacbv

XeyeL re avros 6 Trorjrrjs Kal owS' eTTix^ipei rjixcov rrjv Sidvoiav dXXoae rpeTreiv, cos dXAos ns 6 Xeycov

B rj avros' rd Se fxerd ravra aiOTrep avro's iov 6 ^pvarjg Xeyet Kal Treipdrai rjfxds o n p,dXtara TTOirjaai [xr] "OfjLrjpov SoKetv elvai rov Xeyovra

dXXd rov Upea, Trpea^vrrjv ovra' Kal rrjV d?^T]v St] ndaav ax^^dv n ovrco TTeTTolrjrai SLtjyrjaLV Trepi re rdJv ev 'IXiw Kal rrepl rcov ev 'lOdKT) /cat oXr)

Ohvoaeia Tradripidrwv . Ilavu puev ovv, e(f>rj. Ovk- ovv Si-^yrjOLs fxev eart Kal orav rds p'qaeis €Kd-

arore Xeyrj Kal orav rd p,era^v rcov prjaecov;

Ucbs yap ov; 'AAA' orav ye riva Xeyrj prjatv C ws ns dXXos (jov, dp* ov rore op-OLovv avrov

<f>riaopLev o tl fidXiara rrjv avrov Xe^tv e/caaroj.

" Socratic urbanity professes that the speaker, not the hearer, is at fault. Cf. Protag. 340 e, Phileb. 23 d.

* Plato and Aristotle often contrast the universal and the particular as whole and part. Cf. Unity of Plato's Thought^

f).

52. Though a good style is concrete, it is a mark of inguistic helplessness not to be able to state an idea in

226

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teacher," " I said ; " so like men who are unable to express themselves I won't try to speak in wholes ^

and universals but s^ill separate off a particular part and by the example of that try to show you my meaning. Tell me. Do you know the first lines of the Iliad in which the poet says that Chryses

implored Agamemnon to release his daughter, and that the king was angry and that Chryses, failing of his request, imprecated curses on the Achaeans in his prayers to the god ? " "I do." " You know then that as far as these verses,

And prayed unto all the Achaeans, Chiefly to Atreus' sons, twin leaders who marshalled the

people,"

the poet himself is the speaker and does not even attempt to suggest to us that anyone but himself is speaking. But what follows he delivers as if he were himself Chryses and tries as far as may be to make us feel that not Homer is the speaker, but the priest, an old man. And in this manner he has carried on nearly all the rest of his narration about affairs in Ilion, all that happened in Ithaca, and the entire Odyssey." " Quite so," he said. " Now, it is narration, is it not, both when he presents the several speeches and the matter between the speeches ? " " Of course." " But when he delivers a speech as if he were someone else, shall we not say that he then assimilates thereby his own diction as far as possible to that of the person whom he general terms. Cf. Locke, Human Understanding, iii. 10. 27: " This man is hindered in his discourse for want of words to communicate his complex ideas, which he is therefore forced to make known by an enumeration of the simple ones that compose them."

« II. i. 15 f.

227

PLATO

ov av TTpoeLTTTj cu? ipovvra; ^-qcrojJLev tl ydp; OvKovv TO ye ofxoiovv eavrov aAAoj rj Kara (fxvvrjv 7] Kara axrjfia /xt/xetcr^at iariv €K€lvov a> dv rt? ofiOLol; Tl IjLT]v; 'Et- Srj rep roiovrcp, wg eoiKev, ovTos re /cat ot a'AAot iroirjTal 8ta piprjaecos ttjv

BLijyr]at.v TTOiovvrai. Yldvv p,ev ovv. Et Se ye

p^TjoapLov eavTov dTTOKpvTTTOtro 6 TTOLrjTTjs, irdaa

dv avTcp dvev pupirjaecos rj TToirjais re Kal SLrjyqaLs

D yeyovvXa elt], tva he pirj eiTrrjs, on ovk av piavdd- v€is, o7Taj<; dv tovto yevoiro, eyd) ^pdaoj. el ydp 'Opiqpos elvcov, on rjXdev 6 \pvar]s rrjs re dvya- rpos Xvrpa (f)€pcov Kal LKerr]? tojv 'A;^ai6t)v, pbdXiara oe rdjv ^aaiXeiov

, puerd tovto pirj d)s ^pvcrrjs yevo-

pLevos eXeyev, dAA' en d)s "Opiqpos, olad^ otl ovk av pLpLTjais '^v dAA' dTrXij Si-^yrjaLg. eip^e S dv

6t)8e TTCos' cf)pdaoj Se dvev pceTpov ov ydp elpn E TTOirjTLKos' eX6d)v 6 tepevs r)v)(^eTO eKeivois p-ev tovs

Oeovg Sovvai eXovTas ttjv Tpotav avTovs aa)di]vai,

TTjv Se dvyaTepa ol XvaaL be^apuevovs dnoiva Kal rov Qeov alheadevTag. raura Se elirovTos avTOV ol pLev dXXoL eae^ovTO Kal crvvrjvovv, 6 Se 'Ayapepivcov

TjypLatvev evTeXXopuevos vvv re dinevai Kal av9is pirj

eXdelv, pir) avTcp to re OKrJTTTpov Kal Td tov deov GTeppaTa ovk eirapKeaoL' irplv Se Xvdrjvat avTov TTJV dvyaTepa, iv "Apyei e(f>r] yiqpdaeiv p-eTd ov-

dinevaL S' eKeXeve Kal purj epedil,ew, Iva aojs ot/caSe

394 eXdoL. 6 Se Trpea^vTrjg aKovaas eSetae re /cat

" In the narrower sense. '' Cf. Hazlitt, Antony and Cleopatra: " Shakespeare does

not stand reasoning on what his characters would do or say, but at once becomes them and speaks and acts for them."

" From here to 394 b, Plato gives a prose paraphrase of

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announces as about to speak ? " " We shall ob- viously." " And is not likening one's self to another in speech or bodily bearing an imitation of him to whom one likens one's self? " " Surely." " In such case then, it appears, he and the other poets effect their narration through imitation." "Certainly." " But if the poet should conceal himself nowhere, then his entire poetizing and narration would have been accomplished without imitation." And lest you may say again that you don't understand, I will explain to you how this would be done. If Homer, after telling us that Chryses came with the ransom of his daughter and as a supphant of the Achaeans but chiefly of the kings, had gone on speaking not as if made or being Chryses '' but still as Homer, you are aware that it would not be imitation but narration, pure and simple. It would have been somewhat in this wise. I will state it without metre for I am not a poet : " the priest came and prayed that to them the gods should gi-ant to take Troy and come safely home, but that they should accept the ransom and release his daughter, out of reverence for the god ; and when he had thus spoken the others were of reverent mind and approved, but Agamemnon was angry and bade him depart and not come again lest the sceptre and the fillets of the god should not avail him. And ere his daughter should be released, he said, she would grow old in Argos with himself, and he ordered him to be off and not vex him if he wished to get home safe. And the old man on hearing this was frightened and departed in silence, and ha\ing

II. i. 12-42. Roger Ascham in his Schoolmaster quotes it as a perfect example of the best form of exercise for learning a language.

229

PLATO

aTT^et (Tcyfj, aTrop^copi^cras" 8e e/c rov crrpaTOTreSov

TToAAa to) 'Att-oAAcoi'i Tjvx^TO, rds re eTTCovvnias Tov deov dvaKaXwv /cat VTrofiifivqaKcov /cat OLTraiTcov, €L Tt TTcoTTore ^ iv vacbv oLKohoyiiqaeaLv rf iv lepojv

Ovaiais Kexo.pt(yiJi€vov Sajp-^aairo- wv 817 X^P''^ KaTrjV)(€TO TtCTat rovg A)(atovs to. a. SaKpva rols eK€Lvov ^eXeaiv. ovrcos, rjv S eyco, c3 eratpe,

B dv€V fiijJL'^aecos aTrXij bL-q-yqcns yiyvcTai. Mavdavco,

VII. M.dvdave tolvvv, rjv S' iyo), ore Tavrrjs av

evavTia yiyverai, orav Tt? to. rov ttoltjtov tu /Ltera^i) rcov p-r^aecov i^aipcov rd a/xot^ata KaraXeiTTT).

Kat TOVTO, €(1)7], jxavOdvco, otl ecrrt ro rrepl ra? TpaycpSlag tolovtov. 'Opdorara, €(l)rjv, UTreAajSe?,

/cat olfial aoL TJSrj SrjXovv o efivpoaOev ovx olos t' 'qv, OTL T'fjg TTOLrjaecos T€ Kal /JLvdoXoyias rj p.ev hid

C fjitfx'^aecos oXrj iarlv, (Lairep au Xeyeis, rpaycphia re /cat KOipuphia, rj 8e §t' aTrayyeAia? avrov tov

7TOtr]Tov- evpois 8 dv avTrjv pidXioTd ttov ev

StdvpdfM^oLs- r] 8' au 8t' djx^oT€pojv ev re rrj tcov

eTTCJv TTOi-qaei, rroXXaxov Se /cat dXXodi, et /itot

fjiavddveis- 'AAAd ^vvLrjut,, €<f>r], o t6t€ i^ovXov

Xeyeiv. Kai to tt/jo tovtov Srj dvafivrjcrdrjTL, otl e^apuev, d fxev XcKreov, rjdr) elprjadaL, (hs 8e XeKriov, ctl aKerrreov elvaL. AAAd ix4pivr]p.aL.

D ToL>To TOLvvv avTO rjv o eXeyov, otl XP^^V ^'" OfxoXoyqGaadaL, rroTepov idaofiev tovs 7TOLr]Tds /it-

fjLOVpLevovs rjfjLLV rds SLTjyrjoreLS TTOLcladaL, rj rd

fM€V fjLLfjLOVfjuevovs, Ta 8e /XT], /cat OTTOia e/cctTepa, •^

" The dithyramb was technically a poem in honour of Bacchus. For its more or less conjectural history cf. Pickard-Cambridge, Dithyramb, Tragedy and Comedy.

230

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gone apart from the camp he prayed at length to Apollo, invoking the appellations of the god, and reminding him of and asking requital for any of his gifts that had found favour whether in the building of temples or the sacrifice of victims. In return for

these things he prayed that the Achaeans should suffer for his tears by the god's shafts. It is in this way, my dear fellow," I said, " that -without imitation simple narration results." " I understand," he said.

VII. " Understand then," said I," that the opposite of this arises when one removes the words of the poet between and leaves the alternation of speeches." " This too I understand," he said, "—it is what happens in tragedy." " You have conceived me most rightly," I said, " and now I think I can make plain to you what I was unable to before, that there is one kind of poetry and tale-telhng which works wholly through imitation, as you remarked, tragedy and comedy ; and another which enaploys the recital of the poet himself, best exemphfied, I presume, in the dithyramb " ; and there is again that which employs both, in epic poetry and in many other places, if you apprehend me." " I understand now," he said, " what you then meant." " Recall then also the preceding statement that we were done with the ' what 'ofspeech and still had to consider the' how.'

"

" I remember." " What I meant then was just this, that we must reach a decision whether we are to suffer our poets to narrate as imitators or in part as

imitators and in part not, and what sort of things in

Here, however, it is used broadly to designate the type of elaborate Greek lyric which like the odes of Pindar and Bacchylides narrates a myth or legend with little if any dialc^ue.

231

PLATO

oySe fiLfieLaOai. Mavrevofxai,, €(f)7],

aKOTrelaOai ae,

elre TrapaSe^ofieda rpaycpSiav re /cat Kcofxcuhiav et?

TTjv ttoAlv, etTe Kai ov. Lacos, rjv o eyco' taojs oe

Kai TrXeioj eVi rovrcov ov yap Srj eycoye ttco olSa, aAA OTTT) av 6 Xoyos wcnrep TTvevfxa (f^^pj), ravrrj

E treov. Kat KaXajg y', €(f)r], Aeyeij. ToSe toivvv, d) ASeLjxavTe, ddpei, norepov fiijJirjTLKOvs 'qp.'iv Set

elvai Tovs cf)vXaKas r) ov; ^ /cat tovto rot? ep-TTpoadev eTverai, ort els eKaaros ev fxev av

€Tnrri^evp.a /caAco? evrtTr^Seuot, 77oAAa 8' ou, aAA ei TOVTO eTTLX^tpo'L, TToXXaJv e(f>aTrTop.evos iravTOiv

diTOTvyxoLvoi av, wot' elvai ttov iXXoyifios ; Tt 8 oj) yLte'AAet; Oi5/cow /cat Trept pupiiqaews o avTOS

Aoyos", ort TToAAa o auTO? fJUfxeladai ev ayairep iv

ov SvvaTos; Ov yap ovv. ^x^^V ^P^ eTrtrrjSeuCTet 395 ye Tt d'/ta roii' a^ioiv Xoyov eTTLTTqhevp.a.TCov /cat

77oAAd jiLjjLiqaeTai /cat ecrrat [xifirjTLKo?, errei ttov

ovSe TO, SoKovvTa iyyvs dAAT^Acoi' etv-at §uo yupir]-

fxaTO^ SvvavTai, ol avTol afxa ev jXLjJieLaOat, otov

KcopLcpSlav /cat Tpaya>hiav TTOiovvTeg. t] ov /xt/x7^-

jLtara dprt tovtcd e/cctAets"; "Eyajye* /cat dXrjOij ye

Xeyets, ort oi) Swa^rat ol avToi. Ovhe pirjv

paipcpSoi ye /cat VTTOKpiTal dfxa. 'AXrjdrj. AAA

1 fj.i/j,TifiaTa is more euphonious: some mss. and editors read fufirifiare.

" Again in the special limited sense. '' This seems to imply that Plato already had in mind the

extension of the discussion in the tenth book to the whole question of the moral effect of poetry and art.

' Cf. Theaetet. 172 d. But it is very naive to suppose that the sequence of Plato's argument is not carefully planned in his own mind. Cf. Unity of Plato's Thought, p. 5.

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each case, or not allow them to imitate " at all." " I di\ine," he said, " that you are considering whether we shall admit tragedy and comedy into our city or not." " Perhaps," said I, " and perhaps even more than that.** For I certainly do not yet know myself, but whithersoever the wind, as it were, of the argument blows,'' there lies our course." " Well said," he replied. " This then, Adeimantus, is the point we must keep in view, do we Avish our guardians to be good mimics or not ? Or is tliis also a consequence of what we said before, that each one could practise well only one pursuit and not many, but if he attempted the latter, dabbling in many things, he would fail of distinction in all ?

"

" Of course it is." " And does not the same rule hold for imitation, that the same man is not able to imitate many things well as he can one ? " " No, he is not." " Still less, then, will he be able to combine the practice of any worthy pursuit with the imitation of many things and the quality of a mimic ; since, unless I mistake, the same men cannot practise well at once even the two forms of imitation that appear most nearly akin, as the ^mting of tragedy and comedy "*? Did you not just now call these two imitations ? " "I did, and you are right in saying that the same men are not able to succeed in both, nor yet to be at once good rhapsodists * and actors." " True. But neither can the same men

** At the close of the Symposium Socrates constrains Agathon and Aristophanes to admit that one who has the science {rex^'v) of writing tragedy will also be able to write comedy. There is for Plato no contradiction, since poetry is for him not a science or art, but an inspiration.

• The rhapsode Ion is a Homeric specialist who cannot interpret other poets. Cf. Ion 533 c.

233

PLATO

B ovoe Toi VTTOKpiTal /cco/zajSot? re Kol rpaycpZotg oi avTOL- TTavra 8e ravra /xt/MT^/xara . rj ov; Mi/i7y- fiara. Kai ert ye tovtcov, c5 'ASetjuarre, (f>aiv€raL {xot €Ls afjitKpoTepa KaraKeKepfxaTiadai, rj rod av- 6pd)7Tov (f>vaL£, cuctt' ahvvaTos etvai TroAAd KaXcos fiLfMelaOai, rj avra iKelva Trpdrreiv, (Lv 8rj Kal to. IxipLTiixard iariv dcfio/jLOicofjiaTa. ^AXrjdeaTara, ^ 8' OS.

VIII. Et dpa Tov TTpcDrov Xoyop 8(,aaa>aopi€V, Tovs cfivXaKas 7jp.LV Tcov dXXojv TTaaojv Srjpiovp-

C yicov d(f)€tp,€vovs Selv elvai h-qpnovpyovs iXevde- pias TT]s TToXeojs rrdw aKpi^els Kal p,T]Sev oAAo €.TnTT]heveiv, 6 tl p,r) et? tovto (f)ep€L, ovhkv 8r] Seoi av avTovs dXXo Trpdrreiv ovhe pupeZadaf edv 8c piLp.6jvraL, pLjjietadat rd rovroLs TrpoaijKovra evdvs CK iraiScov, dvSpetovs, acj^povas, oaiovs, iXevde-

povs, Kai ra roiavra rrdvra, rd Se dveXevdepa fi'^re TTOieiv p,T]re Seivovs etvai p,Lp.riaaadai, p,r]hk

dXXo p,7]8ev rwv alaxpdjv, tva p,rj e/c rrjg p.i,p,rja€(x>s D rov eivat drToXavacoaiv. r] ovk rjadrjaai, on at

p,tp.-qa€Ls, edv eV vecor noppco hiareXeaioaiv, els

edrj re Kal (f)vaiv Kadiaravrai Kal Kard aa)p,a Kai ^ojvds Kal Kard rrjv Sidvoiav; Kat pdXa, ri S' 6s. Ov hrj eTnrpeiJjop,ev, ^v 8' eyo), Sv (f)ap.ev KrjSeadai

» Cf. Classical Revieio, vol. xiv. (1900), pp. 201 ff. '' Cf. Laws 846e, Montaigne, "Nostra suffisance estdetaill^

k menues pieces," Pope, Essay on Criticism, 60:

One science only will one genius fit, So vast is art, so narrow human wit.

• Cf. the fine passage in Laics 817 b ^^uels iafxev rpaywSlas avTol 7roir]Tal, [Pindarj apud Plut. 807 c 5r]fMovpybs fvvojdat Kal 5iK7)s.

234

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be actors for tragedies and comedies "—and all these are imitations, are they not ? " " Yes, imitations." " And to still smaller coinage ^ than this, in my opinion, Adeimantus, proceeds the fractioning of human faculty, so as to be incapable of imitating many things or of doing the things themselves of which

the imitations are likenesses." " Most true," he rephed.

VIII. " If, then, we are to maintain our original principle, that our guardians, released from all other crafts, are to be expert craftsmen of ciWc hberty j"' and pursue nothing else that does not conduce to this, it

would not be fitting for these to do nor yet to imitate anything else. But if they imitate they should from childhood up** imitate what is appropriate to them*

—

men, that is, who are brave, sober, pious, free and all things of that kind ; but things unbecoming the free man they should neither do nor be clever at imitating, nor yet any other shameful thing, lest from the imitation they imbibe the reality.^ Or have you not observed that imitations, if continued from youth far into life, settle down into habits and (second) nature ' in the body, the speech, and the thought ? " " Yes, indeed," said he. " We will not then allow our charges, whom we expect to

" Cf. 386 A. * i.e., Srjijuovpyots {Kevdepias.

' Cf. infra 606 b. Lows 656 b, 669 b-c, and Burke, Sublime and Beautiful iv. 4, anticipating James, Psychology ii. pp. 449, 451, and anticipated by Shakespeare's {Cor. m. ii. 123)

By my body's action teach my mind A most inherent baseness.

' Cf. my paper on 4>iVis, MeX^, 'EriffT^fii], T.A.P.A. vol. xl. (1910) pp. 185 ff.

235

PLATO

Kal helv avTov? avSpag dyadovs yeveadai, yvvatKa

IXLfxeZadai avhpas ovras, rj viav rj Trpea^vrepav, rj

dvBpl Xoihopovfxevqv iq irpos deovs epit,ovadv re Koi

fieyaXavxovfiemjv, olofxevr^v evhaipiova elvai, r) ev

E ^vfjicjiopaXs T€ Kal Trivdecji /cat dp-qvots exop-evT^v Kajjivovaav Se t] epcoaav iq dihivovaav ttoXKov koI

heiqaopev. YiavrdiTaai pikv ovv, rj S' o?. OuSe ye hovXas re /cat ^ovXovs TTpdrrovras oaa SovXcov. OvSe rovTO. Ov8e ye dvSpas kukovs, d)S eot/ce, SeiXovs re /cat rd evavria rrpdrrovrag (Lv vvv Srj e'lTTopLev, KaKTiyopovvrds re /cat KCop-coSovvra^

dXAT]Xovg /cat ala)(poXoyovvTas, p^edvovras t] /cat

396 viq(jiovras , r) /cat d'AAa oaa ol roiovroi Kat ev

XoyoL'S /cat ev epyoLs duaprdvovaiv elg avrovs re /cat et? dXXovs' olpai he ouSe pbaivopevoLs ediareov

a(f)opioLovv avroug ev Xoyois ovS^ ev epyoig. yvco-

areov pev yap Kal p,acvop.evovs Kal rrovqpovs dvSpas re /cat yvvalKag, TTOi-qreov he ovhev rovrwv ovhe pLipLTjreov. 'AXrjdearara, e(f>r]. Ti S'; rjv h eyco' ;)^aA/ceuo;'Tas" rj n dXXo hrjpiovpyovvras, r) eXavvovras rpt-qpeis ^ KeXevovras rovrois, rj ti-

B dXXo rwv irepl ravra p,Lp,r]reov ; Kat rrajg, e(f)7], ots" ye ovhe Trpoaex^i'V rov vovv rovrcov ovhevL

e^earai; Tt he; ittttovs xpe/xeri^orra? /cat rav-

povs p,VKO}pevovs Kal 7rorap,ovg i/jo(f)Ovvras Kac

ddXarrav Krvrrovaav Kal fipovrds Kal Trdvra av ra

Toiavra "q pupLiqaovrai ; 'AAA' dneip-qrat avrols,

' Cf. Laws 816 d-e. '' For this rejection of violent realism cf. Laws 669 c-d.

Plato describes precisely what Verhaeren's admirers approve: " often in his rhythm can be heard the beat of hammers, the hard, edged, regular whizzing of wheels, the whirring of

236

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK III

prove good men, being men, to play the parts of women and imitate a woman young or old \\Tangling with her husband, defying heaven, loudly boasting, fortunate in her own conceit, or involved in mis- fortune and possessed by grief and lamentation

—

still less a woman that is sick, in love, or in labour." " Most certainly not," he replied. " Nor may they imitate slaves, female and male, doing the offices of slaves." " No, not that either." " Nor yet, as it seems, bad men who are cowards and who do the opposite of the things we just now spoke of, re\iling and lampooning one another, speaking foul words in their cups or when sober and in other ways sinning against themselves and others in word and deed after the fashion of such men. And I take it they must not form the habit of likening themselves to madmen either in words nor yet in deeds. For while know- ledge they must have " both of mad and bad men and women, they must do and imitate nothing of this kind." " >Iost true," he said. " What of this ? "

I said, " —are they to imitate smiths and other crafts- men or the rowers of triremes and those who call the time to them or other things connected there- with ? " " How could they," he said, " since it will be forbidden them even to pay any attention to such things ? " " Well, then, neighing horses *

and lo\\'ing bulls, and the noise of rivers and the roar of the sea and the thunder and everj^thing of that kind—\^'ill they imitate these ? " " Nay, looms, the hissing of locomotives ; oflen the wild, restless tumult of streets, the humming and rumbling of dense masses of the people " (Stefan Zweig). So another modern critic celebrates ** the cry of the baby in a Strauss svmphony, the sneers and snarls of the critics in his Helden 'Leben, the contortions of the Dragon in Wagner's Siegfried."

237

PLATO

€(f>r], jx-qre fxaiveaOai fXT^re ixaivojxevoig d(f>ofJLOiov-

adai. Et ap', rjv 8' eyto, fiavOdvco d av Aeyetj,

ecTTi Tt etSo? Xe^ecog re /cai StTjyTjcrecD?, er a) at*

C StT^yotro o TO) ovri KaXos KdyaOos, ottotc tl 8eot avTOv XeycLV Kal erepov av dvofioiov tovtco etSog,

ov dv €)(oiTO alel /cat iv cS Str^yotTo o evavTio)?

€K€LV(x) (f)vs T€ Kal Tpa(f)€Lg. Ilola St], €(f)ri, ravTa; *0 fJL€v fiot SoK€L, Tjv 8' iyoi , fJi€TpLos dvijp, eTTeihav

d(f)LK'r)TaL €V TTJ SLTjy^aei. ivl Xe^iv nvd 'q Ttpd^iv dvSpos dyadov, ideXiqaeiv co? avros cov eKeXvos

aTTayyeXXeiv Kal ovk alaxvveladai ctti rfj Toiavrrj

/LttjLtT^cret, fxaXiara jxev fiijiovfjievos tov dyadov

D dcr(f)aXa>s re Kal €fX(f)p6vojs TTpdrrovra, iXdrTCt) oe Kal rjTTOV r) vtto voocov tj vtto ipcorcov iacfyaXjxevov

•^ Kal VTTO jjLedrjs 17 tivos dXXrjs ^vjx^opds' orav 8e

yiyvrjTai Kara rtva eavrov dvd^tov, ovk ideXrjaeiv

ottovStj drreLKal^eiv iavrov tw x^ipovi, €t, fxr] apa Kara ^pa^v, orav rt ;;^p7j(7Tov TTOtfj, dXX* aLax^- veladai, dfia jxkv dyvpivaaros a)v tov fiiixeladai

Tovs TOiovTOVs, d/xa Se Kal Svax^po-Lvcuv avrov

iKfidrreLv re Kal iviardvai els rous rdJv KaKiovojv

E TVTTOVs, dri/xa^CDV rfj hiavoia, o tl [xt] TratSia? Xdpiv. KIkos, €(f)r]. IX. OvKovv SiT^yT^CTei j^pi^CTerai ota rifiels oXiyov

TTporepov SirjXdofxev Trepl rd rov 'Ofi'qpov eTrrj, /cai

earai avrov rj Ae'fis" puerexovaa /xev dp.(f)or€pa)v,

" Chaucer drew from a misapplication of Tim. 29 b or Boethius the opposite moral

:

Who so shall telle a tale after a man, He most reherse, as neighe as ever he can, Everich word, if it be in his charge. All speke he never so rudely and so large

;

238

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK III

they have been forbidden," he said, " to be mad or Uken themselves to madmen." " If, then, I under- stand your meaning," said I, " there is a form of diction and narrative in which the really good and true man would narrate anything that he had to say, and another form unlike this to which the man of the opposite birth and breeding would cleave and in which he would tell his story." " What are these forms ? " he said. " A man of the right sort, I think, when he comes in the course of liis narrative to some word or act of a good man will be wilhng to impersonate the other in reporting it, and will feel no shame at that kind of mimicr}', by preference imitating the good man when he acts steadfastly and sensibly, and less and more reluctantly when he is upset by sickness or love or drunkenness or any other mishap. But when he comes to someone unworthy of himself, he will not wish to liken himself in earnest to one who is inferior," except in the few- cases where he is doing something good, but ^v^ll be embarrassed both because he is unpractised in the mimicry of such characters, and also because he shrinks in distaste from moulding and fitting himself to the types of baser things. His mind disdains them, unless it be for jest.'' " " Naturally," he said.

IX. " Then the narrative that he will employ will be of the kind that we just now illustrated by the verses of Homer, and his diction will be one that partakes

Eke Plato sayeth, who so can him rede. The wordes most ben cosin to the dede.

* Plato, like Howells and some other modern novelists, would have thought somewhat gross comedy less harmful than the tragedy or romance that insidiously instils false ideals.

239

PLATO

fiifx-qaecos re Kal Trjg dTrXrjs^ SLrjyijaeojs, ajxiKpov Se

Ti (xdpos iv voXXcp Xoyo) rrjg jjufji-^aecos' ^ ovhev

\iyco; Kat jxaXa, e(j>ri, olov ye avdyK-q rov tvttov elvai rov tolovtov piqropos. Ovkovv, -^v S' eyo),

397 o jxr] TOLOuros a.v, oa<x> dv ^avXorepos f\, Trdvra

re p,dXXov p^ipiqaeraL Kai ovSev eavrov dvd^Lov

olr^aerai eti^at, d>are Trdvra emxeLpijaeL piijxeZaQaL

aTTOvhfj re Kal evavriov ttoXXcov, /cat a vvv Srj

eXeyofxev, ^povrds re Kai tp6(f>ovs dvepLOjv re /cat

')(^aXat,ci)V Kal d^ovcuv Kal rpox^'Xlcov Kal aaXTTtyycov

Kal auAcDi' /cat ovpcyycov Kal Trdvrcov opydvcov

(jicovdg, Kal en kuvcov Kal rrpofidrajv Kal opveoiv (f)d6yyovs- Kat earai 8rj 7] rovrov Xe^ts diraaa hid

B jjup-qaecos (fjcovals re /cat a^cqpLaaiv, "^ apuKpov ri Sirjy-^aecos e^ouaa; 'Amy/cr^, e^i^, /cat rovro.

Tavra roLVVv, 'qv S eycL, eXeyov rd hvo etS-q rfjs Xe^ea)S. Kat yap eartv, e(f)r]. Ovkovv avrdlv ro [xev crfiLKpdg rag [xera^oXds e^ei, Kal edv rig

aTToStSa/ TTpeTTOvaav dpfioviav Kal pvOpiov rfj Xe^ei,

oXiyov irpog rrjv avrrjv yiyverai Xeyeiv rep opdajg

Xeyovri Kal ev /xta dpjxovia—apuKpal ydp at fiera- C jSoAat—/cat St] ev pvO/xcp diaavrojg TTapaTrXrjoiw

rivi; K.ofii8ij p,ev ovv, e(f)r], ovrcos exei. Tt he

ro rov erepov eiSos; ov rdJv evavricov Setrat,

TTaadJv fjiev app^ovicov, rrdvrcov Se pvdpidjv, el fjieXXei

av oiKeioiS Xeyeadai, Sta to Travrohandg pi,op(f)d'S rdJv fxera^oXcbv exeiv; Kat a(f>6hpa ye ovrcos

' (iTrX^s Adam plausibly : the siss. ixXXtjj idiomatically, "as well."

" The respondent plays on the double meaning of ovUv \^yeLs and replies, ** Yes indeed, you do say something, namely the type and pattern," etc.

240

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK III

of both, of imitation and simple narration, but there will be a small portion of imitation in a long dis- course—or is there nothing in what I say ? " " Yes, indeed," " he said, " that is the type and pattern of such a speaker." " Then," said I, " the other kind of speaker, the more debased he is the less viiW he shrink from imitating anything and everything. He will think nothing unworthy of himself, so that he will attempt, seriously and in the presence of many,^ to imitate all things, including those we just now mentioned—claps of thunder, and the noise of -wind and hail and axles and pulleys, and the notes of trumpets and flutes and pan-pipes, and the sounds of all instruments, and the cries of dogs, sheep, and birds ; and so his style will depend wholly on imitation in voice and gesture, or will con- tain but a little of pure narration." " That too follows of necessity," he said. " These, then," said I, " were the two t}'pes of diction of which I was speaking." " There are those two," he replied. " Now does not one of the two involve shght varia- tions,*' and if we assign a suitable pitch and rhythm to the diction, is not the result that the right speaker speaks almost on the same note and in one cadence —for the changes are slight—and similarly in a rhythm of nearly the same kind ? " " Quite so." " But what of the other type ? Does it not require the opposite, every kind of pitch and all rhythms, if it too is to have appropriate expression, since it involves manifold forms of variation ? " " Emphat-

* Cf. Gorg. 487 b, Euthydem. 305 b, Protag. 323 b. * Besides its suggestion of change and reaction the word

is technical in music for the transition from one harmony to another.

VOL. I R 241

PLATO

ej^et. '^Ap' odu Trdvreg oi TTOirjral /cat ol tl Xeyov-

T€s rj TO) erepo) tovtojv eTTLTvyxdvovai tvttco rijs

Xe^ecos rj rco erlpco r] e^ djjL(f)OT€pcov rivl ^vyKepav-

D vvvTes; 'AvdyKT], e</)7^. Tt ovu rroL'qaofxev ; -^v 8' iyco' TTorepov els rrjv ttoXlv Trdvras tovtovs Trapa-

Se^OfxeOa 7] raJv aKpdrcov rov erepov 7] rov

K€Kpap,€vov; 'Eat" rj ep-rj, €(f)r), vlko., tov rov

imeLKovs p,Lp.r]T7]v aKparov. 'AAAct p^i^v, o) 'ASet-

[xavre, 'qSvs ye Kal 6 KeKpap,ivos, ttoXv 8e r^StaTOS

TTaiai re /cat TraLhayoiyoZs o evavTios ov av atpeZ

/cat TOi TrXeiarcp oxXo). "HSiaTos ydp. AAA tcnos, rjv 8' eyoj, ovk dv avrov apporreiv ^ati^s"

E Tjj rjp,€T€pa TToAtreta, on ovk eari hnrXovs avqp Trap* rjfjLLv ovSe rroXXaTrXovs , irTeiBrj eKaaros ev

TTpdrrei. Ov ydp ovv ap/iorret. Ovkovv 8td ravra eV piovr] rfj Toiavrrj ttoXcl tov re oKvroropiOv

aKVTOT6p,ov evp-qaofjiev /cat ov Kv^epvr^rrjv vpos rfj aKvrorop,ia, /cat rov yecopyov yeojpyov /cat ov

SiKaarrjv Trpos rfj yeojpyia, /cat rov TToAe/xt/cov

TToXepLiKov /cat ov ;)(pT7/iaTiaT')7V' rrpos rfj noXepiKfj,

/cat irdvras ovrco; ^AXrjOrj, ^(f^f]- "AvSpa Si], cos

398 eoiKe, 8vvdp,evov vtto ao(f)ias TravroSaTTOV yiyveadai

/cat p^ipieZodai Trdvra ;\;p7^/xaTa, et rjpxv d(f>LKOi.ro

els rrjv ttoXlv avros re /cat to, TTOt.rjp.ara ^ov-

Xofievos eTTiSei^aaOai, TrpoaKWolpiev dv avrov cos

lepov Kal davp,aar6v Kal rjSvv, e'LTTOLp,ev 8' dv

on OVK eon roiovros dvrjp ev rfj TToXei rrap rjpuv ovSe depLis eyyeveadai, dTTOvepLTTotpiev re els dXXr]v

" The reverse of the Periclean ideal. Cf. Thucyd. ii. 41. * The famous banishment of Homer, regarded as the

prototype of the tragedian. C/. 568 a-c, 595 b, 605 c, 607 D,'Laws 656 c, 817 b.

242

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK III

ically so." " And do all poets and speakers hit upon one type or the other of diction or some blend which they combine of both ? " " They must," he said. " What, then," said I, " are we to do ? Shall we admit all of these into the city, or one of the unmixed types, or the mixed t}*pe ? " " If my vote prevails," he said, " the unmixed imitator of the good." " Nay, but the mixed type also is pleasing, Adeimantus, and far most pleasing to boys and their tutors and the great mob is the opposite of your choice." " Most pleasing it is." " But perhaps," said I, " you would affirm it to be ill-suited to our pohty, because there is

no twofold or manifold man " among us, since every man does one thing." " It is not suited." ** And is this not the reason why such a city is the only one in which we shall find the cobbler a cobbler and not a pilot in addition to his cobbling, and the farmer a farmer and not a judge added to his farming, and the soldier a soldier and not a money-maker in addi- tion to his soldiery, and so of all the rest ? " " True," he said. " * If a man, then, it seems, who was capable by his cunning of assuming every kind of shape and imitating all things should arrive in our city, bringing

with himself*^ the poems which he wished to exhibit, we should fall down and worship him as a holy and wondrous and delightful creature, but should say to him that there is no man of that kind among us in our city, nor is it lawful for such a man to arise among us, and we should send him away to another

' Greek idiom achieves an effect impossible to English here, by the shift from the co-ordination of roi^nara with airroi to the treatment of it as the object of eiridei^affOai and the possible double use of the latter as middle with airros and transitive with Troirjfj.aTa. Cf. for a less striking example 427 D, Phaedr. 250 b-c.

243

PLATO

voXlv fjivpov Kara ttjs K€(f)aXrjs Karax^OLines /cat

epto) ardifjavTes, avrol 8' ai' rco avar-qporepo) Kai

B drjSearepcx) TTOirjTjj ^pcofxeda Kat pivdo\6y<x> cuipe- Aeta? eVe/ca, os ripuv ttjv tov eTVieiKovs Xe^iv jxipiOLTO

Kat, ra Xeyojxeva Xiyoi iv eKcivois rots tvitols, ois

Kar ap^oLS ivojJLoderrjadiJieda, ore rovs crr/aartoj-

ras iTTex^ipovfxev TratSeuetv. Kat /xaA', €^17, ovtojs

av TTOiolfiev, el €(f>'

rjjjuv etTy. Nvv hrj, elnov eyco,

& <j>i\€, Kivhvvevei rjulv rrjs fjLovaiKrjs ro nepi Xoyovs re /cat fivdovs TravreXcog SiaTTeTrepdvdaf a

re yap XeKreov /cat a>s" XeKreov, eLprjrai. Kat

avrw fioL 80/cet, e(f)r]. C X. OvKovv pierd rovro, rjv 8' eyco, ro rrepl worjs

rpoTTOV /cat fieXaJv Xolttov; ArjXa 8ij. 'Ap ovv

ov Trds yjSrj dv evpoi, d rjplv XeKreov Trepl avrtbv,

Ota hel elvai, e'iirep jxeXXopiev rot? Trpoeip-qpevois

avpcfxjovqoretv ; /cat o TXavKCov einyeXdaas , Eyco

roivvv, ecf>'rj, c5 UdoKpares, KtvSvvevco eKros rcov

Trdvrcov elvaL' ovkovv LKavdJs ye e^ca iv rip rrapovri

^vpL^aXeadai, rrof drra 8et rjpids Xeyeiv, VTroTrrevo)

IxevroL. Oai^TaJS' 8177701;, -^v 8' eyd), Trpdjrov pev

D To8e LKavajg ^x^t-S Xeyeiv, on ro peXog e'/c rpcajv earl avyKeipuevov, Xoyov re /cat dppovlas Kat

pvOpxtv. Nat, €^17, rovro ye. Ovkovv ocrov ye

avrov Xoyog eariv, ov^ev hiqTrov Scacfjepei rov

p,r} dSop,evov Xoyov irpog ro ev rols avrols 8€tv

<» Cf. from a diiFerent point of view Arnold's The Austerity

of Poetry. * Cf. 379 A if. " He laughs at his own mild joke, which Professor

Wilamowitz {Platon ii. p. 192) does not understand, Cf. Laws

S44

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK III

city, after pouring myrrh down over his head and crowning him with fillets of wool, but we ourselves, for our souls' good, should continue to employ the more austere <* and less delightful poet and tale-teller, who would imitate the diction of the good man and would tell his tale in the patterns which we pre- scribed in the beginning,* when we set out to educate our soldiers." " We certainly should do that if it rested Asith us." " And now, my friend," said I, " we may say that we have completely finished the part of music that concerns speeches and tales. For we have set forth what is to be said and how it is to be said." " I think so too," he rephed.

X. " After this, then," said I, " comes the manner of song and tunes ? " " Obviously." " And having gone thus far, could not everybody discover what we must say of their character in order to con- form to what has already been said ? " "I am afraid that ' everybody ' does not include me," laughed Glaucon "^ ; " I cannot sufficientlv divine off- hand what we ought to say, though I have a sus- picion." " You certainly, I presume," said I, " have a sufficient understanding of this—that the song ** is composed of three things, the words, the tune, and the rhythm ? " " Yes," said he, " that much." " And so far as it is words, it surely in no manner differs from words not sung in the requirement of

859 E, Hipp. Major 293 a ^ ovx eU tCiv cnravTwv Kal 'HpaicX^y Ijv ; and in a recent novel, " ' I am afraid everybody does not include me,' she smiled."

•* The complete song includes words, rhythm, and "harmony," that is, a pitch system of high and' low notes. Harmony is also used technically of the peculiar Greek system of scales or modes. Cf. Monro, Modes of Ancient Greek Music.

245

PLATO

TVTTOis XeyeadaL of? dpri Trpoemofiev Kal (La-

avrcos; ^AX-qdrj, e(f>rj. Kai fjirjv tt^v ye dpfjiovlav Kal pvd/JLov aLKoXovdeiv Set to) Aoyoj. Ilcjs 8' ov;

'AAAo, puevTOL dprjvojv re Kal 68vpp,cov €<f)apLev iv

XoyoLS ov8ev TrpoaSeladai. Ov yap ovv. Tives ovv E dprjvcjjheis appLoviai; Aeye /uot* cry yap pLovaiKos.

Mi^oAuStart, €<j^^> xal avvTovo\vht.aTl Kal tol-

avrai rives. Ovkovv avrat, rjv 8' eycv, d(f)aip€TeaL' dxpy]crTOt yap Kai yvvac^LV a? 8et eTTieLKels elvai, p,rj on dvSpdaiv. Hdvv ye. 'AAAa p.7jv fjLedrj ye <j)vXa^iv dnpeTTeaTarov Kal p^aXaKia Kal dpyia.

IlcDs" yap ov; Tiveg ovv fiaXaKai re Kal avp.7To- rcKal rdJv dpjjiovidjv ; lacrrt, rj 8 os, Kal XvSlotl,

399 aiTti'es' ;\;aAapai KaXovvrai. Taurat? ovv, co (jiiXe,

CTTt 7ToXep,LKdJv dvSpcov eod 6 ri xprjaei; Ou8a- /xo)?., e<f>7]' dXXd KLvSvvevei (jol Sojptorl XeiTreadai Kal (f)pvyLari. Ovk ot8a, e(f>riv eyco, rds dpfiovlas, dXXd KardXeiTTe eKecvrjv rrjv dpp,oviav, rj ev re

" The poets at first composed their own music to fit the words. When, with the further development of music, there arose the practice of distorting the words, as in a mere libretto, it provoked a storm of protest from conservatives in aesthetics and morals.

* The modes of Greek music are known to the English reader only from Milton's allusions, his " Lap me in soft Lydian airs " and, P.L. i. 549 f., his

Anon they move In perfect phalanx to the Dorian mood Of flutes and soft recorders ; such as raised To highth of noblest temper heroes old.

The adaptation of particular modes, harmonies or scales to the expression of particular feelings is something that we are obliged to accept on faith. Plato's statements here were challenged by some later critics, but the majority believed that there was a real connexion between modes of music

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conformity to the patterns and manner that "we have prescribed ? " " True," he said. " And again, the music and the rhythm must follow the speech.*

"

" Of course." " But we said we did not require dirges and lamentations in words." " We do not." " What, then, are the dirge-like modes of music ? Tell me, for you are a musician." " The mixed Lydian,*

"

he said, " and the tense or higher Lydian, and similar modes." " These, then," said I, " we must do away with. For they are useless even to women " who are to make the best of themselves, let alone to men." " Assuredly." " But again, drunkenness is a thing most unbefitting guardians, and so is softness and sloth." " Yes." " What, then, are the soft and con- \i\ial modes ? " " There are certain Ionian and also Lydian modes that are called lax." " Will you make any use of them for warriors ? " " None at all," he said ; " but it would seem that you have left the Dorian and the Phrygian." "I don't know** the musical modes," I said, " but leave us that mode * that would fittingly imitate the utterances and the

and modes of feeling, as Ruskin and many others have in our day. The hard-headed Epicureans and sceptics denied it, as well as the moral significance of music generally.

« Cf. 387 E. * Plato, like a lawyer or popular essayist, affects ignorance

of the technical details ; or perhaps rather he wishes to disengage his main principle from the specialists' controversy about particular modes of music and their names.

• €Keivr]v may mean, but does not say, Dorian, which the Laches (1S8 d) pronounces the only true Greek harmony.*

This long anacoluthic sentence sums up the whole matter with impressive repetition and explicit enumeration of all types of conduct in peace and war, and implied reference to Plato's doctrine of the two fundamental temperaments, the swift and the slow, the energetic and the mild. Cf. Unity of Plato's lliought, nn. 59, 70, 481.

247

PLATO

TToXefxtKyj TTpd^et ovrog avhpeiov /cat iv Trdar] ^laicp

ipyaGLO. TrpeTTOVTCos oiv fJup.'qaatTO (fidoyyovs re /cat

TTpouiphias, Kal aTTOTV)(6vTos, ^ els Tpavfiara rj

els davdrovs lovros f] els TLva aXXrjv ^vpL(j)opdv

B TTcaovTOS , iv TrdcTi tovtols TTaparerayfievojs Kal Kaprepovvrcxis apLVvopbivov ttjv rvx^^v- Kal dXXrjv

av ev elpr]vtKfj re Kal per) jStatoj dAA' ev eKovoicp TTpd^ei ovTOs, yj TLvd rt neidovros re Kal heop,evov

,

ri evxfj deov t] hcSaxfj Kal vovderi^aeL dvdpcoTTOv, rj

rovvavTLov aXXco Seopievcp -^ StSaa/coi^Tt r) pLera-

TieidovTL eavTOV eirexovra,^ Kal ck tovtojv Trpd^avra

Kard vovv, Kal per] virep-qcfidvois e^ovra, aAAa aojcf)p6va)s re /cat pcerpLcos ev Trdai tovtols Trpdr-

C TOVTd Te /cat ra aTTO^alvovTa dyaTrdJvra. ravTas Svo dppLovias, ^taiov, eKovaiov, Svcttvxovvtojv

,

evTV^ovvTCov, aa)(f)p6vcx)v, duBpetajv [dpp.ovLas] at-

TLves (f)96yyovs pLipufjaovrai KdWicTTa, TavTag XetTre. 'AAA', rj 8' OS, ovK aAAa? atTet? XeiTreiv, if] a? vuv 8rj eyd) eXeyov. Ovk dpa, rjv 8' eyo), ttoXv- Xophlas ye ovhe iravappLOviov rjpiiv Ser^aet ev Tats cpSals re Kal pteXeatv. Ov pLOi, e(f)r], (fyalveraL. Tpiyojvcov dpa Kai 7Tr]KTi.8(x)V Kal TrdvTCov opydvoiv,

D oaa TToXvxopSa Kal rroXvappLOVia, Sr^pnovpyovs ov dpeipopLev. Ov (fiaivopieda. Tt Be; avXonoiovs rj avXrjTds TTapaSe^et els Tfjv ttoXlv; rj ov tovto

TToXvxopSoTaTov, /cat awra Ta TravappLovia avXov Tvyxdvei oVra pLipLrjpta; ArjXa S-q, -^ 8' os. Avpa StJ crot, iqv

8' eycv, Kal Kiddpa AetTrerat /cat Kara ^ iirexovra has most ms. authority, but inrixovra or irap-

4xovTa is more normal Greek for the idea.

° Cf. Laws 814 E. * Metaphorically. The " many-toned instrumentation of

248

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accents of a brave man who is engaged in warfare or in any enforced business, and who, when he has failed, either meeting wounds or death or ha\"ing fallen into some other mishap, in all these condi- tions confronts fortune with steadfast endurance and repels her strokes. And another for such a man engaged in works of peace, not enforced but volun- tary,"" either trying to persuade somebody of some- thing and imploring him—whether it be a god, through prayer, or a man, by teaching and admoni- tion—or contrariwise yielding himself to another who is petitioning or teaching him or trying to change his opinions, and in consequence faring according to his wish, and not bearing himself arrogantly, but in all this acting modestly and moderately and acquiescing in the outcome. Leave us these two modes—the enforced and the voluntary—that will best imitate the utterances of men faiUng or succeeding, the temper- ate, the brave—leave us these." " Well," said he, "you are asking me to leave none other than those I just spoke of." " Then," said I, " we shall not need in our songs and airs instruments of many strings or whose compass includes all the harmonies." " Not in my opinion," said he. " Then we shall not maintain makers of triangles and harps and all other many- stringed and poly-harmonic'' instruments." "Ap- parently not." "Well, will you admit to the city flute-makers and flute-players ? Or is not the flute the most ' many-stringed ' of instruments and do not the pan-harmonics '^ themselves imitate it ? " " Clearly," he said. " You have left," said I, " the lyre and the

the flutes," as Pindar calls it, 01. vii. 12, can vie with the most complex and many-stringed lyre of musical innovation.

* Cf. 404 D, the only other occurrence of the word in Plato.

249

PLATO

voXiv xPV^''f^(^' 'fci' ^^ /car' dypovs rols vofievcri avpiy^ dv ns eirj. 'Qg yovv, €(f)rj, 6 Aoyo? rjijuv

E arjiiaivei. OwSeV ye, rjv S' eya>, Kaivov TTovovfJiev, (h (^tAe, KpLvovres rov 'AttoAAo) /cat to, tov 'AttoA- Acov'o? opyava Trpo Mapcruou re icat rail' eKeivov opydvcov. Ma At", 17 8' 6s, ov [xol (f)aiv6p,€da. Kat VT] rov Kvva, elirov, XeXijdafiev ye Sta- Kadatpovres vdXiv t]v dpri Tpv(f)av e^a/xev ttoXlv. Hcxxjipovovvres ye rjixeXs, rj S' o?-

XI. "I^t Srj, €(/)rjv, /cat rd XotTrd Kadatpajfjuev. CTTOfievov yap 8r] rats' dpfioviais dv rjfJLiv etr] to TTepl pvOfiovs, i^y] ttolklXovs avrovs Slwkciv fjLTjSe TTavToSaTrds ^daets, dXXd ^iov pvdfxovs ISelv Koajxiov T€ /cat dvSpelov Tives elaiv ovs ISovra

400 TOV TToSa Tcp TOLOVTOV Xoycp dvayKd^eiv CTTeadac /cat TO fjieXos, dXXd fxrj Xoyov ttoSl re /cat /ie'Aet. otTtve? 8' dv elev ovtol ol pvdpiOL, aov epyov, warrep

TO,? dpjjiovias, (^pdcrat. AAAa jxd At", e^r^, ovk exoj Ae'yetv. on fxev yap Tpi arra eaTtv e'ihrj, e^ <x)v at ^daeis TrXeKovrai, uiairep ev tois (ftdoyyois

rcTTapa, odev at Trdaai apjxoviai, Tedea/xevos dv

" Cf. my note on Tim. 47 c, in A.J.P. vol. x. p. 61. * Ancient critics noted this sentence as an example of

adaptation of sound to sense. Gf. Demetr. Ylepl epfi. 185. The sigmas and iotas may be fancied to suggest the whistling notes of the syrinx. So Lucretius v. 1385 "tibia quas fundit digitis pulsata canentum." Of. on Catull. 61. 13 "voce carmina tinnula."

' The so-called Rhadamanthine oath to avoid taking the names of the gods in vain. Cf. 592 a, Apol. 21 e, Blaydes on Aristoph. Wasps 83.

'' Cf. 373 E. Diimmler, Proleg. p. 62, strangely affirms

that this is an express retractation of the oKt^Blvt) irdXis. This

is to misapprehend Plato's method. He starts with the in- dispensable minimum of a simple society, develops it by

250

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK III

either. These are useful" in the city, and in the fields the shepherds would have a little piccolo to pipe on.**

"

"So our argument indicates," he said. "We are not innovating, my friend, in preferring Apollo and the instruments ofApollo to Marsyas and his instruments.

'

'

" No, by heaven! " he said, " I think not." " And by the dog,''" said I, "we have all unawares purged the city which a little while ago we said was luxurious.'*

"

" In that we show our good sense," he said. XI. " Come then, let us complete the purification.

For upon harmonies would follow the consideration of rhythms : we must not pursue complexity nor great variety in the basic movements,* but must observe what are the rhythms of a life that is orderly and brave, and after observing them require the foot and the air to conform to that kind of man's speech and not the speech to the foot and the tune. What those rhythms would be, it is for you to tell us as you did the musical modes." " Nay, in faith," he said, " I cannot tell. For that there are some three forms' from which the feet are combined, just as there are four' in the notes of the voice whence come all harmonies, is a thing that I have observed and could

Herbert Spencer's multiplication of effects into an ordinary Greek city, then reforms it by a reform of education and finally transforms it into his ideal state by the rule of the philosopher kings. Cf. Introd. p. xiv.

' Practically the feet. ' According to the ancient musicians these are the equal as

e.g. in dactyls (— ^ J)., spondees ( ) and anapaests (w w —), where the foot divides into two equal quantities ; the % ratio, as in the so-called cretic (— v.^ -) ; the \ as in the iamb (w -) and trochee (— v^). Cf. Aristid. Quint, i. pp. 34-35.

" Possibly the four notes of the tetrachord, but there is no agreement among experts. Cf. Monro, Modes of Ancient Greek Music,

251

PLATO

eiTToifiL- TToXa Se ttolov ^lov jLitjuryjuaTa, Xeyeiv ovk B exio. 'AAAa ravra ^lev, rjv 8' eyco, kol jjLera

Ad/xiovos ^ovXevcrofxeda, rives re dveXevdepcas Kal

v^peojs ^ jJiavlas /cat dXXrjs KaKias TrpeTTOvaai ^daeis, Kal rtvas rots ivavrioLs Xenrreov pvOfxovs.

OLfiaL Se fie dKrjKoevai ov (jacf)a)s ivoTrXiov re rcva

ovopLdt,ovros avrov ^vvderov /cat hdKrvXov /cat rjpcpov ye, ovk otSa ottcos hLaKOGp,ovvros /cat laov dvoi /cat Karco ridevros, els ^po-X^' "^^ ^'^^ jxaKpov

yLyvojxevov, /cat, d)s eyaJ/xat, lajx^ov /cat nv' dXXov

C rpoxoLLOv cx)v6p,at,e, [xt^kt] Se /cat ^paxvrr^ras irpoa- rJTTre' /cat toiJtoji^ Ttatv' olp,ai rds dyojyds rov TToSos avrov ovx rjrrov ifteyeiv re Kal eTraivelv t] rovs pvdpiovs avrovs, rjroL ^vvap,cf)6rep6v ri' ov

yap e;^co Aeyetv. dAAa ravra f-tev, axjirep elrrov, els AdjJicova dva^e^Xi'iGdoi- hieXeadai yap ov apLiKpov Xoyov rj av otet; Md At", ovk eywye. *AAAd. ToSe ye, ort ro rrjs evcrxT^p-oavvQs Te Kal dax'Qlxo- crvvT]s ra> evpvdjJLOJ re /cat dppvdpLOJ aKoXovdeX,

Swacrat SieXeadai; Ucos 8' ov; 'AAAd firjv ro

" Modern psychologists are still debating the question. * The Platonic Socrates frequentlj' refers to Damon as his

musical expert. Cf. Laches 200 b, infra 424 c, Ale. I, 118 c. " There is a hint of satire in this disclaimer of expert

knowledge. Cf. 399 a. There is no agreement among modern experts with regard to the precise form of the so- called enoplios. Cf. my review of Herkenrath's " Der Enoplios," Class. Phil. vol. iii. p. 360, Goodell, Chapters on Greek Metric, pp. 185 and 189, Blaydes on Aristoph. ^'ubes 651.

"* Possibly foot, possibly rhythm. oolktuXov seems to mean the foot, while Tip(^os is the measure based on dactyls but admitting spondees.

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tell. But which are imitations of which sort of life, I am unable to say.** " " Well," said I, "on this point we will take counsel ^^ith Damon,* too, as to which are the feet appropriate to illiberality, and insolence or madness or other evils, and what rhythms we must leave for their opposites ; and I beheve I have heard him obscurely speaking "^ of a foot that he called the enoplios, a composite foot, and a dactyl and an heroic <* foot, wliich he arranged, I know not how, to be equal up and dovvn « in the interchange of long and short,'' and unless I am mistaken he used the term iambic, and there was another foot that he called the trochaic, and he added the quantities long and short. And in some of these, I believe, he censured and commended the tempo of the foot no less than the rhythm itself, or else some combination of the two; I can't say. But, as I said, let this matter be postponed for Damon's considera- tion. For to determine the truth of these would require no little discourse. Do you think otherwise?" " No, by heaven, I do not." " But this you are able to determine—that seemliness and unseemliness are attendant upon the good rhythm and the bad." " Of course." " And, further,^ that good rhythm and

• dvoj Kai KCLTu is an untranslatable gibe meaning literally and technically the upper and lower half of the foot, the arsis and thesis, but idiomatically meaning topsy-turvy. There is a similar play on the idiom in Phileh. 43 a and 43 b.

f Literally "becoming" or "Issuing in long and short," long, that is, when a spondee is used, short when a dactyl.

' Plato, as often, employs the forms of an argument pro- ceeding by minute links to accumulate synonyms in illustra- tion of a moral or aesthetic analogy. He is working up to the Wordsworthian thought that order, harmony, and Ijeauty in nature and art are akin to these qualities in the soul.

253

PLATO

D evpvOfjiov ye Kal to appvOfiov to fxev rfj KaXfj Ae'^ei eirerai o^ioiovfjievov , ro hk rfj ivavria, Kal to

evapjxoaTOV Kal dvdpixoaTOV coaavTCOs, eiTrep pv-

dfxos ye Kal dpfiovia Xoyco, oiairep dpTi eXeyeTO,

dXXd pLTj Xoyos TOVTOLs. 'AAAa p-riv, rj S' 6s,

TavTa ye Xoycp aKoXovOrjTeov . Tt 8' o TpoTTOS Trjs

Xe^ecos, "^v 8' eyo), Kal 6 Xoyos; ov to) ttjs ^^x^js

Tjdei, eireTai; Iltds yap ov; Tfj Se Xe^ei ToiXXa;

Nai. EuAoyia dpa Kal evappLoaTia Kal evcrxrj-

E jxoavvr} Kal evpvdfila evrjdeta aKoXovOet, ovx t]v avoiav ovaav VTTOKopit,6pLevoi KaXov/xev d)s ev-

rjdeiav, aXXd ttjv d)s dXrjOcbs ev Te Kal KaXcos to

rjdos KaTeaKevaafJbevqv StdvoLav. HaPTdnaarL jxev

ovv, ecjirj. 'A/a' ovv ov TravTaxov TavTa 8ta»/CTea

TOLs veoLs, el fxeXXovcri to avTcbv TrpdTTeiv; Atcu-

KTea fj,ev ovv. "Ectti 8e ye ttov irX-^p-qs p-kv

401 ypa(f)LKrj avTUiv Kal Tidaa ^ TOiavTr] BrjpLovpyio.,

irXrip-qs 8e vcjyavTiKr] Kal TTOiKiXia Kal olKoSop^ia

Kal irdaa av rj tcov dXXcov oKevibv epyaala, eTi Se

Tj T(x)v aoipidTOiv (f)vcns Kal tj tcov dXXa)V (f>VTdJv

ev TTaai yap tovtols eveoTtv evaxi^poavvq -q dax'"]'

fjLoavvT]. Kal ri p,€v dcrx'^P'Oavvr] Kal dppvdpLia Kal

avappuooTLa KaKoXoyias Kal KaKorjdeias dheX<f)d,

Ta 8' evavTia tov evavTiov, aco(f)pov6s Te Kal

" Plato recurs to the etymological meaning of eirfiOeia. Cf. on 343 c.

* The Ruskinian and Wordsworthian generalization is ex- tended from music to all the fine arts, including, by the way,

254

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK III

bad rhythm accompany, the one fair diction, as- similating itself thereto, and the other the opposite, and so of the apt and the unapt, if, as we were just now saying, the rhythm and harmony follow the words and not the words these." " They certainly must follow the speech," he said. " And what of the manner of the diction, and the speech ? " said I. " Do they not follow and conform to the disposition of the soul ? " " Of course." " And all the rest to the diction ? " " Yes." " Good speech, then, good accord, and good grace, and good rhythm wait upon a good disposition, not that weakness of head which we euphemistically style goodness of heart, but the truly good and fair disposition of the character and the mind.'' " " By all means," he said. " And must not our youth pursue these everywhere * if they are to do what it is truly theirs to do <^ ? " " They must indeed." " And there is surely much of these quahties in painting and in all similar craftsmanship **

—wea\ing is full of them and embroidery and archi- tecture and likewise the manufacture of household furnishings and thereto the natural bodies of animals and plants as well. For in all these there is grace or gracelessness. And gracelessness and e\il rhythm and disharmony are akin to evil speaking and the evil temper, but the opposites are the symbols and the

architecture (oiKodo/ua), which Butcher {Aristotle's Theory of Poetry, p. 138) says is ignored by Plato and Aristotle.

' Their special task is to cultivate the true fvrjdeLa in their souls. For rd avrdiv irpdmiv here cf. 443 c-d.

** The following page is Plato's most eloquent statement of Wordsworth's, Ruskin's, and Tennyson's gospel of beauty for the education of the young. He repeats it in Laws 668 b. Cf. my paper on "Some Ideals of Education in Plato's Republic" Educational Bi-monthly, vol. ii. (1907-1908) pp. 2\o S.

255

PLATO

dyadov rjdovs, d8eA(^a re /cat /xtjUT^/xara. Hav-

TeAco? /xev ovv, €(f)rj.

B XII. *A/)' ovv Tols TTOir]Tats rjfuv fxovov ctti- aTarrjTeov Kal TrpoaavayKaareov rrjv rod dyaOov

eiKova rjdovs ifiTToieXv rols TTOtT^fxaaiv rj fxrj Trap"

rjjjilv TTOielv, ^ Kal rolg dXXoLs Srjfxtovpyolg Itti-

ararrjreov /cat Sta/cojAureov' to KaKorjdes tovto /cat

aKoXacTTOv /cat dveXevdepov /cat da)(7]ixov [xi^Te iv

ei/coCTt ^cocov p.rjT€ ev oiKoSofX'qfxacn p^'^re iv aAAo)

p.r]8€vl 8rjpLovpyovp,€va) ip-TTOielv, r^ 6 p,rj otd? t€

cov ovK iareos Trap* rj/jLLv hT]p.iovpyeiv, Iva p,ri iv

KaKias eiKoai Tp€(f)6p,€voL rjpXv ot (f)vXaKes ojoTTep

^ iv KaKjj ^ordvr], ttoAAo. iKdarrjs rjpiipas Kara ap,LKp6v aTTO TToAAcDi' Spenop^evoL re Kal vepiopevoi,

€v Ti ^vvLcrrdvTes XavOdvcocn /ca/cov /x,eya iv rfj

avTcov ifjvxfj' dXX' iKeivovs t,YjTr]T€ov tovs S-qpn-

ovpyovs Toiis €V(f)va)s hvvap,€vovs Ixveveiv ttjv rod

KoXov re Kal €va)('qpovos (f>vaLV, iv' cocrTrep iv

vyieivcp roTTCp oiKovvres ol veot, diro rravros

CD^eXoJvrai, oTTodev dv avrols o-tto rcov KaXdJv

epycDV Tj TTpos oi/jlv t] TTpos dKo-qv ri Trpoa^dXr],

waTTep avpa (f)epovaa dm XPV^'''^^ roncov vyUiav, D /cat evdvs iK Traihayv Xavddvr) els 6p,oi6rr]rd re

Kal i^iXiav /cat ^vp,cf)a>VLav rip KaXo) X6ya> dyovcra;

HoXii yap dv, ecf)!), KoXXiara ovrco rpac/teiev. '"A/a'

ovv, rjv 8' iyco, CO TXavKOJV, rovrojv eVe/ca Kvptco-

rdrr) iv pLovcriKfj rpo(f)TJ, on pidXicrra KarahveraL

256

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK III

kin of the opposites, the sober and good disposition." " Entirely so," he said.

XII. " Is it, then, only the poets that we must super\-ise and compel to embody in their poems the semblance ofthe goodcharacter or else not vrrite poetry among us, or mustwe keep watch over the other crafts- men, and forbid them to represent the e\il disposition, the licentious, the illiberal, the graceless, either in the likeness of li\inor creatures or in buildino^s or in any other product of their art, on penalty, if unable to obey, of being forbidden to practise their art among us, that our guardians may not be bred among symbols of e\il, as it were in a pasturage of poisonous herbs, lest grazing freely and cropping from many such day by day they little by little and all unawares accumulate and build up a huge mass of e\i\ in their own souls. But we must look for those craftsmen who by the happy gift of nature are capable of following the trail of true beauty and grace, that our young men, dwelUng as it were in a salubrious region, may receive benefit from all things about them, whence the influence that emanates from works of beauty may waft itself to eye or ear hke a breeze that brings from wholesome places health, and so from earliest childhood insensibly guide them to hkeness, to friendship, to harmony N^ith beautiful reason." " Yes," he said, " that would be far the best education for them." " And is it not for this reason, Glaucon," said I, " that education in music is most sovereign," because more than anything else

" Schopenhauer, following Plato, adds the further meta- physical reason that while the other arts imitate the external manifestations of the universal Will, music represents the Will itself.

VOL. I s 257

PI>ATO

€1? TO ivTOs rrjs ipvxV^ '^ "^^ pvdfxos Koi dpfiovia,

Kai eppoj/xeveaTara aTrreraL avrrj^, (f>€povTa nqv

€va)(7^[j,oauvr]v , Kai TTOtel evax^fxova, idv rt? opdoJs

E Tpa<f>fj, el 8e /itry, rovvavriov ; /cat on av rcbv TtapaXeiTTOjxevcxiv /cat /xt] /caAcD? hrjpLLOvpyrjdevTCov

rj jJLTj KaXcjg (f)vvrwv o^vrar' dv aladdvoiro 6 e/cet

Tpa(j>els d)S e'Set, /cat opdcog 8r] Svax^pctivcov rd

[X€V KoXd €7Tat,voL Kai xaipcov /cat Karahe^dpievos

els T7]V ifivx^v Tpe(f)Ot.T dv an' avrcov Kai yiyvoiTO

402 KaXos re Kayados, rd 8' ala^pd ifjeyoi t' dv 6p6a)s

Kai pnaol ert veos cx)v, Trpiv \6yov hvvaros elvai

Xa^elvy eXdovTos 8e rov Xoyov aCTTra^otr' dv avrov

yvcopL^wv 8t' OLKeioTTjTa pbaXiara 6 ovtoj Tpa(f>eLs;

'E/Ltot yovv hoKei, €cf>r), tojv tolovtcov eveKa iv

pLOVCTLKfj etvai, 7] rpocf)-^. "Q-cnrep dpa, rjv 8' eyctj,

ypapLpLdrcov Trept Tore LKavdys ecxofxev, ore rd

OTOLX^^OL jJLTj XavddvoL Tjfids oXiya ovra ev aTraoiv

ols eari 7T€pi(l>€p6pi€va, Kai out* iv apuKpo) ovt

B iv p,eydXcp rjTCfxd^opLev avrd, d)s ov 8eot alaQd- veadai, dXXd navraxov TrpovdvpLovixeda hiayLyvoj-

OKeiv, (hs ov TTporepov iaopievoL ypapipbarLKol rrplv

OVTOJS exoifiev. 'AXrjdrj. Ovkovv Kai elKovas

" Cf. supra 362 b, 366 c, 388 a, 391 e, and Ruskin's paradox that taste is the only morahty.

*" Cf. Laws 653 b-c, where Plato defines education by this principle. Aristotle virtually accepts it {Ethics ii. 3. 2). The Stoics somewhat pedantically laid it down that reason entered into the youth at the age of fourteen.

' Plato often employs letters or elements (crrotxfta) to

258

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rhythm and harmony find their way to the inmost soul and take strongest hold upon it, bringing with them and imparting grace, if one is rightly trained, and other^^-ise the contrary ? And further, because omissions and the failure of beauty in things badly made or growTi would be most quickly perceived by one who was properly educated in music, and so, feeling distaste " rightly, he would praise beautiful things and take delight in them and receive them into his soul to foster its growth and become himself beautiful and good. The ugly he would rightly dis- approve of and hate while still young and yet unable to apprehend the reason, but when reason came ^

the man thus nurtured would be the first to give her welcome, for by this affinity he would know her." " I certainly think," he said, " that such is the cause of education in music." " It is, then," said I, " as it

was when we learned our letters "^ and felt that we knew them sufficiently only when the separate letters did not elude us, appearing as few elements in all the combinations that convey them, and when we did not disregard them in small things or great **

and think it unnecessary to recognize them, but were eager to distinguish them everywhere, in the belief that we should never be literate and letter- perfect till we could do this." " True." " And is

illustrate the acquisition of knowledge (TheMtet. 206 a), the relation of elements to compounds, the principles of classifi- cation {Phileb. 18 c, Cratyl. 393 d), and the theory of ideas {Polit. 278 A. Cf. Isoc. xiii. 13, Xen. Mem. iv. 4. 7, Blass, Attische Beredsa'mkelt, ii. pp. 23 f., 348 f., Cic. De or. ii. 130).

<* It is fundamental Platonic doctrine that truth is not concerned with size or seeming importance. (Cf. Parmdi. 130 D-E, Polit. 266 D, Laics 793 c, 901-902, Sophist 227 b, Hipp. Major 288 d.

259

PLATO

ypafifidrojv, et ttov tj iv vSaaiv rj iv KaroTTrpoig

ip,(j)aivoiVTO , ov irporepov yvoxjofxeda, rrplv dv avrd yvtofxev, dAA' eari rrjs avrrjs Te;^ny? re Kal fxeXerr]?; HavraTraat fxev ovv. 'Ap' ovv, o Aeyco, npos Oecov, ovrcog ovSe pLovaiKol Trporepov iaofxeOa,

C ovre avTOL oure ovg (f)afxev rjpuv TraihevTCov elvai rovs (f>vXaKas, nplv dv to. ttjs aco(f>poavinr]s et8rj Kal avSpeiag Kal iXevdepiOTTjTos Kal fieyaXo- TTpeTTcias Kal oaa rovrwv aSeA^a Kal to. tovtojv av evavTta 7Tavra)(ov 7TepL({)ep6[ji€va yv(jopit,a>p,ev Kal

ivovra ev ols evearcv alaOavwfxeda Kal avTO. Kal CLKovag avr(x)V, Kal p,rjT€ iv OjUKpols fxrjre iv

fieydXoLg drLixdt,cop.ev, dWd ttjs avT-fjg otco/xe^a Texvrjg elvat Kal pieXirrjs ; IloAAi^ dvdyKTj, €(l)r].

D OvKovv, rjv 8' iyco, otov dv ^vfiTTtrrTrj ev re rij i/jvxjj KaXd rjdrj ivovra Kal iv rat etSet oixo- Xoyovvra eKetvoig Kal ^vpLcfiOJvovvra, rov avrou /LteTe;!^op'Ta tvttov, tovt* dv etr] KaXXt-arov diajxa

" It is of course possible to contrast images with the things themselves, and to speak of forms or species without explicit allusion to the metaphysical doctrine of ideas. But on the other hand there is not the slightest reason to assume that the doctrine and its terminology were not familiar to Plato at the time when this part of the Republic was written. Cf. Unity of Plato's Thought, pp. 31 ff., 35. Statistics of the uses of etSos andiSe'a (Peiper's OntologicaPlatonica,Tajlor, Varia Socratica, Wilamowitz, Platon, ii. pp. 249-253), what- ever their philological interest, contribute nothing to the in- terpretation of Plato's thought. Cf. my De Platonis Idearum Doctrina, pp. 1, 30, and Class. Phil. vol. vi. pp. 363-364. There is for common sense no contradiction or problem

in the fact that Plato here says that we cannot be true " musicians " till we recognize both the forms and all copies of, or approximations to, them in art or nature, while in Book X. (601) he argues that the poet and artist copy not the idea but its copy in the material world.

260

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK III

it not also true that if there are any hkenesses " of letters reflected in water or mirrors, we shall never know them until we know the originals, but such knowledge belongs to the same art and discipline * ?

"

" By all means." " Then, by heaven, am I not right in saying that by the same token we shall never be true musicians, either—neither we nor the guardians that we have undertaken to educate

—

until we are able to recognize the forms of soberness, courage, hberality,'"and high-mindedness and all their kindred and their opposites, too, in all the combina- tions that contain and convey them, and to apprehend them and their images wherever found, disregarding them neither in trifles nor in great things, but believ- ing the knowledge of them to belong to the same art and discipline ? " " The conclusion is inevitable," he said. " Then," said I, " when there is a coin- cidence "* of a beautiful disposition in the soul and cor- responding and harmonious beauties of the same type in the bodily form—is not this the fairest spectacle for one who is capable of its contemplation «

?

"

' Plato, like all intellectuals, habitually assumes that knowledge of principles helps practice. C/. Phaedr. 259 e, 262 B, and infra 484 d, 520 c, 540 a.

' Liberality and high-mindedness, or rather, perhaps, magniticence, are among the virtues defined in Aristotle's list {Eth. yie. 1107 b 17), but are not among the four cardinal virtues which the Republic will use in Book IV. in the comparison of the individual with the state.

** Symp. 209 b to a\'vafjL(j>6Tipov, 210 c, Wilamowitz, vol. ii. p. 192.

' Music and beauty lead to the philosophy of love, more fully set forth in the Phaedrus and St/mposium, and here dismissed in a page. Plato's practical conclusion here may be summed up in the Virgilian line {Aen. v. 344):

Gratior at pulchro veniens in corpore virtus.

261

PLATO

to) Svva^evo) dedadai; IloAy ye. Kat fxrjv to ye

KaWidTov ipaaixLcoraTov . ITcu? 8' ov; Tojv Brj o ri /xaAtCTxa roiovrcov dvdpwTTCov 6 ye jjlovglkos

epcprj av el 8e d^vfj,(f)a>vos eirj, ovk av epcor). OvK av, e'i ye n, e(f}r], Kara tyjv tfjvx'Tjv eAAetVof et p-ev-

TOL Ti Kara ro <7cop,a, VTTop.elveLev dv (Lot edeXeiv E daTra.t,eadaL. ^{avddvoi, rjv S' eyu), otl eari. aoL r) yeyove TratSt/cd TOiavra, /cat avyxiopco' dXXd roSe

p,OL eme' aco(f>poarvvrj /cat rjSovfj vnepBaXXovcrrj eart

Tig Koivoivia; Kai ttcDs", ^4*V> V 7^ eK<f)pova TTOiel

403 ov)( TjTTOv Tj XvTTTj; 'AAAd rfj dXXr] dperfj ; OuSa-

jjicjg. Ti 8e ; v^pei re /cat d/coAaata; IldvTcov

/xdAtcrra. Met^w 8e Tiva /cat o^vrepav ex^t? et- Tretv rjbovrjv rrjs nepi rd d^pohiaia; Ovk e'xcti, tj S' o?, ovhe ye piavLKcorepav. *0 8e opdog epojs

7Te(f)VKe Koapnov re /cat KaXov cra)(f>p6vcog re /cat

pLovaLKws epav; Kat /xdAa, i^ 8' os'. OuSev' dpa

TTpoaocareov p^aviKOV ovhe ^vyyeveg d/coAaata? Toi

opdcp epojTi; Ov Trpoaoioreov. Ov npoaoLcrreov E dpa avrt] rj rjSovq, ovSe KOLVcovrjreov avrrjg epaarfj

re /cat TratSt/cot? opdcbg epcbai re Kal epa)p.evoLS

;

Ov pLevTOL, p.d At", e(f>rj, co Sco/cparej, Trpocjoiareov. OvTCO S-q, d)s eoLKe, vopLoderijaetg ev rfj oiKi^opLevr)

TToAet (f>LXeXv p,ev Kal ^vvelvat Kal diTTeaOat ayoTrep

vleog TraihiKaiv epaariqv, tcov KaXcvv x^P'-^> ^^^

TTeldr]- rd 8' dAAa ovrcos d/ttAeti^ Trpog ov ti?

OTTOvBdl^oL, OTTCxis p,r]he7Tore So^ei piaKporepa rov-

" Extravagant pleasure is akin to madness. Cf. Phileh. 4~ A-c, Phaedo 83 c-d.

" Cf. 468 B-c.

262

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK III

" Far the fairest." " And surely the fairest is the most lovable." "Of course." " The true musician, then, would love by preference persons of this sort

;

but if there were disharmony he would not love this." " No," he said, " not if there was a defect in the soul ; but if it were in the body he would bear with it and still be wilUng to bestow his love." " I understand," I said, " that you have or have had favourites of this sort and I grant your distinction. But tell me this—can there be any communion between soberness and extravagant pleasure <» ?

"

" How could there be," he said, " since such pleasure puts a man beside himself no less than pain?" "Or between it and \-irtue generally?" " By no means." " But is there between pleasure and insolence and licence ? " " Most assuredly." " Do you know of greater or keener pleasure than that associated with Aphrodite ? " "I don't," he said, " nor yet of any more insane." " But is not the right love a sober and harmonious love of the orderly and the beautiful ? " " It is indeed," said he. " Then nothing of madness, nothing akin to licence, must be allowed to come nigh the right love ? " "No." " Then this kind of pleasure may not come nigh, nor may lover and beloved who rightly love and are loved have anything to do with it ?

"

" No, by heaven, Socrates," he said, " it must not come nigh them." " Thus, then, as it seems, you will lay down the law in the city that we are founding, that the lover may kiss ** and pass the time with and touch the beloved as a father would a son, for honour- able ends, if he persuade him. But otherwise he must so associate with the objects of his care that there

should never be any suspicion of anything further,

263

PLATO

C Tcov ^vyyiyveadaf el 8e /zt^, ipoyov dfiovaias Kal a-neipoKaXias V(f>€^ovra. Ovrcos, e(f>rj. 'A/a' ovv,

rjv B' iyci), Kal crol ^aiverai reXos rnuv ex^iv 6

Trepi f.LovaiK7Js Xoyog- ol yovv Set TeXevrav, Tcre-

XevTTjKe' Set 8e ttov reXevrav ra jxovaiKa els to.

Tov KaXov epcoTiKa. Hu/>t<^7^/xi, :^ 8' o?. XIII. Mera Sr) puOvaiKrjv yvfxvaaTLKfj dpeirreoi ol

veavlai. Tt pL-qv; Aet puev S-q Kal ravrr) aKpi^ws

D rpe(j>€adaL eV Traihoiv Sta ^lov, ex^i 8e ttcjs, cos eya)piaL, cSSe- OKOTrei he Kal av' ep.ol p,ev yap ov

cfiaiveraL, o av p^pTjcrroi' fj

awpa, tovto ttj avTov

aperfj i/jvxrjv ayaO-qv TTOielv, dAAa rovvavriov ^'^Xl dyadrj rfj avTTJs dpeTrj acbpLa Trapex^iv ws otov re ^eXTLOTOv aol he ttcos ^atVerat; Kat epol, e^r),

ovTcog. OvKovv el ttjv htdvoiav LKavcos depanev-

aavres napaholpev avrfj Ta irepl to acopia dKpi^o-

E XoyeZadat, rjpLels he oaou tovs tvttovs vcf>r]yr]aaL- pLeda, Iva pirj pLaKpoXoyoJpLev, opdtbs dv iroiolpev;

Yidw puev ovv. Medrjs P'^v h-q ehrop-ev otl dc/)eK- reov avToXs' navrl ydp ttov p,dXXov eyxojpeZ rj

(f)vXaKi pLedvcrdevTL p,rj elhevai ottov yrjg eariv.

TeXolov ydp, 7^ S' os, tov ye cf)vXaKa (f>vXaKos

heladai. Ti he hr) gltcdv rrepi; dOXrjTal p,ev ydp

" The dependence of body on soul, whether in a mystical, a moral, or a medical sense, is a favourite doctrine of Plato and Platonists. Cf. Charm. 156-157, Spenser, "An Hymn in Honour of Beauty "

:

For of the soul the body form doth take, For soul is form, and doth the body make,

and Shelley, "The Sensitive Plant":

264

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK III

on penalty of being stigmatized for want of taste and true musical culture." " Even so," he said. " Do you not agree, then, that our discourse on music has come to an end ? It has certainly made a fitting end, for surely the end and consummation of culture is the love of the beautiful." " I concur," he said.

XIII. " After music our youth are to be educated by gj^mnastics ? " " Certainly." " In this too they must be carefully trained from boyhood through life, and the way of it is this, I beheve ; but consider it yourself too. For I, for my part, do not believe that a sound body by its excellence makes the soul good, but on the contrary that a good soul by its \irtue renders the body the best that is possible." What is your opinion ? " "I think so too." " Then if we should sufficiently train the mind and turn over to it the minutiae of the care of the body, and content ourselves with merely indicating the norms or patterns, not to make a long story of it, we should be acting rightly ? " " By all means." " From in- toxication ** we said that they must abstain. For a guardian is surely the last person in the world to whom it is allowable to get drunk and not know where on earth he is." " Yes," he said, " it would be absurd that a guardian*' should need a guard." " What next about their food ? These men are

A lady, the wonder. of her kind. Whose form was upborne by a lovely mind. Which dilating had moulded her mien and motion Like a sea-ttower unfolded beneath the ocean.

Cf. also Democr. fr. B. 187 Diels^, * Cf. 398 E. There is no contradiction between this and

the half-serious proposal of the Laws to use supervised drinking-bouts as a safe test of character (Laws 641).

• 7e emphasizes what follows from the very meaning of the word. Cf. 379 b, 389 b. 435 a.

265

PLATO

oi avSpes rov ^eyiarov dycovos' rj ovx^; Nai. Ap ovv rj TCOvSe rcbv daKrjraJv e^ts" TrpoarJKOVa'

404 av etr] tovtols; "lacog. 'AAA', -^v S' iyoj, VTTVCoSrjs avTY] ye rt? Kal a(j)aXepa Trpos vyUiav t) ovx 6pa<; OTL KaOevSoval re rov ^iov, /cat edv crpiKpd eK^chai

TTJs T€Tayp,€vr]s Stairrjs, pieydXa Kal a(f)6hpa vocrovcTLv ovToi Oi dcTKTjrai; 'Opco. ViopulsoTepas

hrj Tivos, -qv S' eyoj, daK'qaecos Set rols 77oAe/xtKOt?

ddXrjTals, ovs ye warrep Kvvas dypvTTvovs re

dvdyKrj etvat /cat o rt /xaAicrra d^v opav Kal

dKovetv Kal TzoAAd? fiera^oXds ev rals OTpareiais

B fxera^aXXovras vSarcov re Kal rcbv dWcov aircnv Kal elX-qaeoiv Kal ;Yet)Ltdjva)v ^^,17 dKpoa(j)a\€Ls elvai

TTpog vyLeLav. OatVerat /xot. ^Ap* ovv tj ^€Xtlgtt]

yvp^vaariKT] dSeXt^-q tls dv eirj rrjg pLovcnKrjg, tjv

oXiyov Trporepov Sifjjxev; Ylwg Xeyeis; 'AttXtj ttov

Kal eTTLecKT)? yvpvaariKij, Kal pidXiara rj tcov Tvepi

Tov TToXepiov. Wfj hrj; Kai Trap' 'Oprjpov, fjv 8'

^yoi, ra ye roiavra pddoi dv tls. olada yap on iirl OTparelas iv rats ratv rjpcocov iarLdaeatv ovre

C ix^^^^^ avTous icTTLa, /cat raura eTTt daXarrr) ev 'EAAryo-Trdrro) ovras, ovre e^Bots Kplaaiv aAAd

" Of. 543 B, 621 D, Laches 182 a, Laws 830 a, Demosth. XXV. 97 ad\y}ral tGiv koKCiv Ipyuv.

'' Cf. 'Epdo-rat 132 c KadeiSwv wavra rov §iov. Xenophanes, Euripides, Aristotle, and the medical writers, like Plato, protest against the exaggerated honour paid to athletes and the heavy sluggishness induced by overfeeding and overtraining.

" Laws 797 d. Cf. supra 380 e. Aristotle's comment on fiera^oXr], Eth. Nic. 1154 b 28 ff., is curiously reminiscent of Plato, including the phrase dTrXi; oi)5' iinuKrjs.

* Perhaps in the context "cold." * Literally "equitable," if we translate etrLeiKrjs by its later

meaning, that is, not over-precise or rigid in conformity to

966

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK III

athletes in the greatest of contests," are they not ? "

.

" Yes." " Is, then, the bodily habit of the athletes we see about us suitable for such ? " " Perhaps." " Nay," said I, " that is a drowsy habit and pre- cai*ious for health. Don't you observe that they sleep away their hves,^ and that if they depart ever so httle from their prescribed regimen these athletes are hable to great and \iolent diseases ? " "I do." " Then," said I, " we need some more ingenious form of training for our athletes of war, since these must be as it were sleepless hounds, and have the keenest possible perceptions of sight and hearing, and in their campaigns undergo many changes '^ in their drinking water, their food, and in exposure to the heat of the sun and to storms,** without disturbance of their health." " I think so." " Would not, then, the best gymnastics be akin to the music that we were just now describing .' " " \\'hat do you mean ?

"

" It would be a simple and flexible* gymnastic, and especially so in the training for war." " In what way ? " " One could learn that," said I, " even from Homer.' For you are aware that in the banqueting of the heroes on campaign he does not feast them on fish,» though they are at the sea-side on the Helles- pont,* nor on boiled meat, but only on roast, which is

rule. Adam Is mistaken in saying that iirieiKris is practically synonymous with aya$rj. It sometimes is, but not here. C/. Plutarch, De san. 13 axpi^ris . . . Kal 5t' Swxos.

* So Laws 706 d. The *-oi is perhaps merely idiomatic in quotation.

" Homer's ignoring of fish diet, except in stress of starva- tion, has been much and idly discussed both in antiquitj^ and by modern scholars. Modern pseudo-science has even inferred from this passage that Plato placed a "taboo" on fish.

' Which Homer calk " fish-teeming," It. ix. 360. 267

PLATO

fiovov OTTTOLs, o. St] jLtaAicrr' av etrj (TTpancoTats

evTTopa' TTavraxov ydp, chs enos eiTretv, aura* tco

TTvpl )(p7JadaL evTTopcorepov t) dyyela ^vixirepi^epeiv. Kat fidXa. OvSe fjLrjv rjhvap.dro)v, d>s iycLpLai, Opir]pos TTCOTTOTe ipLvrjodr]' t) tovto pukv /cat ol dXXoL

aGKr]rat iaaaiv, on to) jxeXXovn (Tco/xart ev e^eiv a(f)eKT€.ov Tojv TOLOVTOJV OLTjavTCxiv ; Kat opdaJs ye,

D ecfiYj, LcracTL re /cat dire^^^ovraL. HvpaKOoiav he, ch (j>iXe, Tpdrrei^av Koi HcKeXcKrjv iroiKiXiav oifjov, cos

koLKas, OVK aLvels, etirep aoi ravra 8oKei opdajs

ex^i'V. Ov fxOL SoKcb. ^eyeLs dpa /cat K.opi,vdtav Koprjv (^lXtjv etvai dvSpdcn fieXXovatv ev CTaJ/xaros'

e^eiv. Ylavrdiraai. p.ev ovv. Ovkovv /cat ^Attlkwv TTefjifidrcov rds SoKovcras elvai evTraOeias ; ^AvdyKT). ' OXrjv ydp, otjjiaL, rrjv Toiavrrjv aLTr]aiv /cat

Statrav rfj fieXoTTOua re /cat cpSij rfj ev ra> Tvavap-

E pLOVLcp /cat ev Trdai pvdfxoXs TreTTOtrjuevrj aTretKd^ov- res dpOcbs dv dTreLKdi^oLfJcev. Ilcos ydp ov; Ovkovv e/cei fxev dKoXaaiav r^ TTOt/ciAt'a everiKrev, evravda

Se voaov, rj 8e aTrXoTrfs Kara /xev jJLovcnKrjv iv i/jvxo.L9 (Jco(f)poavvr}v, Kara Se yvp.vaart,Kr]V ev arco/Jiacnv vyieiav; 'AXr^OeaTara, e(f)7]. 'A/coAa-

405 CTta? Se /cat voctojv irXrjdvovaibv iv TToXei dp^ ov

hiKaanqpid re /cat larpela ttoAAo. dvoiyerai, /cat

hiKavLKr^ re /cat larptKrj aepivvvovrai, orav §17 Kat

eXevdepoL 77oAAot /cat acf)68pa Trepl avrd anovSd- l^ojOLv; Tt ydp ov jxeXXei;

" Cf. Green, History of English People, Book II. chap, ii., an old description of the Scotch army : " They have therefore no occasion for pots or pans, for they dress the flesh of the cattle in their skins after they have flayed them," etc. But cf. Athenaeus, i. 8-9 (vol. i. p. 36 L.C.L.), Diog. Laert. viii. 13 aicrre evTropi<rTOVS airols elvai. rdj Tpo(pds.

268

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK III

what soldiers could most easily procure. For every- where, one may say, it is of easier provision to use the bare fire than to convey pots and pans " along." " Indeed it is." " Neither, as I believe, does Homer ever make mention of sweetmeats. Is not that something which all men in training understand—that if one is to keep his body in good condition he must abstain from such things altogether ? " " They are right," he said, " in that they know it and do abstain." " Then, my friend, if you think this is the right way, you apparently do not approve of a Syracusan table ^

and Sicihan variety of made dishes." " I think not." " You would fro^^'n, then, on a little Corinthian maid as the chere amie of men who were to keep themselves fit ?

" " Most certainly." " And also on the seem- ing dehghts of Attic pastry ? " " Inevitably." " In

general, I take it, if we hkened that kind of food and regimen to music and song expressed in the pan- harmonic mode and in every variety of rhythm it would be a fair comparison." " Quite so." " And there variety engendered licentiousness, diditnot,but here disease ? While simplicity in music begets sobriety in the souls, and in gymnastic training it begets health in bodies." " Most true," he said. " And when licentiousness and disease multiply in a city, are not many courts of law and dispensaries opened, and the arts of chicane " and medicine give themselves airs when even free men in great numbers take them very seriously ? " " How can they help it ? " he said.

* Proverbial, like the "Corinthian maid" and the "Attic pastry." Cf. Otto, Sprichw. d. Rom. p. 321, Newman, Introduction to Aristotle's Politics, p. 302. Cf. also Phaedr. 240 B.

« SiKavtKTj : more contemptuous than St/ccuTTtnc^.

269

PLATO

XIV. Trjg he KaKrjs re Kal alaxpas TraiSeta? iv TToXet apa p,-^ tl ixell,ov e^ei? Xa^elv reKfi-qpiov, rj

TO Seladai larpcvv /cat BtKaaTwv aKpojv, [xrj piovov

Tovs (f)avXovs T€ /cat )(^eLpoT€Xva? , aAAo. /cat Toys' ^v

iXevdeptp a)(r)pLaTL -npoaTTOLOvpuevovs redpacfydai; t]

B ovK alcTXpov So/cet /cat aTratSeufftas' /Lteya reKpiTj- piov TO eTTaKTO) nap' aAAoiP", cw? heairorcjjv re /cat

Kpircov, TO) SiKalcp dvay/ca^ea^at ;^p7]CT^ai, /cat

aTTopia OLKeicov; YldvTOJV pLev ovv, e(f)r], aiaxiarov.

*H 8o/cet CTOt, T^r 8 eyw, tovtov ata^iov etvat TOUTO, OTaV Tt? ,Ut) pLOUOV TO TToXv TOV ^LOV €V

hiKacTTrjpiois (f)evya)v Te /cat Sicjokcov KaraTpL^rjrai,

aAAa /cat utto (XTretpo/caAtas' eV avra> hr] tovto)

neiadfi KaXXcoTTi^eadaL, chs Seti^o? cov Trepl to

C dSiKelv /cat t/cai'o? rrdaas f-iev arpo(f)ds arpe(f)eadai, ndaas Se Ste^oSous' Sie^eXdcbv dTToarpacJjrjvai, Auyt^d- pievos, ware p-rj Tvapaax^lv Slktjv, /cat Tavra ap,LKpcov T€ /cat ovSevos d^tcov eveKa, dyvoiov oacp

KoXXiov /cat dp,eivov to 7TapaaKevdl,eiv tov ^lov

avTcp pLTjSev heZuOai vvaTdl,ovros hiKaorov ; Ovk,

dXXd TOVT , e(f)rj, e/cetVou eVt atCT;^toP'. To 8e laTpiKrjs, Tiv 8' eyco, heZadai, o ti pLt] TpavpidTCJU

eveKa rj tlvcov eTreTeicov voarjp.dTO}v einTTeaovTOiv

,

D dAAd St' dpyiav Te /cat StatTav otai' Si,t^Xdopiev pevpidrajv Te /cat TTvevpLdrcov cooTrep Xipivas ep,-

" I have given the sense. The construction is debated accordingly as we read awopla or diropig,. Cf. Phaedr. 239 d, of the use of cosmetics, XHTet- olKdwu. The Kai with d-rropLa is awkward or expresses the carelessness of conversation.

* Plato likes to emphasize by pointing to a lower depth or a higher height beyond the superlative.

' There is no exact English equivalent for dweipoKaXia, the

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XIV. " Will you be able to find a surer proof of an e\i\ and shameful state of education in a city than the necessity of first-rate physicians and judges, not only for the base and mechanical, but for those who claim to have been bred in the fashion of free men ? Do you not think it disgraceful and a notable mark of bad breeding to have to make use of a justice im- ported from others, who thus become your masters and judges, from lack of such qualities in yourself" ?

"

" The most shameful thing in the world." " Is it ? "

said I, " or is this still more shameful **—when a man not only wears out the better part of his days in the

courts of law as defendant or accuser, but from the lack of all true sense of values '^ is led to plume himself on this very thing, as being a smart fellow to ' put over ' an unjust act and cunningly to try every dodge and practice,** every evasion, and wriggle* out ofevery hold in defeating justice, and that too for trifles and worthless things, because he does not know how much nobler and better it is to arrange his life so as to have no need' of a nodding jurj'man ? " " That is," said he, " still more shameful than the other." " And to require medicine," said I, " not merely for wounds or the incidence of some seasonal maladies, but, because of sloth and such a regimen as we described, to fill one's body up with winds and humours like a

insensitiveness to the KaXov of the banausic, the nouveau riche and the Philistine.

"* The phrasing of this passage recalls p«issages of Aristo- phanes' Clouds, and the description of the pettifo^ing lawyer and politician in the Theaetetus 172 e. Cf. infra 319, also Euthydem. 302 b, and Porphyry, De abstimntla, i. 34. The metaphors are partly from wrestling.

• Cf. Blaydes on Aristoph. Knights 263. ' Cf. Gorg. 507 d, Thucyd. iii. 82, Isoc. Antid. 238,

Antiphanes, fr. 288 Kock 6 fjLjjdiv dSiKuf ovSeyds Selrot vofiov. 271

PLATO

TTiTrXaiiivovs <j>'uaas re /cat Kardppovs voorjixaaiv

ovoixara Ttdeadai dvayKa^eLV tovs KOjjiipovs 'A-

aKX7]7ndBas, ovk alaxpov SoKel; Kat fxdX\ €(f)r), d)s dXrjdcos Kaivd ravra /cat droira voarjiJidrcov ovofJLara. Ola, -^v 8' eyoj, (Ls ot/xat, ovk rjv ctt'

AcrKXr]7TLOV' reKixalpopiai he, on avrov ol utet? E €v Tpota KvpvTTvXcp T€Tpa>p.evcp ctt' olvov Ilpa-

fiveiov dX(f)LTa ttoAAo. eTrnraadevra Kat, rvpov errt-

406 ^vadevra, d 8r] So/cet <j>Xeyp.ard>hri etvat, ovk

eixeiJufjavTO rfj Sovarj Tneiv, ovSe IlarpoKXcp rco

lcop.eva> eTTeripLrjaav. Kat piev h-q, e^T^, droTTOV ye TO TToypia ovTixis exovTi. Ovk, el y evvoeis, elnov, ort rfi TTaLSaycoyLKfj tcov voarjpidTCOV Tavrrj rfj vvv

tarpLKfj irpo rod AaKXrjTTidhai ovk e)(pa)VTO, ojs (jiaai, TTplv ^YipohiKov yeveadai' 'HpoSt/co? he

TTaiSorpL^rjs cov /cat voo'coS'qs yevopuevos, jUt^aj

B yvpLvaarriKrjv tarpLK-fj, dTreKvaiae Trpcbrov pcev /cat pLaXiara eavrov, eVetr' dXXovs varepov ttoXXovs.

Ylfj hrj; e(f)rj, M^aKpov, rjv S' eyco, tov Odvarov

avro) TTOLTjaas. TrapaKoXovOdJv yap rw vo(7r]p,aTL OavauipLO) ovtl ovre IdaaadaL, ot/itat, otd? t' tjv

eavTov, ev da)(oXia re TrdvTcuv larpevopLevos hid

^Lov e^rj dTTOKvaLopievos , et ti ttjs elcodvlas Siairrjs

" Plato ridicules the unsavoury metaphors required to describe the effects of auto-intoxication. There is a similar bit of somewhat heavier satire in Spencer's Social Statics, 1868, p. 32: " Carbuncled noses, cadaverous faces, foetid breaths, and plethoric bodies meet us at every turn; and our condolences are perpetually asked for headaches, flatulences, nightmare, heartburn, and endless other dyspeptic symptoms."

* Plato is probably quoting from memory. In our text, II. xi. 624, Hecamede gives the draught to Machaon and Nestor as the Ion (538 b) correctly states.

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marsh and compel the ingenious sons of Aesculapius to invent for diseases such names as fluxes and flatulences—don't you think that disgraceful ? " " " Those surely are," he said, " new-fangled and monstrous strange names of diseases." " There was nothing of the kind, I fancy," said I, " in the days of Aesculapius. I infer this from the fact that at Troy his sons did not find fault \vith the damsel who gave to the wounded Eurypylus ^ to drink a posset of Pramnian wine plentifully sprinkled with barley and gratings of cheese, inflammatory ingredients of a surety, nor did they censure Patroclus, who was in charge of the case." " It was indeed," said he, " a strange potion for a man in that condition." " Not so strange," said I, " if you reflect that the former Asclepiads made no use of our modern coddling* medication of diseases before the time of Herodicus.

But Herodicus** was a trainer and became a vale- tudinarian, and blended gymnastics and medicine., for the torment first and chiefly of himself and then of many successors." " How so ? " he said. " By lingering out his death," said I ; " for living in

perpetual observance of his malady, which was in- curable, he was not able to effect a cure, but lived through his days unfit for the business of life, suffering the tortures of the damned if he departed a whit

' This coddling treatment of disease, which Plato affects to reprobate here, he recommends from the point of view of science in the Timaeus (89 c) : bib TratSayoryuv Sfl Siairan, etc. Cf. Eurip. Orestes 883; and even in the Republic 459 c.

" Cf. Protag. 316 e, Phaedr. 227 d. To be distinguished from his namesake, the brother of Gorgias in Gorg. 448 b. Cf. Cope on Aristot. Rhet. i. 5, Wilamowitz-Kiessling, PAj7. Unt. XV. p. 220, Jiithner, Philostratus fiber Gymnastikf p. 10.

VOL. I T 273

PLATO

eKpairj, Svadavarcov Se vtto ao(f)ias els yrjpas acpiKero. KaXov apa to yipas, e(f)r], rrjg re^vrj?

C rjveyKaro. Olov eiKos, rjv 8' eyco, top /jL-q elSora, on AaKXr]7n6s ovk ayvoia ovhe aTretpta rovTov rod etSofS' rrjs larpLKrjs rols eKyovois ov Kar- €0€igev avTO, dAA' eiSco? on Traat rols evvo/iov- fxevots epyov n eKaarco iv rfj irdAet TrpoareraKrat., o avayKotov ipydS^eadai, /cat ovSevl oxoXt) 8ia piov KapLvetv larpevopbevcp- o rjfiets yeXoicos inl

fjiev rojv hrjpLLovpycbv alaOavofxeda, eVt 8e roJv

ttXovgiojv re /cat evhaipiovwv Bokovvtcov etvai ovk

aladavofJLcda. IlcDs"; e(f)rj.

D XV, TeKTCov fjL€V, '^v S' eyo), Kayivwv d^iot Trapa rov larpov (f)dppiaKov 7nd>v i^efieaai ro

voarjjxa t] Kdrco Kadapdels rj /caucret r) TOfxfj ^(^pr^ad-

fxevos avrjXXdxOaf idv 84 tls avro) fxaKpdv hiairav

TTpoardrrr} , TrtAtSta re Trepl rrjv Ke^aXrjv nepirtdels

/cat Tct rovTOLs eTTOfxeva, ra^v elirev on ov axoXr] Kdfxveiv ovSe XvaireXel ovroi t,fjv, voa'qjjian rov

" Cf. Macaulay on Mitford's History of Greece : '* It (oligarchical government) has a sort of valetudinarian long- evity ; it lives in the balance of Sanctorius ; it takes no exercise ; it exposes itself to no accident ; it is seized with a hypochondriac alarm at every new sensation ; it trembles at every breath ; it lets blood for every inflammation ; and thus, without ever enjoying a day of health or plea.sure, drags out its existence to a doting and debilitated old age." That Macaulay here is consciously paraphrasing Plato is apparent from his unfair use of the Platonic passage in his essay on Bacon. Cf. further Eurip. Supp. 1109-1113; Seneca on early medicine. Epistles xv. 3 (95) 14 ff., overdoes both Spencer and Macaulay. Cf. Rousseau, Emile, Book I.

:

"Je ne sais point apprendre a vivre a qui ne songe qu'a

274

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK III

from his fixed regimen, and struggling against death by reason of his science he won the prize of a doting old age." " " A noble prize * indeed for his science," he said. " The appropriate one," said I, " for a man who did not know that it was not from ignorance or inacquaintance with this type of medicine that Aesculapius did not discover it to his descendants,

but because he knew that for all well-governed peoples there is a work assigned to each man in the city which he must perform, and no one has leisure to be sick * and doctor himself all his days. And this we absurdly enough perceive in the case of a crafts- man, but don't see in the case of the rich and so-called fortunate." " How so ? " he said. XV. " A carpenter," said I, " when he is sick

expects his physician to give him a drug which will operate as an emetic on the disease, or to get rid of it by purging ** or the use of cautery or the knife. But if anyone prescribes for him a long course of treatment with swathings * about the head and their accompani- ments, he hastily says that he has no leisure to be sick, and that such a life of preoccupation with his

s'empecher de mourir;" La Rochefoucauld {Max. 282): " C'est une ennuyeuse maladie que de conserver sa sante par un trop grand regime."

* The pun yvpoLs and yepas is hardly translatable. Cf. Pherecydes apud Diog. Laert. i. 119 x^°'-"-V ^^ ivofjui eyivtro Ft), iirubr} ai'-rj Zaj yrjy ytpas diSoi (vol. 1. p. 124 L.C.L.). For the ironical use of KaXdc cf. Eurip. Cyclops 351, Sappho, fr. 5S (58).

' Cf. Plutarch, De sanitate tuenda 23, Sophocles, fr. 88. 11 (?), Lucian, Nigrinus 22, differently; Hotspur's, " Zounds ! how has he the leisure to be sick ? "

"* For 9) KCLTta cf. Chaucer, "Ne upward purgative ne downward laxative."

• • Cf. Blaydes on Aristoph. Achamians 439.

275

PLATO

vovv npoaexovTa, rrjs 8e TrpoKeijJievrjs ipyaaiag

dfxeXovvTa- /cat [xera ravra x^^P^'-^ eLTTivv rco ^ TotovTW larpo), els rrjv elcodvlav hianav ifi^ds,

vyiTjs yevofJLevos Cfj rd eavrov Trpdrrcov edv 8e jxtj

LKavov fj

TO adjfia inreveyKelv, reXevr-qaas rrpay-

fiaTOJv dTTTjXXdyrj. Kai rco tolovtco fiev y , ^(j^rj, hoK€L 7Tp€Tr€LV OVTWS larpiKrj XPV^^^'" '^p'j V^

iv< 5 eyco, on rjv ri avrco epyov, o et /x?) TTparroi, ovk iXvatreXet, Cfji'; A.rjXov, €(f)rj.

'0 8e hrj rrXovacos,

a)S (f)aiJL€v, ovSev cx^i roiovrov epyov TrpoKeijjievov,

ov dvayKat,opL€va) drrex^cydaL d^iojTOV. Ovkovv Srj

Xeyerai ye. Q)<x}KvXihov ydp, -^v 8' eyw, ovk

aKoveis, TTOJS (f)rjal helv, orav tco TJBr] ^los fj, dperrjv doKelv. Ot/xat 8e ye, e^T], Kai rrporepov.

Mr]8ev, eiTTOv, Trepl tovtov avrco pLaxioixeda, aAA'

rjpids avTOVS SiSd^copiev, TTorepov ixeXerrjTeov tovto B TO) vXoVGLOJ /cat d^LOJTOP TO) p-Tj peXeTcovTi, t) voaorpo^ia reKTOvcKfj p,ev /cat rat? aAAat? rexvais

epnohLov rfj vpoae^ei rov vov, to he ^ojkvXlSov

7rapaKeXevp,a ovSev e/x7ro8t^et. Nat pa tov Aia, rj 8' og, ax^Sop ye tl TrdvTcov p,dXiara rj ye

TTepaiTepoj yvpvaariKrjg rj TrepirTrj avTiq cttl-

p^eXeta rov ad)p,aros' /cat ydp vpos oiKovopLLag /cat

Trpos arparelas /cat vpos eSpaiovs ev noXei dpxds SvaKoXos. To Se St] pbeyiarov, on /cat irpos

° This alone marks the humour of the whole passage, which Macaulay's Essay on Bacon seems to miss. Cf. Aristoph. Acharnians 757; Apology 41 d.

" The line of Phocylides is toyed with merely to vary the expression of the thought. Bergk restores it Stfijo-^at ^lor-qv, apeTT)!/ 5' 6rav fi fSios ijdrj, which is Horace's {Ep. i. 1. 53 f.):

Quaerenda pecunia primum est; Virtus post nummos

!

276

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illness and neglect of the work that lies before him isn't worth living. And thereupon he bids fare- well to that kind of physician, enters upon his customary way of Hfe, regains his health, and lives attending to his afFairs^-or, if his body is not equal to the strain, he dies and is freed from all his troubles."

"

" For such a man," he said, " that appears to be the right use of medicine." " And is not the reason," I said, " that he had a task and that life wasn't wortli acceptance on condition of not doing his work ?

"

" Obviously," he said. " But the rich man, we say, has no such appointed task, the necessity of abstaining from which renders life intolerable." " I haven't heard of any." " Why, haven't you heard that saying of Phocylides,* that after a man has ' made his pile ' he ought to practise virtue ? " " Before, too, I fancy," he said. " Let us not quarrel \^ith him on that point," I said, " but inform ourselves whether this \-irtue is something for the rich man to practise, and life is intolerable if he does not, or whether we are to suppose that while valetudinarianism is a hind- rance to single-minded attention to carpentry and the other arts, it is no obstacle to the fulfilment of Pho- cylides' exhortation." " Yes, indeed," he said, " this excessive care for the body that goes beyond simple gymnastics*^ is about the greatest of all obstacles. For it is troublesome in household affairs and military service and sedentary offices in the city." "And, chief of all, it puts difficulties in the way of any kind of

' In the Gorgias (464 b) iarpiKr) is recognized as co-ordinate in the care of the body with yvfivaariKri. Here, whatever goes beyond the training and care that will preserve the health of a normal body is austerely rejected. Cf. 410 b.

277

PLATO

fiaO-qcreis darTtva<7ovv /cat eVi'OT^aei? re Kal fxeXdras

C npos iavTOV p^aAeTr?^, K€<f)aXrjs rivas aUl Sia- Tctaei?^ /cat IXiyyovs VTroTrrevovaa /cat alTLajfievTi

€K <f)LXoao(f)La£ eyyiyveadaL, (Zare, otttj ravTr)

aperr) aa/cetTat /cat So/ct^a^erat, Trdvrrj e/MTToSio?*

KO-ixveiv yap o'Uadat 770tet det /cat (hhivovra pL-qiroTe Xijyetv 7T€pl rod awfMaros. Et/cos" y', e^")?- Oy/cow Tavra yiyvojoKovra ipcofjcev /cat 'Aa/cAi777t6v tou? jtiep <^va€L T€ /cat Siairr) vyieivcos exovras to.

D aoipiara, vocrrjjxa Se rt dTTOKeKpijxivov taxovrag iv avroLs, rovTOis fxev /cat ravrr] rfj e^et /caraSet^at

laTpiK'qv, (^apixaKOLS re /cat rofxats rd voar^p^ara eK^dXXovra avrajv rrju eicodvlav TrpoardrTeiv

hiairav, Iva fXTj rd TroAtrt/ca /SAarrrot, ra S' etaoj 8td Trai^TO? vevoaiqKora adofiaTa ovk iinx^ipelv StaiTat? /card afiuKpov aTravrXovvra /cat eTTix^ovra

jxaKpov Kal KaKov ^iov dvdpcoTTO) TTOietv, /cat eKyova avTcov, (hs to et/co?, erepa Toiavra (f)VT€V€LV,

E dAAct Tov firj Svi'dixeuov iv rfj KadearrjKVLa TreptdSo) i,fjv jXYj o'Uadai h^iv depaTreveiv, co? ovr€ avTco ovre

TToXet XvaireXrj; IIoAtTt/cdp', e^^, Xdyeus 'Act/cAt^-

TTtdt'. Ai]Xov, rjv S' eyo)-^ /cat ot TratSes" avrov, ^ diaTOLcrcreis Galen : SLacTrdcreis mss., plainly wrong. ^ 8fi\ov, Tjv 5' ^701 kt\.] this, the ms. reading, will not construe

smoothly, and many emendations have been proposed, none of which seriously affects the sense. I have translated Schneider's transposition of on toioCtos fjv after iyw and before Kal.

" As Macaulay, Essay on " Bacon," puts it : " That a vale- tudinarian . . . who enjoyed a hearty laugh over the Queen of Navarre's tales should be treated as a caput lupinum because he could not read the Timaeits without a headache, was a notion which the humane spirit of the English schools of wisdom altogether rejected." For tlie thought cf. Xen. Mem. iii. 12. 6-7.

278

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instruction, thinking, or private meditation, forever

imagining headaches " and dizziness and attributing their origin to philosophy. So that wherever this kind of virtue is practised * and tested it is in every way a hindrance. "^ For it makes the man always fancy himself sick and never cease from anguishing about his body." " Naturally," he said. " Then shall we not say that it was because Asclepius knew this—that for those who were by nature and course of life sound of body but had some localized disease, that for such, I say, and for this habit he revealed the art of medicine, and, driving out their disease by drugs and surgery, prescribed for them their customary regimen in order not to interfere vWth their civic duties, but that, when bodies were diseased inwardly and throughout, he did not attempt by diet and by gradual evacuations and infusions to prolong a wTctched existence for the man and have him beget in all hkelihood similar \\Tetched offspring ? But if a man was incapable of li\ing in the established round <* and order of life, he did not think it worth while to treat him, since such a fellow is of no use either to himself or to the state." " A most politic Asclepius you're telling us of,* " he said. " Obviously," said I,

* Literally "virtue is practised in this way." Cf. 503 d for a similar contrast between mental and other labours. And for the meaning of virtue cf. the Elizabethan : " Virtue is ever sowing of her seeds."

« There is a suggestion of Stoic terminology in Plato's use of ifiiroOLO! and similar words. Cf. Xen. M(m. i. 2. 4. On the whole passage cf. again Macaulay's Essay on " Bacon," Maximus of Tyre (Duebn.) 10, and the diatribe on modern medicine and valetudinarianism in Edward Carpenter's Civilization, Its Cause and Cure. "* Cf. Thucyd. i. 130.

« There is a touch of comedy in the Greek. Cf. Eupolis, fr. 94 Kock raxw X^yeis fUv.

279

PLATO

OTt TOiovTOS '^v, ovx opas COS /cat iv TpoLO, dyaOol

408 TTpos Tov TToXejjLov e(l)dvrjcrav, Kal rfj larpiKfj, (Lg

eyd) Xeyo), ixpcjvro; r) ov ixeixvrjaai, on Kal to) MeveXecx) €K tov Tpavfiaros ov 6 UdvSapos e^aXev

alfx eKiivl,riaavr ctti r -qTria 0(x/)jU,a/<' eTraaaov,

6 TV 8' ^XPW H'^'^^ rovTo i) TTielv ri (f>ayeZv ovZkv fidXXov rj Tcp KvpvTTvXcp TTpoairarrov, (Ls iKavcov

OVTOJV Tcbv ^apfxdKcov idaaadai dvSpas rrpo rwv TpavfxdTcov vyi.€Lvovs re Kal Koafitovs iv StaLrr],

B Kav el rvxpiev iv rep Trapaxp^jP'O. KVKeoJva Tnovreg, voacoSr] Be <f)V(Tei re Kat aKoXaaTov ovre avrols ovre rot? aAAotS' coovto XvaLxeXelv t,fjv, ovS' eVt

TOVTOLs TT]v TexvTjv Selv eti^at, ouSe depaTrevreov

avTovs, oi)S' el Mi8ov TrXovaicorepOL elev. Yldvv Kopufjovs, e(f)'r], Xeyeis 'AaKX7]7nov TratSas".

XVI. UpeTTei,, -qv 8' eyco' Kairoi aTreidovvres ye 'qpuv ol rpaycphioTTOiol re Kal HivSapog 'AttoA- Xcovos fiev (jiaaiv 'AcrKXr^Tnov elvac, vtto 8e xP^'^ov

C Treiadrjvai TrXovaiov dvSpa davdaipLov rjSr] ovra Idaaadai, odev hrj Kal Kepavvcodrjvai, avrov. rjp.€Ls

Se Kara rd TTpoeipiqp,eva ov 7Tei96p.e6a avrols dp,- <f)6repa, aAA' el p,ev deov rjv, ovk ^v, (f)TJaop.ev, alaxpoKepS-qs, el 8' alaxpoKepSiqs, ovk '^v deov. ^OpOorara, rj 8' o?, ravrd ye. dXXd Trepl rovBe tL Xeyeis, cb TicoKpares ; dp^ ovk dyaOovs Bel iv rfj TToXei KeKrijadai larpovs; eiev 8' dv ttov

" Cf. the Homeric 9j ov iJ.4fjLVTi ; * Plato is quoting loosely or adapting II. iv. 218. at/M'

iKfiv^Tjffas ^tt' ap i'lwia. <pa.p/j.aKa etStlis trdaa-e is said of Machaon, not of Menelaus.

' Proverbial and suggests Tyrtaeus. Cf. Imws 660 e.

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THE REPUBLIC, BOOK III

' that was his character. And his sons too, don't you see that at Troy they approved themselves good fighting-men and practised medicine as I described it ? Don't you remember*' that in the case of Menelaus too from the wound that Pandarus inflicted

They sucked the blood, and soothing simples sprinkled ?

"

But what he was to eat or drink thereafter they no more prescribed than for Eurypylus, taking it for granted that the remedies sufficed to heal men who before their wounds were healthy and temperate in diet even if they did happen for the nonce to drink a posset ; but they thought that the hfe of a man constitutionally sickly and intemperate was of no use to himself or others, and that the art of medicine should not be for such nor should they be given treat- ment even if they were richer than Nlidas.*^ " " Very ingenious fellows," he said, " you make out these sons of Asclepius to be."

XVI. " 'Tis fitting," said I ; " and yet in disregard of our principles the tragedians and Pindar ** affirm that Asclepius, though he was the son of Apollo, was bribed by gold to heal a man already at the point of death, and that for this cause he was struck by the lightning. But we in accordance \nth the aforesaid principles * refuse to believe both statements, but if he was the son of a god he was not avaricious, we will insist, and if he was greedy of gain he was not the son of a god." " That much," said he, " is most certainly true. But what have you to say to this, Socrates, must we not have good physicians in our city ? And they would be the most hkely to be good

* Cf. Aeschyl. Ag. 1022 ff., Eurip. Alcest. 3-4, Pindar, Pi/th. iii. 53. • Cf. 379 fiF., also 365 e.

281

PLATO

IxaXiara tolovtol, ogol ttAcicttous' fi€v vyieLVOvs,

D TrXeicTTOvs Se voudtheis iJierex^tpiaavro , /cat Si^a- CTxat av (jjaavrcos ol TravToSaTralg (f>vaecnv (v/xl- XrjKOTeg. Kai fidXa, eiTTOV, dyadovs Xeyco- dAA' oXada ovs TjyovfiaL tolovtovs; *Av ei-nr^s,

€(f>7].

'AAAa 7retpaCTo/xat, -^v S' iyco' av /xeVroi ovx ofjLoiov TTpdyfia tw avra> Xoyco rjpov. Rajs'; €(f)rj. 'larpot jxev, cIttov, Setvoraroi dv yevoLVTO, el in-

iraihcov dp^ajjievoi npos rat jj-avdaveiv rrjv Te^v^v

a»9 TrXeLarois re /cat irovripoTdTOis acopiaaLv ofiiXi]-

E CTetav /cat aurot Traaa? voaovg /ca/xoter /cat etev ixrj Ttdw vyieLvol cjjvaei. ov ydp, oi/Aat, crco/xart aoj^a

depaTTeuovGLV ov ydp dv avrd evexcopet /ca/cd etj^at TTore /cat yeveaOaf dXXa ipvxjj adjfxa,

fj ovk

iyXCop€i KaKTjV yevopLevqv re /cat ovaav ev tl

depanevcLv. ^OpOu)s, €cf)'r]. AiKaarrjs Se ye, o)

409 ^t'Ae, ^vxfl ^^XV^ dpx^i, fj OVK iyxojpei e'/c veas ev TTOV-qpalg i^vxalg Tedpa(f)9ai re /cat djjjLiXrjKevaL

/cat Trdvra dhiKr^pLara avrrjv rjhiKrjKvlav Ste^eAry-

Xvdevat, cjare o^ecog d<f>' avrrjs TeKfiaLpeaOat rd

TcJov dXXcov dSt/cr^/xara, otov Kara ad)p,a voaovs'

dAA' aTTetpov avrrjv /cat dKepatov Set KaKwv rj9cov veav ovaav yeyovevac, el /MeAAet KaXrj Kayadrj ovaa

Kpiveiv vyL(jJS rd St/cata. Sto §17 /cat evrjdeLs veoi

ovres ol eTnet/cet? (f)aLVovrai /cat eve^aTrdnqroi, vtto

B TtDv dSt/ccop', are ovk exovreg ev eavrols TrapaSely- /Ltara oixoLOTradrj tols TTovrjpoLs. Kat p.ev 8-q, e(f>r],

a(f>68pa ye avro irdaxovaLv. Toiydproi, •^v 8'

o Slight colloquial jest. Cf. Aristoph. Eq. 1158, Pax 1061. * Cf. Gorg. 465 c-u.

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who had treated the greatest number of healthy and diseased men, and so good judges would be those who had associated with all sorts and conditions of men." " Most assuredly I want them good," I said ; " but do you know whom I regard as such ? " "I'll know if you tell," " he said. " Well, I will try," said I. " You, however, have put unhke cases in one question." " How so ? " said he. " Physicians, it is true," I said, " would prove most skilled if, from childhood up, in addition to learning the principles

of the art they had famiharized themselves ^\-ith the greatest possible number of the most sickly bodies, and if they themselves had suffered all diseases and were not of very healthy constitution. For you see they do not treat the body by the body.* If they did, it would not be allowable for their bodies to be or to have been in e\il condition. But they treat the body with the mind—and it is not competent for a mind that is or has been e\il to treat anything well." " Right," he said. " But a judge, mark you, my friend, rules soul with soul and it is not allowable for a soul to have been bred from youth up among e\il souls and to have grown familiar with them, and itself to have run the gauntlet of every kind of wTong-doing and injustice so as quickly to infer from itself the misdeeds of others as it might diseases in the body, but it must have been inexperienced in evil natures and uncontaminated by them while young, if it is to be truly fair and good and judge soundly of justice. For which cause the better sort seem to be simple- minded in youth and are easily deceived by the wicked, since they do not have within themselves patterns answering to the affections of the bad." ' That is indeed their experience," he said. " There-

283

PLATO

eyc6, ov veov aXXa yepovra Set tov ayadov 8t/ca- arrjv elvat, oifjLjxadi] yeyovora rrjs aSi/ctas olov ecrriv ovk oiKeiav ev rfj avrov tpv)(fj evovaav

fja6r]fM€Vov, dAA' aXXorpiav iv dXXorptais /xe/xeAe-

TrfKora iv ttoXXw xpovco hiaKjOdveadai , olov 7Te(f)VK€

C KaKov, eTnarinp.rj , ovk efXTreipia ot/ceia Kexprjfievov. TcvvaLOTaros yovv, €(f)rj, golkcv elvai 6 toiovtos

SiKaar7]s. Kat dyaOos ye, rjv 8' iyco, o av rjpcoras' 6 yap exiov ipv^-qv dyadrjv dyaOos. 6 Se Setvo? CKelvos Kat Ka)(VTTonros, o ttoXXo. avros rjStKr^Kws

Kal navovpyos re /cat GO(f>6s OLO/xevos elvat, orav

fiev opLOLOLs 6p.t,Xf], Seivos (fiaLverai i^evXa^oufJievos,

npos rd iv avrco TrapaSeiyfiara dnoGKOTTaJv orav 8e dyadoXs /cat irpea^vrepoLS rjSr] TrXfjatdar)

,

D d^iXrepos av (jyaiverai, dmarcov rrapd Kaipov /cat dyvodjv vyLes rjdos, are ovk e^cov TrapdSeiyjJia rov TOiovTOV TrXeovaKis 8e TTOvrjpoZs y) ;^/37iCTTOtS' ivTvy- )(dvojv ao(f>ci)Tepos r] djxadiarepos hoKel elvai avrco

re Kal dXXocs. YlavrdTraoi fxev ovv, €(f)r], dXrjdrj.

XVII. Ov roLvvv, Tjv 8' iyci), roiovrov )(pr) rov SiKaarrjv t,rjrelv rov dyadov re /cat ao<j>6v, dXXd rov TTporepov. rrovrjpia fiev yap dper-qv re Kal avrrjv oviror dv yvolr], aperrj 8e (j)vaea)s naiSevo-

E ^levrjs XP'^^V ^H-*^ avrrjs Te Kal TTOvrjpLas imarT^- " o^j/LixaOrj : here in a favourable sense, but usually an un-

translatable Greek word for a type portrayed in a character of Theophrastus.

" For this type of character cf. Thucyd. iii. 83, and my comments in T.A.P.A. vol. xxiv. p. 79. Cf. Burke, Letter to the Sheriffs of Bristol: "They who raise suspicions on the good on account of the behaviour of ill men, are of the party of the latter ; " Stobaeus ii. p. 46 Bias i<fyri, ol dyadol eva-rrdTTiTot, Menander, fr. 84a Kock XP'?"''""^ '"'"P' eLvdpos fXT]5^V VTTOvbei KaKOV,

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fore it is," said I, " that the good judge must not be a youth but an old man, a late learner ^ of the nature of injustice, one who has not become aware of it as a property in his o-wn soul, but one who has through the long years trained himself to understand it as an aUen thing in alien souls, and to discern how great an e\il it is by the instrument of mere knowledge and not by experience of his own." " That at any rate," he said, " appears to be the noblest kind of judge." " And what is more, a good one," I said, " which was the gist of vour question. For he who has a good soul is good. But that cunning fellow quick to suspect e\i\,^ and who has himself done many unjust acts and who thinks himself a smart trickster, when he associates with his like does appear to be clever, being on his guard and fixing his eyes on the patterns within himself. But when the time comes for him to mingle with the good and his elders, then on the contrary he appears stupid. He is unseasonably distrustful and he cannot recognize a sound character because he has no such pattern in himself. But since he more often meets with the bad than the good, he seems to himself and to others to be rather wise than foolish." " That is quite true," he said. XVII. " Well then," said I, " such a one must not

be our ideal of the good and wise judge but the former. For while badness could never come to know both virtue and itself, native \irtue through education will at last acquire the science of both itself and badness.*^

* Cf. George Eliot, Adam Bede, chap. xiv. : " It is our habit to say that while the lower nature can never understand the higher, the higher nature commands a complete view of the lower. But I think the higher nature has to learn this comprehension by a good deal of hard experience."

285

PLATO

fiTjv \rnf}erai. ao(f)6s ovv ovtos, co? /xot So/cei, aAA

ovx 6 KaKos yiyverai. Kat e/xot, e^^, ^vvhoKeZ. OvKovv /cat larptK-qv, olav €L7to[X€v, /xera tt^s" TOiavTTjs St,KaaTi,K7Js Kara ttoXcv vofJioOerT^aeis, at rGiv ttoXltcov aoL rovs fi€v evcfjuelg ra cjcojuara /cat

410 TOLS ifjv)(as deparrevaovai, rovs Se ^Ltrj, oaoi /xev

/cara crcofia roiovroi, drrodv-qaKeiv edaovai, rovs

Be Kara rrjv ifjvx^v KaKocfivels /cat dvtdrovs aurot arroKrevovaiv ; To yovv dpiarov, €(f)T], avrols tc rots Trdaxovai /cat rfj ttoXci ovrco Tre^avrat. Ot 8e Srj veoL, rjv 8' eyct», 8'^Aoi' on, evXa^rjOOvrai aoi

SiKaartKTJs els xpetat' teVat, tt^ aTrXfj eKeivrj fxov-

acKrj )(^pa)fX€voL, rjv Srj ecjiafxev aco(f)poavvrjv iv-

riKreiv. Tt fnjv; ^'j^V' ^-^p' o^^' o^ Kara ravrd B t;)^i^7^ ravra 6 fiovatKos yvfivaarcK-qv Slcokwv, idv

ideXr], alp'jaeL, Mare jx'qSev larpiKrjs SelaOai 6 rt,

fXT] dvdyKrj; "E^otye So/cet. Avrd fxrjv ra yvfi- vdaia /cat rovs ttovovs Trpos ro 6vfioei,8es rrjs

<f)vaecos ^XeTTOJV KdKelvo eyeipa>v TTOvrjaei fxdXXov

^ TTpos loxvv, ovx djcT'^^P ol dXXoL ddXr]raL pcofirjs eVe/ca atria Kal ttovovs pLeraxeipi^ovrat. Op96- rara, rj 8' os. ^Ap' ovv, ^v 8' iyo), c5 TXavKcov,

°- Cf. Theaetet. 176 d " It is far best not to concede to the unjust that they are clever knaves, for they glory in the taunt." Cf. Unity of Vlato's Thought, n. 21.

'' Only the incurable suffer a purely exemplary and deterrent punishment in this world or the next. Cf. infra 615 E, Protag. 335 a, Gorg. 525 c, Phaedo 113 e.

" ultro, as opposed to ida-ovaiv. * Cf. 405 c. Plato always allows for the limitation of the

ideal by necessity. ' The welfare of the soul is always the prime object for

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This one, then, as I think, is the man who proves to be wise and not the bad man." " " And I concur," he said. " Then will you not establish bv law in your city such an art of medicine as we have described in conjunction with this kind of justice ? And these arts will care for the bodies and souls of such of your citizens as are truly well born, but of those who are not, such as are defective in body they will suffer to die and those who are e\il-natured and incurable ^ in soul they will themselves*^ put to death." " This certainly," he said, " has been shown to be the best thing for the sufferers themselves and for the state." " And so your youths," said I, " employ- ing that simple music which we said engendered sobriety will, it is clear, guard themselves against falhng into the need of the justice of the court-room." " Yes," he said. " And will not our musician, pur- suing the same trail in his use of gymnastics, if he please, get to have no need of medicine save when indispensable'*?" "I think so." "And even the exercises and toils of gymnastics he will undertake with a view to the spirited part of his nature * to arouse that rather than for mere strength, unhke ordinarv" athletes, who treat' diet and exercise only as a means to muscle." " Nothing could be truer," he said. " Then may we not say, Glaucon," said I,

Plato. (C/. 591 c.) But he cannot always delay to correct ordinary speech in this sense. The correction of 376 e here is of course not a change of opinion, and it is no more a criticism of Isocrates, Antld. 180-185, than it is of Gorgias 464 B, or Soph. 228 e, or Rep. 521 e.

f /xfTaxfipifoj'Tai : this reading of Galen is more idiomatic than the ms. MfTaxetptetrai. Where English says " he is not covetous of honour as other men are," Greek says " he (is) not as other men are covetous of honour."

287

PLATO

/cat ol KadiaTOLVTes fMovaiKjj /cat yvfjLvaariKfj

C TTaiSevetv ovx ov eveKoi rives oiovTai KaduaTdcnv, Iva rfj fiev to crcD/xa depaTrevoivro, rfj he. r-qv

ifivxriv; 'AAAo. ri yirjv; e<^f]- Ys^ivhwevovoLV , rjv

8' iycji), dfi(f)6Tepa rrjs ^vx^js eVe/ca to fxeyLcrrov

Kadiardvai. Ucos B-q; Ovk ivvoels, elirov, (hs hiaridevTai avrrjv ttjv Sidvoiav, ot dv yujjivaaTLKij

fxev 8id ^iov ofxiXijcrcDat, [xovacKrjs Se fJir] difjcovTai;

r) oaoL dv rovvavriov SiaredcbaLV ; TiVo? 8e, rj 8'

D OS, Trepi XeyeLs; 'AypLorrjTos re /cat aKXrjpoTTjTOS, /cat av fiaXaKuas re /cat rnjLeporrjros, rjv 8' iyco.

"Eycoye, ^4*1 > ^'^'' °^ 1^^^ yvjxvacmKfj aKpdrcp

Xpy)<ydp,evoi dypuvrepoi rov beovros dTTo^aivovaiv

,

ol 8e pLOvaiKfj fiaXaKwrepoi av ytyvovrat, rj cos /cctAAtoj/ avTOLS. Kai fnjv, fjv 8' eyco, to ye dypiov TO dufioethes dv rrjs (f>vae(x>s napexoLTO, /cat opdcbs

fxev rpa(f)€v dvSpeZov dv eurj, jxaXXov 8' eTnradev

rod Seovros OKXrjpov re /cat ;^aAe7roi' ytyt'otT' dv,

(hs ro et/cos". Ao/cet /xot, e^Tj. Tt Be; to r^fxepov E ovx V <l>i'X6ao(f)os dv exoi (fivais; /cat /jidXXov fiev

dvedevTOs avrov jxaXaKwrepov elrj rov Seovros,

KaXcbs Be rpatjievTOs rj/xepov re Kai koctjxlov; 'EaTt

ravra. Aelv Be ye (^apuev rovs (f>vXaKas dii(f)orepa

ex^i'V Tovrco rw (f)vaeL. Aet ydp. Ovkovv rjpjxo- a6aL Bel avrds Trpos dXXrjXas; Ilcjjs 8' ov; Kat Tou piev rjppioapevov aaxppcov re /cat dvBpeia r]

" Plato half seriously attributes his own purposes to the founders. Cf. 405-406 on medicine and Phlleb. 16 c on dialectics.

* For the thought cf. Eurip. Suppl. 882 f. and Polybius's account of the effect of the neglect of music on the Arcadians (iv. 20).

" Cf. supra 375 c. With Plato's doctrine of the two

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that those who established " an education in music and gymnastics had not the purpose in \iew that some attribute to them in so instituting, namely to treat the body by one and the soul by the other ?

"

" But what ? " he said. " It seems likely," I said, " that they ordained both chiefly for the soul's sake." " How so ? " " Have you not observed," said I, " the effect on the disposition of the mind itself" of lifelong devotion to gymnastics with total neglect of music ? Or the disposition of those of the opposite habit ? " " In what respect do you mean ? " he said. " In respect of savagery and hardness or, on the other hand, of softness and gentleness ? " "I have ob- served," he said," " that the devotees of unmitigated gymnastics turn out more brutal than they should be and those of music softer than is good for them." " And surely," said I, " this savagery is a quality derived from the high-spirited element in our nature, which, if rightly trained, becomes brave, but if over- strained, would naturally become hard and harsh." "

I think so," he said. " And again, is not the gentle- ness a quality which the philosophic nature would yield ? This if relaxed too far would be softer than is desirable but if rightly trained gentle and orderly ?

"

" That is so." " But our requirement, we say,<= is that the guardians should possess both natures." " It is." " And must they not be harmoniously adjusted to one another ? " " Of course." " And the soul of the man thus attuned is sober and brave ? "

temperaments c/. the distinction of quick-wits and hard- wits in Ascham's Schoolmaster. Ascham is thinking of Plato, for he says : " Galen saith much music marreth men's manners; and Plato hath a notable place of the same thing in his book De rep., well marked also and excellently translated by Tully himself."

VOL. I U 289

PLATO

411 iffvx'^; Ilai'y ye. Tou 8e avapixourov SetAi^ /cat aypoLKos ; Kat fxaXa. XVIII. Oi3/<:ow orav fxev tls fiovaiKfj rrapexj]

KaravXelv Kat Kara^elv rrjs 4*^X1^ ^'^ "^^^ (vtojv

ctJCTTrep 8ta x^^V^ ^^ ^^^ ^V VI^^^S iXeyojjiev rag yXvKeias re /cat /xaAa/cas" /cat Op-qvcoSeis appiovta?,

/cat piivvpit,cjL>v re Kal yeyaucopievos vtto t^? (hSijs

hiareXfj rov ^lov oXov, ovtos to fxev Trpojrov, ei

B Tt dvjJLoeLhes ^^X^^> <^cr7rep aihiqpov ifxaXa^e Kat XP'jcrt.fJiov €^ dxpy^f^TOV Kal aKXrjpov eTTOirjaev

orav S' eTTexcov p-rj dvirj aXXd KrjXfjy to /xera tovto T]8rj TrJK€L Kat Xei^ei, eois olv iKrr]^rj rov dvpuov Kat

CKrep^r] cjOTTep vevpa eK tt]? i/jvxfjs Kat TTOfqcrr)

piaXdaKov alxP'T^Tt^i' . Hdvv pikv ovv, €(f)r]. Kat idv pL€V ye, -qv S' eycv, e^ '^PXV^ <f>v(T€i. dOvpiov

Xd^Tj, raxv rovro SieTrpd^aro' idv Se OvpLoeihfi, daOevfj TTOLiqGas rov dvjxov o^vpporrov dTreipydaaro,

C 0.770 crpiiKpcbv raxv epe6i(^6p,ev6v re Kal Karaa^ev- vvp.evov. dKpdxoXoi ovv Kal opyiXoi dvrl 6vp,o-

eiSovs yeyevrjvrai, SuoKoAta? epLirXeoL. K-op-iSfj p.€v

ovv. Ti Se; dv av yvp^vacrnKji ttoAAo. TTOvfj Kal

evcoX'^Tai ei) pidXa, pLOvaiKrjs Se Kat (jiLXoao(f>Lag

pLTj drrrrjraL, ov TrpaJrov pikv ev laxojv ro adjpia

(/ipovTjfiaros re Kal 6vp,ov e/XTrtrrAarat Kat dvSpeio-

» Cf. 561 c. * Demetrius, Ilepl 'Ep/x. 51, quotes this and the following

sentence as an example of the more vivid expression following the less vivid. For the image cf. Blaydes on Aristoph. T/iesm. 18, Aeschyl. Choeph. 451, Shakespeare, Cymbeline ur. ii. 59 " Love's counsellor should fill the bores of hearing."

" Cf. 398 D-E, where the Oprji'wdeis ap/moviai are rejected altogether, while here they are used to illustrate the softening eifect of music on a hard temperament. It is misspent ingenuity to harp on such '* contradictions."

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" Certainly." " And that of the ill adjusted is cowardly and rude ? " "It surely is."

XV'III. " Now when a man abandons himself to music to play " upon him and pour ^ into his soul as it were through the funnel of his ears those sweet, soft, and dirge-like airs of which we were j ust now '^ speak- ing, and gives his entire time to the warblings and blandishments of song, the first result is that the principle of high spirit, if he had it, is softened like iron •* and is made useful instead of useless and brittle. But when he continues * the practice without remission and is spellbound, the effect begins to be that he melts and liquefies ^ till he completely dissolves away his spirit, cuts out as it were the very sinews of his soul and makes of himself a 'feeble warrior.'"" " Assuredly," he said. " And if," said I, " he has to begin with a spiritless ^ nature he reaches this result quickly, but if a high-spirited, by weakening the spirit he makes it unstable, quickly irritated by slight stimuli, and as quickly quelled. The outcome is that such men are choleric and irascible instead of high-spirited, and are peevish and discontented." " Precisely so." " On the other hand, if a man toils hard at gymnastics and eats right lustily and holds no truck with music and philosophy, does he not at first get very fit and full of pride and high spirit and

^ For images drawn from the tempering of metals cf. Aeschyl. Ag. 612 and Jebb on Soph. Ajax 650.

' Cf. Theaetet. 165 e (ir^x^" f*' <"^f <i'''f's, and Blaydes on Aristoph. Peace 1121.

^ Cf. Tennyson's "Molten down in mere uxoriousness

"

("Geraint and Enid "). » A familiar Homeric reminiscence (II. xvii. 588) quoted

also in Symp. 174 c. Cf. Froissart's " un mol chevalier." * Etymologically d^i^juoj «=" deficient in dv/xdi."

291

PLATO

repos yiyverai avros avrov; Kat fxdXa ye. Tt 8ai; €TT€i.Sav dXXo firjhev Trpdrrr] fir]S€ kolvcdvjj

D MoucTTj? iJL7]SaiJirj , ovK et ti Kal ivrji' avrov (f)iXo- jxaOes €V rfj iffvxf]> dire ovre ixad-^fiaTos yevofxevov

ovSevos ovre t,rjTy][xaTOS, ovre \6yov fj.€riaxov ovre rrfs dXXrjs fxovaiKTJs, dadeves re Kal KOi<f>6v Kal rv(f)X6v yiyverai, are ovk eyecpofxevov oi'Se rpe(j>6jxevov ovhe BiaKaBaLpofxevajv rcov alodr^aeajv

avrov; Ovrxvs, e^^- MiaoXoyog St], olfxai,, 6 roLOvros ytyverai /cat ajxovaos, Kal rreidol jxev Sta

Xoycov ovhev en XPV'''^'') ^^9- ^^ '^'^^ dypiorrjn ^ iLarrep dr^piov vpos rravra hiaiTpdrrerai, Kal ev

d/xa^ta Kal aKaiorrjri fxerd dppvdfMtas re Kal

dxo.pt(jriag ^fj. Havrdnaaiv, -^ 8' 6V, ovrcog €;^ei.

'Evrt St) Su' ovre rovrco, co? eoiKe, hvo rexva deov

eyoiy dv riva ^avi]v SeScoKevai, rot? dvdpconoLs,

fXovuLKrjv re /cat yv/xvaariK-qv eVt to dv[xoet,8e? Kal

ro (f)LX6ao(f)OV , ovk eirl i/jvxrjv Kal awfia, el /jltj el irdpepyov, dXX eir* eKeivoj, orrcDg dv dXXijXoLv

412 ^vvapjjLoadijrov eTrtretvo/zeVw /cat dvLefievco p-expi rov TTpoaiqKovros. Kat yap eoiKev, e^rj. Tov KdXXiar' dpa pLovaiKij yvjJLvaariKr]v Kepavvvvra Kal fxerpicjrara rfj ^vxfj rrpoaffiepovra, rovrov opdorar^

dv (^aZfxev elvat reXecos p,ovaiK(Jorarov /cat ev-

apfioarorarov, ttoXv p,dXXov 7] rov rds x^P^^^ dXXrjXai.s ^vvLardvra. Et/cdrca? y', ^<}>'^> <3 2cu-

" A hater of rational discussion, as explained in Laches 188 c, and the beautiful passage in the Pliaedo 89 d ff. Cf. Minucius Felix, Octavius 14. 6 " Igitur nobis providendum est ne odio identidem sermonum laboremus." John Morley describes obscurantists as " sombre hierophants of misology."

* For virtue as "music" cf. Pliaedo 61 a. Laches 188 d, and lago's "There is a daily music in his life." The

292

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become more brave and bold than he was ? " " He does indeed." " But what if he does nothing but this and has no contact with the Muse in any way, is not the result that even if there was some principle of the love of knowledge in his soul, since it tastes of no instruction nor of any inquiry and does not participate in any discussion or any other form of culture, it becomes feeble, deaf, and blind, because it is not aroused or fed nor are its perceptions purified and quickened ? " " That is so," he said. " And so such a man, I take it, becomes a misologist " and a stranger to the Muses. He no longer makes any use of persuasion by speech but achieves all his ends like a beast by violence and savagery, and in his brute ignorance and ineptitude lives a hfe of dis- harmony and gracelessness." " That is entirely true," he said. " For these two, then, it seems there are two arts which I would say some god gave to mankind, music and gymnastics for the service of the high-spirited principle and the love of knowledge in them—not for the soul and the body except incidentally, but for the harmonious adjustment of these two principles by the proper degree of tension and relaxation of each." " Yes, so it appears," he said. " Then he who best blends gymnastics \\ith music and appUes them most suitably to the soul is the man whom we should most rightly pronounce to be the most perfect and harmonious musician, far rather than the one who brings the strings into unison with one another.'' " " That seems likely,

** perfect musician " is the professor of the royal art of Politicus 306-308 fF. which harmonizes the two temperaments, not merely by education, but by eliminating extremes through judicious marriages.

293

PLATO

Kpares. Ovkovv /cat iv rfj TToAet r)[juv, c5 VXavKCov, Be-qaet rov roiovrov rivog del iTnardrov, el fxeXXet

B Jy TToAtreta ad}t,eadai; AcT^cret fievTOL (Ls otov re ye ndXiara. XIX. Ot fiev 817 rvTTot rijs 77ai8eta? re /cat

rpocprjs ovToi dv elev. p^op^tas' ydp tI dv ris Steftot Tcjjv rotovTOJV /cat drjpas re /cat Kvviqyeata

/cat yvpiVLKovs aycovas /cat Ittttlkovs ; ax'^^^^ Y^P Tt Si^Aa S')7 OTt TovroLs eTTOjxeva Set aura eii'at, /cat ovKeri xo-Xend evpeZv. "Icrajs", 17 S' o?, oj) ;)(aAe7ra.

Etei', 7^1/ 8' eyco* to hrj puerd tovto ti dv rjplv

Siaipereov e'irj; dp* ovk avrcbv tovtojv otrives C dp^ovai re /cat dp^ovrai; Tt /xt^i/; "Ort juei/

TTpea^vrepovg rovs dpxovras 8et eti^at, vecorepovs 8e Toys' dpxofievovs, SrjXov; ArjXov. Kat ort ye Touj apiarovs avrdJv; Kat tovto. Ot Se yecopycov dpiaroi dp ov yecopyiKoyraTOL yiyuovTat; Nat. Nw 8', eTTeihrj ^uAa/ccov auTou? dpioTOVs Set etvai, ap' 01) (f)vXaKLKOjTdTOVs TToXeojs; Nat. Oj3/cow

(f)povLpLovs Te et? tovto Set virdpX'^i'V /cat Svt'aToi'S'

D /cat ert KrjSep^ovas ttjs TToXecos; "Eart raura. K?j8otTO Se' y av rt? p,dXiara tovtov o Tvyxdvot. (/)iXdJv. ^AvdyKT]. Kat /LtT^j/ tovto y' av pidXcaTa <J>lXoI, (L ^vpb(f)epeLv rjyoiTO tu avrd /cat eavTO) /cat

" This "epistates" is not the director of education of Laws 765 d ff., though of course he or it will control educa- tion. It is rather an anticipation of the philosophic rulers, as appears from 497 c-n. and corresponds to the nocturnal council of Laws 950 b ff. Cf. Unity of Plato's Thouglit, p. 86, note 650.

* ydp explains tvwoi, or outlines. Both in the Republic and the Laws Plato frequently states that many details must be left to subsequent legislation. Cf. Rep. 379 a, 400 b-c.

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK III

Socrates," he said. " And shall we not also need hi our city, Glaucon, a permanent overseer *" of this kind if its constitution is to be preserved ? " " We most certainly shall." XIX. " Such would be the outhnes of their educa-

tion and breeding. For why * should one recite the h'st of the dances of such citizens, their hunts and chases with hounds, their athletic contests and races ? It is pretty plain that they must conform to these principles and there is no longer any difficulty in discovering them." " There is, it may be, no difficulty," he said. "Very well," said I; "what, then, have we next to determine ? Is it not which ones among them ' shall be the rulers and the ruled ?

"

" Certainly." " That the rulers must be the elder and the ruled the younger is obvious." " It is." " And that the rulers must be their best ? " " This too." " And do not the best of the farmers prove the best farmers ? " " Yes." " And in this case, since we want them to be the best of the guardians, must they not be the best guardians, the most regardful of the state ? " " Yes." " They must then to begin with be intelligent in such matters and capable, and furthermore careful ** of the interests of the state ? " " That is so." " But one would be most likely to be careful of that which he loved." " Necessarily." " And again, one would be most likely to love that whose interests he supposed to

403 i>-E, 425 A-E, Laws 770 b, 772 a-b, 785 a, 788 a-b, 807 E, 828 B, 846 c, 855 d, 876 d-e, 957 a, 968 c.

" aiTtZ'v ToiTwv marks a class within a class. Cf. Class. Phil. vol. vii. (1912) p. 485. 5S5 a refers back to this passage.

* The argument proceeds by minute links. Cf. supra on 338 D.

295

PLATO

[oTav juaAiCTTa]^ eKeivov jxev ev TTpdrrovros ololto

^V[.i^aLV€LV Kal eavTcv ev TTpdrreiv, jxt] he, rovvav-

Tiov. Ovrcos, €(f>7].

'E/cAe/CTeop' ap' ck tcjv dXXojv

(fivXciKcov TOLovTovs dvSpag, ot dv OKorrovaiv rjiMV

pidXiara (f>aiv(x)VTaL irapd Trdvra top ^iov, o jiev

E av Tjj TToXei rjyrjaoiVTaL ^vptjiepeiv, Trdar] TrpoOvpua TTOieiv, o 8' dv p-q, p-qhevl rpoTTOj Trpd^ai dv edeXeiv.

'ETTtTTySetot ydp, e(f)rj. AoKel Srj p,oi rr)pr]Teov

avTovs etvai ev ctTrctaais" rats' T^Ai/ctatS", el (f)vXaKi,KOi

eLai rovrov rod hoyp^arog /cat p^rjTe yoiqTevopLevoi

pLTire ^Lat,6pLevoi. eK^dXXovaiv eTnXavdavopLevoi

86^av TTjv Tov TTOietv Selv, d rfj TroAet ^eXriara.

TtVa, e^Tj, XeyeLS, ttjv eK^oXr]v ; 'Eyoj croi, e(f}r]Vy

ipdj. (jiaiverai poi ho^a efteVat e/c Stav'otas" t]

413 CKovalcvs T] aKovaicos, eKovaiios pev t) ifjevSrjg rod

p,erap,av6dvovTos , aKovaLcos 8e Trdua tj dXrjdrjs-

To pev rrjs eKovaiov, ecfi-q, p,avddvo), to Se Trjg aKovalov 8eo/xat puadeZv. Tt Sat; ov Kat av y]yel,

e(f)rjv eycx), twv pcev dyaddjv aKovuiaJS crrepeadai Toijs dvdpcoTTOvs, Twv 8e KaKoJv eKovGLOJs ; y] ov TO pev ei/jevadaL ttjs dXrjdetas KaKov, to 8e

dXrjdeveLV dyaOov; rj ov to ra orra So^a^eiv

dXrjdeveLV 8o/cet aot etvai; 'AAA', 77 8' o?, opda>s

Xeyets, Kat p,oi Sokovolv aKOVTes dXrjdovs ho^rjs

aTepiOKeadai. Ovkovv /cAaTreWe? r} yorjTevdevTes rj fiiaadevTes tovto Trdaxovaiv ; OuSe vvv, e(f)rj, pavOdvo). TpayLKcog, rjv 8' eyo), KLvSvvevoj Xeyeiv.

^ Bracketed by Hermann.

" Cf. Crito 46 b, Xen. Mem. iii. 12. 7. * Cf. on 382 A and Sophist. 228 c, Marcus Aurelius vii. 63. " The preceding metaphors are in the high-flown, obscure

style of tragedy. Cf. Thompson on Meno 76 e, Cratyl. 418 b, Aristoph. Frogs, passim, Wilamowitz, Platan, ii. p. 146.

296

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK III

coincide •with his own, and thought that when it prospered he too would prosper and if not, the contrar}'." "So it is," he said. " Then we must pick out from the other guardians such men as to our observation appear most inchned through the entire course of their Hves to be zealous to do what they think for the interest of the state, and who would be least likely to consent to do the opposite." " That would be a suitable choice," he said. " I think, then, we shall have to observe them at every period of life, to see if they are conservators and guardians of this conviction in their minds and never by sorcery nor by force can be brought to expel " from their souls unawares this conviction that they must do what is best for the state." " What do you mean by the ' expelling ' ? " he said. " I will tell you, said I ; "it seems to me that the exit of a belief from the mind is either voluntary or involuntary, ^"olun- tary is the departure of the false belief from one who learns better, involuntary that of every true belief." " The voluntary," he said, " I understand, but I need instruction about the involuntar}-." " How now," said I, " don't you agree with me in thinking that men are unwillingly deprived of good things but willingly of e\il ? Or is it not an evil to be deceived in respect of the truth and a good to possess truth ? And don't you think that to opine the things that are is to possess the truth ? " " Why, yes," said he, " you are right, and I agree that men are unwilhngly deprived of true opinions.'' " " And doesn't this happen to them by theft, by the spells of sorcery or by force ? " "I don't understand now either," he said. " I must be talking in high tragic style,'' " I said ; " by

297

PLATO

B KXarrevTas fxev yap rovg jxeraTreiadevras Xlyoi koi Tovs €7nXaudavoix€vovs, on ra)v fiev )(p6vo5, T(ji)v Se Xoyos e^atpovfievos Xavddv€i. vvv yap ttov

pLavSaveig ; Nat. Tovg roivvv ^laadevras Xeyoj

ovs av ohvvT] Tis 1) aXyri^wv ixeraho^daai TTOt-qar).

Kat TOVT , €(f)r], €[jLa6ov, Kal opdcos Xeyeis. Tovs C iJir}v yoTjreudevTas, o)s iyiofxai, Koiv cri) (f)acr)s elvai

OL av pLeraho^dacoaiv rj v(f>' rj8ovfjs KrjXrjdevTes ^ VTTO (f)6^ov Tt Seiaavres. "Eoi/ce ydp, ^ 8' os, yor]T€V€i,v Trdvra ooa aTrara.

XX. "0 roivvv dpri eXeyov, tpq-r^riov, rives dptaroi (f>vXaK€s rov irap avrols 86yp,aros, rovro

<1)S 7TOir]T€ov, o dv rfj ttoXci del SoKcoai ^eXriarov

etvai airovs TTOietv. rrjprjTeov 8rj evdvs ^k -naihcov,

7Tpo6€jj,€voL£ €pya, €v ols dv TLs TO TOLovTov jidXiaTa

eTTiXavOdvoiTO Kal e^aTrarcoro, /cat tov fxev pLvq-

D jxova Kal Svae^aTrdTTjTov iyKptreov, rov Se firj diTOKpireov. rj ydp; Nat. Kat ttovovs ye av Kat

dXyqSovas Kal dycovas avrols dereov, ev ols ravrd

ravra riqprireov. ^Opdcos, e^^. Ovkovv, -^v 8'

eyo), Kal rplrov eihovs rovrocs yorjrecas dfjciXXav

TTOLYjreov, Kal deareov, wairep rovs ttcoXovs eirl

rovs i/j6(^ovs re Kal dopv^ovs dyovres aKOTTOvaiv

el (f)o^epoi, ovro) veovs ovras elg Set/Ltar' arra E KOfiiareov Kal els rjSovds av fjLera^Xrjreov, ^a-

aavit,ovras ttoXv fjbd?^ov t] xP^^°^ ^^ irvpi, el

hvayorirevros Kal evaxTJp-iov ev Trdai ^atVerat,

" Cf. Dionysius 6 fieTadefiefos, who went over from the Stoics to the Cyrenaics because of pain in his eyes, Diog. Laert. vii. 166.

* Cf. 584 A ymjrela.

298

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK III

those who have their opinions stolen from them I mean those who are over-persuaded and those who forget, because in the one case time, in the other argument strips them unawares of their beliefs. Now I presume you understand, do you not ? " " Yes." " Well then, by those who are constrained or forced I mean those whom some pain or suffering compels " to change their minds." " That too I understand and you are right." " And the \ictims of sorcery ^ I am sure you too would say are they who alter their opinions under the spell of pleasure or terrified by some fear." "Yes," he said: "everything that deceives appears to cast a spell upon the mind." XX. "Well then, as I was just saying, we must

lookforthose who are the best guardians of the indwell- ing conviction that what they have to do is what they at any time beUeve to be best for the state. Then we must observe them from childhood up and propose for them tasks in which one would be most likely to forget this principle or be deceived, and he whose memory is sure and who cannot be beguiled we must accept and the other kind we must cross off from our list. Is not that so ? " " Yes." " And again we must subject them to toils and pains and com- petitions in which we have to watch for the same traits." " Right," he said. " Then," said I, " must we not institute a third kind of competitive test with regard to sorcery and observe them in that .'' Just as men conduct colts to noises and uproar to see if they are Uable to take fright, so we must bring these lads while young into fears and again pass them into pleasures, testing them much more carefully than men do gold in the fire, to see if the man remains immune to such witchcraft and preserves his com-

299

PLATO

^vXa^ avrov cov dyadog /cat fjiovGLKrjg '^s ifidv-

davev, evpvdfjLov re /cat evdpfJLoarov iavrov iv

TTctat rovTOLs TTapex^ov, otos 81] dv cov /cat eavrcp

/cat TToAet )(^prjaijjia)Taros etr]. /cat tov del ev re

TratcTt /cat veavioKois /cat ei^ avSpacn jSaaa-

il4 vil^ofievov /cat dKiqparov eK^aivovra Karaarareov

dp)(ovTa TTJs TToXeoJs /cat cf)v\aKa, /cat Tip,ds horiov

/cat ^cDrrt /cat TcAeyrT^CTavrt, rd<j)0)v re /cat roiv'

aAAojp' pii'r]fM€LOJV fxeyLara yepa Xayxdvovra- tov Se

jLtT^ TOLOVTOV d7TOKpiT€OV. TOiaVTTj Tt?, "^V" 8' Cydj,

So/cet /i.ot, c5 rAau/C6t»v, tj eKXoyq etvaL Kai Kara-

araais tcov dp-^6vrcx}v re /cat <f)uXaKajVy to? ev

rvTTtp, fXTj St' d/cpt^eta?, elprjadac. Kat e//,ot, 7^ 8* oj, ovTCo TTTj ^atVerat. ^Ap' ow co? dX'qOcos

B opdorarov KaXelv tovtovs fiev ^uAa/ca? TravTeAet?

Tcav' re e^codev TToXejiioiV rcov re et'TO? (juXtoiv,

07TC0S ol fxev fjirj ^ovX^aovrai, ol 8e /ai^ Svvr^aovrai,

KaKovpyelv , roug 8e veovg, ous vvv Srj ^uAa/ca?

eKaXovpLev, eTTLKoupovs re /cat ^oiqdovs rot? tcoj'

dpxovTcov SoypaoLV ; "Kpotye 80/cet, e^^].

XXI. Ti? ai' ow 'qplu, rjv 8' e'yti, I^IX^^ yevoLTO Tojv ipevScov rdjv iv Seovri yiyvopevcov, (hv

C St) vvv iXeyopLev, yevvalov rt ei^ ipevBopievovs Treiaat

fidXiara fxev /cat avrovs rovs dp^ovras, ei 8e /xt^,

riyt' dXXrjv TToXiv; Ilolov rt; e<^>]. Mt^Sgv /catt'di',

" The concept fiTjxavv or ingenious device employed by a superior intelligence to circumvent necessity or play provi-

300

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK III

posure throughout, a good guardian of himself and the culture which he has received, maintaining the true rhythm and harmony of his being in all those conditions, and the character that would make him most useful to himself and to the state. And he who as boy, lad, and man endures the test and issues from it unspoiled we must establish as ruler over our city and its guardian, and bestow rewards upon him in hfe, and in death the allotment of the supreme honours of burial-rites and other memorials. But the man of the other t}-pe we must reject. Such," said I, " appears to me, Glaucon, the general notion of our selection and appointment of rulers and guardians as sketched in outline, but not dra>\-n out in detail." " I too," he said, " think much the same." " Then would it not truly be most proper to designate these as guardians in the full sense of the word, watchers against foemen \\ithout and friends >nthin, so that the latter shall not wish and the former shall not be able to work harm, but to name those youths whom we were calling guardians just now, helpers and aids for the decrees of the rulers ?

"

" I think so," he repHed. XXI. " How, then," said I, " might we contrive"

one of those opportune falsehoods ^ of which we were just now '^ speaking, so as by one noble he to persuade if possible the rulers themselves, but faiHng that the rest of the city ? " " What kind of a fiction do you mean } " said he. " Nothing unprecedented," said

dence with the vulgar holds a prominent place in Plato's physics, and is for Rousseau -minded readers one of the dangerous features of his political and educational philosophy. C/. infra 415 c, Laws 664 a, 752 c, 769 e, 798 b, 640 b.

» C/. 389 B. « 389 B f,

301

PLATO

"qv 8' iyw, dXXa Q^oivlklkov ti, nporepov fiev TJSrj 7ToXXa)(ov yeyovo?, (Ls cf>aaLV ol 7TOir]Tal /cat

TTeTTCLKaaiv, icj)^ rnjichv 8e ov yeyovos oi58' oi8a et

yevopievov av, TreZaaL 8e avxvijg TreiOovg. 'Q,s

eoLKas, €(f)r], okvovvtl Xiyeiv. Ao^co Se aoi, -qv 8'

iyo), Kal /xaA' et/coTCo? OKvelv, iireihav etTTo;.

D Ae'y'j ^4'!' '^^' A'-''? (f'^^ov. Acyoj 817- Kairoi ovk olha OTTola rdA/xrj r^ ttoLols XoyoLs p^pcu/xevos' e/aco*

/cat iTTLxetp'qcrco Trpcorov fiev avroiis rovs dpxovTas TTetdeiv /cat rovg arpariwras, erreira 8e /cat tt^;^

ciAAtji' TToAtP', COS" dp d 'qfielg avrovs €Tp€.<j>oix€v re /cat iTTaihevo/xcv, djairep oveipara iSoKovv ravra Trdvra Trdax^iv re /cat ytyveadat Trepl avrovs,

^aav Se rore rfj dXi^Oeia vtto yrfs ivrds TrXaTTOfievoi /cat Tpecfjofxevoi Kai avrol /cat ret

E OTzAa avrwv /cat t^ ciAAtj aKevrj S-qpaovpyovp.ei'r]

,

eTTeiBr] Se TxapreAais- e^etpyaa/xeVot rjaav, d)s r)

yfj avTOVS jjL-qriqp ovaa dvrJKe, /cat vuv 8et co?

" As was the Cadmus legend of the men who sprang from the dragon's teeth, which the Greeks believed ovrwi aTrldavov dv. Laws 663 e. Pater, who translates the passage {Plato and Plafonism, p. 223), fancifully suggests that it is a " miners' story." Others read into it an allusion to Egyptian castes. The proverb xpevcfxa '^olviklkov (Strabo 259 b) probably goes back to the Phoenician tales of the Odyssey.

" Plato never attempts a Voltairian polemic against the general faith in the supernatural, which he is willing to utilize for ethical ends, but he never himself affirms " le surnaturel particulier."

« Kai fjidX' here as often adds a touch of humorous col- loquial emphasis, which our conception of the dignity of Plato does not allow a translator to reproduce.

<* Perhaps " that so it is that " would be better. ti)s apa as

302

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I, " but a sort of Phoenician tale," something that has happened ere now in many parts of the world, as the poets aver and have induced men to believe, but that has not happened and perhaps would not be likely to happen in our day * and demanding no little persuasion to make it believable." " You act like one who shrinks from telling his thought," he said. " You will think that I have right good reason '^ for shrinking when I have told," I said " Say on," said he, " and don't be afraid." " Very well, I will. And yet I hardly know how to find the audacity or the words to speak and undertake to persuade first the rulers themselves and the soldiers and then the rest of the city, that in good sooth ** all our training and educat- ing of them were things that they imagined and that happened to them as it were in a dream ; but that in reality at that time they were down within the earth being moulded and fostered themselves while their weapons and the rest of their equipment were being fashioned. And when they were quite finished the earth as being their mother * delivered them, and now as if their land were their mother and their nurse

often disclaims responsibility for the tale. Plato's fancy of men reared beneath the earth is the basis of Bulwer-Lytton's Utopia, The Coming Race, as his use of the ring of Gyges (3o9 D-360 b) is of H. G. Wells' Invisible Man.

' The symbolism expresses the Athenian boast of auto- chthony and Plato's patriotic application of it, Menex. 237 e- 238 A. Cf. Burgess, " Epideictic Literature," University of Chigago Studies in Classical Philology, vol. iii. pp. 153- 154; Tim. 24 c-D, Aeschyl. Septem 17. Lucretius ii. 641 f., and Swinburne, " Erechtheus " :

All races but one are as aliens engrafted or sown. Strange children and changelings, but we, O our mother,

thine own.

303

PLATO

rrepl fxrjTpos Kal rpo(f)ov ttj? x^P^^ ^^ fl ^'^"^ ^ov-

XeveaOaL re Kal dfxvveLV avrovg, idv tis eV avrrjv trj, Kal v-rrep rcov dXXcov ttoXitcov oj? aSeA^ojt'

ovtcjov Kal yrjyevojv SiavoeLadai. Ovk irog, €(f)rj, ndXat fia')(vvov to ipevBos XeyeLv. Ildvv, ^v 8'

415 €y(x}, etKOTcos' dAA' opccos aKove Kal to Xolttov tov

fivdov. iare fxev yap Srj rravTCS ol iv rfj rroXei

aSeA^oi, (hs <f>rj(ToiJ,€v irpog avTOVs fivOoXoyovvres,

aAA' d Oeos TrXdrrajv, oaoi fxev vjxchv iKavol apx^iv,

Xpvaov €V rfj yeveaet ^vvepn^ev avrols, Std rifiicoTa-

Toi elatv oaoi 8' eTTLKovpoL, dpyvpov aihy]pov 8e

/cat ^^oXkov rols t€ yecopyolg Kal roils aAAot?

Sr]p,Lovpyolg. are ovv ^vyyevets ovreg vdures to

fxev TToXv o/JiOLOvs dv vplv avrotg yevvcpre, eari

B 8' ore CK ;^puCTOi; yevv-qdetrj dv dpyvpovv Kal e^ dpyvpov xpvaovv eKyovov /cat rdXXa Trdvra ovrcos

€^ dAAi^Ao;!^. roXg ovv dp^ovai Kal Trpwrov Kal jxd-

Xiara napayyeXXet o deos, ottcos fi-qSevos ovrat

(f)vXaK€s dyaOol eaovrat, ^178' ovrco a(f>6Spa

<f)vXd^ovcrL firjSev cu? rovs eKyovovs, 6 rt, avrolg

" OVK fris is comic. Cf. 568 a, and Blaydes on Aristoph. Acharn. 411.

* Cf. 468 E, 547 A, and "already" Cratyl. 394 d, 398 a. Hesiod's four metals. Works and Days 109-201, symbolize four successive oges. Plato's myth cannot of course be interpreted literally or made to express the whole of his apparently undemocratic theory, of which the biologist Huxlej' in his essay on Administrative Nihilism sa}'S: " The lapse of more than 2000 years has not weakened the force of these wise words."

304

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK III

they ought to take thought for her and defend her against any attack and regard the other citizens as their brothers and children of the self-same earth." " It is not for nothing," " he said, " that you were so bashful about coming out with your he." "It was quite natural that I should be," I said ; " but all the same hear the rest of the story. While all of you in the city are brothers, we «ill say in our tale, yet God in fashioning those of you who are fitted to hold rule mingled gold in their generation,* for which reason they are the most precious—but in the helpers silver, and iron and brass in the farmers and other craftsmen. And as you are all akin, though for the most part you will breed after your kinds, "^ it may sometimes happen that a golden father would beget a silver son and that a golden offspring would come from a silver sire and that the rest would in hke manner be born of one another. So that the first and chief injunction that the god lays upon the rulers is that of nothing else ** are they to be such careful guardians and so intently observant as of the intermixture of these

* The four classes are not castes, but are species which will generally breed true. Cf. Cratyl. 393 b, 39 1 a.

** The phrasing of this injunction recalls Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice, in fine :

I'll fear no other thing So sore as keeping safe Xerissa's ring.

The securing of disinterested capacity in the rulers is the pons asinorum of political theory. Plato constructs his whole state for this end. Cf. Introd. p. xv. Aristotle, Pol. 1262 b 27, raises the obvious objection that the transference from class to class will not be an easy matter. But Plato here and in 423 d-e is merely stating emphatically the postulates of an ideal state. He admits that even if estab- lished it will some time break down, and that the causes of its failure will lie beyond human ken, and can only be expressed in symbol. See on 5i6-547.

VOL. I X 305

PLATO

TOVTOiv €v rais ifivxcus vapaixeixiKTat,, Kal idv re

acfjerepog eK-yovos VTroxa^Kos rj VTroaiS-qpos yevrjrai,

C /JirjSevl rpoTTCo KareXerjaovaiv, aAAo. rr^v rfj cjivaei TTpooTjKovaav Tipirjv aTToSovres a)aovai,v els hripnovp-

yovs ^ els yecjpyovs, Kal av av e/c tovtcov tls VTToxpvaos 7] vrrdpyvpos (f>vj], TtpLT^aavres dvd^ovai

Tovs piev els <f>vXaKiqv, rovs Se els eTTiKovpiav, ws XpT^crpiov ovros Tore t7]v ttoXlv SLa(f)6aprjvai, orav

avTT]v o aihiqpos rj 6 )(aXK6s (f)vXd^rj. tovtov ovv

Tov pLvdov oTTCvs dv TTeiadeXev, ex^ts nvd pir)xo.vrjv; D OvSapicos, e^^, OTTOJS y' dv avrol ovrof ottcos

fievr' dv oi tovtcov vlels Kal ol eTreira 61 t' aAAoi

avdpcoTTOi ol varepov. 'AAAo, /cat touto, -^v S'

eyo), ev dv e^oi Trpds rd p,dXXov avrovs rrjs TToXecos

re Kal d?^XrjXa)v KiqheaOai' axe^dv ydp tl piavdavco o Xeyets. XXII. /cat rovro p,ev hrj e^ei ottj] dv avTo Tj ^rjpi'r] dydyrj.

Hyucts- 8e Tovrovs rovs yqyevels oTrXiaavres

TTpodycxipiev 'qyovpcevcov tojv dpxdvTcov. eXOov-

res 8e deaadaOcDV rrjs TToXecos ottov KdXXiarov E arparoTTehevaaaOai, ddev rovs re evSov pidXtar'

av Kare^oiev, el ns p-rj eOeXot rdls vopiois Tret- deadai, rovs re e^codev dnapivvotev , el TToXepnos

cjOTTep XvKos eirl rroLpivrjv ns tot, arparoTrehev-

" The summary in Tim. 19 a varies somewhat from this. Plato does not stress the details. Cf. Introd. p. viii.

*" Plato's oracle aptly copies the ambiguity of the bronze men's answer to Psammctik (Herod, ii. 152), and admits of both a moral and a literal physical interpretation, like the "lame reign " against which Sparta was warned. Cf. Xen. Hellenica iii. 3. 3.

" Plato repeats the thought that since the mass of men

806

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metals in the souls of their oflPspring, and if sons are born to them ^\•ith an infusion of brass or iron they shall by no means give way to pity in their treatment of them, but shall assign to each the status due to his nature and thrust them out " among the artizans or the farmers. And again, if from these there is born a son with unexpected gold or silver in his com- position they shall honour such and bid them go up higher, some to the office of guardian, some to the assistanceship, alleging that tliere is an oracle * that the state shall then be overthrown when the man of iron or brass is its guardian. Do you see any way of getting them to believe this tale ? " " No, not these themselves," he said, " but I do, their sons and successors and the rest of mankind who come after. '^

"

" Well," said I, " even that Mould have a good effect in making them more inclined to care for the state and one another. For I think I apprehend your meaning. XXII. And this shall fall out as tradition '^ guides."

" But let us arm these sons of earth and conduct them under the leadership of their rulers. And when they have arrived they must look out for the fairest site in the city for their encampment,* a position from which they could best hold down rebellion against the laws from within and repel aggression from with- out as of a wolf against the fold. And after they

can be brought to believe anything by repetition, myths framed for edification are a useful instrument of education and government. Cf. Laws 663 e-664 a.

* 0T7/XV7, not any particular oracular utterance, but popular belief from mouth to mouth.

• The Platonic guardians, like the ruling class at Sparta, "Will live the life of a camp. Cf. Laws 666 e, Isoc. Archedamus.

307

PLATO

adfxevoi 8e, Bvaavres ols XPV' ^^^^S TTotrjad-

adcov ri TTOJs; Ovrcos, '^(f>l- Ovkovv roiavras, oias xeifxojvo's re areyeiv koL depovs LKavdg elvai;

Ucos yap ov^i; OLKiqaeL? y^Ry ^4'V> ^OKclg fxoi Xeyeiv. Nat, rju 8' eyoj, OTpaTLOJTtKds ye, aAA'

416 ov ;^/3i7/zaTto-Tt/cas'. Tlcos, e(j>T], av rovro Xeyeis oiacfiepetv €K€lvov; 'Eyco aoi, ^v 8' iyco, Treipd- aojxai eiTTelv. Seivorarov yap ttov Trdvrcov /cat aLa)(LaTov Trotyuecrt tolovtovs ye /cat ovtoj rpecfyetv

Kvvas CTTLKoupovg TTOLpiviwv , a)aT€ VTTO aKoXaaias

7] XtpLOV Tj TLVos a'AAou KaKov edovs avrovs rovs Kvvas eTTixeLpijaai rot? irpo^droLs KaKovpyelv /cat av'Tt Kvviov XvKoig oixotcDdrjvat. Aeivov, rj 8' os"

B TTws 8' ov; Ovkovv (/)vXaKT€ov Travrl rpoTTCp, fir] roLovrov rjplv ol eTTtKovpoi TTOLrjacoat npog rov^ TToXlTaS, €7T€LSrj aVTcbv KpCLTTOVS etCTtV, dvTt

^Vfifjidxcov evfievcov SeaTToraig dyplois d(f>ofjioico-

dcoaiv; OyAa/CTe'ov, €^17. Ovkovv ttjv fxeyiaTTjv Trjs euAa^eta? Tra^peaKevaajxevoL av elev, et rep

ovTi KaXcog 7Te7rat8eu/x€Vot elaiv; 'AAAa fx'r]v etat y', e<f)rj. /cat eyojy^^ eiTTOv, Tovto fiev ovk d^iov huG-)(vpill^ea9aL, w 0iAe VXavKcov o fievTOL dpri

C iXeyojxev, d^cov, on Set avrov? rrjs opOrjs rvx^lv 7rat8eta?, tJtls 7tot€ eariv, et jLte'AAouat to //.e'yt-

OTOv e^etv TTpog ro rjfxepoL etvat avTolg re /cat rot?

^ Burnet and Adam read iydi.

" Partly from caution, partly from genuine religious feeling, Plato leaves all details of the cult to Delphi.

Cf. 427 B. " For the limiting ye cf. 430 c. " Aristotle's objection {Pol. 1264 a 24) that the Platonic

state will break up into two hostile camps, is plagiarized in expression from Plato's similar censure of existing Greek cities (422 e) and assumes that the enforced disinterestedness,

308

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK III

have encamped and sacrificed to the proper gods" they must make their lairs, must they not ?

"

" Yes," he said. " And these must be of a character to keep out the cold in winter and be sufficient in summer ? " " Of course. For I presume you are speaking of their houses." " Yes," said I, " the

houses of soldiers'* not of money-makers." " What distinction do you intend by that ? " he said. " I Mill try to tell you," I said. " It is surely the

most monstrous and shameful thing in the world for shepherds to breed the dogs who are to help them with their flocks in such wise and of such a nature that from indisciphne or hunger or some other e\il condition the dogs themselves shall attack the sheep and injure them and be likened to wolves "^ instead of dogs." " A terrible thing, indeed," he said. Must we not then guard by every means in our

power against our helpers treating the citizens in any such way and, because they are the stronger, converting themselves from benign assistants into savage masters ? " " We must," he said. " And would they not have been pro\ided with the chief safeguard if their education has really been a good one ? " " But it surely has," he said. " That," said I, " dear Glaucon, we may not properly affirm,** but what we were just now saying we may, that they must have the right education, whatever it is, if they are to have what will do most to make them gentle

the higher education, and other precautions of the Platonic Republic will not suffice to conjure away the danger to which Plato first calls attention.

** This is not so much a reservation in reference to the higher education as a characteristic refusal of Plato to dogmatize. Cf. Meno 86 B and my paper " Recent Platonism in England," AJ,P. vol. ix. pp. 7-8.

309

PLATO

<f>v\aTTOix4voLS vrr* avrayv. Kai 6p6a>s ye, rj 8'

OS". ITpos' roivvv rfj TxaiSeia Tavrrj <f)alr] av ns vovv €Xit)v Seiv Kal ras" oiKT^aeis Kal ttjv dXXiqv

ovatav TOiavTTjv avrolg TrapacrKevdaaadai, 17x15'

fir^re rovs (f)vXaKas cog apiarovs elvai Travuot

avTOVs, KaKovpyeZv re [mt] inapol Ttepl rovs aAAou?

D TToXtras. Kat dXrjdoj? ye ^i^cret. "Opa §7^, eiTTOV eyo), €1 TotdvSe rivd rponov Sei avTovs Cjj^ '^^ '^^^ OLKelv, €1 fieXXovai roiovrot eaeadai' irpcoTOV fiev

ovatav KeKrrjpLevov pirjhep.iav fxrjheva IStav, av jjlt]

irdaa dvdyKrj- eTreira OLKrjaiv Kal rafxielov fxrjhevl

€Lvai jjiT^Sev TOLOUTOV, els o ov TTas 6 ^ovXoixevos

eluetaf rd 8' evrtTT^Seta, oacov Beovrai dv8peg ddXr]Tal TToXefiov adxfypoves re koI dvSpeZot,,

E ra^afievovs napd rojv dXXojv ttoXltcov he^eadai fxiadov TTJs cfivXaKrjs roaovrov, oaov puryre Trepielvai

avTolg els rdv eviavrov p.T]Te evSelv (f>oira)vras 8e

els ^vaoLTia coarrep eaTparo-nehevp^evovs kolvtj

l,fjv )(pvaLOV 8e Kal dpyvpiov elirelv avrots on deZov Trapd decov del ev rfj i/jv^fj exovoL Kal ovoev

TTpoaSeovrat rod dvOpajTrelou, oi)Se ocrta rrjv e/cet-

vov Krrjaiv rfj rod dvqrov xpvaoC Krrjaei gvp.-

payvvvras pnaiveLV, Siori TToXXd Kal avoaia Trepi ro

417 rdjv TToXXdJv vopiLapia yeyovev, ro irap eKelvois oe

dKTjparov dAAd p.6voLS avrols rdJv ev rf rroXei

" Plato's communism is primarily a device to secure dis- interestedness in the ruling class, though he sometimes treats it as a counsel of perfection for all men and states. C/. Introd. p. XV note a.

* C/. supra 403 e. " Cf. 551 B, Meno 91 b, Thucyd. i. 108, O.M.T. 837. <* They are worthy of their hire. Cf. on 347 a. It is a

strange misapprehension to speak of Plato as careless of

310

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK III

to one another and to their charges." " That is right," he said. " In addition, moreover, to such an

education a thoughtful man would affirm that their houses and the possessions proWded for them ought to be such as not to interfere with the best per-

formance of their own work as guardians and not to incite them to WTong the other citizens." " He will rightly affirm that." "Consider then," said I, " whether, if that is to be their character, their habitations and ways of hfe must not be something after this fashion. In the first place, none must possess any private property " save the indispensable. Secondly, none must have any habitation or treasure- house which is not open for all to enter at will. Their food, in such quantities as are needful for

athletes of war '' sober and brave, they must receive as an agreed "^ stipend ** from the other citizens as the

wages of their guardianship, so measured that there shall be neither superfluity at the end of the year

nor any lack.* And resorting to a common mess ' like soldiers on campaign they will Uve together. Gold and silver, we will tell them, they have of the di\ine quality from the gods always in their souls, and they have no need of the metal of men nor does holiness suffer them to mingle and contaminate that heavenly possession with the acquisition of mortal gold, since

many impious deeds have been done about the coin of the multitude, while that which dwells ^^-ithin them is unsulhed. But for these only of all the dwellers in

the welfare of the masses. His aristocracy is one of social service, not of selfish enjoyment of wealth and power.

• This is precisely .\ristophanes' distinction betweti beggary and honourable poverty, Pluius 553-553.

' As at Sparta. Cf. 458 c, Newman, Introduction to Aristotle's Politics, p. 334.

311

PLATO

/Lierap^eipi^eCT^ai Kal aTrreadai ;^puCTOi} /cat dpyv-

pov ov dejXis, oyS' vno rov avrov 6po(f)ov livai ovhk TTepidijjaadai ovhe Triveiv l^ dpyvpov rj

Xpvaov. Kal ovrco pikv acol^oivro t dv Kal acv^oiev

Tqv ttoXlv OTTore 8' avrol yrjv re IScav Kal OLKtag

Kal vojJLLGjJLara KTijcrovrat, OLKOVOfiot, fiev Kal

yecopyoL dvrl (f>vXdKOjv eaovrai, Searrorai 8

B ix^pol dvrl ^vfxfidxojv twv dXXwu ttoXitcov yeirfj- aovrai, fitaovvres Se Sr] Kal fucrovfievoL /cat ctti-

^ovXevovres Kal ivL^ovXevofievot Sid^ovcn ndvTa Tov ^lov, TToXv TrAetct) Kal fidXAov 8e8toTe? tovs

evSov rj rovs e^cxjdev TroXep-iovs, Oeovreg rjSr] rore

iyyvrara oXedpov avroi re Kal rj dXXrj ttoXls. rovroiv ovv Trdvrcov eVe/ca, rjv 8' iyco, (fxjofxev ovro)

belv KareaKevdrrdat rovs cfiuXaKag OLK-qaeios re

TTepL Kal rdjv dXXuiv, Kal raura voixoderrjaiojiev , rj pufj; Yidvv ye, t) 8' o? o VXavKcov.

" As if the accursed and tainted metal were a polluted murderer or temple-robber. Cf. my note on Horace, Odes iii. 2. 27 " sub isdem trabibus," Antiphon v. 11.

* Cf. 621 B-c, and Laws 692 a. " decTwoTai. Cf. Menex. 238 e. * Cf. Laws 697 d in a passage of similar import, nia-ovvres

fxiaovprai.

S12

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK III

the city it is not lawful to handle gold and silver and to touch them nor yet to come under the same roof" with them, nor to hang them as ornaments on their hmbs nor to drink from silver and gold. So li\ing they would save themselves and save their city.* But whenever they shall acquire for themselves land of their o>vn and houses and coin, they viiW be house- holders and farmers instead of guardians, and will be transformed from the helpers of their fellow-citizens to their enemies and masters,"^ and so in hating and being hated,** plotting and being plotted against they will pass their days fearing far more and rather * the townsmen within than the foemen without—and then even then laying the course ' of near shipwTeck for themselves and the state. For all these reasons," said I, " let us declare that such must be the pro- vision for our guardians in lodging and other respects and so legislate. Shall we not ? " " By all means," said Glaucon.

' more and rather: so 396 d, 551 b. ' The image is that of a ship nearing the fatal reef. C/.

Aeschyl. Eumen. 56-2. The sentiment and the heightened rhetorical tone of the whole passage recall the last page of the Critias, with Ruskin's translation and comment in A Crown of Wild Olice.

313

419 I. Kai o *AS€Lfxavros vrroXa^cov, Tt ovv, €(f)rj, cu HcoKpareg, dTToXoyijaet , idv tls ere

<f)fi nrj Trdvv ri

evhatfxovas TTOielv tovtovs tov? dvSpas, Kal ravra

Sl' iavTOVS, <I)v eart fiev r] ttoXls ttj aXiqOeia, ol

Se fxrjSev dTToXavovai.v dyadov rrjs TroAecu?, olov dXXoL dypOVS re K€KT7]fl€VOi Kal OLKtaS OLKoSofJiOV-

fxevot, KaXds Kal fieydXas, Kal ravrais TrpeTTOuaav

KaraaK€V7]V KTCofxevoL, /cat dvatas OeoZs Ihias

6vovT€s Kal ^evoSoKovvres, /cat 8rj Kai a vvv Srj cJi) e'Aeye?, )(pva6v re Kai dpyvpov KeKr'qpievoL Kal

irdvra oaa voiiit,eraL rolg fieXXovat jjiaKapiotg

elvat; dXX' dre)(va)s, <j>airi dv, oiotrep ertlKovpoi

420 pnaQoirol ev rfj TrdAet ^aivovrai Kadrjadai ovSev

dXXo 7] (f)povpovvres. Nat, t^v 8' eyio, Kal ravrd

" Adeimantus's criticism is made from the point of view of a Thrasymachus (343 a, 3t5 b) or a Callicles {Oorgias 492 B-c) or of Solon's critics {cf. my note on Solon's Trochaics to Phokos, Class. Phil. vol. vi. pp. 216 ff.). The captious objection is repeated by Aristotle, Pol. 1264 b 15 ff., though he later (1325 a 9-10) himself uses Plato's answer to it, and by moderns, as Herbert Spencer, Grote, Newman to some extent (Introduction to Aristotle's Politics, p. 69), and Zeller (Aristotle, ii. p. 224) who has the audacity to say that " Plato demanded the abolition of all private possession and the suppression of all individual interests because it is only

314

BOOK IV

I. And Adeimantus broke in and said, " What ^^^ll be your defence, Socrates, if anyone objects that you are not making these men very happy,** and tliat through their own fault ? For the city really belongs to them and yet they get no enjoyment out of it as ordinary' men do by owning lands and building fine big houses and providing them with suitable furni- ture and winning the favour of the gods by private sacrifices ** and entertaining guests and enjo\nng too those possessions which you just now spoke of, gold and silver and all that is customary for those who are expecting to be happy ? But they seem, one might say, to be estabhshed in idleness in the city, exactly like hired mercenaries, with nothing to do but keep guard." " Yes," said I, " and what is

in the Idea or Universal that he acknowledges any title to true reality." Leslie Stephen does not diverge so far from Plato when he says {Science of Ethics, p. 397): "The virtuous men may be the very salt of the earth, and yet the discharge of a function socially necessarj- may involve their own misery." By the happiness of the whole Plato obviously means not an abstraction but the concrete whole of which Leslie Stephen is thinking. But from a higher point of view Plato eloquently argues (465 b-c) that duty fulfilled will yield truer happiness to the guardians than seeking their own advantage in the lower sense of the word.

* Cj. 362 c, and Laws 909 d fF. where they are forbidden.

315

PLATO

ye eTTtairLOL Kal oi3Se fjLt,a96v Trpog rot? airiois

Xafx^dvovres (Zairep ol d'AAot, cucttc ovh av airo-

SrjixrjaaL ^ouXcovTai tSia, e^earai avrois, ovh

eraipais hihovai ovh^ avaXioKeiv av ttol ^ovXaivrai

aXXoae, ola Brj ol evSaifxoves hoKovvreg elvai

dvaXlcTKOvai. ravra Kal d'AAa rotavra av)(va rrjs

Karr^yopias aTToXeiiTeis . 'AAA', i) 8' 6s, karoi Kai

B ravra Karrjyopr^neva. Tt ovv hrj dTToXoyiqoopLeda, (f>jjs; Nai. Tov avrov olp.ov, rjv 8' iyco, iropevo-

ixevoi evpr^aojxev, chs eySjJiai, d Ae/crea. epovfxev

yap, on davfxaarov fxev av ovSev etr), el Kau ovroL ovrois €v8atjxoveararoL etaiv, ov jxrjv rrpos rovro

^XcTTOvres rrjv ttoXlv olKit,op.ev, ottcos €V n ry/xiv edvos earac hLa<^€p6vraJS evhaifxov, dXX ottws 6 n fidXtara oXrj rj ttoXis- wt^drjiJiev yap iv rfj roi-

avrrj fidXiara av evpelv Si,Kai.oavvr]v Kal aS ev rfj C KaKiara OLKOvixevrj dStKiav, KartSovres 8e Kplvai

av, o TToXai l^rjrovfxev. vvv jxev ovv, to? OLOfieda,

rrjv evSalfiova TrXdrrofiev ovk dnoXa^ovres oXi-

yovs iv avrfi roLovrovs rivds ndivres, dXX oXr^v

avriKa 8e r7]v evavriav aKeifjofxeda. cuaTrep ovv

av, el rjpLas dvSptdvra ypd(j)ovras irpoaeXdcov ris

eijjeye Xeycov, on ov roXs KaXXlaroLS tov ^coov ra " Other men, ordinary men. Cf. 543 b wv vvv ol

&\\oi, which disposes of other interpretations and mis- understandings.

* This is, for a diiferent reason, one of the deprivations of the tyrant (579 b). The Latcs strictly limits travel (949 e). Here Plato is speaking from the point of view of the ordinary citizen.

" The Platonic Socrates always states the adverse case strongly (Introd. p. xi), and observes the rule

:

\^'ould you adopt a strong logical attitude. Always allow your opponent full latitude.

316

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK IV

more, they serve for board-wages and do not even receive pay in addition to their food as others do,*' so that they will not even be able to take a journey *• on their own account, if they wish to, or make presents to their mistresses, or spend money in other directions according to their desires hke the men who are thought to be happy. These and many similar counts of the indictment you are omitting." " Well, said he, " assume these counts too.*^ " " What then will be our apologj' you ask ? " " Yes." " By follow- ing the same path I think we shall find what to reply. For we shall say that while it would not surprise us if these men thus living prove to be the most happy, yet the object on which we fixed our eyes in the establishment of our state was not the exceptional happiness of any one class but the greatest possible happiness of the city as a whole. For we thought** that in a state so constituted we should be most likely to discover justice as we should injustice in the worst governed state, and that when we had made these out we could pass judgement on the issue of our long inquiry. Our first task then, we take it, is to mould the model of a happy state—we are not isolating « a small class in it and postulating their happiness, but that of the city as a whole. But the opposite tj-pe of state we will consider presently.^ It is as if we were colouring a statue and someone ap- proached and censured us, saying that we did not

" CJ. 369 A.

' ciTToAa/SdiTe?, " separating off," " abstracting," may be used absolutely as in Gorgias 495 e, or with an object as fupra 392 e.

' That is 449 a and books VIII. and IX. The degenerate types of state are four, but the extreme opposite of the good state, the tyranny, is one.

S17

PLATO

/caAAtcTTa (f>dpfiaKa TrpoarWefiev ol yap 6(f>9aXfxoL KaXXcarov ov ovk oarpeicp eVaAryAt/x/xeVoi etev aAAa

D fxeXavL' /jLerpicjs oiv eSoKovfiev irpos avrov oltto- XoyeZadai Xeyovres, a> davfidaie, [xrj otov Seiv i^/xa?

ovTco KoXovs 6<f>6a\piovs ypd(f)eiv, (Zare p,rjSe

o<f}6aXiJiovs <f)aiveodai, p-y]^* av raAAa P'^prj, dXX ddpei el rd TrpoaiqKovTa CKdaroLS aTroStSovre? to

oXov KaXov TTOiovpev Kal Srj /cat vvv p,'rj dvdyKa^e

7]fids TOLavTrjv €v8aLp,oviav toZs (f)vXa^L rrpoa-

dnreiv, rj eKcivovs Trdv p.dXXov dTTepydaerai 7]

E (f>vXaKas. €TTLardpbeda yap Kal rovs yempyovs ^vcrrihas dp^ilaavTes Kal -)(^pva6v irepLdevres irpos

TjSovrjv epydl,e(jdaL KeXeveiv ttjv yrjv, Kal rov<;

K€pap,€ag KaraKXlvavres eTnSe^ia Trpog to Trvp 8ta-

mvovTds re Kal evoj)(ovp.evovs , rov rpo^ov vrapa- dejxevovs, oaov dv imdvpcocn Kepapevetv, /cat rovs

dXXovs Trdvras tolovtoj rpoiTcp piaKapiovs TTOielv,

Lva St] oXt] rj ttoXls ^vhaipovff dXX rjpds p-f] ovTOi 421 vovderef cos, dp aot Treidcopieda, ovre 6 yecopyos

yecopyds earai ovre 6 Kepapbevs Kepap,evg ovre

a'AAo? ouSei? ovSeu e^coi/ a'xfjpa, e^ Sv ttoXis yiyverai. aAAa rcJov p,ev dXXa}v eXdrrcov Xoyos'

veupoppd<poL yap (f)avXoi. yevopevoi Kal hia(f>dap€VTes

" So Hippias Major 290 b. * For this principle of aesthetics cf. Pha^drus 264 c,

Aristot. Poetics 1450 b 1-2. " " We know how to." For the satire of the Socialistic

millennium which follows cf. Introd. p. xxlx, and Ruskin, Fors Clavigera. Plato may have been thinking of the scene on the shield of Achilles, //. xviii. 541-560.

"* i.e. so that the guest on the right hand occupied a lower place and the wine circulated in the same direction. Many write (TTL df^id, but A einde^ia. " Forever, 'tis a single word. Our rude forefathers thought it two."

318

I

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK IV

apply the most beautiful pigments to the most beauti-

ful parts of the image, since the eyes," -which are the

most beautiful part, have not been painted Avith purple

l)ut M-iih black—we should think it a reasonable justi- fication to reply, ' Don't expect us, quaint friend, to

paint the eyes so fine that they will not be like eyes

at all, nor the other parts, but observe whether by

assigning what is proper to each we render the whole beautiful.^ ' And so in the present case you must not require us to attach to the guardians a happiness

that will make them anything but guardians. For in like manner we could "^ clothe the farmers in robes of state and deck them with gold and bid them cultivate the soil at their pleasure, and we could make the potters recline on couches from left to right <* before the fire drinking toasts and feasting with their wheel alongside to potter with when they are so disposed, and we can make all the others happy in the same fashion, so that thus the entire city may be happy. But urge us not to this, since, if we yield, the farmer will not be a farmer nor the potter a

potter, nor will any other of the types that constitute a state keep its form. However, for the others it matters less. For cobblers * who deteriorate and are

• Note the " ab urbe condita " construction. For the thought cf. 374 b. Zeller and many who follow him are not justified in inferring that Plato would not educate the masses.

(Cf. Newman, Introduction to Aristotle's Politics, i. p. 160.) It might as well be argued that the high schools of the United States are not intended for the masses because some people sometimes emphasize their function of " fitting for college." In the Republic Plato describes secondary educa- tion as a preparation for the higher training. The secondary education of the entire citizenry in the Laws marks no change of opinion {Laws 818 ff.). Cf. Introd. p. xxxiii.

319

PLATO

Kol Trpoa7TOLr)adiX€voL eluaL fjurj ovreg TrdAet ovoeu

Seij^di'" (f)vXaKes 8e voficov re /cat TrdAeoj? [xr] ovreg

dXXa SoKovureg opag Sr) on irdaav dphrjv ttoXiv OLTToXXvaaiv , /cai av rov ev olkclv /cat evSaifioveh'

fjLOVot Tov Katpov exovoLV. €1 jiev ovv rjfieLS ftep-

B <f)vXaKas cus dXr]da)s rroiovfjiev, -qKiara KaKovp- yovs TTJs TToXecDS, 6 8' CKetvo Xeyojv yecopyovs

TLvas Kal cuCTTTep iv Travrjyvpei dAA' ovk iv TToXei

icmdropas evSaifiovag , dXXo dv tl r) ttoXlv Xeyot.

aKCTTreov ovv, Tzorepov Trpos tovto ^XeirovTcg rovg

(f)vXaKag KadLardJfiev, ottcos 6 rt, TrXeLarrj av-

Tols evSaLfxovia iyyevqaeraL, ^ tovto fjiev et? ttjv

TToXiv oXr]v pXeTTOVTa? OeaTeov el eKeivr) iyyiyve-

Tai, Tovs S' cTTiKovpovs TOVTOvg /cat Tovg ^yAa/cas

C €KeZvo dvayKaoTeov Troielu /cat TTeiareov, ottcos o Tl dpiGTOL h'qp.LovpyoL tov eavTibv epyov eaovTai,

/cat TOWS' ctAAou? aTTavTag coaavrcog, /cat ovtoj

^vpLTrdarjs Trjs TToXeoJS av^avofxevqs xal KaXdJg

olKit.opivqs iaTeov ottcos e/cacrrots' rot? edvecLV rj

<f>vaLg (XTroStSaxTt tov ficTaXap-^dveiv evSaipiovLas.

II. 'AAA', 7^ S' OS, KaXdJs fiOL So/cet? Xeyetv.

*A/3' ovv, rjv S' iyu), /cat to tovtov dS€X(f)6v 86^oj

crot /xerpiaj? Xeyeiv; Tt /aaAtara; Tou? aAAou? D av St]fXLovpyovs aKonei el raSe Sta(f)9eLpeL, coGTe

/cat KaKovs yiyveadai. Ta Troia 817 raura; IIAoiJ- Tos, rjv 8' eyd), /cat Trevia. Y{(x)s 817; *Q.he- ttXov-

" The expression is loose, but the meaning is plain. The principle " one man, one task " makes the guardians real guardians. The assumption that their happiness is the end is incompatible with the very idea of a state. Cf. Introd.

pp. xxix f. fffTidropas recalls fieWovra ecrTidaecrdai 345 C, but we are expected to think also of the farmers of 420 e.

'' The guardians are dri/xiovpyol eXevdepia^ (395 c).

320

TfiE REPUBLIC, BOOK IV

spoiled and pretend to be the workmen that they are not are no great danger to a state. But guardians of laws and of the city who are not what they pre- tend to be, but only seem, destroy utterly, I would have you note, the entire state, and on the other liand, they alone are decisive of its good government and happiness . If then we are forming true guardians and keepers of our liberties, men least hkely to harm the commonwealth, but the proponent of the other ideal is thinking of farmers and ' happy ' feasters as it were in a festival and not in a ch-ic community, he would have something else in mind " than a state. Consider, then, whether our aim in estabhshing the guardians is the greatest possible happiness among them or whether that is something we must look to see develop in the city as a whole, but these helpers

and guardians are to be constrained and persuaded to do what will make them the best craftsmen in their own work, and similarly all the rest. And so, as the entire city develops and is ordered well, each class is to be left to the share of happiness that its nature comports."

II. " Well," he said, " I think you are right." " And will you then," I said, " also think me reason- able in another point akin to this .'' " " What pray ? " " Consider whether these are th6 causes that corrupt other * craftsmen too so as positively to spoil them."^

"

" What caxises ? " " Wealth and poverty," ** said I.

* Siare vai Kaicoi'S, I think, means " so that they become actually bad," not " so that they also become bad." Cf. Lysis 217 b.

'' For the dangers of wealth <•/. 550, 553 d, 555 b, 556 a, 562, Laics 831 c, 919 b, and for the praises of poverty r/. Aristoph. Plutu^ 510-591, Lucian, Xiprinus 12, Eurip. fr, 55 N., Stobaeus. Flor. 94 (.Meineke iu. 198), Class. Phil. vol. xxii. pp. 235-236.

VOL. I Y 321

PLATO

Tiycra? x^'^P^^S So/cet ctoi en deX-rjaeiv eTnixeXeXaOat rrjs rexv-qs; OvSa/Jicbs, e^Tj. 'Apyos Se /cat d/jLeXrjs yeirqaerai ixdXXov avros avrov; YloXv ye. OvKovv KaKLCov ;)(i'T/)eus' yiyverai; Kat tovto, €<f>rj, TToXv. Kat fjLrjv /cat opyavd ye fMrj ex<JOV TTapexeadai vtto 'iTevias yj n dXXo tmv els rrjv

E rexvrjv, TO. re epya TTOvqporepa epydaeraL /cat rovs vlels rj dXXovs ovs dv StSaa/cr^ x^^povg brjixLovpyovg StSa^erat. Udjs 8' ov; 'IV dp.^o- repiov Siy, TTevias re /cat ttAoutou, X^^P^ P-^^ '''^

Tcov rexvdjv epya, p^etpou? Be avroi. OatVerat.

"Erepa 817, cuj eot/ce, rots' (f)vXa^Lv evpi^Kajxev, d TTavri rpoTTcp <j>vXaKreov ottcos fi'^rrore avrovs X-qaei els rrjv ttoXlv TrapaSvvra. Ylola ravra;

422 YlXoijros re, ^v 8' eycv, /cat Trevia, u)S rov (jlcv rpv^r]v /cat dpyiav /cat vecorepLap^ov TTOLovvros , rov he dveXevdepiav /cat KaKoepylav irpos ra> vecore- piap,a). Udvv p.ev ovv, e(f)rj. roSe fxevroi, (L HcoKpares, GKovei, ttcos r}p,Lv rj ttoXls ota r earai 7ToXep.elv, eneiSdv xP'^P^o.ra per] KeKrrjpLevrj fj, dXXa>s

re Kav irpos p,eydXrjv re /cat irXovaiav dvayKaadfj TToXepielv. ArjXov, rjv 8' eyo), on irpos pev piiav

]3 XO-Xemorepov, rrpos 8e 8vo rotavras paov. Yld)s elrres ; rj 8' 6s. Ylpcjrov p.ev ttov, elrrov, edv Ser)

pidxeodaL, dpa ov irXovaiois dvSpdai paxovvrai avrol ovres 7ToXep,ov ddXrjrai; Nat rovro ye, e(j>r].

" Apparent paradox to stimulate attention. Cf. 377 a, 334 A, 382 A, 414 b-c, 544 c, Laws 646 b. To fight against two was quasi-proverbial. Cf. Laws 919 b. For images from boxing cf. Aristot. Met. 985 a 14, and Demosthenes' statement (P/u/i/). i. 40-41) that the Athenians fight Philip as the barbarians box. The Greeks felt that " lesser breeds

S22

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK IV

" How so ? " " Thus ! do you think a potter who grew rich would any longer be \villing to give his mind to his craft ? " " By no means," said he. " But will he become more idle and negligent than he was ? " " Far more." " Then he becomes a worse potter ? " " Far worse too." " And vet again, if from poverty he is unable to provide himself with tools and other requirements of his art, the work that he turns out will be worse, and he will also make inferior workmen of his sons or any others whom he teaches." " Of course." " From both causes, then, poverty and wealth, the products of the arts deteri- orate, and so do the artisans .'' " " So it appears." " Here, then, is a second group ofthings, it seems, that our guardians must guard against and do all in their power to keep from slipping into the city without their knowledge." " What are they ? " " Wealth and poverty," said I. " since the one brings luxurv^, idleness and innovation, and the other illiberahty and the evil of bad workmanship in addition to in- novation." " Assuredly," he said ; " yet here is a point for your consideration, Socrates, how our city, possessing no wealth, will be able to wage war, especially if compelled to fight a large and wealthy state." " Ob\iously," said I, " it would be rather difficult to fight one such, but easier to fight two."

"

" What did you mean by that ? " he said. " Tell me first," I said, " whether, if they have to fight, they will not be fighting as athletes of war ^ against men of wealth ? " " Yes, that is true," he said.

without the law " were inferior in this manly art of self- de- rnce. Cf. the amusing description of the boxing of Orestes and Pylades by the dT^eXos in Eurip. I.T. 1366 ff.

» Cf. 416 E, 403 E.

323

PLATO

Tt ovv, Tjv S' iyo), d> ^ASelfiavTe; elg mjKTTjg co? otov r€ KaXXtara iirl tovto TrapeoKevaafxevos Svolv fir] TTVKraiv, ttXovololv he /cat ttlovolv, ovk dv So/cet (TOL paSlcos ixdxeadai; Ovk dv taws, €<p'r], a/xa ye. Uvo et e^eirj, rjv o eya>, vtto-

^ (f)evyovri rov Trporepov del iTpoac^epojxevov dva- arpe^ovra Kpoveiv, Kat tovto ttoioI TToXXaKis iv rjXlq)

T€ /cat TTviyei; dpd ye ov /cat irXeiovs x^'^P^oratr' dv TotovTovs 6 ToiovTos; ^AjJLeXeL, e(f>rj, ovhev

dv yevoLTO davpLacTov. 'AAA' ovk otei TTVKTiKrjs nXeov p,€T€X€tv Tovs TrXovaiovs CTnaTTJpLrj re /cat

ipLTTecpia fj TToXepiKrjs; "Kycoy* , ^^V' 'PaStw?

apa Tjpuv ol dOXrjTal e/c Tcav elKOTOiv hiTrXaaiois T€ /cat TptTrXaatotg avTCJV piaxovvTai. Hvyxo^pTJcro-

D /Ltat crot, ecjyrj' So/cet? ydp /xot opdaJs Xeyeiv. Tt 8', dv TTpea^eiav rrepiipavTes eis ttjv CTepav ttoXlv

TdXT]d7J eiTTCoaiv, OTt rjpiels p,ev ovSev ;^puaia) ouS'

dpyvpLcp ;)^pc(j)U,e^a, ouS' rjp,LV depts, vpuv Se*

^vpiTToXepLt^aavTes ovv pied rjpojv ep^ere to. tcov

eTepcov otet Tivds aKovoavTas TavTa alp'qaeadai

Kval TToXepcelv OTepeoZs re /cat laxvolg pcdXXov ^ jLtera /cyvcDr rrpo^aTois Trioai re /cat aTraAotj; Ov pLOL So/cet. aAA' e'ap' et? p,iav, e(f)rj, ttoXlv ^vv-

E adpoiadfj TO. Tcbv dXXojv ;^/37^/>tara, opa pirj klvSvvov 4>^prj TTJ pLTj rrXovTOvar). EvSaipicov et, '^v S' iyco,

OTL otet d^LOv etvai dXXrjv Tivd TTpoaenrelv rroXiv ^ Tr]v TOiavTTjv olav 'qp-ets KaT€aK€vd[,op,ev . 'AAAct

Tt pii^v; e^f*!^. Metl^ovcos, rjv S' e'ycu, XPV "^poa-

' Cf. Herod, iv. 111. * Two elements of the triad ^i/(ris, /xeXirr], iirLCTT-quTt). Cf.

supra 374 d.

324

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK IV

" Answer me then, Adeimantus. Do you not think that one boxer perfectly trained in the art could

easily fight two fat rich men who knew nothing of it ?

" " Not at the same time perhaps," said he. " Not even," said I, " if he were allowed to retreat" and then turn and strike the one who came up first, and if he repeated the procedure many times under a burning and stifling sun ? Would not such a fighter down even a number of such opponents ? " " Doubt- less," he said ; "it wouldn't be surprising if he did." " Well, don't you think that the rich have more of the skill and practice * of boxing than of the art of war ?

"

" I do," he said. " It will be easy, then, for our athletes in all probability to fight with double and triple their number." " I shall have to concede the point," he said, " for I believe you are right." " Well then, if they send an embassy to the other city and say what is in fact true " : ' We make no use of gold and silver nor is it lawful for us but it is for you ; do you then join us in the war and keep the spoils of the enemy,' ^—do you suppose any who heard such a proposal would choose to fight against hard and wiry hounds rather than with the aid of the hounds against fat and tender sheep ? " "I think not. Yet consider whether the accumulation of all the wealth of other cities in one does not involve danger for the state that has no wealth." " What happy innocence," said I, " to suppose that you can properly use the name city of any other than the one we are constructing." " Why, what should we say ? " he said. " A greater predication," said I,

' Cf. Herod, vii. 233 rbv a\r]deffTaTov rwv \6rywv, Catull. x. 9 "id quod erat."

** The style is of intentional Spartan curtness.

325

PLATO

ayopeveiv rag aXXas' eKaaTTj yap avrcJov TToXets eiCTt TTafiTToXXat,, dAA' ov TToXtg, to tcov Trait^ovTCOv

.

ovo fiev, Kov oTLovv fj,

TToXefxta aXX-qXaLs, rj fxev

423 7T€V7]Tcov, 7] §6 vXovcrcojv' TOVTOJv 8' iv eKaTcpo.

TTavu TToXXai, als iav [xkv u)s /xia TTpoa<^epr], iravros

av afiapTois, eav Se w? TroAAat?, BlBovs to. rcbv erepojv rols irepois XPVH'^'^^ '^^ '^ci^ Swdfieig rj /cat

avTovs, ^vfj,[jLa.)(ois p.kv ad ttoXXoZ? xPV^^''> '^°' Xefxiots S' oXiyoLs- Kal eois av 7) ttoXis ooi oiKfj

aaj(f)p6vo)s ios dpTL iraxdr], {MeylaTr) earat,, ov tco

evSoKtfjLelv Xeyo), oAA' cLs dXrjOcos ixeyiarrj, Kal idv

fjLovov fi x^Xlcov Tctjv TTpoTToXefxovvTOJV ovTco ydp

B fJL€ydXr]v ttoXlv fxiav ov paBcios ovre iv "K?<Xr]atv ovre ev ^ap^dpoLS evp-qaeis, hoKovaas 8e ttoXXols

/cat TToXXanXaaLag rrjs TT^AtKauxTys. ^ dXXcos otet;

Ov [jid Tov At", €<f)rj. III. OvKovv, r]v S' iyco, ovTOS av et-q /cat /caA-

Xtcrros opos roZg rjfierepois dpxovaiv, oarjv Set to

fieyedos ttjv ttoXlv TTOieZadai /cat rjXiKrj ovarj oarjv

Xijopav d(f)opLaap,€VOVs ttjv dXXr}v ;)^at/3etv eav. Ttj,

e(/>T7, opos; Otyuat /xeV, -qv S' iyo), rovhe' fJ^^xpt^ ov

" " As they say in the game " or " in the jest." The general meaning is plain. We do not know enough about the game called irdXeis {cf. scholiast, Suidas, Hesychius, and Photius) to be more specific. Cf. for conjectures and details Adam's note, and for the phrase Thompson on Meno 77 a.

* Cf. Aristot. Pol. 1316 b 7 and 1264 a 25. " Aristotle, Pol. 1261 b 38, takes this as the actual number

of the military class. Sparta, according to Xenophon, Rep. Lac. 1. 1, was tQv dXiyavOpwirordricv iroKeuv, yet one of the strongest. Cf. also Aristot. Pol. 1270 a 14. f. In the Laws

326

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK IV

" must be applied to the others. For they are each one of them many cities, not a city, as it goes in the game." There are two at the least at enmity >\-ith one another, the city of the rich and the city of the poor,** and in each of these there are many. If yon deal \\ith them as one you will altogether miss the mark, but if you treat them as a multiplicity by offer- ing to the one faction the property, the power, the

very persons of the other, you will continue always to have few enemies and many alUes. And so long as your city is governed soberly in the order just laid

down, it ^\-ill be the greatest of cities. I do not mean greatest in repute, but in reality, even though it have only a thousand "^ defenders. For a city of this size

that is really one •* you will not easily discover either among Greeks or barbarians—but of those that seem so you will find many and many times the size of this. Or do you think otherwise ? " " No, indeed I don't," said he.

III. " Would not this, then, be the best rule and measure for our governors of the proper size of the city and of the territory that they should mark off for a city of that size and seek no more ?

"

" What is the measure ? " "I think," said I, " that

Plato proposes the number 5040 which Aristotle thinks too large, Pol. 1265 a 15.

^ Commentators, I think, miss the subtlety of this sentence

;

/uap means truly one as below in d, and its antithesis is not so much xoWds as doKovaas which means primarily the appearance of unity, and only secondarily refers to fj-eydX-qp. Kai then is rather "and" than "even."' "So large a city that is really one jou will not easily find, but the semblance (of one big city) you will find in cities many and many times the size of this." Cf. also 4-62 a-b, and mv paper " Plato's Laws and the Unity of Plato's Thought," Class. Phil. 1914, p. 358. For Aristotle's comment cf. Pol. 1261 a 15.

327

PLATO

av edeXrj av^ofiemj elvai jxia, fJ-^xpi' tovtov av^^iv,

C Tripa 8e /xTy. Kat koXcos y , e^ry. Ovkovv koX rovTO av aAAo Trpocrrayfxa tols (f)vXa^t, Trpoard^ofxev,

(fivXaTTeiv TTavTL rpoTTCp, OTTCos p-'^TC apiLKpa 7]

TToXis earat pu-qre p,€ydX'r] SoKovaa, dXXd ns iKavr) Kal p.La. Kai ^avXov y , ^^^V' '^-^^^ avroZs -npoa-

rd^op,ev. Kat tovtov ye, rjv 8' eyco, eVi (f>avX6- T€pov ToSe, ov Kal iv tu) Trpoadev eTTep.vr]adr]p.€v

Xeyovres, cos Seoi, idu re tcov (f)vXdKO)v tls (f)avXos

cKyovos yevrjTai, els tovs dXXovs avTov aTTO-

D TTepiTreadai, idv t' eV tcov dXXcjv ajTOvSalos, ei? tovs (f)vXaKas. tovto 8' i^ovXeTO Br]Xovv, otl Kai tovs

dXXoVS TToXuTaS, TTpOS O TLS 7Te(f)VK€, TTpOS TOVTO

eva TTpos €v eKaoTOv epyov Set Kop,L^eiv, ottojs av

€v TO avTOV iTTiTrjSevcov e/cacrros' P''f] ttoXXol, aAAa

els yiyvrjTai, /cat ovtco Srj ^vpLiraaa t) ttoXis /xta

(f)vr]Tai,, dXXd /xt) TroAAat. "Ecrrt ydp, e^^, tovto

cKeivov apLLKpoTepov . Ovtoi, "^v 8' iyco, c5 'yaOe

'ASetjaavre, co? So^eiev av tis, raCra TToAAa /cat

E p-€ydXa avTols TvpooTdTTop^ev, aAAa TrdvTa cf)avXa, idv TO Xeyop^evov ev p,e.ya ^vXaTTOXJi, puoXXov 8

dvTL pbeydXov tKavov. Tt tovto; e(f)r]. Trjv Trat-

" The Greek idea of government required that the citizens should know one another. They would not have called Babylon, London or Chicago cities. Cf. Introd. p. xxviii. Fowler, Greek City State, passim, Newman, Aristot. Pol. vol. i. Introd. pp. 314-315, and Isocrates' complaint that Athens was too large, Antid. 171-172.

* Ironical, of course. « Of. on 415 B. "* The special precept with regard to the guardians was

significant of the universal principal, " one man, one task."

S28

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK IV

they should let it grow so long as in its growth it consents'^ to remain a unity, but no further." " Excellent," he said. " Then is not this still another injunction that we should lay upon our guardians, to keep guard in every way that the city shall not be too small, nor great only in seeming, but

that it shall be a sufficient city and one ? " " That behest will perhaps be an easy*" onefor them," he said. "And still easier,* haply," I said, " is this that we men- tioned before " when we said that if a degenerate off- spring was born to the guardians he must be sent away to the other classes, and likewise if a superior to the others he must be enrolled among the guardians

;

and the purport of all this was ^ that the other citizens too must be sent to the task for which their natures were fitted, one man to one work, in order that each of them fulfilling his own function may be not many men, but one, and so the entire city may come to be not a multipUcity but a unity .^ " " Why yes," he said, " this is even more trifling than that." " These are not, my good Adeimantus, as one might suppose, numerous and difficult injunctions that we are imposing upon them, but they are all easy, provided they guard, as the saying is, the one great thing ^—or instead of great let us call it sufficient.^ " " What is that ? " he said. " Their education and

Cf. 443 c, 370 B-c (note), 394 e, 374 a-d, Laws 846 d- 847 b.

• It is a natural growth, not an artificial contrivance. For Aristotle's criticism cf. Pol. 1261 a.

^ The proverbial one great thing (one thing needful). The proverb perhaps is : ttoXX' old' dXwwrj^ dW ex'""' ^'' M*7^ (Suidas). Cf. Archil, fr. 61 Iv 5' iiriaraiMi fi^ya, Polit. 297 a tiAxp<-''''ip Sy iv niya (pvXdrTWffi.

" /leya has the unfavourable associations of ?xos n^ya, and Uavdv, "adequate," is characteristically preferred by Plato.

329

PLATO

Seiav, ^r S' iya>, /cat Tpo(f)rjv. iav yap er5 Trat- Sevofievoi ixirpioi av^pes yiyva>vrai, iravra ravra

paSicos Sioipovrai, /cat a'AAa ye, ocra vvv rjixels

TTapaXeLTTOfxev, rr]v re rcjv yvvaiK<jL)v Krrjaiv /cat

424 ydjxcov /cat 77at8o770tta?, on Set ravra Kara rrjv TTapotpiiav iravra 6 ri [xdXiara kolvo. rd (f>i\cov TTOielodai. 'Opdorara yap, €(f>r], yiyvoir dv. Kat

fi'qv, cIttov, TToAtreta, idvTrep drra^ oppbrjorj ev,

epx^rai coairep kvk\os av^avojjievq. rpo(f)rj yap Kai TTalBevais XPl^^^l aiol^opiivr] (f>vaet,s dyadas

ifiTTOLel, /cat av (f>vaei,s XPV^'^'^'' Totayrrj? TratSetas

avriXapi^av6pL€vai en ^cXriovs rdJv -nporepayv B (jivovrai et? re rdAAa /cat els to yevvav, uiairep koX

ev rols aAAot? ^(Locs. Et/co? y', ecj)r]. 'Q,g roLuvv

Sid ^paxecov eiTTelv, rovrov dvdeKreov rols em- /jieXrjrais rrjs TToXecos, ottcos dv avrovs fir) Xadrj

St,a(f)dapev, dXXd irapd Trdvra avrd <f>vXdrrco(n, ro

fiTj vecorepit,eLV rrepl yvixvaanKijv re /cat jxovaiKrjv

TTapd rr)v rd^tv, dXX ws olov re fxdXiara (f)vXar- reiv (f)o^ovp,evovs, orav ns Xeyrj, (hs r'qv doiSr^v fidXXov eTTL(f)poveov(Jiv dvdpOJTTOL,

" Cf. on 416 B. Plato of course has in mind both the education already described and the higher education of books VI. and VII.

* The indirect introduction of the proverb is characteristic of Plato's style. Cf. on 41.9 c, where the paradox thus lightly introduced is taken up for serious discussion. Quite fantastic is the hypthesis on which much ink has been wasted, that the Ecclesiazusae of Aristophanes was suggested by this sentence and is answered by the fifth book. Cf. Introd. pp. XXV and xxxiv. It ought not to be necessary to repeat that Plato's communism applies only to the guardians, and that its main purpose is to enforce their disinterested-

330

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK IV

nurture," I replied. " For if a right education* makes of them reasonable men they will easily dis- cover everything of this kind—and other principles that we now pass over, as that the possession of wives and marriage, and the procreation of children and all that sort of thing should be made as far as possible the proverbial goods of friends that are common.^" " Yes, that would be the best way," he said. "And, moreover," said I, " the state, if it once starts '^ well, proceeds as it were in a cycle ^ of growth. I mean that a sound nurture and education if kept up creates good natures in the state, and sound natures in turn receiving an education of this sort develop into better men than their predecessors both for other purposes and for the production of offspring as among animals also.* " " It is probable," he said. " To put it briefly, then," said I, " it is to this that the overseers of our state must cleave and be watchful against its insensible corruption. They must throughout be watchful against innovations in music and gyni- nastics counter to the estabhshed order, and to the best of their power guard against them, fearing when anyone says that that song is most regarded among men

iiess. Cf. Introd. pp. xv and note a, xxxiv, xlii, xliv, and " Plato's Laws and the Unity of Plato's Thought," p. 358. Aristotle's criticism is that the possessions of friends ought to be common in use but not in ownership. Cf. Pol. 1263 a 30, and Eurip. Androm. 376-377.

' Cf. Polit. 305 D Tr)v apxw '''^ fit bpfiT)v. ^ No concrete metaphor of wheel, hook or circle seems

to be intended, but only the cycle of cumulative effect of education on nature and nature on education, described in what follows. See the evidence collected in my note, Class. Phil. vol. V. pp. 305-507.

• Cf. 459 A.

331

PLATO

r^Tis" aetSovTCcrai v€(x)rdrrj afj,(f>i,7T€X7]Tai,

C fJLT] TToXXaKLS TOV TTOirjTT^V Tl? OLTjraL XiyeiV OVK acr/xara via, aAAa rpoirov (hSrjs veov, Kal tovto €7TaLvfj. Sei S' ovT^ iiraLvelv to toiovtov ovre

V7ToXap.^dv€Lv. ethos yap Kacvov fjLovatKi]s fxera- jSaAAeit' €i)Xa^7]Teov ct»s" iv oXo) Kivhvvevovra'

ovSa/xov yap Ktvovvrac [xovaLKrjs rpoiroL dvev TToXiriKibv vofJLCDV Tcjov fieyiaTCov, co? (f)r]<Jt re

Aafi(vv Kal iyo) TTcWofxai. Kat e/xe tolvvv, €(f)r) 6 ASeifjiavTos, des twv TreTTetaixevwv

.

D IV. To St^ (f)vXaKrrjpLov, rjv S' iyco, d)s eoiKev, evTavdd ttov oLKoSofxrjreov tols (f)vXa^t.v, iv fiovaiKfj. H yovv TTapavofJila, i(f>y], paSto)? avrr] Xavddvei,

TTapabvopLiviq. Nai, €(f)7]v, cos iv TratSias' ye fxipet /cat d)s KaKov ovhev ipyal^ofiivr]. OvSe yap ipyd- t,€raL, i(f)rj, dXXo ye -q Kara aynKpov elaoLKLcrajJiivr] rjpejxa viroppeZ npos rd tJOtj re Kal rd inirr)- Sevjxara' iK Se TOVTa>v els rd rrpos dXXTJXovs

" Od. i. 351. Our text has eTriKXeiova and dKov6vTe<r(ri. For the variant cf, Howes in Harvard Studies, vi. p. 205. For the commonplace that new songs are best cf. Pindar, 01. ix. 52.

" Cf. Stallbaum on Phaedr. 238 d-e, Forman, Plato Selections, p. 457.

* The meaning of the similar phrase in Pindar, 01. iii. 4 is different.

^ fiovffiKrjs rpbiroi need not be so technical as it is in later Greek writers on music, who, however, were greatly in- fluenced by Plato. For the ethical and social power of music cf. Introd. p. xiv note c, and supra 401 d-404 a, also Laws 700 D-E, 701 A.

' Cf. Protag. 316 a, Julian 150 b. * The etymological force of the word makes the metaphor

less harsh than the English translation " guard-house." Cf, Laics 962 c, where Bury renders '* safeguard." Cf. Pindar's 832

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK IV

which hovers newest on the singer's lips,*

kst haply ** it be supposed that the poet means not new songs but a new way of song <^ and is commending tliis. But we must not praise that sort of thing nor conceive it to be the poet's meaning. For a change to a new type of music is something to beware of ;is a hazard of all our fortunes. For the modes of music '^ are never disturbed without unsettling of the

most fundamental political and social conventions, as Damon affirms and as I am convinced/ " " Set me too do\vn in the number of the convinced," said Adeimantus.

IV. " It is here, then," I said, "in music, as it seems, that our guardians must build their guard-house ' and post of watch." " It is certain," he said, " that this is the kind of lawlessness ' that easily insinuates *

itself unobserved." " Yes," said I, " because it is supposed to be only a form of play and to work no harm." " Nor does it work any," he said, " except that by gradual infiltration it softly overflows ^ upon the characters and pursuits of men and from these issues forth grown greater to attack their business

dAcoi-as Xtyvpdsj the sharpening thing, that is, the whetstone, 01. vi. 82.

» rapavofiia besides its moral meaning (537 e) suggests lawless innovation in music, from association with the musical sense of vdfios. Cf. Chicago Studies in Class. Phil. i. p. 22 n. 4.

* So Aristot. Pol. 1307 b 33. • Cf. the warning against innovation in children's games.

Laws 797 a-b. But music is iraiSeta as well as wai8id. Cf, Aristotle's three uses of music, for play, education, and the entertainment of leisure {Pol. 1339 a 16).

^ Cf. Demosth. xix. 228. The image is that of a stream overflowing and spreading. Cf, Eurip. /r. 499 N. and Cicero's use of " serpit," Cat. iv. 3, and passim.

333

PLATO

^UjUjSdAata yieit^cov e/c^atVet, e/c Se 817 rojt' ^u/u-

E ^oXalcov epx^Tat eirl rovs vojjlovs /cat TroAtretas" crvv TToXXfj, o) YiUjKpares, daeXyeia, eco? oil' reXevTioaa

TTavra ISta /cat SrjfioaLO. dvarpeifjr]. Kiev, -qv 8'

iyw' ovTCo tovt' €-)(€l; AoKet jjLOi, €(f)r). Ovkovv o i^ ^PXV^ eXeyoixev, TOig rjiJierepotg Traiarlv iv- vofjicorepov evdvs TiatSta? /xedeKreov, a>? Trapavofiov

ytyvofjLevrjs avrrjs /cat TTaiSow roiovrcov iwofxavg re. 425 Krai aTTouSatous" e^ avroiv dvBpas av^dveadai

dhvvaTOV 6v; Ylcos 8 ov^i; e(f>r]. "Orav' 817 apa KaXcos dp^d/Jievoi, nalSes TTatt,eiv evvofxiav Std ttjs

fXOvaiKrjs eiahe^covrai, irdXiv rovvavriov •^ *K€lvois

€Ls TTavra ^vvcTreraL re /cat av^ei, eTravopdovaa el

ri /cat nporepov rrjs iroXecos e/cetro. ^AXrjdrj fievroL,

e<f)r]. Kat rd apuKpd dpa, etTTOV, SoKovvra eirat rd/tt/Lta e^evpiaKovaiv ovroi, a ol irporepov drr- (vXXvaav TTavra. noia; Td TotdSe* aiydg re

•^ T(X)V veojrepoiv Trapd TTpecr^vrepois, as vpeTTei, /cat

/cara/cAtCTet? /cat VTTavaardaeis /cat yovewv depa-

TTeias, /cat Kovpds ye /cat dfiTTe^ovas /cat i57ro8eCTets'

/cat oAot' rot' tou acofjLaros axi^p-arLapiov /cat xdAAa OCTa roiavra. rj ovk o'Ui; "Eycoye. No/xo^ereti' 8' auTCt olpLaL ev-qdes' ovre yap ttov yiyverai ovr^ dv jxelvecev, Xoycp re /cat ypdfi/jiaat, voixoderrjdevra.

' Cf. on 389 D. '' The reference is to the general tenour of what precedes, ' irpdrepov is an unconscious lapse from the construction

of an ideal state to the reformation of degenerate Athens. Cf. Isoc. Areopagiticus 41 ff., and Laws 876 b-c, 948 c-d.

"* For these traits of old-fashioned decorum and modesty cf. Aristoph. Clouds 961-1023, Blaydes on 991, Herod, ii. 80, Isoc. Areopagit. 48-49.

' Cf. Starkie on Aristoph. Wasps 1069.

334

THE REPUBLIC. BOOK IV

dealings, and from these relations it proceeds against the laws and the constitution with wanton licence, Socrates, till finally it overthrows" all things

pubhc and private." " Well," said I, " are these things so ? " " I think so," he said. " Then, as we were saying '' in the beginning, our youth must join in a more law-abiding play, since, if play grows law- less and the children like^^ise, it is impossible that they should grow up to be men of serious temper and lawful spirit." " Of course," he said. " And so we may reason that when children in their earliest play are imbued with the spirit of law and order through their music, the opposite of the former supposition

happens—this spirit waits upon them in all things and fosters their gro^^i:h, and restores and sets up again whatever was overthrown in the other'' type of state." *' True, indeed," he said. " Then such men redis- cover for themselves those seemingly trifling conven-

tions which their predecessors abolished altogether." " Of what sort ? " " Such things as the becoming silence ** of the young in the presence of their elders ; the giving place to them and rising up before them, and dutiful service of parents, and the cut of the hair * and the garments and the fashion of the foot- gear, and in general the deportment of the body and everything of the kind. Don't you think so ?

"

" I do." " Yet to enact them into laws would, I

think, be silly .-^ For such laws are not obeyed nor would they last, being enacted only in words and on

* Cf. on 412 B, Isoc. Areopagit. 41, and Laics 788 b, where the further, still pertinent consideration is added that the multiplication of minor enactments tends to bring funda- mental laws into contempt. Cf. " Plato's Laves and the Unity of Plato's Thought," p. 353, n. 2.

335

PLATO

rioj:? yap; J^ivSwevei, yovv, ^v 8' iyo), cS 'ASet-

fiavre, e/c rrjs TratSetas', ottol av ns opfii^arj, C ToiauTa KaL ra errofxeva etvat. r^ ovk del to

ofjLotov ov ofxoLov TTapaKoXeZ; Ti fxriv; Kat re- AeuTcDi' St^, olp,ai, ^ai/xev at' et? eV rt reAeot' /cat

t'eap'i/cov aTTo^aiveiv avro r) dya^ov ^ /cat rouvai'- Tt'ov. Tt yap ovk; 77 S' o?. 'Eyco /xet' roivvv, cIttov, Std ravra ovk av en to, roiavra cttl- X€ipTJaai,[jii vopLodereZv. Et/coroj? y', e^''?- Tt 8e, c5 77p6? decov, €(f)r]v, ra dyopala ^vfjc^oXaicov re Trept /car' dyopdv e/cacTTOt d Trpds' dAArjAows' ivp,-

D ^dXXovcnv, ei 8e ^ovXei, Kal ;^et/)OTe;)^vt/cdjv Trept ^vfji^oXalcov Kal XoiSopLcov Kal at/cta? /cat St/ccuv

Ary^et?^ /cat St/cacrrajr KaTaordaeis, /cat et ttou

TeAcDt' Ttve? r^ Trpd^etg t] Oeueis dvayKalot elcnv •^

/car' dyopd? ^ At/xeVa?, •^ /cat rd TTapdnav dyopa-

vofMLKa drra r} daTWOfiLKa t) iXXcfieviKa rj oaa dXXa TOLavra, tovtcov ToXp^rjaopiiv ri vopboOeTelv

;

'AAA' OVK d^iov, €(f>r], dvSpdai KaXols Kdyadols

eTTtraTTetv Ta TToXXd yap avrcov, oaa Set vop.oder'q-

E aaadai, pahicos ttov evpr^aovaiv. Nat, cS (j)iXe, cIttov, idv ye 9e6g avrols StSoi acoTr^piav rcuv

1 X^^ews q : X-q^eis others.

" Cf. 401 c, Demosth. 01ynth. iii. 33 riXewv n Kal ixiya. '> TO. roiavra is slightly contemptuous. Specific commercial,

industrial and criminal legislation was not compatible with the plan of the Republic, and so Plato omits it here. Much of it is given in the Laws, but even there details are left to the citizens and their rulers. Cf. supra on 413 b.

" Cf. Laws 922 a, Aristot. Pol. J 263 b 21. All legal relations of contract, implied contract and tort. ''In Laws 920 d Plato allows a dlKr] dreXovs ofioXoyias against

336

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK IV

paper." " How could they ? " " At any rate, Adeimantus," I said, " the direction of the education from whence one starts is Ukely to determine the quahty of what follows. Does not like ever summon like?" "Surely." "And the final" outcome, 1 ]Hesume, we would say is one complete and vigorous product of good or the reverse." " Of course," said he. " For my part, then," I said, " for these reasons I would not go on to try to legislate on such matters. *"" "With good reason," said he. "But what, in heaven's name," said I, " about business matters, the deals " that men make with one another in the agora—and, if you please, contracts with workmen'* and actions for foul language* and assault, the filing of declarations,' the impanelling of juries, the payment and exaction of any dues that may be needful in markets or harbours and in general market, police or harbour regulations and the like, can we brings our- selves to legislate about these ? " " Nay, 'twould not be fitting," he said, "to dictate to good and honour- able men.'^ For most of the enactments that are needed about these things they will easily, I presume, discover." "Yes, myfriend, provided Godgrants them the preservation of the principles of law that we have

workmen or contractors who break or fail to complete con- tracts.

* Cf. Laws 935 c. There was no \oidopias SUr) under that name at Athens, but certain words were actionable, dirdpfynra, and there was a SiK-q KaK-r]yopla%.

^ Plato shows his contempt for the subject by this confused enumeration, passing without warning from contracts and torts to procedure and then to taxes, market, harbour and police regulations.

" To\ii.y\(joii.iv is both " venture " and " deign." * Cf. Isoc. Panegyr. 78 Srt roils KaXoh KayaOoh tSjv avdpui-ruv

ovSiv derjaei iroWwv ypap.n6.ru3v,

VOL. I z 337

PLATO

voficov (Lv efMTTpoaOev Si-qXBofiev. Et 8e fx-q ye, Ty 8' OS, TToAAo. roiavra rcdefxevoL del Kal eiravopdov-

fxevoL rov ^iov StareAecrouatv, olojxevoL e7nXT]ifjeadai

Tov ^eXriarov . Aeyeij, e^T^t- eyco, ^LOjaeadaL tous

TOLovTOVs axTvep Tovs Kajjivovrds re Kal ovk

edeXovras vtto aKoXaaias eK^rjvai TTOvqpds SiatT'qs. 426 Yldvv puev ovv. Kat fj,r]v odrol ye )(apUvrais

SiareXovaiv. larpevofjievoL yap ovBev Trepaivovai, ttXtiv ye TTOiKiXajrepa Kal ju,ei^a> ttoiovgl to. vo-

a-q/jiara, Kal del eXTTLt,ovres, edv tls ^dpfxaKov

^v/jL^ouXevarj, vtto tovtov eaeadai vyiels. Yldvv

yap, e(f>rj, tcjv ovro) Kapivovrcov rd roiavra Trddrj. I oe; rjv o eyco' rode avrojv ov )(apLev, ro

rravroiv exOi^f^Tov rjyeiodai, rov rdXrjdrj Xeyovra,

on rrplv dv /jlcBvcov Kal ejXTrnrXdpLevos Kal d(f)poBL- B aid^cDV Kal dpycbv Travar^rai, ovre (f)dpfiaKa ovre

Kavcreis ovre rofial ov8^ av eTTcoSal avrov ouSe

TTepiawra ovBe dXXo rdJv roiovrojv ovhev ovrjoet;

Ov irdvv )(^apLev, e^rj' rd yap rep ev Xeyovri XO-XeTTaiveiv ovk ep^et X'^piv. Ovk eTTaiverrjs et, €(/)rjv iyio, ws eoiKas, ru)v roLovra>v dvhpojv. Ov fjLevroL fid At'a.

" Cf. Emerson, " Experience " : " Thej' wish to be saved from the mischiefs of their vices but not from their vices. Charity would be wasted on this poor waiting on the symptoms. A wise and hardy physician will say, ' Come out of that ' as the first condition of advice."

" Ironical. Quite fanciful is Dummler's supposition (Kleine Schriften, i. p. 99) that this passage was meant as destructive criticism of Isocrates' Panegyrkus and that Anfid. 62 is a reply, Plato is obviously thinking of practical politicians rather than of Isocrates.

" wXr/v ye etc., Is loosely elliptical, but emendations are superfluous.

838

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK IV

already discussed." " Failing that," said he, " they

will pass their lives multiplying such petty laws and

amending them in the expectation of attaining what is best." "You mean," said I, "that the life of such citizens will resemble that of men who are sick, yet from intemperance are unwilling to abandon <" their unwholesome regimen." " By all means." " And truly," said I, " these latter go on in a most charming** fashion. For vdih all their doctoring they accomplish

nothing except to complicate and augment their maladies. And '^ they are always hoping that some one will recommend a panacea that \^-ill restore their health." " A perfect description," he said, " of the state of such invalids." " And isn't this a charming trait in them, that they hate most in all the world him who tells them the truth that until a man stops drinking and gorging and wenching and idhng, neither drugs •*

nor cautery nor the knife, no, nor spells nor periapts

«

nor anything of that kind will be of any avail?" " Not altogether charming," he said, " for there is no grace or charm in being angrj' ' with him who speaks well." "You do not seem to be an admirer^ of such people," said I. " No, by heaven, I am not."

'' For the list c/. Pindar, Pyth. iii. 50-54.. ovo at em- phasizes the transition to superstitious remedies in which

Plato doesn't reallv believe. Cf. his rationalizing interpreta-

tion of eircjjSat, Charm. 157 a, flieaetet. 149 c. Laws 933 a-b is to be interpreted in the spirit of the observation in Selden's

Table Talk : "The law against witches does not prove that there bee any but it punishes the malice," etc. [Demosthenes] XXV. 80 is sceptical.

• Cf. anv lexicon. Shakes. 1 Henry VI. v. iii. 2 "Now help, ye charming spells and periapts," and Plutarch's story of the women who hung them on Pericles' neck on his death-bed. ' Cf. 480 a, 354 a.

' The noim is more forcible than the verb would be. Cf. Protag. 309 a eiraiv^TTis.

339

PLATO

V. OuS' ai^ Tj TToXis apa, oTrep dprt, iXeyofxev, oXrj TOLOvrov noLrj, ovk ivaLvecreL. rj ov <f>aivov- rat (JOL raVTOV ipyd^eadai rovrois rcov ttoXccov

C ocrat KaKcos TToXiTevoyLevai rrpoayopevovcn rots TToXtrais Tr)v jxkv Kardaraatv rrjs TToXeojs oXrjv [myj KLvelv, d>s oLTTodavovfievovg , o? a;' tovto 8/>a* o? 8' av a(f)dg ovrco TToXirevofJievovs -qSiara OepaTrevr)

/cat x^apil,riTaL VTTorpextov Kal TrpoytyvcooKcov rds CT^erepas' ^ovXrjcjeLs koL ravrag Seivos

fj oltto-

rrXrjpovv, ovrog dpa dyados re earai dvr]p Kal aocjiog ra fxeydXa koL ripur^aeraL vtto a(j>cbv; Tavrov fxev ovv, €(f)r], efioiye hoKovai hpdv, Kal oyS' oTTOianovv

D eTTaLvdJ. Tt S' av rovs deXovra? Bepaireveiv rds roiavras ttoXcls Kal TrpodvpLovp^evovs ovk dyaaai rrjs dvSpeias re Kal ev)(epeias; "Eycuy', e<^i7,

ttXtjv y' oaoL e^rjTTdrrjvrai vtt' avrcbv Kal o'iovrai,

rfj dXrjdeia TToXiriKol elvac, on eTraivovvrai vtto rdiv TToXXdjv. HdJs Xeyeis; ov (JvyyiyvwaKeis,

" We return from the illustration to its application to the

* bf. 497 B, Aristot. Pol, 1301 b 11. Cf. the obvious imitation in the (probably spurious) Epistle vii. 330 e. For the thought, from the point of view of an enemy of democracy, cf. the statement in [Xen.] Rep. Ath. 3. 9, that the faults of Athens cannot be corrected while she remains a democracy. The Athenians naturally guarded their con- stitution and viewed with equal suspicion the idealistic re- former and the oligarchical reactionary.

" Gf. supra, p. 65 note d, and Imws 923 b. The phraseology here recalls Gorg. 517 b, Aristoph. Knights 46-63. Gf. " Plato's Laws and the Unity of Plato's Thought," Class. Phil. vol. ix. (Oct. 1914) p. 363, n. 3,

" Almost technical. Gf. 538 b. ' Here " serve," not " flatter." f This word evx^peia is often misunderstood by lexicons and

commentators. It is of course not " dexterity " (L. & S.) nor 340

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK IV

V. " Neither then, if an entire city," as we were just now saying, acts in this way, will it have your approval, or don't you think that the way of such invalids is precisely that of those cities which being badly governed forewarn their citizens not to meddle ^

with the general constitution of the state, denouncing death to whosoever attempts that—while whoever most agreeably serves '^ them governed as they are and who curries favour with them by fawning upon them and anticipating their desires and by his cleverness in irratifying them, him they will account the good man, the man wise in worthwhile things,** the man they will delight to honour ? " " Yes," he said, " I think their conduct is identical, and I don't approve it in the very least." " And what again of those who are willing and eager to serve ^ such states ? Don't you admire their vahance and light-hearted irresponsibility-'^?

"

I do," he said, " except those who are actually deluded and suppose themselves to be in truth statesmen' because they are praised by the many." " What do you mean ? Can't you make allowances '^

yet probably " complaisance," nor yet " humanitas " or " Gutmiitigkeit," as Adam and Schneider think. It ex- presses rather the lightheartedness with which such politicians rush in where wiser men fear to tread, which is akin to the lightness with which men plunge into crime. Cf. Laws 690 d tQv iiri vbixiav dfcriv Iovtuv p<}diw^ and 969 a avSpeioraroi. Plato's political physician makes " come out of that " a precondition of his treatment. Cf. Laws 736-737, Pol it. 299 a-b, in/ra 501 A, 540 E, Epistle vii. 330 c-d, and the story in Aelian, V.H. ii. 42, of Plato's refusal to legislate for the Arcadians because they would not accept an equalization of propertv.

' Cf. Euthyphro 2 c-d, Gorg. 513 b, Polit. 275 c and 292 D.

* Plato often condescendingly and half ironically pardons psychologically inevitable errors. Cf. 366 c, Phaedr. 269 b, Euthydem. 306 c.

341

PLATO

rjv 8' iyco, Tols dvBpdaLv; rj o'Ul olov r elvai

dvhpX jxr) iTTiaTafievct) fierpeiv, irepcov toiovtcov

TToAAcui' Xcyovrcxjv otl r€Tpd7r7])(vs eariv, avrov E ravra p,rj -qyeladaL rrepl avrov; Ovk av,

€(f>7],

rovro ye. Mt) tolvvv ;)^aAe7raiv'e • /cat yap ttov etai TTai'TWV )^apUararoL ol tolovtol, vofioOeTOvv-

re? T€ Ota aprt Bi-qXdojxev /cat eTravopOovvres del

olofievoi TL TTepas evprjaeiv irepl rd ev rols ivjx- ^oXaioLs KaKovpyrjpLara /cat Trepl a vvv Srj eyd) eXeyov, dyvoovvTe<s on tco ovtl cjOTrep "YSpav

427 repLvovaiv . Kat p-rjv, e(f)r), ovk aAAo ti ye TTOiovaiv. 'Eyw fiev roivvv, rjv §' eyo), ro roiovrov etSo? vofiojv irept, /cat TToXireias ovr^ ev /ca/ccD? ovr* ev ev

TToXtrevo^evr) TToXec cpjxrjv av helv rov dXrjdivov

vofxoderrjv Trpayiiareveodai, ev rfj fxev on dvco(f>eXri /cat TrXeov ovSev, ev 8e rfj, on rd fiev avrdJv Kav oariaovv evpoi, rd he on avrofiara eTreiartv eV rcbv efiTTpoaOev emrrjhevixdnxiv

.

B Tt ovv, ecfy-q, en, dv rjjjiiv Xolttov rrjg vopLodeaiag elrj; /cat eyoj elirov on 'Wplv piev ov8ev, rip pevrot, 'AttoAAcovi r(p ev AeA^otj rd re peyiara /cat /caAAtcrra

Kal TTpoJra rojv vop,oderr]pidrcov. Tdnola; ^ 8 os.

" For OVK a5 cf. 393 d, 442 a, Theaetet. 161a, Class. Phil. vol. xxiii. pp. 285-287. i^yw-^e above concurs with Ayaaai, ignoring the irony. TrX^f ye etc. marks dissent on one point. This dissent is challenged, and is withdrawn by OVK aC . . . TovTo ye (ol/xai)-

* T(fi 6vTi points the application of the proverbial vSpav

riixviiv, which appears in its now trite metaphorical use for the first time here and in Euthydem. 297 c. Cf. my note on Horace iv. 4. 61. For the thought cf. Isoc. vii. 40, Macrob. Sat. ii. 13 "leges bonae ex malis moribus procreantur," Arcesilaus apud Stob. Flor. xliii. 91 ovtu Srj Kal Sirov vo/xoi

342

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK IV

for the men ? Do you think it possible for a man who does not know how to measure when a multitude of others equally ignorant assure him that he is four cubits tall not to suppose this to be the fact about himself?" "Why no,"" he said, "I don't think that." " Then don't be harsh with them. For surely such fellows are the most charming spectacle in the world when they enact and amend such laws as we just now described and are perpetually expecting to find a way of putting an end to frauds in business and in the other matters of which I was speaking because they can't see that they are in very truth ^ trying to cut off a Hydra's head." " Indeed," he said, " that is exactly what they are doing." " I, then," said I, " should not have supposed ' that the true lawgiver ought to work out matters of that kind'' in the laws and the constitution of either an ill-governed or a well- governed state—in the one because they are useless and accomplish nothing, in the other because some of them anybody could discover and others will result spontaneously from the pursuits already described."

" What part of legislation, then," he said, " is still left for us ? " And I replied, " For us nothing, but for the Apollo of Delphi, the chief, the fairest and the first of enactments." '* What are they ? " he said.

rXewTot iKCi /cat aSiKiav tlrai fieyia-rqw, Theophrastus apud Stob. Flor. xxxvii. 21 dXiycjv ol ayadoi pSfuav dtovrau

' Ironically, " I should not have supposed, but for the practice of our politicians."

"* elooi vofiuiv -ripi is here a mere periphrasis, though the true classification of laws was a topic of the day. Cf. Ijows 630 E, Aristot. PoL 1267 b 37. Plato is not always careful to mark the distinction between the legislation which he rejects altogether and that which he leaves to the discretion of the citizens.

343

PLATO

'lepaJv re ISpvaeis Kal dvaiai koL aAAat decbv re

/cat Saifiovcov Kal -qpcocov depaTreZai. reXevr-qadv-

rojv* re' av drJKac Kal oaa rois eKel hel vrnqpe- Tovvras lAeoj? avrov? ^X^'-^' '''^ Y^P ^V TOLavra

C ovr^ eTTLcrrdfjieOa rjp.els olKil^ovres re ttoXlv ovSevl dXXu) TTeiaofxeda, idv vovv e;)^a>/x€i', ouSe xPV^^fxeda

i^-qyrjrfj dAA' rj rep Trarplco. ovrog yap Si^ttou o deos nepl rd roiavra Trdaiv dvOpconoLS rrarpLOS e^Tjyqrr]? ev p,eacp rijs yrjs eirl rov 6pi(f)aXov Kad-

7][jLevos e^rjyetrat,. Kat KaXws y* , e(j>v^, Xeyeis' /cat TTOlTjreOV OVTO).

J) VI. 'Q.LKL(jfi€inf] fxev roivvv, rjv 8' eyco, rjSrj av

aoi €L7], c5 TTttt ^Kpiarojvos, rj ttoXis' to Se 8rj jxerd

rovro OKOTTei ev avrfj (f>a)g iroQev TTopiaapievos

LKavov avTos re Kal rov d8eX(f>6v rrapaKdXet Kal

YloXefjLapxov Kal rovs dXXovg, edv ttcds lha>pLev, ttov

ttot' dv e'ir] rj StKaioavvr] Kal ttov rj dSt/cta, /cat ri

"» ^A:et = in the other world. So often. * For the exegete as a special religious functionary at

Athens cf. L. & S. s.v. and Laws 759 c-d. Apollo in a higher sense is the interpreter of religion for all mankind. He is technically warpt^os at Athens {Euthydem. 302 d) but he is Trdrpios for all Greeks and all men. Plato does not, as Thiimser says (p. 301), confuse the Dorian and the Ionian Apollo, but rises above the distinction.

" Plato prudently or piously leaves the details of cere- monial and institutional religion to Delphi. Cf. 540 b-c. Laws 759 c, 738 b-c, 828 a, 856 e, 865 b, 914 a, 947 d.

* This " navel " stone, supposed to mark the centre of the earth, has now been found. Cf. Poulsen's Delphi, pp. 19, 29, 157, and Frazer on Pausanias x. 16.

* Not the dvayKaioTarr] w6\ts of 369 E, nor the (fAeyfiaivovffa TToXts of 372 E, but the purified city of 399 e has now been established and described. The search for justice that follows formulates for the first time the doctrine of the four cardinal

virtues and defines each provisionally and sufficiently for the

344

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK IV

" The founding of temples, and sacrifices, and other forms of worship of gods, daemons, and heroes ; and likewise the burial of the dead and the ser^ices we must render to the dwellers in the world beyond " to keep them gracious. For of such matters we neither know anything nor in the founding of our city if we are wise shall we entrust them to any other or make use of any other interpreter ^ than the God of our fathers.'' For this God surely is in such matters for all mankind the interpreter of the religion of their fathers who from his seat in the middle and at the very navel <* of the earth delivers his interpretation." " Excellently said," he replied ; " and that is what we must do."

VI. " Atlast,then,sonofAriston,"saidI,"yourcity* may be considered as established. The next thing is to procure a sufficient light somewhere and to look your- self,/ and call in the aid of your brother and of Polem- archus and the rest, if we may in an}- wise discover where justice and injustice' should be in it, wherein

present purpose, and solves the problems dramatically pre- sented in the minor dialogues, Charmides, Laches, etc, Cf. Unity of Plato's Thought, pp. 15-18, nn. 81-102, and the introduction to the second volume of this translation.

' airroi re Kai : cf. 398 A. • See on 369 a. Matter-of-fact critics may object that there

is no injustice in the perfectly good state. But we know the bad best by the canon of the good. Cf. on 409 a-b. The knowledge of opposites is the same.

Injustice can be defined only in relation to its opposite (444 a-b), and in the final argument the most unjust man and state are set up as the extreme antitypes of the ideal (571-580). By the perfect state Plato does not mean a state in which no individual retains any human imperfections.

It is idle then to speak of "difficulties" or "contradic- tions " or changes of plan in the composition of the Republic.

345

PLATO

aXXrjXoiv Sta(f)€peTOV, Kal TTorepov Set KeKrijaOai

Tov fieXAovra evSaifiova etvai, idv re Xavddvrj idv

T€ fiTj TTOLVTas deovs re /cat dvdpcoTTovs. OvSev Aeyets", €(f>r] 6 VXauKcov av yap vnecrxov t,irjr'^Geiv,

E d)s oux ooLov aoi ov jxr] ov ^o-qdeXu SiKacocrvvrj ei? SuvajJiLV TTavTL rpoTTCo. ^AXtjOt], e(f>rjv iyco, vtto-

IXLjxvqaKetg, Kal TTOirjreov jxiv ye ovrco, xpr] 8e /cat

UjLta? ^vXAa/jL^dveiv. 'AAA', e^r^, TTonjaopLev ovtoj.

EiXttl(,(x) ToivvVy rjv S iyw, evprjaeiv avro o58e. ot/xat r^pJiv TTjv ttoXlv, eiTrep 6p9cbg ye wKiarai,

reXecos dyadrjv elvai. 'Amy/CTj, €(f)r]. ArjXov 8-q

OTt ao<f}ri T e'cTTt /cat dvSpela /cat aco(f)p(X)v /cat

St/cata. A'^Aot'. Ou/cow o Tt ai/ auTOJV' €vpa)pev iv avTjj, TO VTToXoiTTov eaxttt to ovx €vp-qp,€vov

;

428 Tt /AT^i^; "Q-arrep tolvvv dXXcov tivcov TeTrdpoju, et eV Tt it,rjTovp€v avrcov iv orcoovv, ottotc

TTpwTov eKelvo eyva>p.€V, LKavoJs dv elx^v rjplv, et

Se TO. rpta Trporepov iyvojpcaapev, avrw du tovtco eyvioptaro to ^-qTOvpevov SrjXov yap otl ovk dXXo

" For idv re . . . idv re cf. 367 E, "" Cf. supra 331 e. Emphatic as in 41.9 d-4o0 a, Phaedo

95 A, and Ahib. I. 135 d. " Cf. 368 B-c. "* Cf. 434 E, 449 A. This in a sense begs the original

question in controversy with Thrasymachus, by the assump- tion that justice and the other moral virtues are goods. Cf. Oorg. 507 c. See The Idea of Good in Plato's Republic, p. 205. Por the cardinal virtues cf. Schmidt, Ethik der Oriechen, i. p. 304, Pearson, Fragments of Zeno and Cleanthes, pp. 173f., and commentators on Pindar, Nem. iii. 74, which seems to refer to four periods of human life, and Xen. Mem. iii. 9. 1-5, and iv. 6. 1-12.

Plato recognizes other virtues even in the Repxiblic {supra 402 c iXivdepioT-qs and fjieyaXowpiireM. Cf. 536 a), and would have been as ready to admit that the number four was a

346

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK IV

they differ from one another and which of the two he must have who is to be happy, aUke " whether his condition is known or not known to all gods and men." " Nonsense," said Glaucon, " you * promised that you would carry on the search yourself, admitting that it would be impious "^ for you not to come to the aid of justice by every means in your power." " A true reminder," I said, " and I must do so, but you also must lend a hand." " Well," he said, " we will." " I expect then," said I, " that we shall find it in this way. I think our city, if it has been rightly founded, is good inthefullsenseof the word.**" "Necessarily," he said. " Clearly, then, it will be wise, brave, sober, and just." " Clearly." " Then if we find any of these qualities in it, the remainder « will be that which we have not found ? " " Surely." " Take the case of any four other things. If we were looking for any one of them in anything and recognized the object of our search first, that would have been enough for us, but if we had recognized the other three first, that in itself would have made known to us the thing we were seeking. For plainly there was nothing part of his literary machinery as Ruskin was to confess the arbitrariness of his Seven Lamps of Architecture.

» It is pedantry to identify this with Mill's method of residues and then comment on the primitive naivete of such an application of Logic to ethics. One might as well speak of Andocides' employment of the method {De myst. 109) or of its use by Gorgias in the disjunctive dilemma of the Palamedes 1 1 and passim, or say that the dog of the anec- dote employs it when he sniffs at one trail and immediately runs up the other. Plato obviously employs it merely as a literary device for the presentation of his material under the figure of a search. He, " in the infancy of philosophy," is quite as well aware as his censors can be in the senility of criticism that he is not proving anything by this method, but merely setting forth what he has assumed for other reasons.

317

PLATO

ert rjv rj ro VTToXei^dev. 'Opdcos, ^4'V> ^^yet?-

OvKovv Kol rrepl tovtcov, eVeiS?) rerrapa ovra Tvyxavei, (haavrcos ^rjTTjreov; A-fjAa Srj. Kat jxev

K St) TTpcoTov yi /xot So/cet ev avrGi KaTaSiqXov elvai rj aocj)La' /cat Tt droTTov vepl avrrjv ^atVerai. Tt;

rj S' 6'?. YiO^Tj p.kv TO) ovri So/cet jxoi rj ttoAi? eti^at

'^i' hiriXdopiev ev^ovXos yap. ov;^t; Nat. Kat jjltjv TOVTo ye avTO, rj ev^ovXia, drjXov on eTTiarripLr] ns iariv ov yap ttov ap,adia ye dXX eTnarrjiirj ev ^ovXevovrai. ArjXov. IloAAat Se ye /cat rravTO-

SaTTal eTTLarrjfiai ev rfj TToXei elaiv. Ylo)^ yap ov; ^Ap' ovv Std Trjv Tcbv t€kt6v(ov eTnar'jpirjV ao(f>r]

C /cat ev^ouXos rj ttoXls Trpoaprjrea; OuSa/xcD?, 6^17, 8ta ye TavrrjV, dXXa reKTOVLKifj. Ovk dpa Sid rrjv vrrep rdjv ^vXivojv crKevwv €7TtaT'qp,r]v, ^ovXevofxevr) ,^

ojs dv exoi ^eXriara, ao(f>rj KXrjrea ttoXls. Ov pbevTOi. Tt he; rrjv inrep ru)v e/c rov xoXkov rj Ttra dXXrjv twv roiovrcov; OwS' rjVTLVovv, e<f>rj. Ovhe Trjv vrrep rod Kaprrov rrjs yeveaecos e/c rrjs

^ ^ovXevofiivri codd. : ^ovXevo/jLivriv Heindorf.

<» ffO(j>ia is wisdom par excellence. Aristotle, Met. i., traces the history of the idea from Homer to its identification in Aristotle's mind with first philosophy or metaphysics. For Plato, the moralist, it is virtue and the fear of the Lord ; for his political theory it is the " political or royal art " which the dramatic dialogues fail to distinguish from the special sciences and arts. Cf. Unity of Plato's Thouqht, p. 17, n. 97, Protag. 319 a, Euthyd. 283 e, 291 c, Gorg. 501 a-b, etc.

In the unreformed Greek state its counterfeit counterpart is the art of the politician.

In the Republic its reality will be found in the selected guardians who are to receive the higher education, and who alone will apprehend the idea of good, which is not mentioned here simply because Plato, not Krohn, is writing the

liepublic,

348

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK IV

left for it to be but the remainder." " Right," he said. " And so, since these are four, we must conduct the search in the same way." " Clearly." " And, moreover, the first thing that I think I clearly see therein is the \nsdom,'' and there is something odd about that, it appears." " What ? " said he. " Wise in very deed I think the city that we have described is, for it is well counselled, is it not ?

"

" Yes." "And surely this very thing, good counsel,* is a form of wisdom. For it is not by ignorance but by knowledge that men counsel well." " ObWously." " But there are many and manifold knowledges or sciences in the city." " Of course." " Is it then owing to the science of her carpenters that a city is to be called wise and well advised ? " " By no means for that, but rather mistress of the arts of building." " Then a city is not to be styled wise because of the deliberations '^ of the science of wooden utensils for their best production ? " " No, I grant you." " Is it, then, because of that of brass implements or any other of that kind ? " " None whatsoever," he said. " Nor yet because of the science of the production of crops from the soil, but the name it takes from that

* Protagoras, like Isocrates, professed to teach ev^ovkia.

{Protag. 318 e), which Socrates at once identifies with the political art. Plato would accept Protagoras's discrimination of this from the special arts {ibid. 318 e ff.), but he does not believe that such as Protagoras can teach it. His political art is a very diflFerent thing from Protagoras's ev^ovXia and is ap- prehended by a very different education from that offered by Protagoras. Cf. " Plato's Ijaws and the Unity of Plato's Thought," p. 348, n. 5, Euihydem. 291 b-c. Charm. 170 b, Protag. 319 a, Gorg. 501 a-b, 503 d, Polit. 289 c, 393 d, 309 c.

* ^ovXevotxivi) : Heindorf's ^ovXevofi^vrjv is perhaps sup- ported by 5 . . . /Joi'Xei'CTai below, but in view of Plato's colloquial anacoluthic style is unnecessary.

349

PLATO

yrjg, dAAa yecDpyLK-q. AoKet /zot. Ti 8e; ^v 8*

eyco- ecrri rij eTncrr'qix'q ev rfj apri vcf)' rjfjicbv

OLKLadeLaj] Trapd tlol rcou ttoXltcov, fj ovx virep rcbv

D €v Tjj TToXei TLi'os ^ovXevexai, dAA' inrep iavT'qs oXrjs, ovTiv av rpoTTov avr'q re rrpos avTrjv /cat Trpos Tas

aXXas TToXeis apiara ofjuXol; "Ecrrt jjiivroi. Ti?,

€cl)r]v iyo), /cat eV riaiv; KvTr], r^ S' 6'?, 17 <f)vXaKt.K7]

/cat ev TODTots" Tot? ap-^ovaiv, ovs vvv Srj reXeovs

<f>vXaKas (vvofxaS^opiev. Atd TavTT]v ovv rrjv evrt-

arrjfji'qv ri Trjv ttoXlu Trpoaayopeveis ; EyjSouAov,

e^Ty, /cat to) wrt ao(f)t]v. Horepov ovv, rjv 8' eyco, E ei' TTJ TToXet o'Ui 'qplv ;^aA/ceas' irXeiovs iveaeadai

7] Tovs (xXtjOluovs (f)vXaKas tovtovs; IIoAv, etprj,

XoXKeas. OvKovv, €(f)rjv, /cat rcbv dXXcov, oaoi

eTTLGT-qixas e^ovTes 6voiidl,ovrai tlv€s elvai, TrdvTiDV

rovrojv ovroi dv elev oXlyiOTOi; YloXv ye. To)

afXiKpordrcp dpa eOvei /cat fiepei iavrrjg /cat tt] ev

TovTcp emaTTJfxr), raJ TrpoearcuTi /cat dpxovri, oXrj

ao(j>r] dv eirj /caret <f)vuLV olKiadelaa ttoXls' /cat

429 Tovro, d)s eoLKe, <f>va€i oXiyLarov yiyverai yevog, (h

TTpotyrjKeL ravrrjg rrjs eTnur-qixrjs jJieraXayxdveLV,

r]v pLovrjv 8et tcjv dXXcJv iTnarrjficov ao(f>Lav

KaXeladat. 'AXrjdearaTa, €(f)rj, Ae'yeis'. Tovro fxev Srj ev Tcov rerrdpcov ovk otSa ovTiva rpoTTOv

evpiJKafxev avro re /cat ottov rrjs iroXeois tSpvrai.

'E/xot yovv 80/cet, e(f)r], aTTOXP^vraJS evprjadaL.

VII. 'AAAct fJLTjv dvhpeia ye avT-q re Kal ev J)

1 SvTip' Sf Ast's conjecture : ovTiva codd.

» Cf. on 416 c. ^ Cf. Protag. 31 1 e ri 6vo/j,a fiXXo ye Xeyofj^evov irtpl Upuir-

350

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK IV

is agricultural." " I think so." " Then," said I, " is there any science in the city just founded by us residing in any of its citizens which does not take counsel about some particular thing in the city but about the city as a whole and the betterment of its relations with itself" and other states ? " " Why, yes, there is." " What is it," said I, " and in whom is it found ? " " It is the science of guardianship or government and it is to be found in those rulers to whom we just now gave the name of guardians in the full sense of the word." " And what tenn then do you apply to the city because of this knowledge ?

"

" Well advised," he said, " and truly ^^ise." " Which class, then," said I, " do you suppose will be the more numerous in our city, the smiths or these true guardians ? " " The smiths, by far," he said. "And would not these rulers be the smallest of all the groups of those who possess special knowledge and receive distinctive appellations *? " "By far." "Then it is by virtue of its smallest class and minutest part of itself, and the ii^isdom that resides therein, in the part which takes the lead and rules, that a city established on principles of nature would be wise as a whole. And as it appears these are by nature the fewest, the class to which it pertains to partake of the knowledge which alone of all forms of knowledge deserves the name of wisdom." " Most true," he said. " This one of our four, then, we have, I know not how, dis- covered, the thing itself and its place in the state." " I certainly think," said he, " that it has been dis- covered sufficiently."

VII. " But again there is no difficulty in seeing

ay6pov aKovofiev ; warep xepl ^eiSiov dya\fULTOT0ibt> Kal -repl O/JirjpOV lrOL7)TT]V.

351

PLATO

/^eirat rrjg TToAecu?, 8t' o roLavrrj KXrjrea rj ttoAis",

ov TTOLVV ;^aAe7r6p' iSetv. 11 cD? 8^; Tt? az/, •i^v S'

B eyo), els dXXo ri CLTTo^Xeijias "q BeiXrjv ^ dvSpeiav TToXlV eiTTOl, oAA' T] cls TOVTO TO fldpOS, O TTpOTToXejJLel

T€ Kai arpareverai VTrkp avrrjs; OuS' dv els, e^^,

eij ctAAo TL. Ov yap olp.ai, elrrov, ol ye ctAAoi iv avTTJ 7) oecXoi ?} dvSpeXoi, ovres Kvpioi dv etev r)

TOiav avTTjv etvai •^ roLav. Ov ydp. Kat dvBpela dpa ttoXls jue'pei rivl eavrfjs ecTTt, hid ro iv eKeivcp

^X^''^ ^vvaficv TOiavTTjv, ^ Std Travros' crcoaei rrjv

C Trept tcDp* Seivdjv So^av, ravrd re avrd elvai /cat TOLavTa, a re /cat oia o vojjLoOerrjs TTaprjyyeiXev iv

rfj TratSeta. ^ oi5 tovto dvhpelav KaXets; Ov Trdvv, €cf)r], efiaOov o eiTres, aAA' avOis etTre. Hcott]-

piav eycoy , elirov, Xeycj rivd elvai rrjv dvSpeiav.

riotW 817 ao)T7]piav; T'r]v rrjs So^tj? ttjs vtto

vo/JLOv 8ta TTJs 77at8eta? yeyovviag Trepl rdjv Seivcbv,

d T€ CCTTt /cat Ota. 8td Txav-TO? 8e e'Aeyoi' avTrjv^

acorqpiav to eV t€ AuTrat? wra 8tao-aj^ecr^ai D avTTjv^ /cat er •)J8ovars /cat ev eTTidvixiais /cat ev

(f>6^oi,s /cat ju.17 e/c^dAAeir. a) 8e /xoi 80/cet ofxoiov

^ avTTjv codd. : Adam unnecessarily ai/T-^s.

" Toiai^Tj = such, that is, brave. The courage of a state, qua such, also resides in a small class, the warriors.

* dvdpewi 6vTes : the ab urbe condita construction. Cf. supra

421 A. " Tolav . . . fi rolav: cf. 437 e, Phaedr. 271 d. Laws 721 b.

S52

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK IV

bravery itself and the part of the city in which it resides for which the city is called brave." " " How so ? " " Who," said I, " in calling a city cowardly or brave would fix his eyes on any other part of it than that which defends it and wages war in its behalf?" "No one at all," he said. "For the reason, I take it," said I, " that the cowardice or the bravery * of the other inhabitants does not determine for it the one quality or the other.'' " " It does not," " Bravery too, then, belongs to a city by virtue of a part of itself owing to its possession in that part of a quahty that under all conditions will preserve the conviction that things to be feared are precisely those which and such as the lawgiver <* inculcated in their education. Is not that what you call bravery ?

"

" I don't altogether understand* what you said," he replied; "but say it again." "A kind of conservation," I said, " is what I mean by bravery." " What sort of a conservation / ? " " The conservation of the con- viction which the law has created by education about fearful things—what and what sort of things are to be feared. And by the phrase ' under all conditions' ' I mean that the brave man preserves it both in pain and pleasures and in desires and fears and does not expel '' it from his soul. And I may illustrate it by a

" Cf. 442 c, Aristot. Eth. Nic. 1129 b 19 a-poordTrei 8' o i'6/ios (cai TO, Tov avopeiov ipya iroLeiv,

* Cf. supra on 347 a. ' ffwnjpiai' is the genus; Phileb. 34 a, Def. Plat. 412 a-b.

Hence woiav as often in the minor dialogues sometimes with a play on its idiomatic, contemptuous meaning. Cf. Laches 194 d.

» In the Laches 191 d-e, and the Laws 633 d also, Plato generalizes courage to include resistance to the lure of pleasure.

* Cf. supra 412 e.

VOL. I 2 A 353

PLATO

etvai, ideXco d7ret/<racrat, et ^ovXei. 'AAAct ^ov-

Xofxai. OvKovv otada, rjv S' eycu, otl ol jSa^Set?, eTretSai^ ^ovX-qOcbai, ^dipai epia coctt' elvai dXovpyd,

TTpoJTOv iikv e/cAeyoj^rat e/c roaovTCxiv xpojixaTOJv

fxlav (jivaiv rrjv roJv XevKcov, erreira npoTrapa-

aKevdt,ovaiv ovk oXiyrj TrapaaKevfj depaTrevaav-

T€s, OTTCOs Several o rt /xaAiara ro dvdos, /cat E ovTO) 8rj ^aTTTOvai' /cat o /xei' ai^ tovto) tco rponco

^ci(l)fj, SevaoTToiov yiyverai ro ^a(f>ev, /cat 'q ttXvgls

ovr dvev pv^xpidTCOv ovre [xerd pufifidTCov Swarat avTCJV TO dvdos d(f)aipelu6af d S' ai^ fx-q, otaOa ola Srj yiyverai, idv re rt? aAAa ;^/3a;/x,aTa ^dTrrrj idv re /cat ravra [xt] TTpodepaTrevaas. OtSa, e(j>t), on. eKTrXvra /cat yeAota. Toiovrov roivvv, rjv S'

iyo), VTToXa^e Kard Svva/xiv epydt^eadai /cat rjfids, ore e^eXeyofxeOa rovs arrparicoras /cat €7Tai8evop,ev

430 fiovacKfj /cat yvfivaaTiKT]' fi-qSev o'lov dXXo p-rj^a- vdcrdai, "q ottcos rjfJilv 6 ri KdXXtara rovs v6p.ovs TTeiadevres Se^otvro coarrep ^a(f>riv, Iva hevaoTTOids

avrojv rj So^a yiyvoiro /cat Trepl heivdiv /cat irepl rdjv dXXo)v, Sta to r'qv re (f)vaLV /cat tt^i^ rpocfyrjv

eTTirriheiav eap^rj/ceVat, /cat p,r^ avrdJv eKTrAvvat rrjv

" The moral training of the guardians is likened to the dyeing of selected white wools with fast colours. Cf. Aristot Etit. Nic. 1 105 a 2, Marc. Aurel. iii. 4. 3 diKaioavvri ^e^a/jL/xevov fis (iddos. Sir Thomas Browne, Christian Morals, i. 9 " Be what thou virtuously art, and let not the ocean wash away thy tincture." The idea that the underlying substance must be of neutral quality may have been suggested to Plato by Anaxagoras. It occurs in the Tiinaeus 50 d-e, whence it passed to Aristotle's psychology and Lucretius. Cf. my paper on " Plato, Epicurus and Lucretius," Harvard Studies, vol. xii. p. 204.

354

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK IV

similitude^if you please." " I do." " You are aware that dyers when they wish to dye wool so as to hold the purple hue begin by selecting from the many colours there be the one nature of the white and then give it a careful preparatory treatment so that it will take the hue in the best way, and after the treat- ment,'' then and then only, dip it in the dye. And things that are dyed by this process become fast- coloured'' and washing either with or without lyes cannot take away the sheen of their hues. But otlierwise you know what happens to them, whether •*

anyone dips other colours or even these without the preparatory treatment." " I know," he said, " that they present a ridiculous and washed-out appearance. " By this analogy, then," said I, " you must conceive what we too to the best of our ability were doing when we selected our soldiers and educated them in music* and exercises of the body. The sole aim of our contrivance was that they should be convinced and re- ceive our laws hke a dye as it were, so that their belief andfaithmight bedfast-coloured bothabout the things that are to be feared and all other things because of the fitness of their nature and nurture, and that so their dyes might not be washed out by those lyes

' For the technique c/. BlUmner, Technologie, vol. i. pp. 227 S. The depd-n-tvan seems to be virtually identical with the irpoTrapa<rK€V7i, SO that the aorist seems inappropriate, unless with Adam's earlier edition we transpose it immedi- ately before oitw 5^.

' For Sevffoirotds cf. L. & S., and Nauck, 'ASeffirora 441 rois devcroTToiots 0apyudKois ^avdi^erai.

* The two points of precaution are ( 1 ) to select white wool, not &\\a xpw/iara, (2) to prepare by treatment even this.

• C/. 522 A, Phileb. 17 b. ' yiyvoiro is process ; (KTrXvvai (aorist) is a single event (mi?).

355

PLATO

^a(f>rjv TO. pvufiara ravra, Seit'o, ovra eKKXvt^eiv,

Tj T€ 'qSovq, TTavTos y^aXeaTpaiov heivorepa ovaa

B TOVTO Spav Kal Kovias, Xvirr] re /cat <^6^09 koX €TndvpiLa, Tiavros aXKov pvp^jxarog. ttjv St] roiav-

T7JV hvvapLLV Kal aoirripiav 8ia iravro? ho^7]s opdrjs

T€ Kal vopiipLOV heivcbv irepi Kal firj dvSpelav eytoye

KaXoj Kal Tt'^e/xat, et /ii^ ri av dXXo Xeyeis. 'AAA'

ovSev, ^ 8' OS, Xeyoj. So/cet? yap (mol ttjv opOrjv So^au TT€pl rGiv avrGiv tovtcov dvev TraiSeias

yeyovvZav, rqv re Qrjpicjhr] /cai dvhpa7Tohd)hri , ovre

TTavv v6pip.ov^ rjyeZadat, dXXo re Ti t) avSpelav

C KaXelv. 'AXrjd^aTara, rjv S' eyco, Xeyeis. 'Atto- hexop.ai roivvv tovto dvSpeiav eti^ai. Kat yap aTToSexov, ^v 8' iyco, TroXiTLK-qv ye, Kal 6pda>s aTToSe^ei' avdis Se Trept avrov, edv ^ovXj), en KaXXiov Su[X€v. vvv yap ov tovto i^rjTovjxev , dXXd SLKaLOcrvvTjv TTpos ovv TrjV cKeivov ^"qT-qoLV, a»s

iycpfxai, iKavdJs ^X^*" 'AAAa KaXcjg, ecjur], Xeyeis. D VIII. Auo l-'-'^v, riv S' eyoi, ert AoiTra, a Set

KaTiZelv ev ttj TrdAet, 17 re actxjypoavvq Kal ov Srj

^ vo/xifiov codd. ; fibvLnov Stob. Flor. xliii. 97.

" buva: it is not fanciful to feel the unity of Plato's im- agination as well as of his thought in the recurrence of this word in the 5eiva Kal dvayKoia. . . . iradrj/xaTa of the mortal soul in Tim. 69 c.

* C/. Protag. 360 c-d. Laws 632 c. Aristot. Eth. Nic. 1116 b 24. Strictly speaking, Plato would recognize four grades, (1) philosophic bravery, (2) the bravery of the (iriKovpoi here defined, (3) casual civic bravery in ordinary states, (4) animal instinct, which hardly deserves the name. Cf. Laches 196 e. Mill, Nature, p. 47 "Consistent courage is always the effect of cultivation," etc.. Unity of Plato's Thought, nn. 46 and 77.

' Pluiedo 69 B. "* vofjLi/jLov of the Mss. yields quite as good a meaning as

S56

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK IV

that have such dread" p>ower to scour our faiths away,

pleasure more potent than any detergent or abstergent to accomplish this, and pain and fear and desire more sure than any lye. This power in the soul, then, this unfaihng conservation of right and lawful behef* about

things to be and not to be feared is what I call and would assume to be courage , unless you have something different to say." "No, nothing," said he; "for I pre- sume that you consider mere right opinion about the same matters not produced by education, that which may manifest itself in a beast or a slave,*^ to have little or nothing to do with law "* and that you would call it by another name than courage." " That is most true," said I. " Well then," he said, "I accept this as bravery." " Do so," said I, " and you will be right with the reservation ' that it is the courage of a citizen. Some other time.' if it please you, we will discuss it more fully. At present we were not seeking this but justice

;

and for the purpose of that inquiry I beheve we have done enough." " You are quite right," he said.

VIII. " Two things still remain," said I, " to make out in our city, soberness ' and the object ofthe whole

Stobaeus's ix6vifjLov. The virtuous habit that is inculcated by law is more abiding than accidental virtue.

* 7e marks a reservation as 415 e uTpaTiurriKdi y(,Polit. 309 e, Lcncs 710a TTjv 8T},uivdr]yf. Plotinus, unlike some modern com- mentators, perceived this. C/. Enn. i. 2. 3. In Phaedo 82 a Tro\tTi<ci7«' is used disparaginglvofordinarvbourgeoisvirtue. In Xen. R^p. Lac. 10. 7 and Aristot. Etk. Nic. iii. 8. 1 (1116 a 17) there is no disparagement. The word is often used of citizen soldiery as opposed to professional mercenaries.

' This dismissal of the subject is sometimes fancifully taken as a promise of the Laches. Cf. Unity of Plato's Thought, nn. 77 and 603.

» Slatthew Arnold's word. Bute/, on 389 d and 430 e— "sobriety," "temperance," " Besonnenheit."

357

PLATO

evGKa TTOLVTa t,rjTov[ji€v SLKatoavvrj. Ilai'i' fiev ovv.

Hcos ovv dv rr)u 8iKaioavi'r]v evpoLfiev, Iva ^rjKeri

TTpayixarevcoixeda rrepl aco(l>poavvris ; 'Eyco puev

roLvvv, €(f)rj, ovre olSa ovr dv ^ovXoLfjLrjv avro

TTporepov (^avrjvai, etVep /XTj/ceri eTnarKeipoixeda

aaxjypoavvrjv aAA' et e^otye jSoyAet )(apit,€adaL,

OKOTTet nporepov tovto iKeivov. 'AAAa jxevToi, r)v E S' eyd), PovXojxaL ye, el firj dSt/ccD. Z/coTret S-q,

€^17. XKCTTTeov, elnov Kal cos" ye ivrevdev ISelv,

^vp,cf)covta TLvl Kal dpfxovia rrpoaeoiKe p,dXXov 7) ra

TTporepov. Ylihs; KdajMO? ttov tis, rjv S' e'yco, rj

aaxjipoGvvrj earl Kal tjSovcjv tlvcov /cat eTndvjjitdJv

eyKpdreia, cos cf)aai, Kpelrrco St) avrov Xeyovres

ovK ofS' ovnva rpoTTOV, Kal dXXa drra roiavra

oiOTTep l^vf] avrfjs t^aiverai' rj yap; Havrcov

p-aXiara, €(f)rj. Ovkovv to fxev Kpeirro) avrov yeXolov; 6 yap eavrov Kpeirrcxyv Kal rjrrcov S-qirov

**Ji av avrov evrj /cai o rjrrcov Kpeirrojv o avros yap

ev dvacn, rovrois TTpoaayopeverai. TiS'ov; 'AAA', ^v S' eyo), (j)aiverai poi ^ovXeadat Xeyeiv ovros o

Xoyos, COS" Ti ev avrcp rch dvdpcoTTO) irepl rrjv ^vx'^v

ro fxev ^eXriov evt, ro 8e -x^elpov, Kal orav p,ev

ro ^eXnov ^vaet rod )(eLpovos eyKpares fj, rovro

Xeyeiv ro Kpeirroi avrov' erraLvel yovv orav 8e vtto

" ft fiT] ddiKw is idiomatic, " I ought to." Cf. 608 d, 612, Menex. 236 b.

* Cf. Gorg. 506 e ff. crcx>(f>po(Tvvr] and crw^povflv sometimes mean etymologically of sound mind or level head, with or without ethical suggestion, according to the standpoint of

the speaker. Cf. Protag. 333 b-c. Its two chief meanings in Greek usage are given in 389 d-e : subordination to due authority, and control of appetite, both raised to higher

358

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK IV

inquiry, justice." " Quite so." " If there were only some way to discover justice so that we need not further concern ourselves about soberness." *' Well, I, for my part," he said, " neither know of any such way nor would I wish justice to be dis- covered first if that means that we are not to go on to the consideration of soberness. But if you desire to please me, consider this before that." " It would certainly be very WTong " of me not to desire it," said I. " Go on with the inquiry then," he said. " I must go on," I replied, " and \-iewed from here it bears more likeness to a kind of concord and harmony than the other \irtues did." " How so ? " " Sober- ness is a kind of beautiful order * and a continence of certain pleasures and appetites, as they say, using the phrase ' master of himself ' I know not how

;

and there are other similar expressions that as it were point us to the same trail. Is that not so ?

"

" Most certainly." " Now the phrase ' master of himself is an absurdity, is it not ? For he who is master of himself would also be subject to himself, and he who is subject to himself would be master. For the same person is spoken of in all these expres- sions." " Ofcourse." " But," said I," the intended meaning of this way of speaking appears to me to be that the soul of a man within him has a better part and a worse part, and the expression self-mastery means the control of the worse by the naturally better part. It is, at any rate, a term of praise. But

significance in Plato's definition. As in the case of bravery, Plato distinguishes the temperamental, the bourgeois, the disciplined and the philosophical virtue. But he affects to feel something paradoxical in the very idea of self-control, as perhaps there is. Cf. Laws 62Q e ff., 863 d, A.J.P. vol. xiiL pp. 361 f.. Unity of Plato's Thought, no. 77 and 78.

359

PLATO

rpocjirjs KaKTJs rj tlvos ofiiXias KparrjOfj vtto ttAt^-

6ovs rov x^ipovos apuKpoT^pov to ^eXrtov 6v, tovto B Se ws eV oveiSei ipeyetv re /cat KaXeiv tJttcd iavrov

Koi oLKoXaarov tov ovtoj htaKei/jLevov. Kat yap eoiK€i>, ^(f>rj. 'ATTO^AeTre roivvv, rjv 8' iyco, irpos

TTjv viav rjfjuv ttoXiv, koI evprjoets ev avrij to

erepov rovrcov ivov KpeirTO) yap avrrjp avrrj'; BtKalcDS ^iqaeis TrpoaayopeveaOai etirep ov to

afxetvov rov x^ipovo^ ^PX^'' croi^pov kXt^tcov Kai

Kpelrrov avrov. 'AAA' aTro^XeTTCO , €(f)7],

Kal dXrjdrj

AeyeiS". Kai pL-qv Kal rds ye TroAAds' Kal iravro- C SaTrd? eTndvpiias Kal rjSovds re Kal XvTras €V Traial

fxaXtara dv ns evpoi Kal yvvat^l Kal OLKerais Kal Tcjv iXevOepcov Xeyofieviov iv rols TroXXoXs re Kal

(f)avXoLs. Ildvv piey ovv. Td? 8e ye dTzAaj re Kal fierpias, at Brj p-erd vov re Kal Bo^rjs dpdrjs Xoyi-

ap-tp dyovrai, ev dXlyois re eTTirev^ei Kal rols

^eXricrra p,ev <f>vai, ^eXricrra Se TTaiSevdeZaiv.

AXrjdrj, ecfj'T]. Ovkovv Kal ravra opas evovra aoi ev

rfj TToXei, Kal Kparovp,evas avrodt ras emdvpLas D rds ev rols ttoXXoIs re Kal <f>avXois vtto re rcbv

emOvpiicov Kal rrjs (f>povr^aeo}s rrjs ev rols eXdrroat,

re Kal eTneiKearepots ; "Eycay', e(f)rj.

IX. Et dpa Sel rivd ttoXlv rrpoaayopeveLv Kpeirrco "qSovaJv re Kal eTndvp.ia)v Kal avrrjv avrijs, Kal rav-

» Cf. Phaedr. 250 a. * Cf. 442 A, Laws 689 a-b. The expression is intended to

remind us of the parallelism between man and state. See Introd. p. XXXV. * Cf. Symp. 189 e.

"» Cf. 441 D, 443 B, 573 d. ' iravTodaTrds is disparaging in Plato. Cf. 557 c. ' iraKTl : so Wolf, for ms. Tracrt, a frequent error. Cf. 494 b.

360

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK IV

when, because of bad breeding or some association," the better part, which is the smaller, is dominated by the multitude * of the worse, I think that our speech censures this as a reproach,*^ and calls the man in this plight unselfcontrolled and licentious." " That seems hkely," he said. " Turn your eyes now upon our new city," said I, " and you will find one of these conditions existent in it. For you will say that it is justly spoken of as master of itself if that in which "*

the superior rules the inferior is to be called sober and self-mastered." " I do turn my eyes upon it," he said, " and it is as you say." " And again, the mob of motley * appetites and pleasures and pains one would find chiefly in children ^ and women and slaves and in the base rabble of those who are freemen in name.^

"

" By all means." " But the simple and moderate appetites which with the aid of reason and right opinion are guided by consideration you will find in few and those the best bom and best educated." " True," he said. " And do you not find this too in your city and a domination there of the desires in the multitude and the rabble by the desires and the wisdom that dwell in the minority of the better sort ? " "I do," he said,

IX. " If, then, there is any city that deserves to be described as master of its pleasures and desires and self-mastered, this one merits that designation."

Plato, like Shakespeare's Rosalind, brackets boys and women as creatures who have for every passion something and for no passion truly anj'thing.

" Cf. on 336 A. The ordinary man who is passion's slave is not truly free. The Stoics and Cynics preached many sermons on this text. See Persius, Sat. v. 73 and 124, Epictet. Diss. iv. 1, Xen. Mem. iv. 5. 4, Xen. Oecon. 1. 22-23.

361

PLATO

rrjv 7rpoapr)T€ov. UavTarraat, fxev ovv, €<f)7}. *Ap

ovv ov /cat aco(f>pova /caret iravra ravra; Kat jxaXa,

^^Tj. Kat jLtT^v eiTrep ay iv dXXr) TToAei ij aun^ Sdl'a

E kveari rols re ap^ovai /cat apxofievoLS irepi roO ovarivas Set apx^i'V, /cat ev' ravrr) av etr) rovro

ivov •^ oi) §o/cet; Kat fidXa, e(f)r), a^ohpa. 'Et*

TTorepoLs ovv ^-qaeLs tcov ttoXltcov to aoj^povelv

ei'eti/at, oVav ovtcos €X(j^olv, iv rots dpxpvoLV 7] ev

ToZs dpxppiivois ; 'Ei' d[Ji,(f)OTepoLS ttov, €(f)7]. 'Opa?

ovv, '^v 8' iyo), OTi, imetKcos epiavrevopLeda aprt,

(hs dppbovia Tivl T) aojcfipoavvrj (hpoLciirai; Tt or];

"On ovx (ZcTTTep r) avSpela /cat rj ao(f>La ev pepei 432 Tivl eKarepa ivovaa t) pev ao^rjv, rj Se dvBpei,av Tqv

ttoXlv TTapeix^TOy ovx ovno Trotet avrrj, aAAa ot

OATHS' drexvcos rerarai, Sta TraadJv TrapexopevT]

^vvaSovras rovs re dadevea-rdrovg ravrov /cat

Tovs laxvpoTdrovs /cat rovs p,eaovs, eL pev povXei,

<f>povT^aeL, el Se ^ovXei, laxvC, el Be, /cat TrArj^et r/

XP'TiP'OLOLV rj a'AAo) otcoovv rd>v roLovrcov ojcrre

" Plato is again proceeding by seemingly minute verbal links. Cf. supra 354 a, 379 b, 412 d. /cat /iriv introduces

a further verification of the definition. '' TTOV marks the slight hesitation at the deviation from the

symmetry of the scheme which would lead us to expect, as

Aristotle and others have taken it, that (TU}<f>poaiJvri is the

distinctive virtue of the lowest class. It is so practically for

the lower sense of a-ioippoavvr], but in the higher sense of the

willingness of each to fulfil his function in due subordination

to the whole, it is common to all classes. « Cf. 430 E. Aristotle gives this as an example of

(faulty) definition by metaphor {Topics iv. 3. 5).

362

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK IV

" Most assuredly," he said. " And is it not also to be called sober *" in all these respects ? " " Indeed it is," he said. " And yet again, if there is any city in which the rulers and the ruled are of one mind as to who ought to rule, that condition will be found in this. Don't you think so ? " "I most emphatic- ally do," he said. " In which class of the citizens, then, will you say that the \irtue of soberness has its seat when this is their condition ? In the rulers or in the ruled? " " In both, I suppose,* " he said. " Do you see then," said I, " that our intuition was not a bad one just now that discerned a likeness between soberness and a kind of harmony "^ ? " " Why so ? " " Because its operation is unhke that of courage and wisdom, which residing in separate parts respectively made the city, the one wise and the other brave. That is not the way of soberness, but it extends literally through the entire gamut **

throughout, bringing about « the unison in the same chant of the strongest, the weakest and the inter- mediate, whether in wisdom or, if you please,^ in strength, or for that matter in numbers, wealth, or any similar criterion. So that we should be quite right

"* 01 0X17? : sc. rrjs iroXfojs, but as drex>''i's shows (c/. supra on 419 z) it already suggests the musical metaphor of the entire octave Sia ir-a.auiv.

' The word order of the following is noteworthy. The translation gives the meaning, ravrov, the object of aw- a5ovTai, is, by a trait of style that grows more frequent in the Laws and was imitated by Cicero, so placed as to break the monotony of the accusative terminations.

^ For the comparison the kind of superiority is indifferent. See Thompson on Meno 7 1 e and compare the enumeration of claims to power in the Laics, a^nIifuxTa . . . toO apxdv. Laws 690 A flF. and in/ra 434 b.

363

PLATO

opdorar* av (f)al[ji€V ravrriv rrjv ofJLOvoiav aco^po-

avvTjv etvai, ;)^etpoi/os' re /cat dixeivovos Kara ^ucriv

B ^vfji(f)0)VLav, OTTorepov Set dpx^i'V Kal iv rroXei /cat iv ivl eKaaroi. XVavv [xoc, €(f)r), ^wSo/cet. Etev,

"^v S' iyo)' rd fiev rpia y^pXv iv rfj ttoXcl /carcoTrTai,

o)s y€ ovTOJGL oogai- to oe orj Aoittov eloog, oi o

dv eVi dperrjs p^erexoi ttoXls, rt ttot' av etrj; 8rjXov

ydp, on TOVTO ioTiv rj St/catoawT]. ArjXov. Ou/c- ovv, (L TXavKcov, vvv hrj i^/xa? Set coOTrep KVV7]yiTas

TLvds ddfjivov kvkXu) TTepuGTaadai 7Tpoa€)(ovras rdv

vovv, p,i] TTTj Sta^uyry rj hiKaiocrvvrj /cat d<f)avi-

C cr^etcra aSTjAos" yevrjTai' (j)avep6v ydp hrj otl ravrrf TTj] eariv Spa ovv /cat Trpodvixov /cartSetv, idv ttcos

rrpoTCpos epiov iSt^? /cat e/xot (f)pd(jr)g. Et yap

w<f>eXov, e^T)' dXXd [xaXXov, idv jjlol eTTopiiva) xpfj /cat TO. Sei/cvu/Ltej/a Svvafievo) Kadopav, Trdw pioi

fji€TpLC05 p^pTJCTet. "EtTOU, T^V 8' Cyca, €V^dp.€VOS p,€T*

ipiov. Uoirjaoj raura, dAAa p,6vov, rj 8' o?, rjyov.

Kat jMTjv, etTTov e'yoa, dva^aTos ye rts 6 tottos

" The final statement of the definition, which, however, has little significance for Plato's thought, when isolated from its explanatory context. Cf. Def. Plat. 413 e. Unity of Plato's Thought, pp. 15 f., n. 82. Quite idle is the discussion whether crcj<ppo<rOv7] is otiose, and whether it can be absolutely distinguished from dLKaioa-vvrj. They are sufficiently dis- tinguished for Plato's purpose in the imagery and analogies of the Republic. * Cf. on 351 e.

" Cf. Dem. XX. 18 and 430 e ws ye ivrevdev iSetv. Plato's definitions and analyses are never presented as final. They are always sufficient for the purpose in hand. Cf. Unity of Plato's Thought, p. 13, nn. 63-67 and 519.

'' 5l 6' : cf. my paper on the Origin of the Syllogism, CTtws. Phil. vol. xix. pp. 7 IF. This is an example of the terminology of the theory of ideas " already " in the first four books.

Cf. Unity of Plato's Thought, p. 35, n. 238, p. 38.

364

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK IV

in affirming this unanimity " to be soberness, the con- cord of the naturally superior and inferior as to which ought to rule both in the state and the indi\idual.''

"

" I entirely concur," he said. " Very well," said I ; " we have made out these three forms in our city to the best of our present judgement.'^ What can be the remaining form that ** would give the city still another virtue ? For it is obvious that the remainder is justice." " Obvious." " Now then,* Glaucon, is the time for us like huntsmen ^ to surround the covert and keep close watch that justice may not slip through and get away from us and vanish from our sight. It plainly must be somewhere hereabouts. Keep your eyes open then and do your best to descry it. You may see it before I do and point it out to me." " Would that I could," he said ; " but I think rather that if you find in me one who can follow you and discern what you point out to him you will be making a very fair ^ use of me." " Pray '*

for success then," said I, " and follow along with me." " That I will do, only lead on," he said. " And truly," said I, " it appears to be an inaccessible

* vvv 5tj : i.e. vvv ijST]. f Cf. Soph. 235 B, Euthydem. 290 b-c, Phaedo 66 c, Laws

654 E, Parmen. 128 c. Lysis 218 c, Thompson on Meno 96 e, Huxley, Hume, p. 139 "There cannot be two passions more nearly resembling each other than hunting and philosophy." Cf. also Hardy's " He never could beat the covert of con- versation without starting the game." The elaboration of the image here is partly to mark the importance of SiKaioffvvT] and partly to relieve the monotony of continuous argument,

' It is not necessary, though plausible, to emend /x«rpta>s to fierpitf). The latter is slightly more idiomaticai. Cf. Terence's "benigno me utetur patre."

* Prayer is the proper preface of any act. Cf. Tim. 27 c. Laws 712 B.

365

PLATO

^aiverai /cat iviaKtos' eWi yovv okotclvos Kai D SvaSiepevvTjTos' dXXa yap o[jlojs Iriov. ^Ireov yap,

e(j)rj. Kal iyo) Karchajv 'loi) lou, etTTOv, to TXavKCOv KivBuveuofxeu ri ^X^^^ ''X^^^> '^^^ /^°^ So/cet ov ttolvv

TL iK(f)€v^ela6ac rjp,dg. Ei5 dyyeXXeig, -^ 8' o?.

*H p-'qv, rjv S' iyo), ^XaKiKov ye t^/xcDv to Trddos. To TTOLOv; IlaAat, c5 /xaKrapte, ^aiverai irpo TTohayv riixlv e^ dpxrjs KuXivSeLadat, Kal ovx icopco- p.ev dp' avTo, aAA' rjixeu KarayeXaaroraroL- cjg-

E TT€p ol iv ralg x^P^'-^ exovres t^rjTovaiv iviore o Gxovai, Kal rjiiels els avro puev ovk dTre^XeiropLev, TToppo) 8e TTOt direaKOTTOvpievy fj Br) Kal eXdvdavev

tacos r^fxas. Yici)s, e^T], Xeyeis; Ovrcos, elTTOv, d)s

SoKovjxev fxot, Kal Xeyovres avro Kal dKOvovres TxdXai ov fxavdavew -qpicbv avrcov, on eXeyofxev TpOTTOV TLvd aVTO . }AaKp6v, €(1)7], TO TTpOOipLLOV TO)

emdvfxovvTi dKovaai .

433 X. 'AAA', ^v 8' eyco, aKove, el ri dpa Xeyco. o yap e^ dpx^js ediyieda Belv iroLelv Sto. Travros, ore TTjv ttoXlv KaTcpKit^opiev, rovro eariv, ojs ifxol BoK€i, rjToi rovTov Ti etSos" t] hiKaioavvr]. iddfieda

Be BrjTTOV Kal TToAAa/ci? eXeyofJLev, el piepLV7]aaL, on eva eKaarov ev Beoi eTrirrjSeJeiv tcDv TTepl Tr}v

TToXtv, els o avTov tJ (f>vai,s eTnr-qBeiordTrj ne(j>VKvla

" TO Trd&os: for the periphrasis cf. 376 a. " C/. Theaetet. 201 a. " A homely figure such as Dante and Tennyson sometimes

use. <* This sounds like Hegel but is not Hegelian thought. ' Cf. on 344 E. Justice is a species falling under the

vague genus to iavTov wpaTTeiv, which Critias in the Char- midC'S proposed as a definition of (ruKppoavvr) {Charm. 161 b),

366

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK IV

place, lying in deep shadows." " It certainly is a dark covert, not easy to beat up." " But all the same on we must go." " Yes, on." And I caught view and gave a huUoa and said, " Glaucon, I think we have found its trail and I don't beheve it will get awav from us." " I am glad to hear that," said he. " Truly," said I, " we were slackers" indeed." " How so ? " " Why, all the time, bless your heart, the thing apparently was tumbUng about our feet* from the start and yet we couldn't see it, but were most ludicrous, like people who sometimes hunt for what they hold in their hands.'' So we did not turn our eyes upon it, but looked off into the distance, which was perhaps the reason it escaped us." " What do you mean ? " he said. " This," I replied, " that it seems to me that though we were speaking of it and hearing about it all the time we did not under- stand ourselves ** or realize that we were speaking of it in a sense." " That is a tedious prologue," he said, " for an eager hstener."

X. " Listen then," said I, " and learn if there is any- thing in what I say. For what we laid down in the beginning as a universal requirement when we were founding our city, this I think, or « some form of this, is justice. And what we did lay down, and often said, if you recall, was that each one man must perform one social service in the state for which his nature was best adapted." " Yes, we said that." " And

but failed to sustain owing to his inability to distinguish the various possible meanings of the phrase. In the Republic too we have hitherto failed to "learn from ourselves" its true meaning, till now when Socrates begins to perceive that if taken in the higher sense of spiritual division of labour in the soul and in the state, it is the long-sought justice. Cf. infra 433 b-c-d, 443 c-d.

367

PLATO

elrj. 'EAeyo/xev yap. Kai jxrjv on ye to to. avTov TTpoiTTeLV Kal ^rj TToXvirpay^ovelv SLKaLoavvq iari,

B /cat TOVTO dXXojv T€ TToXXcjv OLK-qKoajJiev Kal avrol TToXXaKLS elprjKaixev. EtpT^Ka/^tev yap. Tovto tol- vvv, r^v 8' eyctj, c5 j)iXe, Kivhvvevei rpoirov riva

ytyv6pi€vov r) SLKatoavvq elvai, to to. avrov irpdr-

reiv. olada odev reK/xaipo/Mat; Ovk, aXXd Aey',

e<f)rj. AoK€L jJiOi, '^v 8* iyco, to vttoXolttov ev ttj

TToAet (l)v eaKeyLfxeOa, Ga>(f)poovvr]s Kal avSpeta?

Kal <f)povT^aecos , tovto elvat, o Trdcnv eKewois Trjv

hvvapLiv rrapeaxev , woTe eyyeveaOai, Kal iyyevojjie- vots ye aojTiqpiav irapexetv, ecoairep dv ivfj. KaiTOi

C e^ajLtev BLKaLoavvrjv eaeadai to VTroXeif^Oev eKetvcov, el Ta Tpia evpoifiev. Kat yap dvayKiq, e(f)r]. 'AAAo. fievTOi, rjv 8' eyd), el 8eot ye Kplvai, tl ttjv

ttoXlv rj/juv TOVTCOV jLiaAtCTTa dyadrjv a-nepyaaeTai

eyyev6p,evov, hvoKpiTov dv etrj, iroTepov rj ofioSo^ia

tG)v dpxovTiov TC Kal dpxop.evcov, rj rj irepl Seivcjv

Te Kal pLifj, (ZTTa eo-Tt, ho^rj^ ewop-ov acoTrjpia ev

TOts aTpaTicjjTais eyyevofievr], ^ rj ev toIs dp^ovat

J) (fipovrjais Te Kal ^uAa/07 evovaa, •^ tovto pidXiaTa

dyadrjv avTXjv Trotet evov Kal ev 7Tat8t Kal ev

yvvaiKL Kal ^ovXco Kal eXevdepco Kal SrjiJLLovpya)

Kal dpxovTL Kal dpxofMevcp, otl to avTov eKauTOS els

cov enpaTTC Kal ovk eTroXvirpaypiovei. AvoKpiTOV,

€(f>rj' TTcos 8' ov; 'EivapaXXov dpa, ai? eot/ce, Trpos

" This need not refer to any specific passage in the dialogues. C/. Unity of Plato's Thought, n. 236. A Greek could at any time say that minding one's own business and not being a busybody is aOicppov or dUaiov or both.

" rpoirov TLva yi.yv6ixei>ov: as in the translation, not "justice

S68

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK IV

again that to do one's own business and not to be a busybody is justice, is a saying that we have heard from many and have very often repeated ourselves." " " We have." " This, then," I said, " my friend, if taken in a certain sense appears to be justice,* this principle of doing one's ovm business. Do you know whence I infer this ? " "No, but tell me," he said. " I think that this is the remaining virtue in the state after our consideration of soberness, courage, and intelligence, a quahty which made it possible for them all to grow up in the body politic and which when they have sprung up preserves them as long as it is present. And I hardly need to remind you that " we said that justice would be the residue after we had found the other three." " That is an un- avoidable conclusion," he said. " But moreover," said I, "if we were required to decide what it is whose indwelling presence will contribute most to making our city good, it would be a difficult decision whether it was the unanimity of rulers and ruled or the conservation in the minds of the soldiers of the convictions produced by law as to what things are or are not to be feared, or the watchful intelligence that resides in the guardians, or whether this is the chief cause of its goodness, the principle embodied in child, woman, slave, free, artisan, ruler, and ruled, that each performed his one task as one man and was not a versatile busybody." " Hard to decide indeed," he said. " A thing, then, that in its contribution to seems somehow to be proving to be this." Cf. 432 z, 516 c. Lysis 217 E, Lairs 910 b, infra 495 a, 596 d, Goodwin, Moods and Tenses, 830. Yet, cf. Polit. 291 d.

' KOLLToi : cf. on 360 c and 376 b. Here it points out the significance of t6 viroXoi-n-ov if true, while d\Xd fievroi. intro- duces the considerations that prove it true.

VOL. I 2 B 369

PLATO

aperrjv ttoXccos ttj re aocftla avrijs Kal rfj aa)(j)po-

avvTj Kai Tjj avSpeta rj tov eKaarov ev avrfj to.

avTov TTpdrTeiv Svvafiis. Kat p,aX , €(f)r]. Ovk- ovv BiKaLoavvqv ro ye tovtols evap^iXkov av els

E dperr^v ttoXccos dei-qs; YVavraTTaai p,€v ovv. Skto- Trei 8t^ kol rfjBe, el ovrco So^ei. dpa TOt? d.p- Xovatv ev rfj 77oAei to,? StVa? TTpoard^etg St/ca^eiv;

Ti pLTJv; ^H dXXov ovTLVoaovv p,dXXov e^iepievoi. hiKdaovoLV ri tovtov, ottojs dv eKaaroi ju.7^t' exfoai

rdXX6rpi,a fx-qre rcot' avrcbv arepcovrai; Ovk, dXXd TOVTOV. 'Q.S hiKaiov ovtos ; Nat. Kai TavTrj dpa TTT] rj TOV olKeiov re /cat eavTov e^is re /cat

434 TTpd^Ls hiKatoavvfj dv op-oXoyolTO. "Ecrrt TavTa.

'ISe 8rj, edv aol oirep ipLol ^vvSoKrj. tcktcov

OKVTOTopLov eTn-)^eipcx)v epya epydt^eadai rj okvto-

TOfios TeKTovos, rj ra opyava jieToXajx^dvovTes rdXXrjXcjv rj rt/xa?, rj /cat o avrd? eTn\eipS)V djX(f>6- Tepa TTpaTTeiv, rrdvTa rdAAa jiCTaXXarTOfieva dpa aoL dv Ti 8oK€L jjidya ^Xdifjai, ttoXiv; Ov rrdw, e(f)rj. AAA' oTav ye, oljxat, SrjjXLOvpyog cov rj tls dXXos

B -x^pi-jjxaTLOTrjS ^vaei, erreiTa eTraipofjievog t] ttXovto) rj TrXrjdeL rj la)(VL rj dXXo) to) tolovtco et? to tov

TToXejxiKOV ethos em^^eipfj levai, rj tcov jToXejiLKCov

TLS els TO TOV ^ovXevTLKOv Kal (f)vXaKos dvd^ios

" ye argues from the very meaning of evdjj.i\\oi>. Cf. supra 379 b.

* So Phaedo 79 e Spa 5t) Kal ryde. It introduces a further confirmation. The mere judicial and conventional concep- tion of justice can be brought under the formula in a fashion {n-Tj infra), for legal justice " est constans et perpetua voluntas ius suum cuique tribuens." Cf. supra 331 e and Aristot. Rhet. 1366 b 9 ^(ttl 8^ SiKcuoavvrj jjAv dperr] 8l i)y rd aiirwv iKaara. ^XOU(T£, Kal (is 6 v6piOS,

* rdWdrpia : the article is normal; Stallb. on Phaedr. 230 a. 370

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK IV

the excellence of a state vies with and rivals its v^isdom, its soberness, its bravery, is this principle of everyone in it doing his o>vn task." " It is indeed," he said. " And is not justice the name you would have to give " to the principle that rivals these as con- ducing to the \irtue of state ? " " By all means," " Consider it in this wise too '' if so you will be con- vinced. Will you not assign the conduct of lawsuits in your state to the rulers ? " " Of course." "Will not this be the chief aim of their decisions, that no one shall have what belongs to others '^ or be deprived of his own ? " " Nothing else but this." " On the assumption that this is just ? " " Yes." " From this point of view too, then, the having "^ and doing of one's own and what belongs to oneself would admittedly be justice." " That is so." " Consider now « whether you agree with me. A carpenter under- taking to do the work of a cobbler or a cobbler of a carpenter or their interchange of one another's tools or honours or even the attempt of the same man to do both—the confounding of all other functions would not, think you, greatly injure a state, would it ? " " Not much," he said. " But when I fancy one who is by nature an artisan or some kind of money-maker tempted and incited by wealth or command of votes or bodily strength or some similar advantage tries to enter into the class of the soldiers or one of the soldiers into the class of counsellors and guardians, for which he is not fitted, and these inter-

For the ambiguity of TaXXdrpia cf. 443 d. So oUfiov is one's own in either the literal or in the ideal sense of the Stoics and Emerson, and eaiToiJ is similarly ambiguous. Cf. on 443 d.

** «^is is still fluid in Plato and has not yet taken the technical Aristotelian meaning of habit or state.

' A further confirmation. For what follows cf. 421 a. 371

PLATO

wv, Kat TO. aXX-qXcov oSrot opyava fxeToXafx^dvcoai

/cat Tas TLfjids, ^ orav 6 avros vdvra ravra d/xa

€7n)^€i,pfj TTpdrreiv, totc olfxai /cat aol So/ceiv Tavrrjv

TTju TovTOiv ixeTa^oXrjv /cat TToXvTrpayfiocrvvqv oXe-

Opov elvairfj TToXei. YiavTdTraai pikv ovv . 'Yi rpicov

apa ovTOJV yevcov TToXvirpayixoavvri /cat piera^oXr] els

C dXXt)Xa pbeyiarT) re ^Xd^n) rij iroXei, /cat opdoraT av TTpoaayopevoiTO p.dXiara KaKovpyia. Ko^LttS?^

p,ev ovv. KaKovpylav 8e ttjv pLeyiarrjV ttjs eavTOV

"TToXeois ovK aSt/ctW ^-qaeis elvai; ITcD? 8' ov;

TovTO fiev dpa aSt/cia.

XI. YldXiv 8e cSSe Xeycofxev ^^pT^jLtartCTTt/cou, ctti-

KovpiKov, (f)vXaKLKOv yivovs oi/ceiOTT/jayta, cKdarov

TOVTOJV TO aVTOV 7TpdrrOVTO£ iv TToAet, TOVVaVTLOV

eKclvov SiKaLoavvTj t' ai' etT^ /cat ttjv ttoXiv SiKaiav

D TTapexoc. OvK dXXr) efxoiye 8o/cet, -q S' os, ex^tv rj ravrrj. MrjSev, '^v 8' iyco, noj Tvdvv Trayt'o;?

avTo Xiycopuev, dXX idv p.kv -qp^lv /cat els era cKaarov TOiv dvdpcjTTCxiv lov to etSo? tovto 6p,o-

" fidXiffTa with KaKovpyia. * irdXiv, " again," here means conversely. Cf. 425 a.

The definition is repeated in terms of the three citizen classes to prepare the way for testing it in relation to the individual soul, which, if the analogy is to hold, must possess three corresponding faculties or parts. The order of words in this and many Platonic sentences is justified by the psychological " investigation," which showed that when the question " which do you like best, apples, pears, or cherries ? " was f)resented in the form " apples, pears, cherries, which do you ike best ? " the reaction time was appreciably shortened.

S72

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK IV

change their tools and their honours or when the same man undertakes all these functions at once, then, I take it, you too believe that this kind of sub- stitution and meddlesomeness is the ruin of a state." "By all means." "The interference with one another's business, then, of three existent classes and the sub- stitution of the one for the other is the greatest injury to a state and would most rightly be designated as the thing which chiefly" works it harm." " Pre- cisely so." " And the thing that works the greatest harm to one's o\s'n state, will you not pronounce to be injustice ? " " Of course." " This, then, is injustice.

XI. "Again,^ let us put it in this way. The proper functioning " of the money-making class, the helpers and the guardians, each doing its own work in the state, being the reverse of that '^ just described, would be justice and would render the city just." " I think the case is thus and no otherwise," said he. " Let us not yet affirm it quite fixedly,* " I said, " but if this form ' when apphed to the individual man, is

* oiKeioTTpayia : this coinage is explained by the genitive absolute. Proclus (KroU i. p. 207) substitutes avroTrpayia. So Def. Plat. 41 1 e.

* iKEivov : cf. (Keivois, 425 a. * irayiws : cf. 479 c, Aristot. Met. 1062 b 15. ' The doctrine of the transcendental ideas was undoubtedly

familiar to Plato at this time. Cf. supra on 402 b, and Unity of Plato's Thmight, p. 31, n, 194, p. 35. But we need not invoke the theorj' of -irapovffia here to account for this slight personification of the form, idea, or definition of justice. Cf. 538 d, and the use of iXduv in Eurip. Suppl. 562 and of ioy in Pkileb. 52 e. Plato, in short, is merely saying vivaciously what Aristotle technically says in the words Set 5^ toOto firj fiMvov KadSXov X^7t(r&ai, dXXa icai toU Kad' iKaffra itpap/ioTTdi', Eth. Nic. 1107 a 28,

373

PLATO

XoyrJTai, /cat e/cei SiKaioavvr] etvai, ^vy)(0)pri(y6^€da

t]8t]' ri yap /cat ipovfjiev; el 8e ii-q, t6t€ dXXo ri

aKeipo/xeda' vvv 8' eKreXcaajfjuev ttjv OKeipLV, rjv

d)7jdiqfji€v, ei iv fxell^ovi rivi rGiv ixovrojv 8i/caio-

avvqv nporepov e/cet iTTix^ipT^araifjiev Oedaaadai,

paop dv iv ivl dvdpcoTTcp KarLSclv olov ion, /cat

E eSo^e Srj rjfxlv tovto etvai ttoXls, Kal ovtojs a>/ci-

t,opiev d)s eSvvdfxeda dpiar'qv, eS ei8oTe? on €v ye

rfj dyadfj dv e'lrj. o ovv rjfxlv €K€l €(f)dvr], errava-

<f>€p<x)fi€v els Tov eva, Kdv fxev o/xoAoy^rai, KaXdJs

e^ef edv 8e rt aAAo ev rd> ivl efJL(f>aLvr]Tai,, TrdXiv

435 eiravLovTes eirl ttjv ttoXlv ^aaavLovp^ev, /cat rax

dv Trap* dXX-qXa gkottovvt€s Kal rpi^ovres ojaTrep

€/c TTvpeiojv e/cAajLtj/rat TTOLijaaifjbev Tqv Si,Kaiocruv7)v,

Kal (f)avepdv yevofxevrjv fie^aiojaaipied av avrrjv

•nap* rjp.LV avrols. 'AAA', e^Tj, /ca^' oBov re Xeyets

Kal TToielv xP'h ovrcos- *A/3' ovv, -qv 8 eyoj, o ye

' In 368 E. For the loose internal accusative ijv cf. 443 b, Imws 666 B, Phaedr. 249 d. Sophist 264 b, my paper on Illogical Idiom, T.A.P.A., 1916, vol. xlvii. p. 213, and the school-girl's " This is the play that the reward is offered for the best name suggested for it." 374.

THE REPUBLIC. BOOK IV

accepted there also as a definition of justice, we will then concede the point—for what else will there be to say ? But if not, then we will look for something else. But now let us work out the inquiry in which "

we supposed that, if we found some larger thing that contained justice and viewed it there,* we should more easily discover its nature in the individual man. And we agreed that this larger thing is the city, and so we constructed the best city in our power, well knowing that in the good " city it would of course be found. What, then, we thought we saw there we must refer back to the individual and, if it is con- firmed, all will be well. But if something different manifests itself in the individual, we will return again to the state and test it there and it may be that, by examining them side by side "* and rubbing them against one another, as it were from the fire-sticks *

we may cause the spark of justice to flash forth,^ and when it is thus revealed confirm it in our own minds." " Well," he said, " that seems a sound method^ and that is what we must do." " Then," said I, " if you

* ixel though redundant need not offend in this inten- tionally anacoluthic and resumptive sentence. Some inferior Mss. read iKdvo. Burnet's <^> is impossible.

' iv ye ry 0170^5 : cf. on 427 E, and for the force of ye cf. 379 B, 403 E.

^ Cf. Sophist 230 b Ti6ia<n trap dXXiJXaj, Isoc. Areopagit. 79, Nic. 17.

' Cf. L. & S. and Morgan, " De Ignis Eliciendi Modis," Harvard Studies, vol. i. pp. 15, 21 ff. and 30 ; and Damascius (Ruelle, p. 54, line 18) koX rourd eariv oirep e^ai<pvrfs dvdirTeTai

(pCii dXyjdeiai wcnrep « xvpelwv TrpocTpi^ofUvuv. f Cf. Gorg. 484 b. Epistle vii. 344 b. ' Plato often observes that a certain procedure is

methodical and we must follow it, or that it is at least methodical or consistent, whatever the results may be.

375

PLATO

ravTov av rig irpoaeiTTOi fjiet^ov t€ Kal eXarrov, avofMoiov Tvyxdvei ov ravrrj

fj ravrov irpoa-

ayopeverai, t) o/xoiov; "Ofxotov, €<f)r). Kal Si/cato? B dpa dv^p SiKaias noXecos Kar avro ro rijs

SiKaLoavvqs etSos ovSev Siolaei, aAA' ofMoios earai. "O/Ltotos', €(f)r]. 'AAAa fxevTOL ttoXis ye eSo^ev elvai SiKaia, OT€ iv avrij rpirrd yevr) <f)vaecov ivovra to avTcbv eKaoTOV enparTe' aa)cf>pa)v 8e av /cat avSpeLa /cat ao(f)rj Sta twv avTcov rovrcov yevwv a'AA' arra TrdOr] re /cat e^et?. 'AAt^^t^, i(f)r]. Kal Tov €va apa, u> ^iXe, ovrcos d^tcoaofjiev, rd avrd

C ravra e'lSr] iv rfj avrov ipvxfj exovra, Sta rd avrd Trddrj CKeLVOLS tcDv avTcbv dvop,dr(x)v opdojs dftou-

cr^at rfj noXei. Ilacra dvdyK-q, e^ii). Et? (f)avX6v ye av, rjv S' iyco, cL dav/jbdate, aKijxjJia ifnTeTTTCo-

Ka/xev TTepl t/jvx'fjs, e'ire ex^i rd rpia etSr] ravra iv avrfj elre fxirj. Ov vdvv fjLoi SoKov/xev,

€(f)7j, et?

<f)avXov. 'iaa)s ydp, co HwKpares, ro Xcyofxevov

" 6' 7e ravrdv : there are several reasons for the seeming over-elaboration of the logic in the next few pages. The analogy between the three classes in the state and the tripartite soul is an important point in Plato's ethical theory and an essential feature in the structure of the Republic. Very nice distinctions are involved in the attempt to prove the validity of the analogy for the present argument without too flagrant contradiction of the faith elsewhere expressed

in the essential unity of the soul. Cf. Unity of Plato's Thought, p. 42. These distinctions in the infancy of logic Plato is obliged to set forth and explain as he proceeds. Moreover, he is interested in logical method for its own sake (<•/. Introd. p. xiv), and is here stating for the first time important principles of logic afterwards codified in the

treatises of Aristotle.

376

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK IV

call a thing by the same " name whether it is big or little, is it unlike in the way in which it is called the same or like ? " " Like," he said. " Then a just man too will not differ * at all from a just city in re- spect of the very form of justice, but will be like it." " Yes, like." " But now the city was thought to be just because three natural kinds existing in it per- formed each its own function, and again it was sober, brave, and wise because of certain other affections and habits <^ of these three kinds." " True," he said. " Then, my friend, we shall thus expect the individual also to have these same forms in his soul, and by reason of identical affections of these ^^^th those in the city to receive properly the same appellations." " Inevitable," he said. "Goodness gracious," said I, " here is another trifling '^ inquiry into which we have plunged, the question whether the soul really con- tains these three forms in itself or not." " It does not seem to me at all trifling," he said, " for perhaps, Socrates, the saying is true that ' fine things are

7c marks the inference from the verv meaning of rairrbv. Cf. on 379 B, 389 b, and PoUt. 278 e ; cf. also Parmen. 139 e. The language suggests the theory of ideas. But Plato is

not now thinking primarily of that. He is merely repeating in precise logical form the point already made' (434 d-e), that the definition of justice in the individual must corres- pond point for point with that worked out for the state

* Cf. 369 A and Meno 72 b. In Phileb. 12 e-13 c, Plato points out that the generic or specific identity does not exclude specific or sub-specific differences.

' ?feis is here abnost the Aristotelian Ifiy. Aristotle, Eth. Nic. 1105 b 20, regards Trde-q, i^eis and Swd/zeis as an exhaustive enumeration of mental states. For Sij-d/teu rf. 477 c. Simplic. De An. Hayduck, p. 289 d\Xa rd uv irpol rpaKTLKrjv idelro tbrrtv, to. rpia aova irapfi\v<i>ey.

" Cf. 423 c

S77

PLATO

dXrjdes, on ;)^aAe7ra ra KoXd. OatVerat, 171^ 8' D eyoj • /cat ev y laQi, cu VXavKCov, cos r) ifirj Sofa,

aKpt^ojs fX€v TOVTO €K ToiovTcov /xedoScov, oiat? vuv iv rot? Xoyois ;^/3(X)/xe^a, ou fXT^ 7tot€ Xd^ajfJiev dXXrj^ yap fiaKporepa /cat TrXelcov 686s r] €7rl rovro ayovaa' icrcog jxevroc tojv ye 7Tpo€ipT)p,€VU)v tc fcat TTpoeaKe/jipLevcov d^icos. Ovkovv dyaTrrjrov; €(f)rj- ep-OL p,€v yap ev ye tco TTap6vri i/cavaj? dv exoi. AAAa p^evTot, eiTTov, e/zotye /cat Trdvv i^apKeaei. Mrj roivvv d7TOKdp.rjs, e(f)r], dXXd okottci,. *Ap'

E ovv rjplv, rjv S' iyco, ttoAAt^ dvayK-q 6poXoy€iv on ye ra avrd ev CKdaro) eveariv rjp.cijv etSr] re /cat qdr) dnep ev rfj rroXei; ov ydp ttov dXXodev cKetae

1 The inferior reading dXXA of several good mss. would not appreciably affect the meaning.

" A proverb often cited by Plato with variations. Cf. 497 D-E.

* TouTo by strict grammatical implication means the problem of the tripartite soul, but the reference to this passage in 504 b shows that it includes the whole question of the definition of the virtues, and so ultimately the whole of ethical and political philosophy. We are there told again that the definitions of the fourth book are sufficient for the purpose, but that complete insight can be attained only by relating them to the idea of good. That required a longer and more circuitous way of discipline and training. Plato then does not propose the " longer way " as a method of reasoning which he himself employs to correct the approxi- mations of the present discussion. He merely describes it as the higher education which will enable his philosophical rulers to do that. We may then disregard all idle guesses about a "new logic" hinted at in the longer way, and all fantastic hypotheses about the evolution of Plato's thought and the composition of the Republic based on supposed contradictions between this passage and the later books.

378

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK IV

difficult.'"" " Apparently," said I; " and let me tell vou, Glaucon,that in my opinion we shall never appre- hend this matter'' accurately from such methods as we are now employing in discussion. For there is another longer and harder way that conducts to this. Yet we may perhaps discuss it on the level of our previous statements and inquiries." " May we not acquiesce in that ? " he said; " I for my part should be quite satisfied with that for the present." " And I surely should be more than satisfied," I replied. " Don't you weary then," he said, " but go on with the inquiry." "Is it not, then," said I, "impossible for us to avoid admitting'' this much, that the same forms and qualities are to be found in each one of us that are in the state .'' They could

Cf. Introd. p. xvi, " Idea of Good," p. 190, Unity of Plato's Thought, p. 16, n. 90; followed by Professor Wilamowitz, ii. p. 218, who, however, does not understand the connexion of it all with the idea of good.

Plato the logician never commits himself to more than is required by the problem under discussion (cf. on 333 c), and Plato the moralist never admits that the ideal has been adequatelv expressed, but alwavs points to heights beyond. Cf. infra 506 e, 533 a, Phaedo 85 c, Tim. 29 b-c. Soph. 254 c.

• Plato takes for granted as obvious the general corres- pondence which some modern philosophers think it necessary to reaffirm. Cf. Mill, Logic, vi. 7. 1 "Human beings in society have no properties, but those which are derived from and may be resolved into the laws and the nature of individual man"; Spencer, Autobiog. ii. p. 543 "Society is created by its units. . . . The nature of its organization is determined by the nature of its units."

Plato illustrates the commonplace in a slight digression on national characteristics, with a hint of the thought partly anticipated by Hippocrates and now identified with Buckle's name, that they are determined by climate and environment. Cf. Newman, Introd. to Aristot. Pol. pp. 318-320.

379

PLATO

d<f)LKTai. yeXotov yap av eir], et ti? olrjdeir} to OvfjioeiSeg fjirj e/c tcov lSicotcov iv TaZs TToXeaiv

iyyeyovevai, 61 S17 /cat exovai ravrrjv rrjv aiTLav,

OLOv ol Kara ttjv QpaKrjv re /cat HKvdi,K7)v /cat ax^Sov Tt /caret rov dvco ronov, rj ro (fnXojxadis, o 8rj TTcpt rov Trap* r]pXv fidXicrr* dv rig atrtdaairo

436 roTTOv, ?} ro ^iXoxp'rjpiarov, o Trepi rovs re OotVi/caj

etvat /cat rovs Kara PuyvTrrov (f>airi ris dv ov^ TjKKTra. Kat /xaAa, e(/)r]. Tovro fiev 8rj ovrojs exei, "qv S' iyo), /cat ovSev p^aAeTTor yvci)vat, Ov Sijra. XII. TdSe 8e rjSr] ;;^aAe770V', et to) avroj rovrcov^

eKaara Trpdrrofiev "q rpialv ovatv dXXo dXXoj' fxavOdvofiev fxev erepep, dvfjLovfxeda 8e dXXa> rdjv iv

rjpxv, eTTidvpiovpLev 8' av rpirco rivl rdJv irepl rrjv B rpo(f)'qv re Kat. yevvrjaiv rjSovcov /cat oaa rovrcov

d8eX(f)d, iq oXr) rfj fpvxfj Kad^ eKaarov avrcov TTpdrrofiev, orav oppLifjawfJiev' ravr* earai rd x^' XeTTa SuyptaaadaL dgicos Xoyov. Kat e/xot 80/cet, e^Tj. ^ilhe rolwv eTTLxetpcJofiev avrd 6plL,ea6ai, elre rd avrd dAAT^Aoi? elre erepd eariv. Wibs; ArjXov

^ Obviously better than the To&r<fi of the better mss. accepted by Burnet.

" alriacraiTo : this merely varies the idiom am'av fx^iv above, " predicate of," " say of." Cf. 599 e. It was a common boast of the Athenians that the fine air of Athens produced a corresponding subtlety of wit. Cf. Eurip. Medea 829-830, Isoc. vii. 74, Roberts, The Ancient Boeotians, pp. 59, 76.

* ^iXoxp'?MaTO»' is a virtual synonym of iiridvfirjTiKdv. Cf. 580 E and Phaedo 68 c, S2 c.

" In Laws 747 c, Plato tells us that for this or some other cause the mathematical education of the Phoenicians and Egyptians, which he commends, developed in them iravovpyla rather than ffo<pla.

•* The question debatied by psychologists from Aristotle 380

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK IV

not get there from any other source. It would be absurd to suppose that the element of high spirit was not derived in states from the private citizens who are reputed to have this quality, as the popula- tions of the Thracian and Scythian lands and generally of northern regions ; or the quaUty of love of know- ledge, which would chiefly be attributed to" the region where we dwell, or the love of money * which we might say is not least hkely to be found in Phoenicians "^ and the population of Egypt." " One certainly might," he replied. " This is the fact then," said I, " and there is no difficulty in recognizing it." " Certainly not." *XII. " But the matter begins to be difficult when

j^ou ask whether we do all these things with the same thing or whether there are three things and we do one thing with one and one ^\'ith another—learn with one part of ourselves, feel anger with another, and with yet a third desire the pleasures of nutri- tion and generation and their kind, or whether it is \^ith the entire soul ** that we function in each case when we once begin. That is what is really hard to determine properly." " I think so too," he said. " Let us then attempt to define the boundary and decide whether they are identical with one another in this way." " How ? " " It is obvious that the same {Eth. Xic. 11Q2 a 31) to the present day is still a matter of rhetoric, poetry and point of view rather than of strict science. For some purposes we must treat the " faculties " of the mind as distinct entities, for others we must revert to the essential unity of the soul. C/. Arnold's " Lines on Butler's Sermons " and my remarks in The Assault on Humanism.

Plato himself is well aware of this, and in different dialogues emphasizes the aspect that suits his purpose. There is no contradiction between this passage and Phaedo 68 c, 8:2 c, and Rep. x. 61 1-12. Cf. Unity of Plato's Thought, pp. 42-43.

381

PLATO > \

OTi ravTOV ravavna ttol^lv t) 7Tacr;(eiv Kara ravTov ye Kal rrpog ravrov ovk edeX-qaci a/ia, aJare eav

TTOV evpLaKCDjjLei' iv avrols ravra yiyvojxeva,

C elaojJLcda on ov ravrov rjv dXXa TrAeto). Etev. 2/co7ret §17 o Xeyco. Aeye, e^ry. '^ardvai, cIttov, Kal Kiveladat ro avro a/xa /caret to avro dpa

Svvarov; OvSaficbs • "Ert roivvv aKpi^earepov op.o-

Xoyrjaa)[X€da, fiij ttt] npo'Covreg dfKJiLa^rjr-qcrojpLev.

€1 ydp rts Xeyot, dvOpcoirov earr^Kora, Ktvovvra oe

TO,? p^eipct? re /cat rrjv Kecf^aXriv, on 6 avrog earrjKe re Kal KLvelrai a/xa, ovK dv, of/xai,

d^ioifjiev ovrco Xeyeiv helv, dXX on ro fiev n D avrov earrjKe, ro he KLvelrai. ovx ovrcog; Ovra>s.

OvKovv Kal el en p,dXXov )(^apLevrit,oLro o ravra Xeyojv KOfjii/jevofxevos, cLg ol ye arpo^iXoi oXol

eardai re a/xa /cat Ktvovvrai, orav ev rat avrco

TT'q^avreg ro Kevrpov 7Tepi,(f)€pcovrai, iq Kal dXXo n kvkXo) TTepuov ev rfj avrfj eSpa rovro Spa, ovk av

" The first, formulation of the law of contradiction. Cf. Phaedo 102 e, Theaetet. 188 a, Soph. 220 b, infra 602 e.

Sophistical objections are anticipated here and below (436 e) by attaching to it nearly all the qualifying distinc- tions of the categories which Aristotle wearily observes are necessary irpbs ras <TO(f>iffTiKas ivo-x\-r](TiLs {De interp. 17 a 36-37). Cf. Met. 1005 b 22 wpos ras \oyiKas Sva-x^peias, and Bhet. ii. 24.

Plato invokes the principle against Heraclitism and other philosophies of relativity and the sophistries that grew out of them or played with their formulas. Cf. Unity of Plato's Thought, pp. 50 ff., 53, 58, 68. Aristotle follows Plato in this, pronouncing it iraffCiv ^e^aioTdrr) apxv {Met. 1005 b 18).

* Kara raur6c = in the same part of or aspect of itself; 7rp6r TavTov — in relation to the same (other) thing. Cf. Sophist 230 B d/J.a irepl tlov auruiv wpos to, avra Kara ravra.

ivavrlas.

882

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thing will never do or suffer opposites " in the same respect'' in relation to the same thing and at the same time. So that if ever we find "^ these contradictions in the functions of the mind Me shall know that it was ^

not the same thing functioning but a plurahty." " Very well." " Consider, then, what I am saying." "Say on," he replied. "Is it possible for the same thing at the same time in the same respect to be at rest* and in motion ? " " By no means." " Let us have our understanding still more precise, lest as we proceed we become involved in dispute. If anyone should say of a man standing still but mo\'ing his hands and head that the same man is at the same time at rest and in motion we should not, I take it, regard that as the right way of expressing it, but rather that a part ^ of him is at rest and a part in motion. Is not that so?" "It is." "Then if the disputant should carry the jest still further with the subtlety that tops at any rate ^ stand still as a whole at the same time that they are in motion when with the peg fixed in one point they revolve, and that the same is true of any other case of circular motion about the same spot

« For this method of reasoning cf. 478 d, 609 b. Laws 896 c, Charjn. 168 b-c, Gorg. 496 c, Phileb. 11 d-e.

* ^;/ = " was all along and is." ' The maxim is applied to the antithesis of rest and

motion, so prominent in the dialectics of the day. C/. Sophist 249 c-D, Parmen. 156 d and passim.

f Cf. Theaetet. 181 e. ' The argumentative ye is controversial. For the illustra-

tion of the top cf. Spencer, First Principles, § 170, who analyzes " certain oscillations described by the expressive though inelegant word ' wobbling ' " and their final dissipa- tion when the top appears stationary in the equilibrium mobile.

383

PLATO

dnoSexoLfieda, d)s ov /card ravra eavrojv ra

roiavra t6t€ yievovroiv re kol (ftepofjievcov, dAAd

E (^alfxev av ex^tv avra evdv re /cat Trept^epe? ev auTOts, /cat Kara jxev ro €vdv iardvai,, ovSajj.fj yap dnoKXtvetv, Kara 8e to Trepn^epes kvkXo) Kiveladai'

orav 8e rrjv evdva>piav r^ els Se^idv t] els dpiarepdv

ri els ro Trpoadev rj els ro oniadev iyKXlvr) dpa 7TepL(f)ep6p,evov, rore ovSafxij eariv ecrrdvai. Kat opdcos ye, e(f)rj. Ovhev dpa rjp,ds rdv roiovroiv Xeyofjuevov eKTrX-q^ei, ovhe iiaXXov rt, -netaeL, cos

TTore rt. dv ro auro ov dpa Kara ro avro rrpos ro 437 avro rdvavria Trddoi ^ /cat €117 r} /cat iroiriaeiev

.

OvKOvv ip,€ ye, ecfuq. 'AAA' op.o)s, rjv 8' eyco, iva jx'q dvayKa^copeda rrdaas rds roiavras dp(f>ia-

p-qr-qcrets eire^Lovres /cat ^e^aiovpbevoi d>s ovk

dXrjdeis ovaas pirjKvveiv, vrrodep^evoi cos rovrov

ovrws exovros els ro rrpoadev 7TpoLa>p,ev, op,o-

Xoyqcravres, edv irore dXXrj (f)avfj ravra 7] ravrj],

irdvra rjpXv rd drro rovrov ^vpi^aivovra XeXvp.eva

eaeaOat. 'AAAd XPV* ^'^V' Tctura TroieZv.

" The meaning is plain, the alleged rest and motion do not relate to the same parts of the objects. But the syntax of rd ToiaOra is difficult. Obvious remedies are to expunge the words or to read t^v toiovtuv, the cacophony of which in the context Plato perhaps rejected at the cost of leaving his syntax to our conjectures.

* Cf. Aristot. Met. 1022 a 23 in di t6 Kadb rb Kark diixiv X^yerai, Kadb laTTjKev, etc.

* €17], the reading of most mss., should stand. It covers the case of contradictory predicates, especially of relation, that do not readily fall under the dichotomy noLdv Trdaxc"'. So Phaedo 97 C •^ etvai ij &\\o otlovv n-acrx^'-v ^ Troielv.

•* dfX(pL(7^r}TriaeLs is slightly contemptuous. Cf. Aristot. supra, ^yoxXweis, and Theaetet. 158 c ro 76 dfxcpLcr^tjTria-ai ov xa^^e'rAi'.

* It is almost a Platonic method thus to emphasize the S84

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—we should reject the statement on the ground that the repose and the movement in such cases " were not in relation to the same parts of the objects, but we would say that there was a straight line and a cir- cumference in them and that in respect of the straight Une they are standing still ^ since they do not inchne to either side, but in respect of the circumference

they move in a circle ; but that when as they revolve they inchne the perpendicular to right or left or

forward or back, then they are in no wise at rest." " And that would be right," he said. " No such remarks then will disconcert us or any whit the more make us believe that it is ever possible for the same thing at the same time in the same respect and the same relation to suffer, be,'^ or do opposites." " They will not me, I am sure," said he. " All the same," said I, " that we may not be forced to examine at tedious length the entire Hst of such contentions <* and convince ourselves that they are false, let us proceed

on the hypothesis « that this is so, with the understand- ing that, if it ever appear otherwise, everything that

results from the assumption shall be invahdated." " That is what we must do," he said.

dependence of one conclusion on another already accepted.

Cf. Unity of Plato's Thought, n. 471, Polk. 284 d, Pha«do 77 a, 92 d, Tim. 51 d, Parmen. 149 a. It may be used to cut short discussion {Unity of Plato's Thought, n. 471) or divert it into another channel. Here, however, he is aware, as Aristotle is, that the maxim of contradiction can be proved only controversially against an adversary who says something {cf. my De Platonis Idearum Doctrina, pp. 7-9, Aristot. Met. 1012 b 1-10) ; and so, having suffi- ciently guarded his meaning, he dismisses the subject with the ironical observation that, if the maxim is ever proved false, he will give up all that he bases on the hypothesis of its truth. Cf, Sophist 247 e.

vou I 2 c 385

PLATO

B XIII. *Ap ovv, -^v 8' eyctj, to iinveveiv rw avaveveiv /cat to €(f)Uadai rtvos Xa^eiv ro) oltt-

apveladai Kat to Trpoadyeadai ro) oLTTCodeladaL, Travra

TO. TOiavra rcov ivavrccov av^ dXX-qXoLs dei-qs etre TTOLTjfioLTOjv eLTC TTadrjixdroov ; ovSev yap ravrr] Stoicrec. 'AAA', ^ 8' OS, rcov ivavTLCov. Tt ovv; rjv 8' iyu)- Snjjfjv /cat Treivfjv /cat oAoj? rag eTTi-

dvfjLias, /cat av ro ideXeiv /cat ro ^ovXeadat, ov Trdvra ravra els e/cetm Trot dv deirjs rd eihrj rd

C vvv St] Xe)(devTa; olov del ttjv tov eTndvfxovvTos tpv)(r]v ovxi tJtol e<f)ie(j9ai (f)rjaeLS eKeivov ov dv

eTTtOvpLf], t) TTpoadyeaQaL rovro o dv ^ovXrjrai ot yeveaduL, r) av, /ca^' oaov edeXei ri ol TTopLddrjvaL, eTTivevetv rovro Trpds avriqv (Larrep rivos epwrdjvros, eTTopeyofxevrjv avrov rfjs yeveaeajs; "Eyoiye. Tt Sat; ro d^ovXelv /cat p,ri eOeXeiv p-r)8^ eTTidvp^eZv

ovK €LS ro diTCxideZv /cat a77eAawetv oltt' avrrjs /cat D els diravra rdvavria eKeivois drjoop^ev; 11 a)? ydp

ov; Tovroiv Srj ovrcos e)(ovrajv e7ndvp.iu)v tl

^ Baiter's ay is of course necessary.

" Cf. Oorg. 496 e, and supra on 435 d. ^ iOdXeiv in Plato normally means to be willing, and

/Soi'Xecr^at to wish or desire. But unlike Prodicus, Plato emphasizes distinctions of synonyms only when relevant to his purpose. Cf. Unity of Plato's Thought, p. 47 and n. 339, Phileb. 60 d. irpoadyeaBai below relates to iTriBviua and (Tn-veveiv to id^XeLv . . . (iovXecrdai.,

' Cf. Aristot. De anima 434 a 9. The Platonic doctrine that opinion, dd^a, is discussion of the soul with herself, or the judgement in which such discussion terminates {cf. Unity of Plato's Thought, p. 47) is here applied to the specific case of the practical reason issuing in an affirmation of the will.

386

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XIII. " Will you not then," said I, " set down as opposed to one another assent and dissent, and the en- deavour after a thing to the rejection of it, and embrac- ing to repelUng—do not these and all things like these belong to the class of opposite actions or passions

;

it will make no difference which ? " " " None," said he, " but they are opposites." " What then," said I, " of thirst and hunger and the appetites generally, and again consenting *• and willing, would you not put them all somewhere in the classes just described ? Will you not say, for example, that the soul of one who desires either strives for that which he desires or draws towards its embrace what it \\'ishes to accrue to it ; or again, in so far as it wills that anything be presented to it, nods assent to itself thereon as if someone put the question,"^ striving towards its attainment?" " I would say so," he said. "But what of not-willing <* and not consenting nor yet desiring, shall we not put these under the soul's rejection * and repulsion from itself and generally into the opposite class from all the former ? " " Of course." " This being so, shall we say that the desires constitute a

* i^ovXelv recalls the French coinage " nolont6," and the Southern mule's " won't-power." Cf. Epist. vii. 347 a, Demosth. Epist. ii. 17.

• Cf. Aristotle's dve^XKew, De an. 433 b 8. " All willing is either pushing or pulling," Jastrow, Fact and Fable in Psychology, p. 336. Cf. the argument in Spencer's First Principles § 80, that the phrase " impelled by desires " is not a metaphor but a physical fact. Plato's generalization of the concepts "attraction" and "repulsion" brings about a curious coincidence with the language of a materialistic, physiological psychology (c/. Lange, History of Materialism, passim), just as his rejection in the Timaeus of attraction and actio in distans allies his physics with that of the most consistent materialists.

387

PLATO

(f)rjaoiJLev elvai elSog, /cat evapyearaTas avrcov

Tovroiv "qv re Slipau KaXovfiev /cat t]v Treivav;

^T]aofX€v, rj S' OS. Ovkovv ttjv /xev ttotov, ttjv 8'

iScoSrjs; Nat. ^Ap* ovv, Kad oaov Slifja iari, •nXeovos civ tlvos ^ ov^ Xeyofxev eTndvjjiia iv rfj ijfvxfj €t7y; OLOV 8ti/»a earl Biifja dpd ye depfxov TTOTOV 7] l/jUXpOV, 7j TToXXoV ^ oXtyOV, ^ /Cttt iul XoyCp 7TOLOV TtVOS 7T(LjXaTOS I T] ^CLV fxiv Tt?

E depfxoTTjs TO) Siipei Trpoaij, ttjv rod i/jvxpov iiri- dvjjLiav TTpooTTTapexoLT^ dv, idv 8e ijjvxporrjs, ttjv

rod depjjLov; idv Se 8ta ttXtjOovs Trapovaiav ttoXX^

7) 8ti/»a ^, r'r]v rod ttoXXov Trape^erai, idv Se oXlyrj,

r7]v rod oXiyov; avro 8e to Siijjfjv ov pLrj TTore dXXov yivrjrai iTTidvpiia tj ovirep 7T€(f>vK€v, avrod TTcojjiaros, /cat av ro Treivfjv ^pcofxaros ; Ovrcos,

€(f)r], avrrj ye rj iTTiOvjiia eKaarr] avrod fxovov eKaarov ov 7Te(f)VKe, rod Se roiov rj roiov rd

438 TTpoayiyvofieva. M-qroi ri?, 'qv 8' iyo), daKerrrovg

7)p,ds ovras dopv^-qar), (hs ousels' rrorod i7ndv[xel

^ Several good mss. have the obviously wrong wov, others ^ oi).

« Cf. on 349 E. » Cf. supra 412 b and Class. Phil. vii. (1912) pp. 485-486. * The argument might proceed with 439 a roO 5i^Q)vtos

&pa i] ^I'xv. All that intervenes is a digression on logic, a caveat against possible misunderstandings of the proposition that thirst qua thirst is a desire for drink only and un- qualifiedly. We are especially warned (438 a) against the misconception that since all men desire the good, thirst must be a desire not for mere drink but for good drink. Cf. the dramatic correction of a misconception, Phaedo 79 b, infra 529 a-b.

•* In the terminology of the doctrine of ideas the " pre- sence " of cold is the cause of cool, and that of heat, of hot.

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class* and that the most conspicuous members of that class * are what we call thirst and hunger ?

"

" We shall," said he. " Is not the one desire of drink, the other of food ? " " Yes." " Then in so far as it is thirst, would it be of anything more than that of which we say it is a desire in the soul ? " I mean is thirst thirst for hot drink or cold or much or Httle or in a word for a draught of any particular quality, or is it the fact that if heat <* is attached ' to the thirst it would further render the desire—a desire of cold, and if cold of hot ? But if o^nng to the presence of much- ness the thirst is much it would render it a thirst for much and if Httle for little. But mere thirst will never be desire of anything else than that of which it is its nature to be, mere drink,^ and so hunger of food." "That is so," he said; "each desire in itself is of that thing only of which it is its nature to be. The epithets belong to the quality—such or such.' " " Let no one then," * said I, " disconcert us when off our guard with the objection that everybody

Cf. "The Origin of the Syllc^ism," Class. Phil. vol. xix. p. 10. But in the concrete instance heat caxises the desire of cool and vice versa. Cf. Phileb. 35 a i-riOvfut tCov inwTiuv fj rdtrx,fi.

If we assume that Plato is here speaking from the point of view of common sense (cf. Lysis 215 e to 5^ \lji'xpi)v 6ep/xov), there is no need of Hermann's transposition of \pvxj>ov and depfjLov, even though we do thereby get a more exact sym- metry with rXTjOovs Trapovffiav . , . tov toWov below.

• Tpoffj denotes that the " presence " is an addition. Cf. rpofffiTj in Parmen. 149 e.

' Phileb. 35 a adds a refinement not needed here, that thirst is, strictly speaking, a desire for repletion by drink.

» Cf. 429 B. But (the desires) of such or such a (specific) drink are (due to) that added qualification (of the thirst).

* ii.^01 Tii = look you to it that no one, etc 389

PLATO

dAAa )(^pr]<jTov ttotov, Kal ov airov aAAa ;^/j-)yaToi> OLTOV. TTOLvreg yap dpa tcov dyadcov ivtdvfxovatv €t oSv rj St'i/ia eTndvjxia eari, )(priarov dv etrj etre

TTcofxaros etre dXXov otou ia-rlv i-mSvpLia, kol at aAAai ovTco. "lacos ydp dv, 6^17, So/cot rl Xeyeiv 6 ravra Xeycov. 'AAAa fxevroi, rjv S' eyco, daa y"

B ecTTt TOiavra oia elvai tov, to. [xev 77010. arra ttoiov Ttvos eoTLV, d)s ejxol So/cet, ra 8' aura CKaara avTov eKaarov jxovov. Ovk ejxadov, €(f)r]. Ovk efxades, c^'rjv, on to fxel^ov tolovtov eariv olov TLVos etvaL ixell^ov; Yldw ye. Ovkovv tov eXdr- Tovos; Nai. To 8e ye ttoXv jjiel^ov ttoXv eXdr- Tovos. rj ydp; Nat. ^Ap' ovi^ Kal to ttotc

fiet^ov TTore eAaTTOi^os", Kal to eaofievov fjL€tt,ov

eaofievov eXaTTOvos; 'AAAa rt fii^v; ^ 8' o?. C Kat ra TrXeioj Srj Trpos ra eXaTTOi /cat ra StTrAa-

CTta TTpos Ta Tjpiiaea Kat, rrdvTa Ta ToiavTa, Kal av ^apvTepa TTpos Kovc/iOTepa Kal ddTTCO vpog Ta PpaSvTepa, Kal ert ye Ta depfxd Trpos rd i/jv^pd Kal

" dpa marks the rejection of this reasoning. C/. supra 358 c, 364 E, 381 e, 499 c. Plato of course is not repudiat- ing his doctrine that all men really will the good, but the logic of this passage requires us to treat the desire of good €is a distinct qualiiication of the mere drink.

* &(ja 7' iffTL Toiavra etc. : a palmary example of the concrete simplicity of Greek idiom in the expression of abstract ideas, bcra etc. (that is, relative terms) divide by partitive apposition into two classes, to. fxiv . . . rd 5^. The meaning is that if one term of the relation is qualified, the other must be, but if one term is without qualification, the other also is taken absolutely. Plato, as usual (c/. supra on 347 b), represents the interlocutor as not understanding the first general abstract statement, which he therefore interprets and repeats. I have varied the translation in the repetition

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desires not drink but good drink and not food but good food, because (the argument will run '') all men desire good, and so, if thirst is desire, it would be of good drink or of good whatsoever it is ; and so similarly of other desires." " WTiy," he said, " there perhaps would seem to be something in that objection." " But I need hardly remind you," said I, " that of relative terms those that are somehow quahfied are related to a quaUfied correlate, those that are severally just themselves to a correlate that is just itself.* " I don't understand," he said. " Don't you understand," said I, " that the greater "^

is such as to be greater than something ? " " Cer- tainly." " Is it not than the less ? " " Yes." " But the much greater than the much less. Is that not so ? " " Yes." " And may we add the one time greater than the one time less and that which will be greater than that which ^\'ill be less ?

"

" Surely." " And similarly of the more towards the fewer, and the double towards the half and of all like cases, and again of the hea\ier towards the lighter, the s\vifter towards the slower, and yet again of the hot towards the cold and all cases of that kind,** in order to bring out the full meaning, and some of the differences between Greek and English idiom.

' The notion of relative terms is familiar. Cf. Charm. 167 E, Theaetet. 160 a, Symp. 199 d-e, Parmen. 133 c flF., Sophist 255 d, Aristot. Topics vi. 4, and Cat. v. It is expounded here only to insure the apprehension of the further point that the qualifications of either term of the relation are relative to each other. In the Politicus :283 f. Plato adds that the great and small are measured not only in relation to each other, but by absolute standards. Cf. Unity of Plato's Thought, pp. 61, 62, and infra 531 a.

^ Kai . . . Kal ad . . . Kai In yt etc. mark different classes of relations, magnitudes, precise quantities, the mechanical properties of matter and the physical properties.

S91

PLATO

TTavra ra tovtols ofioia dp' ov^ ovrcos ^x^i; Ildvv p,ev ovv. Tt 8e to. Trepl rds iTTiari^jjias; ovx o avTos TpoTTOs; emaTrjiXT) fxev avrrj pLad-qpiaTOS avTOV eTTKTT'qpirj ecrrlv fj otov 817 Set delvai ttjv €7n(jTr]p,r)v, eTnarTjpr] 8e ris Kal ttolo. ti? ttoiov

D TLVos Kat TLVos. Ae'yoj 8e to roLovSe- ovk, 67761817 OLKias epyacrias iTriGrrjpir] iyevero, Stt^vcyKe tcov

aAAair iTTiCTTrjpuju, ware oLKoSopLiKrj KXrjdijvat,

;

IL p.rjv; 'A/a' ov tcu ttolol Tig elvai, ola CTepa ovBepLia T(x)v aXXcov; Nat. Ovkovv ineiSr] ttolov Tivos, Kal avTT] TTOLO. TLs iy€V€TO ; Kal at ctAAat

OVTOJ Tcx^at T€ Kal iTTLOTrjpat; "Ecttip' ovtcd. XIV. TovTo Toivvv, ^v 8' iyco, (f)ddL pe totc

^ovXeadai Xeyetv, el apa vvv epades, otl oaa cotIv ola cLvai Tov, avTo. p,ev pova avTCJV p.6vcov ioTiv,

E Tcbv 8e TTOLcov Tivcov TTOid OLTTa. Kal ov TL Xeyoj, COS", oicov av 7], ToiavTa Kal eaTLv, to? apa Kal tGjv vyuLvcov Kal vocrcoBcov rj eTnoTrip-q vyieivr] Kal

voawSrjg Kat tojv KaKCov Kal tcov dyadaJv KaKrj Kat,

ayadrj' dAA' iTretS-q ovk avTov ovirep eTncJTrjpy] €(TTiv eyeveTO imaT'qpLr), dXXa ttoiov tivos, tovto

" Plato does not wish to complicate his logic with meta- physics. The objective correlate of einaTriiLLr) is a difficult problem. In the highest sense it is the ideas. Cf. Parmen. 134 a. But the relativity of iwiar-qixy) (Aristot. Top. iv. 1. 5) leads

to psychological difficulties in Charm. 168 and to theological in Parmen. 134 c-e, which are waived by this phrase. Science in the abstract is of knowledge in the abstract, architectural science is of the specific knowledge called architecture. Cf. Sophist 257 c.

" Cf. Phileh. 37 c. " Cf. Cratyl. 393 b, Phaedo 81 d, and for the thought

Aristot. Met. 1030 b 2 ff. The " added determinants " need not be the same. The study of useful things is not necessarily 892

THE REPUBLIC. BOOK IV

does not the same hold ? " " By all means." " But what of the sciences ? Is not the May of it the same ? Science which is just that, is of knowledge which is just that, or is of whatsoever " we must assume the correlate of science to be. But a particular science of a particular kind is of some particular thing of a particular kind. I mean something like this : As there was a science of making a house it differed from other sciences so as to be named architecture." " Certainly." " Was not this by reason of its being of a certain kind ** such as no other of all the rest r

"

" Yes." " And was it not because it was of some- thing of a certain kind that it itself became a certain kind of science ? And similarly of the other arts and sciences ? " " That is so." XIV. " This then,' said I, " ifhaply you now under-

stand, is what you must say I then meant, by the state- ment that of all things that are such as to be of some- thing, those that are just themselves only are of things just themselves only, but things of a certainkind are of things of a kind. And I don't at all mean '' that they are of the same kind as the things of which they are, so that we are to suppose that the science of health and disease is a healthy and diseased science and that of evil and good, evil and good. I only mean that as science became the science not of just the thing ** of which science is but of some particular kind of thing, a useful study, as opponents of the Classics argue. In Gorg. 476 B this principle is violated by the wilful fallacy that if to do justice is fine, so must it be to suffer justice, but the motive for this is explained in Latcs 859-860.

** ai'Tov oCirep ^irtcTrifiJ} IsTiv is here a mere periphrasis for fiadri/jiaTOi, aiTov expressing the idea abstract, mere, absolute, or per ge, but oirep or ijirep einiv is often a synonym of aiVoj or aiVi; in the sense of abstract, absolute, or ideal. Cf. Thompson on Aleno 71b, Sophist 255 d toOto Srep itniv elvai,

393

PLATO

8' -^v vyi,€Lv6v Kal voacoSes, ttoio. 8t] ris ^vve^rj /cai

auTi7 yeveadai, /cat tovto avrrjv eTToirjoe fXT^Keri

tTTicTT'qfjLrjv aTrAo)? KaXeladai, dAAo. rov ttolov rtvos

TTpoayevofxevou larpiK-qv. "Kjjiadov, ^(f)y],

kul [jlol

8oK€L ovTOjg '^X^^^' To 8e hrj Siijjog, rjv 8' iycv, ov 439 TOVTCOV d-qaeis rchv rivog etvai tovto oirep eoTiv;

€aTi 8e 8t]ttov Slifjos; "Eycuye, rj 8' 6s' Trctj/xaros'

ye. OvKovv ttoiov fxev tlvos 7Ta)[xaTos ttolov ti /cat

Slifjos, Blifjos 8' ouv auTo oure ttoXXov ovt€ oAtyou,

oure dya^ou ovTe KaKov, ou8' ert Aoya» ttoiov tlvos, dAA' auTou TTci/xaros' fJiovov avTO hlifjos 7T€(JjVK€v;

UavTaTTaat [xev ovv. Tov Sufjibi'TOS dpa r) «/'fX^» Ka9* oaov ^Lijjfj, ovK ciAAo ti jSouAerat •^ Tneiv, /cat

I> TOUTOU opeycTaL /cat e77t tovto opuq.. ^rjXov or],

OvKovv et 77ore ti avTTjv dvOeXKei biiffoJaav, €Tepov av TL iv auT27 etr] avTov tov SliJjcovtos /cat dyovTos

(xiairep Orjpiov ini to TTieiv; ov yap Srj, (f)ap,€V,

" 5ri marks the application of this digression on relativity, for Stt/'oj is itself a relative term and is what it is in relation to something else, namely drink.

" rQv Ttvos elvai : if the text is sound, eTvai seems to be taken twice, (1) with rovro etc., (2) rQv tiv6s as predicates. This is perhaps no harsher than t6 SoKdv elvai in Aesch. Ag. 788. Cf. Tennyson's

How sweet are looks that ladies bend On whom their favours fall,

and Pope's And virgins smiled at what they blushed before.

Possibly 6ri(T€is tQjv nvos is incomplete in itself (cf. 437 b) and elvai TOVTO etc. is a loose epexegesis. The only emendation worth notice is Adam's insertion of km tivos between rivbs and ehat, which yields a smooth, but painfully explicit, construction.

« Cf. further Sophist 255 d, Aristot. 3feL 1021 a 27, Aristot. Cat. v.. Top. vi. 4. So Plotinus vi. 1. 7 says that

394

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namely, of health and disease, the result" was that it itself became some kind of science and this caused it to be no longer called simply science but with the addition of the particular kind, medical science." " I understand," he said, " and agree that it is so." " To return to thirst, then," said I, " will you not class it with the things * that are of something and say that it is what it is "^ in relation to something—and it is, I presume, thirst ? " "I will," said he, " — namely of drink." " Then if the drink is of a certain kind, so is the thirst, but thirst that is just thirst is neither of much nor little nor good nor bad, nor in a word of any kind, but just thirst is naturally of just drink only." " By all means." " The soul of the thirsty then, in so far as it thirsts, wishes nothing else than to drink, and yearns for this and its impulse is towards this." " Obviously." " Then if anything draws it back <* when thirsty it must be something different in it from that which thirsts and drives it like a beast * to drink. For it cannot be, we say, that

relative terms are those whose very being is the relation Kal rb elvai ovk &\\o ti fj rb aWijXois elvai.

* Cf. on 437 c, Aristot. De an. 433 b 8, Laws 644 e, infra 604 B, Phaedr. 238 c. The practical moral truth of this is independent of our metaphysical psychology. Plato means that the something which made King David refuse the draught purchased by the blood of his soldiers and Sir Philip Sidney pass the cup to a wounded comrade is some- how different from the animal appetite which it overpowers. Cf. Aristot. Eth. Nic. 1 102 b 24, Laws 863 e.

' Cf. infra 589, Epist. 335 b. Cf. Descartes, Les Passions de Vdme, article xlvii : "En quoi consistent les combats qu'on a coutume d'imaginer entre la partie inferieure et la superieure de I'ame." He says in effect that the soul is a unit and the " lower soul " is the body. Cf. ibid. Ixviii, where he rejects the " concupiscible " and the " irascible."

395

PLATO

TO ye avTO toj avrco eavrov Trepl to avTO dfxa TovavTia TTpaTTei} Ov yap ovv. "ClaTrep ye, otfiai, Tov To^oTov ov KaXcos ex^i Xeyetv, otl avTov ajxa at x^^P^^ '^^ To^ov aTTcodovvTai re koI TrpoaeXKovTai, aAA' OTL aXXrj fxev rj dTTCodovaa x^^P> ere/aa 8e rj

C npoaayoiJLevrj. HavTOLTTacri jxev ovv, e(f>ri. IloTepov OTj (f)a)fjiev TLvas ecxTiv oTe SiipcovTas ovk ideXeiv TTLelv; Kat pLoXa y' , €<f)rj, voWovs Kal ttoXXolkis. Ti ovv, €<l)r]v eyo), (f)air) ti? dv tovtojv Ttepi; ovk evetp'at jxev ev tjj ijjvxfj avTcov to KeXevov, evelvat

8e TO KcoXvov TTLelv, dXXo ov Kal KpaTovv tov KeXev-

ovTos ; "EjLtotye, 6^17, hoKeZ. ^Ap^ ovv ov to pikv

KUiXvov TO, TOLavTa eyyiyveTaL, OTav eyyiyvrjTaL,^ e/c

D XoyLcrp,ov, to. he dyovTa Kal eXKovTa Sia 7Tadrjp,dT(ov Te Kal voarjfxdTa)v TrapayiyveTai; OaiVerai. Ov Srj dXoyo)?, rjv S' iyo), d^La)aop,ev aura Sirra re

Kal eTepa aAAr^AoJi' etvaL, to piev J) Aoyt^erat

XoyLGTLKov npoaayopevovTes ttjs ifjvx^]?, to 8e o)

^ So Ast for MS. irpoLTTOL—necessarily, unless we read with Campbell &fjL av.

* So Schneider ; cf. 373 e : iyy^virjTai codd.

» Cf. Unity of Plato's Thought, p, 68: "Plato ... de- lights to prick . . . the bubbles of imagery, rhetoric and antithesis blown by his predecessors. Heraclitus means well when he says that the one is united by disunion {Symp. 187 a) or that the hands at once draw and repel the bow. But the epigram vanishes under logical analysis." For the conceit cf. Samuel Butler's lines

:

He that will win his dame must do As love does when he bends his bow. With one hand thrust his lady from And with the other pull her home.

* iveTvai fih . . . helvai 5e : the slight artificiality of the

anaphora matches well with the Gorgian jingle KekexJov . . .

S96

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the same thing with the same part of itself at the same time acts in opposite ways about the same thing." " We must admit that it does not." " So I fancy it is not well said of the archer " that his hands at the

same time thrust away the bow and draw it nigh, but we should rather say that there is one hand that puts it away and another that draws it to." " By all means," he said. " Are we to say, then, that some men sometimes though thirsty refuse to drink ?

"

" We are indeed," he said, " many and often." " What then," said I, " should one affirm about them ? Is it not that there is ** a something in the soul that

bids them drink and a something that forbids, a different something that masters that which bids ?

"

" I think so." " And is it not the fact that that which

Inhibits such actions arises when it arises from the calculations of reason, but the impulses which draw and drag come through affections ^ and diseases ?" " Apparently." " Not unreasonably," said I, " shall we claim that they are two and different from one another, naming that in the soul whereby it reckons and reasons the rational <* and that with which it loves,

KuXvov. Cf. Iambi. Protrept. p. 41 Postelli icrri yap Toiovroy 6 KfXevei Kai KuiXvet.

' The " pulls " are distinguished verbally from the passions that are their instruments. voari/j.d.Twv suggests the Stoic

doctrine that passions are diseases. Cf. Cic. Tusc. iii. 4 perturbationeg, and passim, and Phileb. 45 c.

"* \oyi<TTiK6v is one of Plato's many synonyms for the in- tellectual principle. Cf. 441 c, 571 c, 587 d, 605 b. It em- phasizes the moral calculation of consequences, as opposed to blind passion. Cf. Crito 46 b (one of the passages which the Christian apologists used to prove that Socrates knew the X670S), Theaetet. 186 C avoKoyiaixaTa -rrpo^ re ovaia.v koX

<b<l>4\(iav, and Laws 644 d. Aristot. Eth. 1139 a 12 somewhat differently.

397

PLATO

ipa T€ Kal veLvfj Kal Supfj koI ircpl ras oAAa?

€7n6vjJiias eTTTorjTaL dXoyLarov re Kal eTndvfxiqTiKov,

TrXrjpdiaediv tivojv Kal rjSovoJv eralpov. Ovk, aAA'

E ei/coTCt)?, e^"*;, "qyoijxed^ dv ovtojs. Taura [xev TOLvvv, rjv 8' iyo), Svo rjfxiv (hpiadco eihy] iv ifjvxfj

evovra' to Se Srj rod dvjjLov Kal co Ovp-ovpieda

7TOT€pov rpirov ri tovtcov TTorepco dv etrj 6p,ocf)V€s;

laojs, e^^y, to) irepu), ro) imdvixr^TiKa). 'AAA',

^v S eyctj, TTore aKovaas tl TTiaTevco tovtco, a»?

apa Aeovrios 6 ^AyXatatvog dvicbv €k Heipaiecos

VTTo TO ^opeiov relxos cktos, aladop^evos veKpovs

Trapa Tcp S-qfita) K€L[M€Vovs, dp.a jxev ISelv eTTtOvfiol,

a/ta 8' ay Svax^palvoi Kal aTTOTpeTTOi eavTov, Kai

" iirrdriTai : almost technical, as in Sappho's ode, for the flutter of desire. d\6yia-Tov, though applied here to the eTTidv^iriTiKov only, suggests the bipartite division of Aristotle, Eth. Nic. 1102 a 28.

* So the bad steed which symbolizes the iiri8vfir]TiK6v in Phaedr. 253 e is dXa^oveias eraipos.

* We now approach the distinctively Platonic sense of Ovfios as the power of noble wrath, which, unless perverted by a bad education, is naturally the ally of the reason, though as mere angry passion it might seem to belong to the irrational part of the soul, and so, as Glaucon suggests, be akin to appetite, with which it is associated in the mortal soul of the Timaeus 69 n.

In Laws 731 b-c Plato tells us again that the soul cannot combat injustice without the capacity for righteous indigna- tion. The Stoics affected to deprecate anger always, and the difference remained a theme of controversy between them and the Platonists. C/. Schmidt, Ethik der Griechen, ii. pp. 321 ff., Seneca, De ira, i. 9, and passim. Moralists are still divided on the point. Cf. Bagehot, Lord Brougham : '* An- other faculty of Brougham ... is the faculty of easy tinger.

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hungers, thirsts, and feels the flutter" and titillation of other desires, the irrational and appetitive— companion^ of various repletions and pleasures." " It would not be unreasonable but quite natural," he said, " for us to think this." " These two forms, then, let us assume to have been marked off as actually existing in the soul. But now the Thumos*' or principle of high spirit, that with which we feel anger, is it a third, or would it be identical in nature with one of these ? " " Perhaps," he said, " with one of these, the appetitive." " But," I said, " I once heard a story" which I believe, that Leontius the son of Aglaion, on his way up from the Peiraeus under the outer side of the northern wall,* becoming aware of dead bodies ' that lay at the place of public execu- tion at the same time felt a desire to see them and a repugnance and aversion, and that for a time he

The supine placidity of civilization is not favourable to ani- mosity [Bacon's word for dv/j-os]." Leslie Stephen, Science of Ethics, pp. 60 ff. and p. 62, seems to contradict Plato : "The supposed conflict between reason and passion is, as I hold, meaningless if it is taken to imply that the reason is a facultj' separate from the emotions," etc. But this is only his metaphysics. On the practical ethical issue he is with Plato.

** Socrates has heard and trusts a, to us, obscure anecdote which shows how emotion may act as a distinct principle re- buking the lower appetites or curiosities. Leontius is un- known, except for Bergk's guess identifying him with the Leotrophides of a corrupt fragment of Theopompus Comicus, fr. 1 Kock, p. 739.

• He was following the outer side of the north wall up to the city. Cf. Lysis 203 a, Frazer, Paus. ii. 40, Wachsmuth, Stadt Athen, i. p. 190.

' The corpses were by, near, or with the executioner (6 ivl T<p opvy/xari) whether he had thrown them into the pit (fiipadpov) or not.

S99

PLATO

440 Tea)s jxaxoLro re kol TrapaKaXvTTTOiTO, Kparov- fievos S' ovv VTTo rrjs iTTtdvfilas, SteA/cytra? rovs ocpOaXjXovs, TTpoahpafxibv irpos rov? veKpovg, ISov

vpXv, €(f)r],^ KaKoSaCpLOves , epLTrXrjadrjTe rov KaXov dedpiaros.jliKovaa, €(j)rj, /cat auro?. Ovros p-€v- TOL, €cl)riv, 6 Xoyos aqpLaivei ttjv 6pyr]v rroXepieiv evLOT€ rals eTnOvpiLais cu? ctAAo 6V aAAoj. Sr^/xatVet

yap, e(f)-q. XV. OvKovv Koi aXXoOi, €(f>r]v, TToXXaxov al-

adavopueda, orav ^Ld[,a>VTaL nva napd top Xoyccrpiov B eTTidvpiiai, XoihopovvTo. re avrov /cat 6vp.ovpL€vov

ra> ^ta^ojueVo) iv avro), /cat woTrep hvolv araaia-

C,ovTOiv ^vpLp,axov rep Xoytp yiyvopievov rov dvpcov

rov roLovrov; rats S' CTrt^u/xtats' avrov KOivco-

vrjaavra, alpovvros Xoyov pLT] Setv, avmrparreLV,

olpiai Se ovK av (fxivai yevop-evov irore iv aavrco rov rotovrov aladecrdai, OLp,ai 8' ovS^ iv aXXcp.

C Ov p,a rov Ata, e^Tj. Tt 8e; ^v S' iyo)- orav Tt? o'liqrai dhiKeZv, ov)( oaco av yevvaiorepos

fj,

roaovrcp rjrrov Svvarai 6pyit,eadai /cat 7T€Lva)v /cat

piya)v /cat aAAo oriovv rihv roiovrayv rrday^uiv vti*

" Cf. Antiph. fr. 18 Kock wXrjyels, rius fiiv iireKpirei, r^j avfKpopds, etc., and

Maids who shrieked to see the heads Yet shrieking pressed more nigh.

* He apostrophizes his eyes, in a different style from Romeo's, "Eyes, look your last."

" avTov : we shift from the Ovfios to the man and back again. ^ dvrnrpd.TTfti' : that is, oppose the reason. It may be

construed with Seiv or as the verb of avrdv. There are no real difficulties in the passage, though many have been found. The order of words and the anacoluthon are inten- tional and effective. Cf. supra on 434 c. oiiK clv . . . irori is to literal understanding an exaggeration. But Plato is

400

TRE REPUBLIC, BOOK IV

resisted* and veiled his head, but overpowered in despite of all by his desire, with wide staring eyes he rushed up to the corpses and cried, ' There, ye wretches,'' take your fill of the fine spectacle ! '

"

" I too," he said, " have heard the story." " Yet, surely, this anecdote," I said, " signifies that the

principle of anger sometimes fights against desires as an ahen thing against an alien." " Yes, it does," he said.

XV. "And do we not," said I, " on many other occa- sions observe when his desires constrain a man con- trary' to his reason that he re\iles himself and is angry \tith that -svithin which masters him ; and that as it were in a faction of two parties the high spirit of such a man becomes the ally of his reason ? But its * making common cause <* with the desires against the reason when reason whispers low * ' Thou must not '

—

that, I think, is a kind of thing you would not affirm ever to have perceived in yourself, nor, I fancy, in any-

body else either." "No, by heaven," he said. "Again, when a man thinks himself to be in the >%Tong,' is it not true that the nobler he is the less is he capable of anger though suffering hunger and cold ' and what-

speaking of the normal action of uncorrupted 6vii6s. Plato would not accept the psvchology of Euripides' Medea (1079-1080):

Koi fiauOdyu (tip ota Spay /liXXu /caxd,

Bvubs Sk KpeiiTffw Twp ift-Qv ^ovKevfjArur,

Cf. Dr. Loeb's translation of Decharme, p. 340. • aipoivTos : cf. 604 c, and L. & S. s.T. A. ii. 5. ' So Aristot. Rhet. 1380 b 17 ov yiyverai yap rj opyrj rpbi rb

bUaiov, and Eth. 37c. 1135 b 28 i-ri tpaivofievr) yap ddiKia ri ipryif iarur. This is true only with Plato's reservation yarpaibrepoi. The baser type is angry when in the wrong.

* Cf. Demosth. xv. 10 for the same general idea. VOL. I 2 D 401

PLATO

CKeivov, ov dv oiy]rai hiKaicjs ravra ^pav, /cat, o Xeyo), ovK ideXec Trpog tovtov avrov eyeipeadai 6

dvfios; ^AXtjOt], €</>')7. Tt Se; orav ahiKeiadai tis rjyrjrai, ovk iv tovtco t^el re koI ;^aAe7ratVet /cat

^Vfjifiaxei r(x> SoKovvTi 8t/caia> /cat 8ta to Treivfjv D Kol 8ia TO piyovv /cat TtavTa to. roiavra Trdcrxeiv

VTTOfxevojv /cat vlkS, Kal ov Xyyei tcov yej^vaiuiiLf rrpLV dv t] biaTrpd^rjTat -q TeXevrT^arj rj ojcnrep kvcov

V7TO vojjieojs VTTO Tov Xoyov Tov 77ap' avTcp dva- KX-qdels ^o.vvdfj; Yidw /xev ovv, €(f>rj, eoLKe tovtu) (h Xeyeis, KaiTOL y' iv rfj TjixeTepa TToXei tovs CTTLKovpovs wanep Kvvas cde^eda vtttjkoovs tcov apxovTCov oiOTTep TTOtp-evcov TToXecos- KaAcD? ydp, Tjv 8' eydi, voels o ^ovXop,ai Xeyeiv. dXX ^ Trpos

E TovTcp /cat ToSe iv6yfi£X : To rrolov; "On rovvav- TLov 7] apTLCos rjpuv (^atVerat Trept tov BvfxoeiSovs. TOT€ ii€v yap eTndvfirjTLKov tl avTO (hofieda etvai, vvv Se TToXXov Setv <j>apiev, dXXd ttoXv fxdXXov avTO €v TTJ TTJg ifjvxTj? CTTCiCTet Tideadai Ta orrXa npos to XoyicTTtKov. YlavrdTTaaiv, €cj)rj. ^Ap^ ovv CTepov

ov /cat TOVTOV, r} Aoyto-rt/cou rt etSo?, caCTxe /x')7

T/3ta aAAa hvo elSYj elvaL iv ifjvxfj, XoytaTLKov Kal

" d \4yu: idiomatic, "as I was saying." * iv TotJT(fi : possibly " in such an one," preferably " in

such a case." 9i'/j.6s is plainly the subject of fet. (Cf. the physiological definition in Aristot. De an. 403 a 31 ^iaiv tov irepl T7)v Kapdiav aifiaro^), and SO, strictly speaking, of all the other verbs down to X-riyei. Kai dia. to veivijv . , . iraax^i-v is best taken as a parenthesis giving an additional reason for the anger, besides the sense of injustice.

" tG>v yevvaiwv : i.e. the 6vfi6i of the noble, repeating So-y hv yevfaioTepoi ^ above. The interpretation " does not desist from his noble (acts) " destroys this symmetry and has no

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THE REPUBLIC, BOOK IV

soever else at the hands of him whom he beheves to be acting justly therein, and as I say" his spirit refuses to be aroused against such a one ? " " True," he said. " But what when a man believes himself to be \vronged, does not his spirit in that case ^ seethe and grow fierce (and also because of his suffering hunger, cold and the hke) and make itself the ally of what lie judges just, and in noble souls " it endures and wins the \ictory and will not let go until either it achieves its purpose, or death ends all, or, as a dog is called back by a shepherd, it is called back by the reason wthin and calmed." " Your simihtude is perfect," he said, " and it confirms <* our former statements that the helpers are as it were dogs subject to the rulers who are as it were the shepherds of the city." "You apprehend my meaning excellently," said I. " But do you also take note of this ? " " Of what ?

"

" That what we now think about the spirited element is just the opposite of our recent surmise. For then we supposed it to be a part of the appetitive, but now, far from that, we say that, in the factions * of the soul, it much rather marshals itself on the side of the reason." " By all means," he said. "Is it then distinct from this too, or is it a form of the rational, so that there are not three but two kinds in the soul,

warrant in Plato's use of ytwaioi. Cf. 375 e, 4o9 a. The only ailment against the view here taken is that "^1^0$ is not the subject of Xirvet," which it plainly is. The shift from dvfioi to the man in what follows is no diiBculty and is required only bv TeXevrVl?. which may weU be a gloss. Cf. A.J. P. xvi. p. 237.

' KcuTOL ye calls attention to the confirmation supplied by the image. Cf. supra on 376 b, and my article in Class. Joum. vol. iiL p. 29.

• C/. 440 B and Phaedr. 237 s.

403

PLATO

iTTidvfX'qTiKov; i^ KaOdnep ev rfj TToXei ^vvetx^v 441 avTTjv rpia ovra ycvrj, )(pr]iJLaTiaTLK6v , eTTiKovprj-

TLKOV, ^ovXevTLKov, ovTCti Kol ev ^V)(rj rpirov tovto

ioTi TO dvjjLoeiSes, CTTLKOvpov ov rep XoyiarLKO)

(f>va€i, iav p,rj vtto /ca/crj? rpocjirjs hia(f>dapfj;

^AvdyKrj, c(f)r], rpirov. ^ai, rjv 8 eyo), dv ye rov

XoyiariKov aAAo ri (f)avfj wcrTrep rov iTndufirjriKov

i(f>dvrj crepov 6v. 'AAA' ov xaAeTTov', e</>7], (f)avrjvaL.

Kal yap iv rols TraiStois' rovro y dv rig tSot, on dvp,ov fiev evOvs yev6p.€va jxeara eari, Xoyiajxov

B 8' evioi p,€v efxoiye SoKovaiv ovSerrore pberaXap,- ^dveiv, oi 8e ttoXXoi oifje irore. Nat /xa Ai", 7]v 8'

eyd>, KaXu)s ye etTre?. en he ev rois dripiois dv ns I'Soi o Xeyeig, on ovrcog e^ei. irpos 8e rovrois Kal o dva> TTOV €Kei eiiropiev, ro rod 'Op.'jpov {xaprv-

p'qcrei, ro

arrjOos 8e TrAi^^a? KpaSirjv r]viTiaTT€ fxvOco'

evravda yap Brj Ga(f)djs co? erepov erepco eTTnrXrjrTov

C 7Te7Toir]Kev "Op,rjpos ro dvaXoyiadjjievov Trepi rod ^eXriovos re Kal )(^eipovos rep dXoyiarws dvjxovpievcp.

K.oijLihij, e(f)r], opdcjs Xeyeig.

XVI. Taura piev dpa, rjv 8' eyco, p,6yis 8ta- V€vevKap,ev, Kal rjfXLv eTTieiKcos ofioXoyeirai, rd

avrd [xev iv TToXei, rd avrd 8 ev evos eKaarov rfj

tlfvxfj yevTj iveivai Kal taa rov dpidpiov. "Eari

" It still remains to distinguish the \oyi(rri.K6v from 0vfi6i, which is done first by pointing out that young children and animals possess 6vfx6i {cf. Laws 963 e, Aristot. Pol. 1334 b 22 IF.), and by quoting a line of Homer already cited in 390 d, and used in Phaedo 94 e, to prove that the soul, regarded there as a unit, is distinct from the

404

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK IV

the rational and the appetitive, or just as in the city there were three existing kinds that composed its structure, the money-makers, the helpers, the counsellors, so also in the soul there exists a third kind, this principle of high spirit, which is the helper of reason by nature unless it is corrupted by evil nurture ? " " We have to assume it as a third," he said, " Yes," said I, " provided" it shall have been shown to be something different from the rational, as it has been shown to be other than the appetitive." "That is not hard to be shown," he said; "for that much one can see in children, that thev are from their very birth chock-full of rage and high spirit, but as for reason, some of them, to my thinking, never participate in it, and the majority quite late." " Yes, by heaven, excellently said," I rephed ; " and further, one could see in animals that what you say is true. And to these instances we may add the testimony of Homer quoted above :

He smote his breast and chided thus his heart.

For there Homer has clearly represented that in us which has reflected about the better and the worse as rebuking that which feels unreasoning anger as if it were a distinct and different thing." " You are entirely right," he said. XVI. " Through these waters, then," said I, " we

have with difficulty made our way * and we are fairly agreed that the same kinds equal in number are to be found in the state and in the soul of each one of us."

passions, there treated as belonging to the body, like the mortal soul of the Timaeus. See Unity of Plato's Thouaht pp. 42-43. ^ '

* Cf. Parmen. 137 a, Pindar, 01. xili. 114 (Kvevvai.

405

PLATO

ravra. Ovkovv ckcIvo ye TJBr) dvayKotov, cos TToXts rjv ao(f)r) /cai a>, ovto) koI rov Ihiwrrjv Kai

rovTcp ao(f)6v eivat; Ti fii^v; Kat a> Srj avSpetos D tbicoTrjg Kal cos", tovto) /cai ttoXlv avSpelav /cat

OVTCDS, /cat TaAAa Trdvra npos dperrjv (Lcravrcos

dix(f>6Tepa €X€iv. ^AvdyK-q. Kat SiKaiov Si^, c5 TXavKcov, otfxai,, (fi'qaopLev dvSpa elvat, ra> avrco rpoTTCp, ojTTep /cat ttoXls ^v 8t/cata. Kai tovto Trdaa dvdyKTj. 'AAA' ov ttt) nrjv tovto im- XeX-qafxeda, otl eKeivrj ye tco to iavTOV eKaoTov iv avTjj TTpaTTetv Tpiwv ovTOiv yevdjv 8t/cata rjv. Ov fiOL BoKOVfiev, €<j>ri, eTnXeXrjaOai. MvrjfjLovevTeov

dpa 7j[juv, OTi /cai -qfjLcov e/caaros', otov dv to, avTOV E €KaaTOV tcov ev avrio TrpaTTT), ovtos St/catds" t€

eoTat, /cai ra avTOV TrpdTTCOv. Kai /xaAa, ^ 8' 09, pLvripiovevTeov . Ovkovv toj /xei^ XoyiaTiKO) dp)(€tv TTpoa'qKeL, ao(f)cp ovtl Kai e^ovTi ttjv virep aTrdarjs

TTJg i/jvxrjs TTpofiT^6eiav, tco 8e dvpLoeiSel VTrriKoco

elvai /cai ^vpipidxcp tovtov; Yldvv ye. Ap' ovv

ovx, oiOTxep iXeyoixev, p.ovaLKrjs /cai yvpLvaaTLKrjs

KpdoLs ^viJ.^(x)va avTa TTOi-qaei, to jxev eTnTeivovaa

442 Kal Tp€(f)ovoa Xoyoig re KaXolg /cai [xad-qixacri, to

Se di'tetcra Trapaiivdovp-evrj, r]p.epovaa dpp.ovia re

/cai pvdfxip; K.op.tSrj ye, rj 8' os. Kat Toyrto 817 ovTio Tpa(f>€VT€ Kal d)S dX-qddJs to, avTwv jxadovTC Kal TTaiSevdevTe TrpoaTaT-qaeTOV^ tov eTndvpurjTiKov,

o Brj TrXeLOTOv ttjs ^vxrjs iv eKdaTcp cutI /cat

^ Bekker's irpotxTaT-qireTov is better than the ms. it/joo-tij- aeTov.

<• Cf. 435 B. * Cf. Meno 73 c, Hipp. Major 295 d. A virtual synonym

for T(^ a(rr(} eZ5et, ilfewo 72 E.

406

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK IV

" That is so." " Then does not the necessity of our former postulate immediately follow, that as and whereby " the state was wise so and thereby is the individual wise ? " " Surely." " And so whereby and as the individual is brave, thereby and so is the state brave, and that both should have all the other constitu- ents of virtue in the same way * ? " " Necessarily." " Just too, then, Glaucon, I presume we shall say a man is in the same way in which a city was just." " That too is quite inevitable." " But we surely cannot have forgotten this, that the state was just by reason of each of the three classes found in it ful- filling its own function." "I don't think we have forgotten," he said. " We must remember, then, that each of us also in whom '^ the several parts within him perform each their own task—he will be a just man and one who minds his own affair." " We must indeed remember," he said. " Does it not belong to the rational part to rule, being wise and exercising forethought in behalf of the entire soul, and to the principle of high spirit to be subject to this and its ally ? " " Assuredly." " Then is it not, as we said,** the blending of music and gymnastics that will render them concordant, intensifying and fostering the one with fair words and teachings and relaxing and soothing and making gentle the other by har- mony and rhythm ? " " Quite so," said he. "And these two thus reared and having learned and been educated to do their own work in the true sense of the phrase,* will preside over the appetitive part

which is the mass ^ of the soul in each of us and the

' 5tov: ef. 431 b ov, and 573 d Cjy. * Cf. 41 1 e, 412 a. * Cf. supra cm 433 b-e, infra 443 d, and Charm. 161 b.

' Cf. on 431 A-B, Laics 669 a-b.

407

PLATO

XP'TifiOLTiov (f)va€i aTrXrjaroTaTov' o rrjp-qaeTov, [xr]

rep TTLpLTrXaadai ra)v Trept, to aa)p,a KaXovp.eva>v

rj8ova>v TToXi) /cat la-)(vp6v yevopcevov ovk av ra av-

B Tov TTpdrTTj, aAAct KaraSovXioaaaOai Kai dpx^t-v eTTix^ip-qarj ojv ov TrpoarJKov avrcp yevec, /cat ^vp- TTavTa TOV ^Lov TTavTCov avarpeiprj. Hdvv p,ev ovv, 6(^17. 'A/a' ovv, rjv S' eyo), /cat Toys' e^codeu

TToXepitOVS TOVTCO OLV /CaAAlOTtt (f)vXaTTOiTr]V VTTep

GLTTdarjs TTJs ^vx^js T€ /cat TOV aojpLaTos, to p.kv

^ovXevopevov, to Se TrpoTroXepuovv, irropevov 8e t<S

dpxovTL Kai Tjj avSpeia eTTLTeXovv to. ^ovXevdevTa;

"Ectti TavTa. Kat dvSpelov Si], olp-ai, tovtco tco

C pipei KaXovpiev eva eKaoTov, OTav avTov to dvp,o- eiSe? hiaa(jot,rj hid t€ Xuttcov /cat rjSovcjv to vtto

TOV Xoyov TrapayyeXOev Setvov tg /cat p/r]. 'OpOcos y', €(f)r]. 'EiO(f)6v 8e ye eKeivo) tco apuKpcp puipei,

TW o rjpx^ t' iv avTtp /cat TavTa TraprjyyeXXev

,

e^ov av /ca/cetvo eTnaTrjpr]v iv avTO) ttjv tov $vpb- (^epovTog eKdcTTCp t€ kol oXco tco koivo) a(f)Cov avTcov

Tpicbv ovTcov. Ilai'i; pev ovv. Ti 8e; aco(j>pova

D ov TTJ (fycXici /cat ^vp.<j)covLa Trj avTcov tovtojv, orav TO Te dpxov /cat tco dp^opevco to XoyioTLKov o/xo8o^a>CTt 8etv dpx^iv /cat piT] aTaatd^coaLV avTcp;

^co<j>poavv7] yovv, r] S 6s, ovk dXXo tC ioTLV rj

" Strictly speaking, pleasure is in the mind, not in the body. Cf. Unity of Plato's Thought, n. 330. KaXovpLevwv implies the doctrine of the Gorgias 493 e, 494 c, Phileb. 42 c, Phaedr. 258 e, and infra 583 b-584 a, that the pleasures of appetite are not pure or real. Cf. Unity of Plato's Thought, n. 152. Cf. on Xeyofiivuv 431 c.

" Cf. on 426 E, 606 b. " irpocxriKov : sc. iarlv dpxeif. y^fei, by affinity, birth or

nature. Cf. 444 b. q reads yevQy.

408

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK IV

most insatiate by nature of wealth. They will keep watch upon it, lest, by being filled and infected with the so-called pleasures associated vrith the body ^ and so waxing big and strong, it may not keep to *• its own work but may undertake to enslave and rule over the classes which it is not fitting ' that it should, and so overturn** the entire life of all." " By all means," he said. " Would not these two, then, best keep guard against enemies from without « also in behalf of the entire soul and body, the one taking counsel,^ the other gi\ing battle, attending upon the ruler, and by its courage executing the ruler's designs? " " That is so." " Brave, too, then. I take it, we call each in- dividual by virtue of this part in him, when, namely, his high spirit preserves in the midst of pains and pleasures ^ the rule handed down by the reason as to what is or is not to be feared." " Right," he said. " But wise by that small part that * ruled in him and handed down these commands, by its possession* in turn within it of the knowledge of what is beneficial for each and for the whole, the community composed of the three." " By all means." "And again, was he not sober by reason of the friendship and concord of these same parts, when, namely, the ruling principle and its two subjects are at one in the behef that the reason ought to rule, and do not raise faction against it ? " " The virtue of soberness certainly," said he, " is nothing else than this, whether in a city or an

' Cf. mpra 389 d. • Cf. supra 415 e. ' Cf. Isoc. xii. 138 avn] ydp i<my ij ^ovXevo/jJrr) repl

aratrruv. ' Cf. 429 C-D. • Cf. Goodwin's Cfreek Grammar, § 1027. • ixo' '• anacoluthic epexegesLs, corresponding to 5rar . . .

dioffu^j/. av probably merely marks the correspondence.

409

PLATO

TOVTO, TToXews re Kal lSlwtov. 'AAAa fxev Srj ScKaLos ye, a> ttoXXolkis Xeyofiev, rovrw Kal outcos" €CTTat. IIoAAt^ dvayKT). Tt ovv; elirov eyoj' fi-q TTTj TjiMV dTTafi^Xvverai ctAAo ti St/catocrwi^ SoKeXv

etvai rj oirep iv rfj TroAet i(f)dvr) ; Ovk ejLtotye, €<f)r], E SoKel. ^nSe ydp, rjv S' eyco, TTavraTTaaiv dv

^e^aicoaaiiJieda, el' rt, r)[Jid)v en iv rfj fpvxjj d^L^i- a^-qrei, rd (^opriKd avrco 7Tpoa(f)epovTes. Iloia S-q

;

Otov el Se'ot rjfxds dvofioXoyeladai Trepi re eKeivqs

Trfs TToXecjos Kal rov eK€Lvr] opioiois 7T€(f>VK6Tos re

Kal redpapup-evov dvhpos, el So/cet cti^ irapaKara-

d-qKrjv ;!(puatou ^ dpyvpiov he^dp.evos d roLovros dTTOGreprjaaL, rtv dv otei olrjdrjvai rovro avrov

443 hpdaai p,dXXov t) ocrot pLTj roLovroi; OvSev* dv,

e(f)rj. OvKovv Kal lepocrvXiibv Kal kXottcov Kal npoSoaicov, t] tSia eraipojv r] hripLoaia TroXecov,

€Kr6g dv ovros eir]; 'Ekto?. Kat pirjv ou8' oTTCoariovv dinaros "^ Kara opKovs t] Kara rds oAAaj op-oXoyias. Hcos yap dv; Motx^lai prjv Kal yovewv dpeXetai Kal 6ed)v ddepaTrevaiai Travrl

dXXcp pidXXov rj rep roiovrcp Trpoa-qKovaiv. Ylavrl

B pevrot, e(f)r]. Ovkovv rovrcov Trdvrcov alriov, on

" <J

woWdKis: that is, by the principle of rb eavToO irpcLTTeiv.

* d-rrafx^XvufTai : is the edge or outline of the definition blunted or dimmed when we transfer it to the individual ?

" The transcendental or philosophical definition is con- firmed by vulgar tests. The man who is just in Plato's sense will not steal or betray or fail in ordinary duties.

Cf. Aristot. Eth. Nic. 1178 b 16 ^ (pofyriKbs 6 iwaivos . . .

to say that the gods are adxppoves. Similarly Plato feels

that there is a certain vulgarity in applying the cheap

tests of prudential morality (cf. Phaedo 68 c-d) to intrinsic virtue. " Be this," is the highest expression of the moral

410

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK IV

indi\-idual." " But surely, now, a man is just by that which and in the way we have so often" described." " That is altogether necessary." " Well then," said I, " has our idea of justice in any way lost the edge ^

of its contour so as to look like anything else than precisely what it showed itself to be in the state ?

"

" I think not," he said. " We might," I said, " com- pletely confirm your reply and our o\\ti con\iction thus, if anything in our minds still disputes our defini- tion—by applying commonplace and vulgar <= tests to it." " What are these ? " " For example, if an answer were demanded to the question concerning that city and the man whose birth and breeding was in harmony \nth it, whether we beUeve that such a man, entrusted with a deposit <* ofgold or silver, would withhold it and embezzle it, who do you suppose would think that he would be more likely so to act than men of a different kind ? " " No one would," he said. ** And would not he be far removed from sacrilege and theft and betrayal of comrades in private hfe or of the state in public ? " " He would." " And, moreover, he would not be in any way faithless either in the keeping of his oaths or in other agree- ments." " How could he ? " " Adultery, surely, and neglect of parents and of the due ser\ice of the gods would pertain to anyone rather than to such a man." " To anyone indeed," he said. " And is not the cause

law. *' Do this," inevitably follows. C/. Leslie Stephen, Science of Ethics, pp. 376 and 385, and Emerson, Self- Reliance : " But I may also neglect the reflex standard, and absolve me to myself ... If anyone imagines that this law is lax, let him keep its commandment one day." The Xenophontic Socrates (Xen. Mem. iv. 4. 10-11 and iv. 4. 17) relies on these vulgar tests.

* C/. aupra on 332 a and Aristot Bhet. 1383 b 21.

411

PLATO

avTOV Tcov iv avra> eKaarov ra avrov TrpdrTci

dpXV^ re Trepi Kai rov dpxecrdat; Tovto {xev ovv, Kal ovSev aAAo. "Ert tl ovv erepov ^rjrelg SLKaio-

Gvvqv elvat t] Tavrrjv ttjv SuvajxtVy ^ Toys' tolov- Tovs dvSpas re vapexerai, /cat TroAet?; Md Ai'a, rj o OS, ovK eycoye. XVII. TeXeov dpa "qplv to evvTTvtov diroreTi-

Aearai, o e^afxev VTroirrevaai , (x)S evdv? dp^opLevoi

rrjs TToAeco? OLKil,etv Kara deov riva els dpxrjv re C Kal rvTTOv TLvd ttjs StKacoavvrjs KLvhvvevop.ev

efi^e^rjKevaL. YlavraTraaL jxev ovv. To Se ye -^v dpa, J} YXavKCJv, hi o Kai (hcf>eXeT, eiBwXov tl rrjs BLKaioavvTjs, to tov p.ev aKVTOTopuKOv ^vaei opdcos e^eiv GKVTOTOjJielv Kal dXXo jxrjhev TTpdrreiv, rov 8e reKTOVLKov TeKTaiveaOai, Kal rdXXa 8rj ovtojs. OatVerat. To 8e ye aAi^^e? tocovto fxev tl ^v, to?

D eoLKev, Tj SiKaioavvT], dAA' ov Trepl ttjv e^o) Trpd^iv TOJv avTOV, dXXd Trepl ttjv evTOs d)s dXrjddJs Trepl eavTov Kal Ta eavTOV, pir] edaavTa ToXXoTpia

'^ 6 . cf. supra on 434 d. * The contemplation of the etSuKov, image or symbol,

leads us to the reality. The reality is always the Platonic Idea. The d5w\ov, in the case of ordinary *' things," is the material copy which men mistake for the reality (516 a). In the case of spiritual things and moral ideas, there is no visible image or symbol (Polit. 286 a), but imperfect analogies, popular definitions, suggestive phrases, as to. eavrov irpdiTTeiv, well-meant laws and institutions serve as the etduXa in which the philosophic dialectician may find a reflection of the true idea. Cff. on 520 c, Sophist 234 c, Theaetet. 150 b.

« Cf. Tim. 86 d, Laws 731 e, Apol. 23 a. The reality of justice as distinguished from the dSwKov, which in this case is merely the economic division of labour. Adam errs in 412

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK IV

of this to be found in the fact that each of the principles -within him does its owti work in the matter of ruhnor and beinor ruled ? " " Yes, that and nothing else." " Do you still, then, look for justice to be anything else than this potency which pro\-ides men and cities of this sort ? " " No, by heaven," he said, " I do not." XVII. " Finished, then, is our dream and perfected

—the surmise we spoke of," that, by some Providence, at the ver}' beginning of our foundation of the state,

wechanced to hit upon the original principle and a sort of type of justice." " Most assuredly." " It really was, it seems, Glaucon, which is why it helps,* a sort of adumbration ofjustice, this principle that it is right for the cobbler by nature to cobble and occupy him- self with nothing else, and the carpenter to practise carpentry, and similarly all others. But the truth of the matter*' was, as it seems, that justice is indeed something of this kind, yet not in regard to the doing of one's own business externally, but with regard to that which is within and in the true sense concerns one's self, and the things of one's self—it means that •* thinking that the real justice is justice in the soul, and the efSwXoi' is justice in the state. In the state too the division

of labour may be taken in the lower or in the higher sense. Cf. supra on 370 a, Introd. p. xv.

"* 1X7) edffavTa . . . do^av 444 a : cf. Gorgias 459 c, 462 c. A series of participles in implied indirect discourse expand the meaning of ttjv ivTo^ [irpa^iv), and enumerate the con- ditions precedent (resumed in oitw S-h 443 e; cf. Protag. 325 a) of all action which is to be called just if it tends to preserve this inner harmony of soul, and the reverse if it tends to dissolve it. The subject of irp6.TT€iv is anybody or Everyman. For the general type of sentence and the Stoic principle that nothing imports but virtue cf. 591 e and 618 c.

41S

PLATO

TTpdrreLV eKaarov iv avrco fjirjSe TToXv7Tpay[j.ov€LV

TTpos dXX-qXa rd iv rfj fffvxfj yivrj, dXXd rto ovTi rd OLKela ev deixe.vov /cat dp^avra avrov avTOV /cat Koap^-qaavra /cat ^iXov yevofxevov iavro) /cat ^vvapixoaavra rpia ovra ojairep opovs rpet?

apfjLovLas drexvaJs vedrrjg re /cat VTrdr-qs xai

E fiearjs, /cat et aAAa arra p-era^v rvyxdvei ovra, TTavTa ravra ^wSrjaavTa /cat TTavraTTaaiv iva

yevofievov €/c ttoXXcov, Gco(f)pova /cat rjppocrpevov,

OVTOJ Sr] TTpdrreiv tJStj, idv ti TTpdrTT) iq Trept

XP'Qpdrwv KTTjaiv t) TTcpl acoparo? depairelav 'q /cat

TToXiTLKov TL Tj 7T€pl rd iSta ^u/XjSoAaia, iv Tracri

TovTois rjyovpevov /cat 6vopdl,ovTa St/catav pev

Kal KaXrjv irpd^LV, rj dv ravT-qv rqv i^iv arco^T] re

/cat ^vvairepydtpqrai, ao^iav 8e rriv irrLararovaav

444 ravrj) rfj rrpd^ei iTnarrjprjv , dStKOV 8e Trpd^LV,

7) dv del ravrrjv Xvr), dpadlav Se rr)v ravrrj av

' Cf. supra on 433 e. * Cf. Gorg. 491 d where Callicles does not understand. <= Cf. Gorg. 504. •* Cf. infra 621 c and supra on 352 a. ' The harmony of the three parts of the soul is compared

to that of the three fundamental notes or strings in the octave, including any intervening tones, and so by implica- tion any faculties of the soul overlooked in the preceding classification. Cf. Plutarch, Plat. Quest. 9, Proclus, p. 230

Kroll. wairep introduces the images, the exact application

of which is pointed by drexvois. Cf. on 343 c. The scholiast tries to make two octaves {8U dia iraauiv) of it. The technical musical details have at the most an antiquarian interest, and in no way affect the thought, which is that of Shakespeare's

For government, though high and low and lower. Put into parts, doth keep in one concent,

414

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK IV

a man must not suffer the principles in his soul to do each the work of some other and interfere and meddle with one another, but that he should dispose well of

what in the true sense ofthe word is properly his own," and ha\ing first attained to self-mastery ** and beauti- ful order "= within himself,'' and ha\ing harmonized *

these three principles, the notes or intervals of three

terms quite hterally the lowest, the highest, and the mean, and all others there may be between them, and ha\ing linked and bound all three together and made of himself a unit,^ one man instead of many, self-controlled and in unison, he should then and then only turn to practice if he find aught to do either in the getting ofwealth or the tendance of the body or it may be in pohtical action or private business, in all such

doings beHe\ing and naming ^ the just and honour- able action to be that which preserves and helps to produce this condition of soul, and wisdom the science that presides over such conduct ; and beheving and naming the unjust action to be that which ever tends to overthrow this spiritual constitution, and brutish

Congreeing in a full and natural close Like music. {Henry V. i. ii. 179.)

Cf. Cicero, De Rep. ii. 42, and Milton {Reason of Church Government), " Discipline • . . which with her musical chords preserves and holds all the parts thereof together."

' Cf. Epin. 992 b. The idea was claimed for the Pjili- agoreans; cf. Zeller i. i. p. 463, Guyau, Esquisse (Tunt Morale, p. 109 "La moralite n'est autre chose que l'unit6 de I'etre." " The key to effective life is unity of life," says another modern rationalist.

» ovofjid^ovTa betrays a consciousness that the ordinary meaning of words is somewhat forced for edification. Cf. Laws 864 a-b and Unity of Plato's Thought, p. 9, n. 21. Aristotle {Eth. Nic. 1138 b 6) would regard all this as mere metaphor.

415

PLATO

eTTLaraTovaav So^av. YlavTaiTaaiv , rj S' 6s, co

HcoKpares, dXrjOrj Aeyet?. Kiev, ^v 8* iyo)' tov

fiev SiKatov Kal dvSpa Kal ttoXlv Kal SLKaioavmjv, o Tvy)(dv€i, €v avrols 6v, el (f)aifjL€V €vpr]K€vat, ovk av irdvv ri, otfiat,, Bo^aifxev ipevSeadai,. Ma Ata ov jjievTOL, €(f)rj. ^coixev dpa; Oco/xcr. XVIII. "Earoj 817, ^v 8' iyo)' fxerd yap tovto

aK€7TT€ov, olfxaL, dSiKLav. AijXov on. Ovkovv B oTdaiv TLvd av rpLwv ovroiv rovroiv 8et avrrjv

€LvaL Kal TToXvTTpaypioavvrjv Kal aXXorpioTTpaypio-

avvTjv Kal eTTavdaraaiv fxepov? tlvos to) oXco rrjs

fpvxrjs, Lv' dpx'H €v avrfj ov TrpoarJKov, dXXd rot- ovTov ovros (f)va€i, otov TrpeTreiv avrcp SovXeveiv

Tcp TOV apxi'Kov yevovg ovtl^ ; roiavr* drra, ot/xai,

^T]uopL€v Kal rr]v tovtwv rapa^^v /cat TrXdvrjv CLvai T-qv T€ dSiKLav Kal dKoXaaiav Kal heiXiav Kal

apLaQiav /cat ^vXXrj^hiqv Traaav KaKiav. Taura piev C ouv ravra, €(j)r]. Ovkovv, rju 8' iyco, Kal to dSiKa

Ttpdrreiv /cat ro dhiKeZv /cat av ro 8t/cata TTOieZv,

ravra irdvra rvyxdvei ovra KardS-qXa -qSr] aa<f)wg, €L7Tep Kal rj d8t/cta re Kal St/catocrwi] ; ITcSs' S17;

On, rjv 8 eyco, rvyxdvei ovdev Siacfjepovra rcov vyteivdjv re Kal voaojSojv, d)s eKelva iv acopian,

^ irp^ireiv . . . 6^71 is plainly the better reading. Burnet amends the additional ToO 5' a5 Soi/Xei^eivof several mss. to T<f) 5'

ov dovXeijeiv, which might be justified by 358 a.

' €Tn(TT-^fj.riv . . . do^av : a hint of a fundamental distinc- tion, not explicitly mentioned before in the Republic. Cf. Meno 97 b ff. and Unity of Plato's Thoxight, pp. 47-49. It is used here rhetorically to exalt justice and disparage injustice, afxadla is a very strong word, possibly used here already in the special Platonic sense : the ignorance that

mistakes itself for knowledge. Cf. Sophist 229 c.

416

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK IV

ignorance, to be the opinion " that in turn presides *

over this." "What you say is entirely true, Socrates." " Well," said I, "if we should affirm that we had found the just man and state and what justice really is " in them, I think we should not be much mis- taken " " No indeed, we should not," he said. " Shall we affirm it, then ? " " Let us so affirm." XVIII. " So be it, then," said I ; " next after this, I

take it, we must consider injustice." " Ob\iously." " Must not this be a kind of ci\"il war** of these three principles, their meddlesomeness* and interference with one another's functions, and the revolt of one part against the whole of the soul that it may hold therein a rule which does not belong to it, since its nature is such that it befits it to serve as a slave to the ruling principle ? Something of this sort, I fancy, is what we shall say, and that the confusion of these principles and their straying from their proper course is injustice and licentiousness and cowardice and brutish ignorance and, in general,^ all tvu-pitude." " Precisely this," he replied. " Then," said I, " to act unjustly and be unjust and in turn to act justly

—

the meaning of all these terms becomes at once plain and clear, since injustice and justice are so." " How so ? " " Because," said I, " these are in the soul what" the healthful and thediseaseful are in the body

;

' ixKTTOLTovffav : Isocrates would have used a synonym instead of repeating the word.

' Cf. 337 B. * (iTaffLv : cf. 440 e. It is defined in Sophist 2-2S B.

Aristotle would again regard this as mere metaphor. * xo\virpayfio<rvvr]v : supra 434 b and Isoc. viii. 39. ' ^vWrj^driv : summing up, as in Phaedo 69 b. * lii iKflva: a proportion is thus usually stated in an-

acoluthic apposition.

VOL.1 2£ 417

PLATO

ravra iv iffvxfj- ^fji ^<^^- To, jxev ttov vyieiva vyUiav ifiTroLel, to. 8e voacoSr] voaov. Nat. OvKovv /cat TO ix€v StKata Trpdrreiv St/catocrui^v

D e/XTTOiet, to S' aSt/ca aSt/ctav'; ^KvayK-q. "Ecrrt Se TO /Ltep' vyieiav TTOielv to, ev to) aajyuari Kara (f)V(jLv Kadiardvai, Kparelv re Kal Kpareladai utt'

dXKr]Xci)v, TO Se voaov irapa <j)vaLV apx^iv re /cat

apx^aOai oAAo utt' aAAou. "EaTi yap. Ou/cow av, €(f)rjv, TO SiKaLoavvqv epLTTOLelv to. iv ttj tpv)(TJ

KaTO. (f)vaiv KadicrTavaL Kparelv t€ /cat TTpaTeZadai

VTT* d?OiT]X(ov, TO Se aSt/ctav Trapd ^vaiv dp^eiv

Te /cat dpxecrdai dXXo vtt aAAou; Ko/LtiS^, ^'0''?-

*Ap€Tr] pi€v dpa, (hs colkcv, vyUid T€ tis dv etrj

E Kal KdXXos /cat eue^ta t^vx^js, /ca/cta Se foaoj Te /cat atcrxos Kal dadeveia. "EaTtv ovtco. ^Ap* ovv

ov Kal TO, fiev /caAct eTTLTrjSevjjiaTa els dpeTTJs kttj-

aiv (f)epei,, Ta S aiaxpd eis Ka/cta?; AvdyKTj. XIX. To Brj XoiTTOV TJSr), co? eoLKev, rjfxtv earl

(JKeipaadai,, noTcpov av AuotreAet St/catct Te irpdr-

445 TetJ/ /cat /caAo. cTTtTi^Seuetv /cat eti^at St/cator, ear Te

Xavddvrj idv Te pLTj tolovtos wv, •^ dSt/ceiv Te /cat

aSt/cot" ett'at, eavnep fjir) StSoj 8iKr]v ixrjSe ^eXriojv

yiyv7]TaL KoXaiC,6pLevos. AAA', e^^, a) HiOKpaTes,

" The common-sense point of view, " fit fabricando faber." Cf. Aristot. Eth. Nic. 1 103 a 32. In Gorg. 460 b, Socrates argues the paradox that he who

knows justice does it. Cf. Unity of Plato^s Thought, p. 11, n. 42.

' Cf. the generalization of ^pws to include medicine and music in Symp. 186-187, and Tim. 82 a, Laws 906 c. Unity of Plato's Thought, n. 500.

* The identification of virtue with spiritual health really, as Plato says (445 a), answers the main question of the

418

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK IV

there is no difference." " In what respect ? " he said. " Healthful things surely engender health" and diseaseful disease." "Yes." " Then does not doing just acts engender justice and unjust injustice ?

"

" Of necessity." " But to produce health is to establish the elements in a body in the natural relation gf dominating and being dominated ^ bv one another, while to cause disease is to bring it about that one rules or is ruled by the other contrary to nature." " Yes, that is so." " And is it not like- wise the production of justice in the soul to establish its principles in the natural relation of controlling and being controlled by one another, while injustice is to cause the one to rule or be ruled by the other contrary to nature ? " " Exactly so," he said. " Mrtue, then, as it seems, would be a kind of health" and beauty and good condition of the soul, and \ice would be disease,** ugliness, and weakness." "It is so." "Then is it not also true that beautiful and honourable pursuits tend to the winning of virtue and the ugly to \'ice ? " " Of necessit}-." XIX. " And now at last, it seems, it remains for us

to consider whether it is profitable to do justice and practise honourable pursuits and be just, whether* one is known to be such or not, or whether injustice profits, and to be unjust, if only a man escape punish- ment and is not bettered by chastisement.' " " Nav,

Republic. It is not explicitly used as one of the three final arguments in the ninth book, but is implied in 591 b. It is found "already " in Crito 47 d-e. Cf. Gorg. 479 b.

* KaKia . . . oto-xoj : Sophist 22S E distinguishes two forms of KaKia : ytxros or moral evil, and ignorance or oio-xos. C/. Oorg. 477 b.

* iiv re . . . iav re : cf. supra 337 c, 367 e, 427 d, 429 E. ' Cf. Gorg. 512 a-b, and supra on 380 b.

419

PLATO

yeAolov e/xoiye (f)aLV€Tat. to oKefifia yiyveaOai TJhr], et Tov fjiev (TiofjLaTos rrjs (f>va€a)s Siacfideipofxdvrjs ooK€L ov ^lOiTov elvai ov8e /xera ttolvtcdv airicov re

/cat 7TOTCOV /cat Travros ttXovtov /cat Trdarjg o.px^S,

TTJs oe avTov tovtov (L ^ivfjiev (j>vae(x)s rapar-

B TOixevTjs /cat 8i,a(f)6eLpoiJ.€vr]s ^lcotov dpa ecrrai, eavTTcp ris ttoitj o dv ^ovXrjdfj aAAo ttXtjv tovto,

OTTodev /caKta? fxev /cat aStKrta? aTraAAayTJcreTat,

oi/catoawT^v 8e Kat dperrfv KT-qaerac, CTretSi^Trep

€(j}dvri ye ovra eKdrepa ola rjfxels BieXrjXvdajJiev.

leXolov ydp, -^v S' eyoj* aAA' opicos cTretVep

evravda eXrjXvdapiev, daov olov re o-a^eaTara

/cartSeti' ort ravra ovtcos ^x^t, ov XPV dTTOKdpLveiv.

"H/ctcrra ri) ror Ata, e^"??, Trdvrcov d7TOKp.rjT€OV.

^ Aevpo vvv, rjv 8' eyco, tv'a /cat iSt^?, oaa /cat etSr) ex^i' yj /ca/cta, cu? e/xot 8o/cet, a ye 8t] /cat al'ta Oeas.

"EiTTOfjiai, €(f)rj- pLovov Xeye. Kat /-ti^i', •^i' 8' eyw,

wairep diro aKovcds p,oi ^atVerai, €7T€LSrj ivravda

dva^e^rjKapev rov Xoyov, ev p-kv etrat etSo? r^?

" C/. 456 D. On the following argumentum ex contrario cf. supra on 336 e.

» C/. on 353 D and Aristot. De an. 414 a 12 ff. C/. Unity of Plato's Thought, p. 41.

" Cf. 577 D, Gorg. 466 e. If all men desire the good, he who does evil does not do what he really wishes.

^ oaov . . . Karidelv is generally taken as epexegetic of ipTavda. It is rather felt with oii xpV d,TroKdfj.i>eiv.

' Cf. Apol. 25 c. f &y€ df) Kai d^La d^as : for Kai cf. Soph. 223 a, 229 D, Tim.

83 c, Polit. 285 b, and infra 544 a, c-d. By the strict theory of ideas any distinction may mark a class, and so constitute an idea. (Cf. De Platonis Idearum JDoctrina, pp. 22-25.) But Plato's logical practice recognizes that

420

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK IV

Socrates," he said, " I think that from this point on our inquiry becomes an absurdity "—if, while life is admittedly intolerable \^'ith a ruined constitution of body even though accompanied by all the food and drink and wealth and power in the world, we are yet to be asked to suppose that, when the very nature and constitution of that whereby we Uve '' is disordered and corrupted, hfe is going to be worth hWng, if a man can only do as he pleases,*^ and pleases to do any- thing save that which ^^^ll rid him of evil and injustice and make him possessed of justice and virtue—now that the two have been shown to be as we have described them." " Yes, it is absurd," said I ; " but nevertheless, now that we have won to this height, we must not grow weary in endeavouring to discover •* with the utmost possible clearness that these things are so." " That is the last thing in the world we must do," he said. " Come up here* then," said I, " that you may see how many are the kinds of evil, I mean those that it is worth while to observe and distinguish.^ " "I am with you," he said ; " only do you say on." " And truly," said I, " now that we have come to this height ' of argument I seem to see

only typical or relevant " Ideas " are worth naming or considering. The Republic does not raise the metaphysical question how a true idea is to be distinguished from a part or from a partial or casual concept. Cf. Unity of Plato's Thought, pp. 52-53, n. 381, Polit. 26S a-b.

' Cf. 588 B, Emerson, NoTninalist and Realist, ii. p. 256

;

" We like to come to a height of land and see the landscape, just as we value a general remark in conversation." Cf. Lowell, Democracy, Prose Works, vi. 8 : " He who has mounted the tower of Plato to look abroad from it will never hope to climb another with so lofty a vantage of speculation." From this and 517 a-b, the ava^aais b«arae a technical or cant term in Neoplatonism.

421

PLATO

apeTTJs, arreipa Se rrjs Ka/ciaj, rerrapa S' ev avTols arra cov Kal d^iov iTTifXvqodfjvaL. Hois Aeyetj;

^(f>'^- "OaoL, rjv 8' iyo), TToXirei-cov rpoTTOi

€Lcnv €i,8rj €)(ovT€s, ToaovToi KivSvvevovcTL Kai D tpuxrjs rpoTTOL elvai. Yioaoi 817; ITeVre fxiv, riv

8' eyoi, TToXi,T€ia)V, irevTe Se ipv^rj^. Aeye, €(/)rj,

TiV€s. Aeyu), ciTTov, oTi et? jxev ovTog ov rjfjieXs

OLeXr)XvdaiJi€v TToXireias etrj av rpoTTOS, irrovo-

fxaadeirj 8' av Kal ^t-xfj' €yy€vop,€vov p-kv yap avhpos ivos iv rols ap-)(ovaL hia(f>€povros ^aaiXeia

av KXrfdeiri, TrXetovoiv 8e dptaroKpaTLa. ^AXrjdrj,

e<p7^. TovTo p,kv roivvv, rjv 8' eyo), ev ethos Xeyo)' E ovre yap av irXeiovg ovt€ els iyyevopevos KLvq-

a€L€v av Tojv d^icxiv Xoyov v6p.a)v tt]s 7ToXea)s,

Tpo(f)fj re Kal rraiBeia xprjcdp.evos, fj SLijXdop,ev.

Ov yap €lk6s, ^(f>^-

" iv fxiv, etc. : perhaps a faint reminiscence of the line

iadXol fxiv yap aTrXcDs, TravTo8airu)s 5t KaKoi,

quoted by Aristot. Eth. Nic. 1 106 b 35. It suggests Plato's principle of the unity of virtue, as dwetpa below suggests the logical doctrine of the Phileh. 16 and Parmen. 145 a, 158 B-c that the other of the definite idea is the indefinite and infinite.

* The true state is that in which knowledge governs. It may be named indifi'erently monarchy, or aristocracy, accord- ing as such knowledge happens to be found in one or more than one. It can never be the possession of many. Cf. infra 494 a. The inconsistencies which some critics have

422

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK IV

as from a point of outlook that there is one form " of excellence, a)id that the forms of evil are infinite,

yet that there are some four among them that it is worth while to take note of." " What do you mean?" he said. " As many as are the varieties of political constitutions that constitute specific types, so many, it seems likely, are the characters of soul." " How many, pray ? " " There are five kinds of constitu- tions," said I, " and five kinds of soul." " Tell me what they are," he said. " I tell you," said I, " that one way of government would be the constitution that we have just expounded, but the names that might be applied to it are two.* If one man of sur- passing merit rose among the rulers, it would be denominated royalty ; if more than one, aristocracy." " True," he said. " Well, then," I said, " this is one of the forms I have in mind. For neither would a number of such men, nor one if he arose among them, alter to any extent worth mentioning the laws of our city—if he preserved the breeding and the educa- tion that we have described." "It is not Ukely," he said.

found between this statement and other parts of the Republic, are imaginary. Hitherto the Republic has contemplated a plurality of rulers, and such is its scheme to the end. But we are explicitly warned in 540 d and 587 d that this is a matter of indifference. It is idle then to argue with Immisch, Krohn, and others that the passage marks a sudden, violent alteration of the original design.

423

E

I. ^Ayadrjv fxev rotvvv rrjv roiavTrjv ttoXiv t€ /cat

TToXireiav /cat 6pdr)v KaXcb, /cat dvhpa rov toiovtov /ca/cd? 8e ras aAAa? /cat rjixaprrjiMevas, etVep avTT]

opdrj, 7T€pi T€ TToXecov Stot/CT^crets' /cat vepl IdicoTcov

fpvxyjs rpoTTOV KaracKev-qv, iv rerrapai irov-qpcas

etSeaiv ovaag. nota? 817 ravras; ^j>f]- koL iyo)

fxev fja ras i(f)€^rjs ipcov, a)s />tot e^aivovro eKaarai B e^ aXXrjXcov jxera^aiveiv 6 Se YloXeixapxos—

GfiLKpov yap aTTCorepoj rov 'ASet/xavrou Kadrjaro— CKTeivas ttjv X^^P^ '^^^ Xa^ofxevos rov [{xariov avcx}-

uev avTov 77apd rov a>p,ov eKelvov re Trpoo'^yayero /cat TTporelvas iavrov eXeyev drra TrpoaKeKVcfxvs, cov ctAAo fjL€v ovSev KarrjKovaafxev, roSe Se'

A(f>'qaofX€v odv, €(f)rj, ^ ri Spdaofiev ; "H/cto-ra ye, e(f>7] 6 'ASet/xavTO? fieya tJSt] Xeycov. /cat

eyw, Tt fidXiara, €(f)7]v, vfxels ovk d^iere; 2e,

" Cf. on 427 E, and Newman, Introd. to Aristot. Pol. p. 14

;

for 6pdi}f "normal," see p. 423. * KaTaffKevrjv : a highly general word not to be pressed in

this periphrasis. Cf. Gorg. 455 e, 477 b. ' Cf. 562 c, Theaetet. 180 c. Stein on Herod, i. 5. For the

transition here to the digression of books V., VI., and VII. cf. Introd. p. xvii, Phaedo 84c. "Digression" need not imply that these books were not a part of the original design.

424

BOOK V

I. " To such a city, then, or constitution I apply the terms good" and right—and to the corresponding kind of man ; but the others I describe as bad and mis- taken, if this one is right, in respect both to the administration of states and to the formation' of the character of the indi\idual soul, they falling under four forms of badness." " What are these," he said. And I was going on" to enumerate them in what seemed to me the order of their evolution "* from one another, when Polemarchus—he sat at some little distance « from Adeimantus—stretched forth his hand, and, taking hold of his garment ^ from above by the shoulder, drew the other toward him and, leaning forward himself, spoke a few words in his ear, of which we overheard nothing" else save only this, " Shall we let him off,'' then," he said, " or what shall we do?" "By no means," said Adeimantus, now raising his voice.^ " What, pray," » said I, " is it that you are not letting off? " " You," said he. " And

* fiera^aiveiv i the word is half technical. Cf, 547 c, 550 D, Latcs 676 a, 736 d-e, 894 a.

* dirwre'pw absolutely. Cf. Cratinus 229 Kock 6voi KaBrjvTat. Tri% Xi'pas dirwr^pw.

f Cf. 327 B. " Cf. 359 e. » Cf. on 327 c. * Cf. 337 D, 343 B, 421 c, 612 c. Laches 188 "e, Meno 80 b.

There is a play on the double meaning, " What, pray?" and "Why, pray?"

425

PLATO

Q T] o 05. "On, iyd) emov, rl ^dXiara; ^Arrop- padvixelv rjfuv So/cet?, ecfirj, /cat etSos- oXov ov to

eAa)(iaTOV eKKXeTrreiv rov Xoyov, Iva (jltj Ste'A^r^s", /cat Xn^aetv olrjdrjvaL elvajv avro (j)avXa)S, cos apa Trepi yvvaiKcbv re /cat rraihcov Travrl BrjXov, OTi

Koiva TO. (f)LXcov earai. Ovkovv opduis, ^(jyrjv, c5 ABeifxavre ; Nat, rj 8' og- dXXa to 6pdd>s tovto, coijTrep TaXXa, Xoyov Setxat, ti's o rpoTTO? rrjs KOLvojvias' TToXXol ydp dv yevotvro. firj ovv Trapfjs

D ovTiva av Xlyeis. a>S" rjiJuets TraAat Trepnxivop.€v Oiop.evoL oi 7TOV jjivqadiqaeadai, TratSoTTOtta? re rrepL,

7TCOS TTaiSoTTOL-qaovTaf,, /cat yevojxevovs ttcos dpi-

ipovcn, /cat oX'qv ravrrjv rjv Xeyets Kotvoiviav

yvvaiKcov re /cat TTaiScov jjueya ydp tl olojjieda (f>€peiv /cat oAov et? TToXiTeiav opdojs ^ ixrj opddJs

ytyvofxevov. vvv ovv eTreiSr} dXXr)s einXafx^dveL

TToXireias irplv ravra LKavdJs SteXeadai, SeSo/CTat 450 rjijuv TOVTO, o av -rJKOvaas, to ae fir] ixedievaL,

irpiv dv TavTa ndvTa oiairep TaAAa BUXdrjs. Kat e/xe TOLVvv, 6 TXavKcov e(j)r], Koivoivov ttjs i/ri^i^ou

TavTrjs TcOeTe. 'A/xe'Aet, e(j)7] 6 Qpaavfxaxos, Trdai

TavTa SeSoyjxeva rjjjilv i^djixt^e, w Sco/cpaTej- II. Otoi^, rjv 8' iyu), elpydaaade emXa^opievoL

« Of. Soph, Track. 437. " So Isoc. xv, 74 SXois erSeo-t. ' C/. 4:24 A, Laws 739 c. Aristotle says that the posses-

sions of friends should be separate in ownership but common in use, as at Sparta. Cf. Newman, Introd. to Aristot. Pol. p. 201, Epicurus in Diog. Laert. x. 11, Aristot. Pol. 1263 a 30 if., Eurip. Androm. 270.

* Cf. 459 D, Laws 668 d, Aristot. Pol. 1369 b 13, Shakes. Tro. and Ores. i. i. 23 " But here's yet in the word hereafter the kneading, the making of the cake," etc.

" Cf. Laics 665 b 7. f Cf. Aristot. Pol. 1264 a 13.

426

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK V

for what special reason, pray? " said I. " We think you are a slacker," he said, " and are trying to cheat" us out of a whole division,** and that not the least, of the argument to avoid the trouble of expounding it, and expect to ' get away with it ' by observing thus lightly that, of course, in respect to women and children it is ob\'ious to everybody that the posses- sions of friends will be in common.'^ " " Well, isn't that right, Adeimantus ? " I said. " Yes," said he, " but this word ' right,' ** like other things, requires defining « as to the way ^ and manner of such a com- munity. There might be many ways. Don't, then, pass over the one that you^ have in mind. For we have long been lying in wait for you, expecting that you would say something both of the procreation of children and their bringing up,* and would explain the whole matter of the community of women and children of which you speak. We think that the right or wTong management of this makes a great difference, all the difference in the world,* in the

constitution of a state ; so now, since you are begin- ning on another constitution before sufficiently defin- ing this, we are firmly resolved, as you overheard, not to let you go till you have expounded all this as fully as you did the rest." " Set me dowTi, too," said Glaucon, " as voting this ticket.' " " Surely," said

Thrasymachus, " you may consider it a joint resolu- tion of us all, Socrates."

II. " What a thing you have done," said I, " in thus » Emphatic. Cf. 427 e. * -^ivouAvox.^ : a noun is supplied from tlie preceding verb.

Cf. on 598 c, and supra on 341 d. * fiiya ... /cat iiXov : cf. 469 c, 527 c, Phaedo 79 e. Laws

779 B, 944 c Symp. 188 d, Demosth. ii. 22, Aescfivl. Prom, 961. * Cf. Protag. 330 c

427

PLATO

fxov. oaov \6yov ttolXlv wajrep i^ ^PXV^ Kivelr^

7T€pl rrjs TroAiTeta?/ 7]^ cos TJbrj SteXrjXvdoJS eytoye

e^aipov ayaTTchv, et ns eaaoi ravra o.TToSe^a/xev'os B (vs Tore ipp'qdr]- a vvv voxels TrapaKaXovvres ovk

tare oaov iafxov Xoycov irreyeipeTe- ov opojv eyco

TTaprJKa Tore, pur] rrapdaxoi ttoXvv oxXov. Tt oe;

^ 8' o? d Qpacrvp^axos' XP^^^X^V^^^'^'^^ °''^''

rovcrSe vvv ivOdSe d<l>lxQo.i, dXX ov Xoyoiv aKovoo- pbivovs; Nat, eiTTOv, /xerpicur ye. ^slerpov Se y , €(f)rj, u) HivKpares, 6 TXavKcov, tolovtojv Xoycov

aKoveLv 'oXos 6 ^ios vovv exovatv. dXXd to puev

rjjxdTepov ea- av 8e Trepl iov ipo}Ta)p,€v pLrjSaixaJs C dTTOKdjJLrjs

f) croL boKeZ hie^iatv, tls tj KOLVcovia Tolg

(f)vXa^LV -qplv rralScuv re Tzepi /cat yvvaLKoJv eo-rac

/cat Tpodiri'S vecov eVt ovtojv, Trjs ev to) jMeragu

Xpovcp yiyvojxeviqs yeveaeojs re /cat Traioetas', r] or)

€7n7TOV(x)rdTr] SoKet eirat. TTeipcb ovv enreZv ni'a

TpoTTOV Set yiyveadai auxTjv'. Ov pdBiov, a> evhaip^ov, ^v 8' eycu, SteA^etf • TToXXds yap amoTLas

ex^i eVt pidXXov TiJov efXTrpoadev ihv dfqXdop.ev. /cat

yap (hs SvvaTa Xeyerai, aTnaTOLT av, /cat et o ti

pidXiOTa yevoiTO, to? dpiaT dv etTj raura, /cat

D TavTT) aTTtcTTTjo-eTat. 8t6 817 /cat o/cvo? rt? avTcbv » C/. Theaetet. 184 c, (?or<7. 469 c. * For the metaphor c/. Eurip. Bacchae 710 and (tutjvos.

Rep. 574 D, Cra^yL 401 c, Meno 72 a. " Cf. Phileb. 36 d, Theaetet. 184 a, Cra/yL 411a. <* Thrasymachus speaks here for the last time. He is

mentioned in 357 a, 358 b-c, 498 c, 545 b, 590 d. « Lit. "to smelt ore." The expression was proverbial

and was explained by an obscure anecdote. C/. Leutsch, Paroemioffraphi, ii. pp. 91, 727, and i. p. 464, and com- mentators on Herod, iii. 102.

^ Plato often anticipates and repels the charge of tedious

428

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK V

challenging " me I What a huge debate you have started afresh, as it were, about this polity, in the supposed completion of which I was rejoicing, being only too glad to have it accepted as I then set it forth I You don't realize what a swarm '' of arguments you are stirring up ' by this demand, which I foresaw and evaded to save us no end of trouble." " Well," said ThrasjTnachus,'* " do you suppose this company has come here to prospect for gold ^ and not to hsten to discussions ? " " Yes," I said, " in measure." " Nay, Socrates," said Glaucon, "the measure^ of listening to such discussions is the whole of life for

reasonable men. So don't consider us, and do not you yourself grow wear^" in explaining to us what we ask for, your \iews as to how this communion of \\ives and children among our guardians will be naanaged, and also about the rearing of the children while still young in the interval between' birth and formal schoohng which is thought to be the most difficult part of education. Try, then, to tell us what must be the manner of it." " It is not an easy thing to expound, my dear fellow," said I, " for even more than the pro\isions that precede it, it raises many doubts. For one might doubt whether what is pro- posed is possible'' and, even conceding the possibility,* one might still be sceptical whether it is best. For which reason one, as it were, shrinks from touching

length (see Polit. 286 c, PhiUb. 28 d, 36 d). Here the thought takes a different turn (as 504 c). The 5^ -/e implies a slight rebuke {rf. Class. Phil. xiv. pp. 165-174).

' So 498 A. Cf. on Aristoph. Acharn. 434, and Laws 792 a. * Cf. 456 c, Thucyd. vi. 98, Introd. xvii. ' do Ti /idXicTTa : a common formula for what a disputant

can afford to concede. Cf. Lysias xiii. 52, xxii. 1, xxiL 10. It occurs six times in the Charmides.

429

PLATO

diTTeaOai, [xrj evx'fj ^oktj elvai. 6 X6yo$, a» ^lAc

eratpe. mrjoev, rj o os, OKVcr ovre yap ayvco-

ixoves ovT€ aTTCcrroL ovre Svavoi ol aKovaofxcvoi.

/cat eyo) enrov 'Q. apiare, rj rrov ^ovXafievos p.c

TTapadappvveiv Aeyets'; "Eycoy', €cf)r]. Yldv roivvv,

"qv 8' eyd), rovvavriov ttolcls. Tnarevovro? [xev yap

efjLov ip,OL etSeVat a Xdyco, KaXcbs ^Ix^v rj irapa-

E p.vdia' iv yap <j>povipioig re Koi ^iXois rrepl tojv fxeyicTTCov re Kal (J)lXo)v TaXrjdrj et'Sora Xeyeiv

aa(f>aX€s Kal dappaXeov aTnarovvra Se /cat t^rj-

Tovvra a/xa tovs Xoyovs TTOLetadai, o Brj eycb Spcj,

451 (f)o^€p6v re /cat acftaXepov, ov tl yeXcora 6(f>X€Zv

TTatSiKov yap rovro ye' aAAd fXTj a(f>aXel'5 rrjs

dXrjdeias ov fxovov avros dXXd /cat rovs (f>iXovs

^vveTTLairaaapLevos Keiao/JLai rrepi a rjKtora Set

a(f)dXXea6aL. TrpoaKvvo) 8e ASpaareiav', cb FAau-

Kojv, x^P''^ o^ jLteAAo) Xeyetv eXTrit^oi yap ovv eXar-

Tov dfJLdpTr)p.a aKovaiois rtvo? cf)OV€a yeveadai rj

dTTaredJva KaXojv re Kal dyadcov Kal St-Kalajv

vofiCfxaiv 776/31. rovro ovv ro KivSvvevfia KivBv-

* Cf. Introd. xxxi-xxxii, infra 456 c, 499 c, 540 d. Laws 736 d, Aristot. Pol. 1260 b 29, 1265 a 17 deX /xef otv inroTideadai /car' evxv^t fJ-V^^" )^i''TOi dbi'varov.

* d7J'a!/xo»'es::= inconsiderate, unreasonable, as Andoc. ii. 6 shows.

* Cf. on 452 c-D, Euthydem. 3 c " To be laughed at is no matter," Laws 830 b tov tCov avo-fjTwv yiXwra, Eurip. fr. 495.

<* 'A5pdffTeiaf : practically equivalent to Nemesis. Cf. our "knock on wood." Cf. Posnansky in Breslauer Phil,

430

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK V

on the matter lest the theory be regarded as nothing but a ' wish-thought,' <* my dear friend." " Do not shrink," he said, " for your hearers will not be incon- siderate* nor distrustful nor hostile." And I said, '

' Mygoodfellow , is that remark intended to encourage me?" "It is," he said. "Well then," said I, "it has just the contrary effect. For, if I were confident that I was speaking with knowledge, it would be an excellent encouragement. For there is both safety and boldness in speaking the truth with knowledge about our greatest and dearest concerns to those who are both wise and dear. But to speak when one doubts himself and is seeking while he talks, as I am doing, is a fearful and slippery venture. The fear is not of being laughed at,'' for that is childish, but, lest, missing the truth, I fall down and drag my friends with me in matters where it most imports not to stumble. So I salute NemesiSj'^Glaucon, in what I am about to say. For, indeed,* I believe that involun-

tary homicide is a lesser fault than to mislead opinion about the honourable, the good, and the just. This is a risk that it is better to run with enemies ^ than

Abhandl. v. 2, " Nemesis und Adrasteia " : Herod, i. 35, Aeschyl. Prom. 936, Eurip. Rhesus 342, Demosth. xxv. 37 Kai 'ASpdcrretai' fj-iv avdportroi wv ^70; irpocKvvCi. For the moral earnestness of what follows cf. 336 e, Gorg. 458 a, and Joubert apud Arnold, Essays in Crit. p. 29 *' Ignorance . . . is in itself in intellectual matters a crime of the first order."

• yixp of'v, "for in fact," but often with the suggestion that the fact has to be faced, as e.g. in Tim. 47 e, where the point is often missed.

' Almost proverbial. Cf. vny note on Horace, Odes iii. 27. 21. Plato is speaking here from the point of view of the ordinary man, and not from that of his *' Sermon on the Mount ethics." Cf. Phileb. 49 d and Gorg. 480 e, where Gomperz, Greek Thinkers, ii. pp. 332 and 350, goes astray. Cf. Class. Phil. vol. i. p. 297.

431

PLATO

B veveiv iv exSpolg Kpelrrov rj ^tAoi?, (Zare ov^ fie TTapajJivdeX. /cat o TXavKCJV yeXdaas 'AAA', c5 TicoKpareg, €(f)r], idv ri Trddcofxeu TrAT^/ijueAes' vtto

rod Xoyov, d(f)Lep,€v ae wairep (f)6vov Kal Kadapov €Lvat /cat [17] aTTaTecJbva rjjjicbv dXXd dappiqaas Aeye. AAAa jxevTOi, elrrov, Kadapos ye /cat e/cet o d(f)edeig,

(xiS o vojxos XeyeL- et/cos" Se ye, e'lTrep eKel, KavddSe.

Aeye tolvvv, e(f>r], rovrov y* eveKa. Keyeiv hr\, €(j)rjv eyu), XPV dvdTraXcv av vvv, d Tore taojs eSet

C e<j>e^rjq Xeyeiv rd^a he ovrcjs dv opddjs exoi, [lerd avSpelov SpdjjLa rtavreXdjs hiaTtepavdev ro yvvai-

Kelov av TTepaiveiv, dXXois re /cat eTreiSr] av ovrco TTpoKaXei.

III. ^AvdpcoTTOLs ydp (f)vaL /cat TraiSevdetaLv d)s rjpLets hL'qXQojxev, /car' epLrjv ho^av ovk ear dXXrj opdrj TTaihcov re /cat yvvaiKcov Kr-fjals re /cat XP^^^ rj /car' eKeiv7]v rrjv op/jLrjv lovaiv, rjvTrep ro TrpoJrov

(hpixriaapLev eTTex^i-prjaapLev he ttov dig dyeXrjs

(f>vXaKas rovs dvhpas KaOiardvai rep Xoyo). Nat.

D ^AKoXovdwfxev roLvvv /cat rrjv yeveaiv /cat rpo(f)rjv TTapairXriaiav dTTohihovres , /cat aKOTraJfiev, ei T]p.iv

TTpeTTeL ri ov. ncus"; €(f)r]. ^QSe. rds ^T^Aeta?

rdJv (fivXdKcov KvvdJv TTorepa ^vfi(f)vXdrrei.v ol6p.eda

heZv, direp dv ol dppeve? (f>vXdrrcoaL, /cat ^vv-

drjpeveiv /cat xaAAa KOivfj rrpdrreiv, r) rds fiev ^ oS Hermann : mss. ovk ed and e5, which would be ironical.

Adam is mistaken in supposing that Glaucon laughs at the irony.

" Cbairep marks the legal metaphor to which iKel below refers. Cf. Laws 869 e, and Eurip. Hippol. 1433 and 1448- 1450, withHirzel, AtKT/etc. p. 191, n. 1, Demosth. xxxvii. 58-59. Plato transfers the idea to the other world in Phaedo 114 a-b, where the pardon of their victims is required for the release

432

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK V

with friends, so that your encouragement is none." And Glaucon, with a laugh, said, " Nay, Socrates, if any false note in the argument does us any harm, we release you as " in a homicide case, and warrant you pure of hand and no deceiver of us. So speak on with confidence." " Well," said I, " he who is released in that case is counted pure as the law

bids, and, presumably, if there, here too." " Speak on, then," he said, " for all this objection." " We must return then," said I, " and say now what perhaps ought to have been said in due sequence there. But maybe this way is right, that after the completion of the male drama we should in turn go through with the female,* especially since you are so urgent."

III. " Formen,then,born and bred as we described, there is in my opinion no other right possession and use of children and women than that which accords with the start we gave them. Our endeavour, I beheve, was to estabhsh these men in our discourse as the guardians of a flock '^ ? " " Yes." " Let us preserve the analogy, then, and assign them a generation and breeding answering to it, and see if it suits us or not." " In what way ? " he said. " In this. Do we expect the females of watch-dogs to join in guarding what the males guard and to hunt with them and share all their pursuits or do we expect the

of sinners. The passage is used by the older critics in the comparison of Plato with Christianity.

* Sophron's Mimes are said to have been so classified. For Spdfia cf. also Theaetet. 150 a.

" For the use of analogies drawn from animals cf. 375-376, \22 D, 466 D. 467 b, 491 d-e, 537 a, 546 a-b, 564 a'. Plato is only pretending to deduce his conclusions from his imagery. Aristotle's literal-minded criticism objects that animals have no "economy," Pol. 1264 b 4-6.

VOL. I ^ F 433

PLATO

OLKovpeTv €vSov CO? dBwdrovs 8ia tov twv aKvXd- Kcov roKov T€ Kal Tpo(f)'qv, Tovs 8e novelv re /fat

Trdaav eTTLfieXeiav ^X^'-^ irepl to. TTolfivLa; Koiriy,

E e(pr], TTavra- ttXtjv d>s dodevearepais ^^pctj^e^a, rots' oe a*? la-)(yporlpoLs. Olov r* ovv, €(f)r]v iyco, cttl

Ttt avrd XPV^^^^ '^''^'' ^^V> ^^ l^V '^^ avr7]v

rpo(f>'qv re Kal TraiSeLav aTToStSws ; Ovx otov re. Et dpa rats yvvai^lv inl ravrd ;^/37^CTOjU.e^a koL

452 rots dvSpdcri, Tavrd /cat StSa/creov auras'. Nat.

MovaiKT] fiev^ iKctvoLs re /cat yvfMvaaTLKrj iSodrj.

Nat. Kat rats ywat^tr apa tovtco tco rexvo- xal

Ttt nepi TOV TroXepiov dTToSoreov Kal ;(p7^CTreov fcarct

Tavrd. Et/cos e^ ojv Aeyets, e^^. "lo-ws 8''?,

elnov, TTapd ro edos yeXoZa dv ^aivoiro rroXXd irepi

ra vvv Xeyofxeva, el Trpd^erai fj

Xeyerai. Kat

fidXa, e^Tj. Ti, rfv S' eyw, yeXoiorarov avrcov

opas; T] SrjXa Sr] on yvfivds rag yvvaiKag iv rats B TTaXaiarpaLS yy/xva^o/xeVas jLtera rcbv dvSpoJv, ov

fiovov rds veas, dXXd /cat 17817 ras Trpea^vrepas,

loavep rovs yepovras iv rots yv/xvaoLOLs, orav

pvaol Kal fXTj rjSeZs rrjv oi/jlv opaog ^iXoyvpLva-

arcoaiv; ^t] tov Aia, 6^77" yeXoiov yap dv, c5s ye ^

M^j*] Richards' conjecture /xriv is attractive.

" Reformers always denounce this source of wit while conservative satirists maintain that ridicule is a test of truth.

Cf. e.g. Renan, Avenir de la Science, p. 439 " Le premier pas dans la carriere philosophique est de se cuirasser centre le ridicule," and Lucian, Piscator 14 "No harm can be done by a joke ; that on the contrary, whatever is beautiful shines brighter . . . like gold cleansed," Harmon in Loeb translation, iii. 23. There was a literature for and against

434.

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK V

females to stay indoors as being incapacitated by the bearing and the breeding of the whelps while the males toil and have all the care of the flock ? " " They have all things in common," he replied, " except that we treat the females as weaker and the males as stronger." " Is it possible, then," said I, " to employ any creature for the same ends as another if you do not assign it the same nurture and education ?

"

" It is not possible." " If, then, we are to use the women for the same things as the men, we must also teach them the same things." " Yes." " Now music together with g\Tnnastic was the training we gave the men." "Yes." " Then we must assign these two arts to the women also and the offices of war and employ them in the same way." " It would seem likely from what you say," he replied. " Per- haps, then," said I, " the contrast with present custom " would make much in our proposals look ridiculous if our words ^ are to be realized in fact." " Yes, indeed," he said. " What then," said I, " is the funniest thing you note in them ? Is it not obviously the women exercising unclad in the palestra together with the men, not only the young, but even the older, like old men in gvmnasiums,^ when, though wTinkled and unpleasant to look at, they still persist in exercising ? " " Yes, on my word," he replied, " it would seem ridiculous under present

custom (sometimes called ffwriOeia) of which there are echoes in Cicero's use of consuetudo, Acad. ii. 75, De off. i. 148, De tiat. deor. i. 83.

'' Tj Xfyerai : cf. on 389 d. ' Cf. Theaetet. 162 b, and the oxpifiadT]^ or late learner in

Theophrastus' Characters xxvii. 14 Loeb. Eurip. Androm. 596 ff. denoimces the light attire of Spartan women when exercising.

435

PLATO

€v rco TTapearwri, ^av^irj. Ovkovv, rjv S' iycb, €7Tei7T€p (LpfiTJaajxev Xeyetv, ov (f)o^rjr€ov to. tcov

\apL€VTCov aKcojjLfxara, oaa Kal ola civ etnoLev els rrjv TOLavT7]v fiera^oXrjv yevofievqv Kal nepl to,

(3 yvpivaaia Kai rrepi /jLovaLKrjv Kal ovk iXdxi-cyTa TTepi rr]v TCJov ottXojv a)(^aLV Kai LiTTrojv d;^r^creis".

Opdojs, €(1)7], Xeyeis. 'AAA* eVetTrep Xeyeiv rjp^d-

fjieda, TTopevreov npos ro rpa^v rod vo/xov, herjdeZai re tovtcov firj rd avroJv Trpdrreiv dXXd a7Tovhd[,eiv, Kal VTTOfxvqaacrLV, on ov ttoXvs xP^vos e^ ov tols "KXXrjaLV e'Sd/cet ataxpd eivai. Kal yeXola, aTTep vvv roLS ttoXXois tcov ^ap^dpcov, yvfxvovs dv-

hpas opdadai, Kal ore rjpxovro rcov yvjxvaaicov Trpcb-

D Tot ixev Ys.prjres, eireira AaKehat,fx6vL0i, e^yjv rols rore dareioLs rrdvra ravra Kotjicphelv r) ovk o'iei; 'Eycoye. 'AAA' €7T€lSt], otfiai, xp<^fJ'^^OLs dp^etvov

ro arroSveaOai, rod avyKaXvTTreiv irdvra rd rotavra ecfydvn], Kal ro ev rols 6(j)9aXp,ols Srj yeXolov e^eppvrj

vrro rod ev rots Xoyois p.rjvvdevros dpiarov, Kal rovro evehei^aro, on p,draLos og yeXolov dXXo n rjyeXrai i] ro KaKov, Kai 6 yeXcoroTTOielv eTTix^'-pdJv

TTpds dXXrjv nvd oipiv diro^XeTrcov (hg yeXoiov r^ E rr^v rod d(f>pov6s re Kal KaKov, Kal KaXov av

aTTOvSd^ei rrpds dXXov nvd okottov arriadp,evos rj rov rod dyadod. Havrdnaai p,ev ovv, e(f>r].

IV. *A/3' ovv ov TTpcorov p,ev rodro Trepl avrcov

dvop,oXoyr]r€OV, el Sward rj ov, Kal Soreov dpicf)i- a^Tqrrjaiv, e'ire ng (juXoTraiapLajv elre airovSaanKos

" Cf. Propert. iv. 13 Miiller. * For a variation of this image cf. 568 d. "^ Plato plays on his own favourite phrase. The proper

business of the wit is to raise a laugh. Cf. Symp. 189 b. •* Cf. Thucyd. i. 6, Herod, i. 10. Sikes in Anthropology

436

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK V

conditions." " Then," said I, " since we have set out to speak our minds, we must not fear all the jibes" \vith which the wits would greet so great a revolu- tion, and the sort of things they would say about gynmastics and culture, and most of all about the bearing of arms and the bestriding of horses." " You're right," he said. " But since we have begun we must go forward to the rough part of our law,*" after begging these fellows not to mind their own business '^ but to be serious, and reminding them that it is not long since the Greeks thought it disgraceful and ridiculous, as most of the barbarians ^ do now, for men to be seen naked. And when the practice of athletics began, first with the Cretans and then with the Lacedaemonians, it was open to the wits of that time to make fun of these practices, don't you think so ? " "I do." " But when, I take it, experience showed that it is better to strip than to veil all things of this sort, then the laughter of the eyes * faded away before that which reason revealed to be best, and this made it plain that he talks idly who deems any- thing else ridiculous but evil, and who tries to raise a laugh by looking to any other pattern of absurdity than that of folly and wTong or sets up any other standard of the beautiful as a mark for his seriousness than the good." " Most assuredly," said he.

IV. " Then is not the first thing that we have to agree upon with regard to these proposals whether they are possible or not } And we must throw open the de- bate' to anyone who wishes either in jest or earnest to

and the Classics says this was borrowed from Thucydides, whom Wilamowitz says Plato never read. Cf. Dio Chrys. xiii. 226 M. For e$ ov cf. Demosth. iv. 3, Isoc. v. 47.

• Lit. " what (seemed) laughable to (in) the eyes." / Cf. ^01 D Soifiev . . . Xo^ov.

437

PLATO

453 edeXei d/i^iCT^T^r'^crat, TTorepov Swarr] (f)vaLs rj avdpcoTTLvri rj d-qXet,a rfj rov dppevos yevovs KOivco- vrjaai els aTravra ra epya, ^ ouS' els ev, r^ els rd yiev Ota re, eis Se ra ov, Kal rovro Srj to rrepl rov TToXefiov TTorepoiv eariv; dp* ovx ovrcos oiv kolX- Xiard rLs dpxopievos ois to elKos /cat KaAAiara reXevr-qcreiev ; IIoAu ye, €(l>rj. BoyAei ovv, ^v 8'

iy<x), rj/jieis rrpos 'qfxds avrovs vvep roiv dXXcov djji(^t(x^r]rT]acoiJLev, tva p^rj €prjfj,a rd rov erepov

B Xoyov TToXiopKrjrai ; Ovhev, e(f>r^, KcoXvei. Aeyco- piev Srj virep avrcov on, " o) HcoKpares re Kal rXavKcov, ovSev Set vpilv aAAoy? dp,(f)LG^7]reXv' avrol ydp ev dpxfj ttjs KaroiKtaeais, rjv cpKL^ere TToXiv, dipLoXoyeZre heZv /card (f>vaiv eKaarov eva ev TO avrou Trpdrreiv." ' Q.pioXoyrjaap.ev , olp,aL' ttcos yap ov; 'J^ariv ovv ottcos ov TrdpnToXv Sta^epet yvvrj dvhpos rr)v (f)vat.v; IldJs 8' ov Sia^e/aet;

OvKovv dXXo /cat epyov eKarepco TTpoarjKei nrpoa-

C rdrreiv ro /card rr^v avrov (f)vai,v; Tt p.TJv; Ildjs ovv ovx dpiaprdvere vvv /cat rdvavria vpilv avrols Xeyere, (fidoKovres aS rovs dvSpas /cat rds yvvaiKas Selv rd avrd Trpdrreiv, TrXeZarov Kexoipiap,evrjv (f)vaLV e^ovras; e^eis tl, (L davpidaie, irpos ravr'

" Plato as elsewhere asks whether it is true of all, some, or none. So of the commingling of ideas in Sophist 251 d. Aristotle {Pol. 1260 b 38) employs the same would-be ex-

, haustive method. "" apxbfievos . . . Te\fVTri<rei€i> : an overlooked reference to

a proverb also overlooked by commentators on Pindar, Pyfh. i. 35. C/. Pindar, fr. 108 a Loeb, Laws 775 e, Sophocles, fr. 831 (Pearson), Antiphon the Sophist, fr. 60 (Diels).

" This pleading the opponent's case for him is common

438

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK V

raise the question whether female human nature is capable of sharing with the male all tasks or none at all, or some but not others," and under which of these heads this business of war falls. Would not this be that best beginning which would naturally and proverbially lead to the best end * ? " " Far the best," he said. " Shall we then conduct the debate with ourselves in behalf of those others " so that the case of the other side may not be taken defence- less and go by default**?" "Nothing hinders," he said. "Shall we say then in their behalf: ' There is no need, Socrates and Glaucon, of others disputing against you, for you yourselves at the beginning of the foundation of your city agreed *

that each one ought to mind as his own business the one thing for which he was fitted by nature ? ' ' We did so agree, I think ; certainly ! ' ' Can it be denied then that there is by nature a great difference between men and women ? ' ' Surely there is.' ' Is it not fitting, then, that a different function should be appointed for each corresponding to this difference of nature ? ' ' Certainly.' ' How, then, can you deny that you are mistaken and in contra- diction with yourselves when you turn around and affirm that the men and the women ought to do the same thing, though their natures are so far apart ?

'

Can you surprise me with an answer to that ques-

in Plato. Cf. especially the plea for Protagoras in Theaetet. 166-167.

^ Apparently a mixture of militarj- and legal phraseology. Cf. iKirepffT} in Protag, 340 a, 11. v. 140 to. 5' ipij/ia (pojie'iTai, and the legal phrase efjrjfjLriv KaraotaiTdv or 6<p\€tv.

* wpLoXoyelre : cf. 369 E f. For Kara <f>vffLV cf, 370 c and 456 c. The apparent emphasis of <pvffi% in this book is of little significance. Cf. Laics, passim.

439

PLATO

OLTToXoyeladai ; 'Qs fJi'^v e^ai(j>vrjs, ecfirj, ov ttolvv paSiov aAAa crov Se'qcroixai re Kal Seofiai Kal rov VTTep rjfjiojv Xoyov, oaris nor iarlv, ipp,rjvevaaL. Taur' iariv, rjv 8' eycL, co TXavKcov, Kal d'AAa

D 77oAAa roLavra, a, iyd) TraXai TrpoopaJv icfio^ovpirjv re /cat ojkvovv aTrreadat rod vofiov rov Tvepl rrjv rcbv yvvaLKWv /cat TralScov Krijaiv /cat rpo(f)rjv. Ov na rov Ata, ei^f], ov yap evKoXio eoiKev. Oi5 yap, cIttov dAAa 817 c58' ex^f av re ris els KoXvfx- ^rjdpav fiiKpav ep,7Tearj av re els ro fjueyiarov

TTeXayos ixeaov, o/xcos ye vel ovhev rjrrov. Wdvv ptev ovv. OvKovv /cat rjpLiv vevareov /cat Tretpareov aco^eaOai e'/c rov Xoyov, rjrot SeXcfilvd rLva eXirl-

l,ovras rjpLas vnoXa^eiv av rj riva dXXrjv diropov

E aojr-qpiav. "EoLKev, €(f)r]. ^epe Srj, -^v 8' eyo), edv TTT] evpcopiev rrjv e^o8ov. iup,oXoyovp,ev yap Srj dXXrjv (f>vaiv dXXo Setv CTnrrjSeveiv, yvvacKos 8e /cat dvSpos dXXrjv elvai- rds 8e d'AAas' (f)vaeis rd avrd cf)apev vvv Selv eTnriqhevaaL, ravra rjfxcov KariqyopeZre; K-opuSfj ye. H yei'vata, ^v 8' eyco,

454 CO TXavKcov, rj 8wa/xt9 rrjs dvrLXoyiKrjs re)(vrjs. Ti Brj ; "On, elrrov, hoKovai piOL els avrrjv /cat aKovres ttoXXoI epLTTCTrreiv /cat o'ieadai ovk epl^eiv,

dAAd hi-aXeyeadai, hid ro p,rj hvvaadat /car' etSr^ SiaipovpievoL ro Xeyopevov eTnoKOTrelv , dXXd /car'

<• Cf. the TriXayos tGiv \byuv Protag. 338 a. Similarly Sidney Smith : " cut his cable, and spread his enormous canvas, and launch into the wide sea of reasoning eloquence."

* AnallusiontothestoryofArion and the dolphin in Herod, i. 24, as vTro\a(3e7v perhaps proves. For airopov cf. 378 a.

" yevvaia : often as here ironical in Plato. Cf. Sophist 231 b, where interpreters misunderstand it. But the new L. & S. is correct.

<* avTiXoyiKiis : one of several designations for the eristic

440

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK V

tion ? " " Not easily on this sudden challenge," he replied : " but I will and do beg you to lend your voice to the plea in our behalf, whatever it may be." " These and many similar difficulties, Glaucon," said I, " I foresaw and feared, and so shrank from touch- ing on the law concerning the getting and breeding of women and children." " It does not seem an easy thing, by heaven," he said, " no, by heaven," " No, it is not," said I ; " but the fact is that whether one tumbles into a little di\ing-pool or plump into the great sea he s^\ims all the same." " By all means." " Then we, too, must swim and try to escape out of the sea*" of argument in the hope that either some dolphin * will take us on its back or some other desperate rescue." " So it seems," he said. " Come then, consider," said I, " if we can find a way out. We did agree that different natures should have diflPering pursuits and that the nature of men and women differ. And yet now we affirm that these differing natures should have the same pursuits. That is the indictment?" " It is." "What a grand "^ thing, Glaucon," said I, " is the power of the art of contra- diction <* ! " " Why so? " "Because," said I, " many appear to me to fall into it even against their wills, and to suppose that they are not wTangling but arguing, owing to their inability to apply the proper divisions and distinctions to the subject under con- which Isocrates maliciously confounds with dialectic while Plato is careful to distinguish them. Cf. E. S. Thompson, The Meno of Plato, Excursus V., pp. 272 ff. and the introduc- tion to E. H. Gifford's Euthydemus, p. 42. Among the marks of eristic are the pursuit of merely verbal oppositions as here and Euthydem. 278 a, 301 b, Theaetet. 164 c; the neglect to distingiaish and divide, Phileb. 17 a, Phaedr. 265 e, 266 A, B : the failure to distinguish the hypothesis from its consequences, Phaedo 101 e, Parmen. 13o-"l36.

441

PLATO

avTo TO ovofia Slwkclv rov X^xd^vrog rrjv ivavTum-

cnv, epihi, ov SiaAe/cro) Trpos dXXi]Xovs yP^H'^^^'" "Kan yap Sij, €(f)r], Trepl ttoXXovs rovro to Trddos' dXXd [xcov Kal npos rj/jidg rovro reivei. ev rep

"BTTapovri; Ylavrdnacn, fxev ovv, rjv S' eyay Kivhv-

vevofxev yovv aKovres dvriXoyLas aTrreadaL. Udjs;

To TTjv dXXrjv (f>vaLv on ov rcov avrcov Set evn- r-qSevixdrcov rvyxdvetv irdw dvhpeioys re fcat

ipLari.K<x)s Kara ro ovojxa hLcoKop.€v, eTreaKeifjdjjLeda 8e ovS^ oTTTjovv, ri ethos ro rrjs erepag re /cat rrjs

avrrjs (f>vacois Kal Trpos ri reZvov cupt^o/xe^a rore,

ore rd €7nr7]S€vp.ara dXXrj ^vaet aAAa, rfj 8e

avrfj rd avrd dTreSlSofxev. Ov ydp ovv, €(f)r], C €7T€aK€iJfd[jL€da. ToiydproL, eliTOv, e^eariv rjfjup,

(VS €OLK€v, dvepcordv rjpids avrovs, et r) avrrj (f)vats

<j)aXaKpa)v Kal Kop.-qrcbv Kal ovy "^ ivavria, /cat

eTTeihdv ojjLoXoydJfjiev evavriav elvat, idv (j>aXaKpoL

QKvroropLcZai, firj idv KopL'^ras, idv 8' av Koprjrai,

pLT) Tovs irepovs. VeXolov pivr^ dv etrj, ecf)!/].

*A/3a Kar^ dXXo rt, cIttov iyco, yeXoiov, 7] on rore ov Trdvrcjos rrjv avrrjv Kal rrjv erepav (pvaiv

indep.eda, dAA' iKclvo ro eiSo? rrjs dXXoicoaecos re

D Kal ofxoLCoaeivs povov icf)vXarrop,€v ro Trpos avra retvov rd irrLrrjSevpiara; otov larpiKOV fxev /cat

" dKovres is almost "unconscious." Cf. Phileb. 14 c. ^ Greek style often couples thus two adverbs, the second

defining more specifically the first, and, as here and often in Plato and Aristophanes, with humorous or paradoxical effect. Cf. Aristoph. Knights 800 ev Kal fiiapQs. So Shakes. " well and chirurgeonly."

" Cf. Sophist 256 A-B for the relativity of "same" and "other." Polit. 292 c describes in different language the

correct method. •* For this humorously trivial illustration cf. Mill, Rep. Gov.

442

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK V

sideration. They pursue purely verbal oppositions, practising eristic, not dialectic on one another." " Yes, this does happen to many," he said ; " but does this observation apply to us too at present ?

"

" Absolutely," said I ; "at any rate I am afraid that we are unawares" slipping into contentiousness." " In what way ? " " The principle that natm-es not the same ought not to share in the same pursuits we are follo^ving up most manfully and eristically * in the literal and verbal sense ; but we did not delay to consider at all what particular kind of diversity and identity '^ of nature we had in mind and yviih reference to what we were trying to define it when we assigned different pursuits to different natures and the same to the same." " No, we didn't consider that," he said. " Wherefore, by the same token," I said, " we might ask ourselves whether the natures of bald** and long-haired men are the same and not, rather, the contrary. And, after agreeing that they were opposed, we might, if the bald cobbled, forbid the long-haired to do so, or vice versa." " That would be ridiculous," he said. "Would it be so," said I, "for any other reason than that we did not then posit like- ness and difference of nature in any and every sense, but were papng heed solely to the kind of diversity and homogeneity that was pertinent * to the pursuits themselves ? We meant, for example, that a man and

chap. viii. p. 190: "I have taken no account of difference of sex. I consider it to be as entirely irrelevant to political rights as difference in height, or in the colour of the hair;

"

and Mill's disciple Leslie Stephen, The English Utilitarians, i. 291: "We may at least grant that the burden of proof should be upon those who would disfranchise all red-haired men."

• C/. Laches 190 d eli 6 Teipetw SoKel, Prolog. 345 b.

US

PLATO

larpLKTjV TTjv il;v)(rjv ovras ttjv avrrjv cfyvaiv €)(€iv

eXeyo/juev r) ovk o'Ui; 'Eycuye. larpiKOv Se /cat t€ktovik6v dWrjv ; Wavroj? ttov. V. OvKodv, '^v 8 iycx), /cat to tcDv dvSpojv /cai

TO Tcbv yvvaiKcov yivos, edv fjbev TTpos rexvrjv rivd

Tj aAAo imr'qSeviJ.a hiacjiepov (f)aLvr]Tai, tovto Stj

(fiTiaopiev CKaTepo) Seti^ dnoSiSovai, idv 8' avro)

TOVTO) (^aivrjTai 8La(f>ep€iv, to) to fiev drjXv tlkt€lv, E TO Se dppev ox^veLV, ouSeV rt ttco (fiijaofxev fxdXXov

diroSeSelxdaL, cos Trpog o rjfieLg Xdyofxev Sta^epet

yvvT] dvSpos, aAA' en OL7]a6[xeda Seiv ret aura eTTLTTjSeveiv tovs re <f)v\aKas rjpuv Kal Tas yvvatKas avTwv. Kat opddJs, ^V*^- Ovkovv jxcTa tovto KeXevofxev tov Ta ivavTca XeyovTa tovto avTO

455 hihaoKeiv T^/xas", TTpos Tiva Texvrjv t] tl CTTiT'^Sevfia

Tcov TTepl TToXecos KaTaaKevrjv ovx "Q avTrj dXXd €T€pa (f)vaLs yvvaiKos re /cat dvhpos; AiKaiov

yovv. Tdxo. Toivvv dv, OTrep av oXiyov TrpoTepov

eXeyes, etTrot dv Kal dXXos, otc iv pikv tco vapa-

Xpfjp-o- iKavcos etTTelv ov pdSiov, iTno-Keifja/jievcp 8e

ovSev ;!^aAe77dp'. EtVoi ydp dv. BoyAet ovv Seco-

fjieda TOV ra rotaura dvTiXeyovTOS aKoXovdrjaai

B '^filv, idv TTOJ? rjfxels e/cetVoj evhei^ojjJbeOa, otl ovSev ioTiv eTTLTT^Sevfia tStov yvvatKL irpos StoLKrjaiv

TToXecos; Ildvv ye. "Wi 8t], ^rjaopiev irpos avTov, drroKpivov dpa ovtojs eXeyes tov pukv €V(f}vrj TTpos Tt eii^at, TOV Se d(f)vrj, iv S 6 fxev paSicos Ti

" Adam makes difficulties, but cf. Laws 963 a foOv . . . Kv^epvrjTLKov fxkv Kal iarpiKov Kal aTparriyLKov. The translation follows Hermann despite the objection that this reading forestalls the next sentence. Cf. Campbell ad loc. and Apelt, Woch.fUr klass. Phil., 1903, p. 344.

* Plato anticipates the objection that the Socratic dialectic

444

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK V

a woman who have a physician's" mind have the same nature. Don't you think so ? " " I do." "But that a man physician and a man carpenter have different natures ? " " Certainly, I suppose."

V. " Similarly, then," said I, " if it appears that the

male and the female sex have distinct qualifications for any arts or ])ursuits, w^e shall affirm that they ought to be assigned respectively to each. But if it appears that they differ only in just this respect that the

female bears and the male begets, we shall say that no proof has yet been produced that the woman differs from the man for our purposes, but we shall continue to think that our guardians and their wives ought to follow the same pursuits." " And rightly," said he. " Then, is it not the next thing to bid our opponent tell us precisely for what art or pursuit concerned with the conduct of a state the woman's nature differs from the man's ? " " That would be at any rate fair." " Perhaps, then, someone else, too, might say what you were saying a while ago, that it is not easy to find a satisfactory answer on a sudden, *"

but that with time for reflection there is no difficulty." " He might say that." " Shall we, then, beg the raiser of such objections to follow us, if we may perhaps prove able to make it plain to him that there is no pursuit connected with the administration of a state that is peculiar to woman ? " " By all means." " Come then, we shall say to him, answer our question. Was this the basis of your distinction between the man naturally gifted for anything and the one not so gifted—that the one learned easily, surprises assent. Cf. more fully 487 b, and for a comic version Hippias Major 295 a " if I could go off for a little by myself in solitude I would tell you the answer more precisely than precision itself."

4A5

PLATO

jxavdavoi, 6 8e x^Xcttcos, Kal 6 fiev avo ^pa^^eta? fxad-qaeojs irrl ttoXv evperiKOs etrj ov efxaOev, 6 Se

7TO?^Xrjs fxad-^aeojs tvxojv /cat iieXerrjs fJ'^]^' o.

ejjiade a<Lt,OLro, /cat rco [xev ra rov acofxaros iKavaJg

C VTTTjpeToX TTJ hiavoia, rtp Se ivavrioZro ; dp' aAA arra ecrrlv •^ ravra, ots rov €V<^V7J Trpos CKaara

Kal Tov fiTj (hpit^ov; 0?3Set?, rj 8' 6s, aAAa <f>iqa€L. Oladd Tt ovv VTTO avdpd>7TCDV p^eXeTco/jievov, iv co ov TTOLVTa ravra ro rwv dvBpcov yevos hia^epovroyg €)(£L 7] ro ra>v yvvaiKOiv; rj paKpoXoya)p,ev rrjv

re v(f)avrLKr)v Xeyovres Kal rrjv rcov Trovdviov re

D /cat €iftr)p.drcov depaTreiav, ev ots Sry rt So/cet to yvvaiKeZov yevog elvai, ov /cat KarayeXaarorarov

earI Trdvrcov 7jrrcop,€Vov ; 'AXrjdrj, e(f>rj, Xeyeis, on TToXv KpareZrat ev drraaiv cog eVo? elnelv ro yevos

rod yevovg. yvvacKeg p,ev roi rroXXai ttoXXcov

dvdpoJv ^eXriovs els noXXd- ro Be oXov e;\;et d>s

av Xeyets- Ovhev dpa eariv, cb (jiiXe, eTTir-qSevfia rcbv ttoXlv SioLKovvrajv yvvaiKos Stort yvvrj, ovB

dvSpos Stort dvT]p, dAA' op^oicos hieaTTappLevai at

^vaeis ev dp(j)oZv roZv I^coolv, /cat irdvrojv p.ev

puerexet yvvrj eTnrrjSevpdrojv Kara (f>vaLV, Travrcov

E Be dv-qp, errl irdaL he dodevearepov yvvrj dvBpos. Hdvv ye. *H ovv dvSpdat Trdvra vpoard^opev, yvvaiKi 8e ovSev; Kat ttcos; 'AAA' earn ydp,

" C/.Poii<. 286 E, where this is said to be the object ofteaching. * Cf. Protag. 326 b, Rep. 498 b, 410 c, Isoc. xv. 180, Xen.

Mem. ii. 1. 28. " On the alleged superiority of men even in women's

occupations cf. the amusing diatribe of the old bachelor in George Eliot's Adam Bede, chap. xxi. : "I tell you there isn't a thing under the sun that needs to be done at all but what a man can do better than women, unless it's bearing children, and they do that in a poor makeshift way," and

446

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK V

the other «ith difficulty ; that the one with sHght instruction could discover ° much for himself in the matter studied, but the other, after much instruction and drill, could not even remember what he had learned ; and that the bodily faculties of the one adequately served ^ his mind, while, for the other, the

body was a hindrance ? Were there any other points than these by which you distinguish the well endowed man in every subject and the poorly endowed ? " " No one," said he, " vsill be able to name any others." " Do you know, then, of anything practised by mankind in which the mascuhne sex does not surpass the female on all these points ? "

Must we make a long story of it by alleging wea\ing and the watching of pancakes and the boihng pot, whereon the sex plumes itself and wherein its defeat will expose it to most laughter ? " " You are right," he said, " that the one sex** is far surpassed by the other in everything, one may say. Many women, it is true, are better than many men in many things, but broadly speaking, it is as you say." " Then there is no pursuit of the administrators of a state that belongs to a woman because she is a woman or to a man because he is a man. But the natural capacities are distributed ahke among both creatures, and women naturally share in all pursuits and men in all—yet for all the woman is weaker than the man." " Assuredly." " Shall we, then, assign them all to men and nothing to women ? " " How could we?" " We shall rather, I take it, say that one woman has the remarks on women as cooks of the bachelor Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil, § 234. But Xen. Hem. iii. 9. 11 takes the ordinary view. On the character of women generally cf. Laves 781 and Aristotle in Zeller trans, ii. 215.

' Cf. Cratyl. 392 C u« rd 6\ov eiirflv yefos.

447

PLATO

OLfxai, d>s (f)iqaoiJL€V, /cat ywq larpLK-q, rj 8' ov, /cat fiovaLK-^, rj S' dfjiovaos (f)ua€L. Ti jut^v; Vvfiva-

456 aTLKTj 8' apa ou, oj)8e TToXefxiKij, rj 8e aTroAe^Lto?

/cat ov ^iXoyvixvaoTLKri ; Ot/xat eycoye. Tt 8e;

<f)cX6ao(f)6s T€ /cat ixia6ao(f)os ; Kal dvjjLoeiS'qs, rj

S' dOvixos; "Eari /cat raura. "Earti^ apa /cat

<f)vXaKLKr) yvvrj, tj 8' ou. •^ ou roiavrr]v /cat TtSi'

dt-Spcov rail' (f>vXaKLKCJV (f)VGtv i^eXe^dfieOa; Toiav-

rr]v [jL€v ovv. Kat yui'at/cos' apa /cat avSpo? t] avrrj

<j>vais els (^vXaKTjv ttoXccos, vXrjv oaa dadevearepa T] laxvpoTcpa ioTLV. OatVerat.

B VI. Kai yvvoLKes dpa at Toiaurat rot? tolovtols dvSpdcnv e/cAe/creat ^vvoiKeZv re /cat ^v[xcf)vXdTT€iv,

iveLTrep elcrlv LKaval Kal ^vyyevels avrols Tr)v

^vaiv. Ildvv ye. Ta 8' eTrtTT^Seu/xara ou ra aura aTroSorea rat? aurat? (fivaeaiv ; Ta avra. "HKOfxev dpa els rd Trporepa Trepi^epopievoi, /cat

ofxoXoyovfjLev firj -napd <j)vcnv elvai rals rwv <f>v- XaKOJV yvvac^l p.ovaiK'^v re Kal yvpLvaarLK-qv

C (XTroStSot'at. YlavrdTTauL jxev ovv. Ovk dpa dhv- vard ye ovhe ev^o-ls opLoca evop^oderovpuev, eireLTrep

Kara (fivaiv irldefxev rov vopuov dXXd rd vvv rrapa

ravra ytyvofxeva vapd (fivaiv puaXXov, cos eoiKe,

yiyverai. "Eot/cei'. Ovkovv rj eTrlaKei/jts 'f]pA,v -qv,

el hvvard re Kal ^eXriara Xeyoip.ev ; 'Hv yap. Kat OTt iiev Sr) Sward, SicoixoXoyrjrai; Nat.

"On 8e 8r) ^eXriara, ro p-erd rovro Set Stouo- Xoyrjdrjvai; At^Aop'. Ovkovv Trpos ye to (f)vXa- KiKTjv yvvalKa yeviadai ovk dXXr) fiev rjixlv dvSpas

" Cf. Gorg. 517 c. " C/. on 450 d. " Cf. Introd. p. xvii.

448

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK V

the nature of a physician and another not, and one is by nature musical, and another unmusical ?

"

'' Surely." " Can we, then, deny that one woman is naturally athletic and warhke and another unwarlike and averse to gymnastics ? " " I think not." " And again, one a lover, another a hater, of ^^^sdom? And one high-spirited, and the other lacking spirit ?

"

" That also is true." " Then it is like\\-ise true that one woman has the qualities of a guardian and another not. Were not these the natural qualities of the men also whom we selected for guardians ?

"

" They were." " The women and the men, then, have the same nature in respect to the guardianship of the state, save in so far as the one is weaker, the other stronger." " Apparently."

VI. " Women of this kind, then, must be selected to cohabit with men of this kind and to serve vnth them as guardians since they are capable of it and akin by nature." " By all means." " And to the same natures must we not assign the same pursuits ?

"

" The same." " We come round,'' then, to our pre\ious statement, and agree that it does not run counter to nature to assign music and gymnastics to the wves of the guardians." " By all means." " Our legislation, then, was not impracticable or Utopian, ** since the law we proposed accorded with nature. Rather, the other way of doing things, prevalent to-day, proves, as it seems, unnatural." " Apparently." " The object of our inquiry was the possibihty and the desirability <^ of what we were pro- posing?" "It was." "That it is possible has been admitted." "Yes." "The next point to be agreed uponisthat itis the best way." "Obviously." "For the production of a female guardian, then, our educa-

voL. I 2 a 449

PLATO

TTOL-qcrei TraiSeta, aAArj 8e yvvalKas, dXXcos re Kal

D T-qv avT7]v (f)vaiv TrapaXa^ouaa ; Ovk dXXr). Ilajs" ovv ex^iS S6^r]s rod roLovhe 77ept; Tlvos S-q; Tov VTroXa/jL^dveLV Trapd aeavro) tov fxev dfieivu) dvSpa,

TOV §€ x.^ipaj- 7) TrdvTas opLoiovs •^yet; OvSajxcos

.

lEiV ovv Tjj TToXei, rjV cpKL^ofxev, iroTepov oiet r]p.Zv

dfieLvovs dvSpas i^eipydadai tovs (f>vXaKas tvxov- Ttt? 'qs Si'qXdoiJiev TTaiheias, iq tov? aKVTOTopiovs

TTJ aKVTLKjj TTaiSevdevTas; TeXolov, €(f>rj, ipajTag.

E M.avddvco, e(f)7jv ti Se; tojv dXXcov ttoXltwv ovx OVTOL dpiOTOi; TloXv ye. Tt 8e; at yvvaiKes T(x)v yvvaiK(x)v ovx cturat eaovTai ^eArtarat; Kat TOVTO, €(f)rj, TToXv. "EctTI Sc Tl TToXei dfJi€l,VOV Tj

yvvaiKdg re /cat dvSpas d)s dpioTovs eyyiyveadai;

Ovk eoTLV. Tovto he piovaiKiq t€ Kal yvjxvaaTiKr] 457 TrapaytyvofievaL, d}s rjfiels hirjXdofxev , dTrepydaovrai,

;

Yicjs 8' ov ; Ov jxovov dpa SvvaTov dXXd Kai dpiOTOv TtoXei vofitfiov eTiOep^ev. OvTUjg. 'Atto-

8vT€ov Srj Tols Tcov ^vXaKcov yvvai^iv, ineLTrep

dpeTTjv dvTL LjxaTLCJV dpL<^L€aovTaL , xrai kolvci)V7]t4ov

TToXejJiOV T€ Kal TTJs dXXrjg (f)vXaKfjs ttjs rrepi ttjv

ttoXlv, Kal OVK d/\Xa vpaKTeov tovtcov 8 avTCov ra eXa(j>p6T€pa rat? yvvai^lv r) rots' dv8paCTt SoTeov

B 8ta Tr]v TOV yevovs dadeveiav o 8e yeXdJv avT]p eTTt yvfxvals yvvai^i, tov ^eXriuTov eveKa yvfiva^o-

" This is only a more complicated case of the point of style noted on 349 d. C/. Cratyl. 386 a. Sophist 24.7 a.

* Cf. on 421 A. We should not press this incidental phrase to prove that Plato would not educate all the citizens, as he in fact does in the Laws and by implication in the Politicus.

' Cf. Morley, Voltaire, p. 103: "It has been rather the fashion to laugh at the Marquise de Chatelet, for no better reason than that she, being a woman, studied Newton. . . .

450

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK V .

tion will not be one thing for men and another for women, especially since the nature which we hand over to it is the same." " There will be no differ- ence." " How are you minded, now, in this matter ?

"

" In what ? " "In the matter of supposing some men to be better and some worse," or do you think them all aUke ? " " By no means." " In the city, then, that we are founding, which do you think will prove the better men, the guardians recei\ing the education which we have described or the cobblers educated by the art of cobbhng* ? " " An absurd question," he said. " I understand," said I ; " and are not these the best of all the citizens ? " " By far." " And will not these women be the best of all the women ? " " They, too, by far." " Is there anything better for a state than the generation in it of the best possible women "^ and men ? " " There is not." " And this, music and gj'mnastics applied as we described will effect." " Surely." " Then the institution we proposed is not only possible but the best for the state." "That is so." "Thewomen of the guardians, then, must strip, since they will be clothed with virtue as a garment,'' and must take their part with the men in war and the other duties of civic guardianship and have no other occupation. But in these very duties lighter tasks must be assigned to the women than to the men because of their weak- ness as a class. But the man who ridicules unclad women, exercising because it is best that they

There is probably nothing which would lead to so rapid and Fiiarked an improvement in the world as a large increase of the number of women in it with the will and the capacity to master Newton as thoroughly as she did."

* Cf. Rousseau, Lettre a d'Alembert, "Couvertes de rhonnetet6 pubJique."

451

PLATO

fievais, dreXrj rod yeXoiov Spencov Kapnov, ovSev

ofSev, (l)s €oiK€V, i(f)' (h yeXa ovB 6 rt TTpdrrei,' KoXXiara yap Srj rovro /cai Aeyerai /fat AeAe'ferat, on TO fiev d)cf)eXLfjLOV KaXov, to 8e ^Xa^epov alaxpov. UavTaTTacn fxev ovv.

VII. ToVTO jXeV TOLVVV €V WGTTep KVfia (f)6JlJL€V 8La(f)€vyeLV, tov yvvaiKeiov Trepi vofxov XeyovTCs,

C ware fxr) TravTaTTacti KaraKXvadrjvai TiOevTas, o)? Set KOivfj TTOLVTa iTTLTrjSeveiv tovs re cf)vXaKas 'Qpuv

Kal Tas (fivXaKcSas, dXXd tttj tov Xoyov avTOV avTCp ofjLoXoyeladai, (hs Swara re /cat ctx^eAt^a Xeyei; Kai fxdXa, €(/)'r], ov ap.iKp6v /cu/xa 8ia- ^evyeis. Oi^aets' ye, rjv 8 eycu, ov fJLeya avTO

etvat, OTav to pLerd tovto lBtjs- Aeye Si], tSoj, €^17. TovTO), rjv S' iyo), eVerat vopios kul tols e/x-

TTpoadev ToZs aAAot?, (lis ey<S/xai, oSe. TtV; Ta? yyp'at/ca? Taura? tcDv dvSpoii' tovtiov irdvTiov

" C/. Pindar, fr. 209 Schroeder, dreXi) aocpias Kapirbv Sp^ir{eiv). Plato varies the quotation to suit his purpose.

* This is one of the chief texts for the alleged utilitarianism of Plato, a question too complicated to be settled by anything less than a comparative study of the Protagoras, Gorgias, Phaedo, Philebus, Republic (IX) and Laws. ihcpiXifiou sug- gests " benefit " rather than " utility." Cf. Introd. to second volume of this translation, and supra on 339 a-b.

" Cf. Aeschyl. Septem, in fine. ^ For this form of exaggeration cf. supra on 414 c, 339 b. * On the whole topic cf. Introd. p. xxxiv, Lucian, Fugitivi

18 ovK ei'56r€S oirws 6 iepbs eKelvos ij^Lov Koivas riyecadai tAs

yvvaiKai, Epictet. /r. 53, p. 21, Rousseau, t^mile, v: "je ne parle point de cette pretendue communaute de femmes dont le reproche tant r^pete prouve que ceux qui le lui font ne I'ont jamais lu." But Rousseau dissents violently from what he calls " cette promiscuite civile qui confond partout les deux sexes dans les memes emplois." Cf. further the denunciations of the Christian fathers passim, who are outdone by De Quincey's *' Otaheitian carnival of licentious 452

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK V

should, "plucks the unripe" fruit" of laughter and does not know, it appears, the end of his laughter nor what he would be at. For the fairest thing that is said or ever will be said is this, that the helpful is fair * and the harmful foul." " Assuredly."

VII. " In this matter, then, of the regulation of

women, we may say that we have surmounted one of the waves of our paradox and have not been quite swept <^ away by it in ordaining that our guardians and female guardians must have all pursuits in common, but that in some sort the argument concurs with itself in the assurance that what it proposes is both possible and beneficial." " It is no slight wave that vou are thus escaping." "You will not think it a great '^ one," I said, " when you have seen the one that follows." " Say on then and show me," said he. " This," said I, " and all that precedes has for its sequel, in my opinion, the following law." " What ? " " That these women shall all be common* to all these men, and appetite, connected with a contempt of human life which is excessive even for paganism." Most of the obvious parallels between Plato and Aristo-

phanes' Ecdesiazusae follow as a matter of course from the very notion of communal marriage and supplj' no evidence for the dating ofa supposed earlier edition of the whole or a part of the Republic. In any case the ideas of the Republic might have come to Aristophanes in conversation before publication

;

and the Greeks knew enough of the facts collected in such books as Westermarck's Marriage, not to be taken altogether by surprise by Plato's speculations. Cf. Herod, iv. 104, and Aristot. Pol. 126:3 a 20. Cf. further Adam's exhaustive dis- cussion in the appendix to this book, Grul>e, "The Marriage Laws in Plato's Republic,"'' Classical Qumrterly, 1927, pp. 95S.,Te\c\iTau\\cr, Literarische F€hden,\.Y>. 19 n., and the more recent literature collected in Praechter-Ueberweg, 12th ed. i. p. 207, Pohlmann, Gfschichte der Soztalen/rage und des Sozia- lismus in der antiken Welt, ii. p. 578, Pohlenz, Aus Plafonds Werdezeit, pp. 225-228, C. Robert, Hermes Mi. pp. 351 ff.

453

PLATO

D TTaaag eivai kolvols, tSta 8e firjSevl fjLrjSefiiav avvoiKelv /cat rovs TrarSa? av kolvovs, kol ixrjre yovea eKyovov clSevat rov avTov fx-qre TraiSa yovea. IIoAu, ^4'1> '^ovto cKeivov /.let^oi' rrpos

aTTiaTtav Kal rod Svvarov vepi /cat rov (h^eXiixov. OvK olfiaL, rjv 8' iyo), Tiepi ye rov d)(f)eXifxov apL(f)LG^iqr€ia9ai av, ojs ov fieyLarov dya66v Kotvag

fiev rag yvvacKas etvai,, kolvovs Se rovs TralSas,

ctTTep olov re- dXX* otfxai nepl rov el Svvarov t^ firj

E TrXeiarrjv dp(f>Lup-qTr]aiv dv yeveadai. Hepl dp(f)0- repcov, rj 8' og, ev fidX^ dv dp(f)La^r]Tr]d€L7] . Aeyeig,

rjv 8' eyco, Xoycov ^varaaiv eyd) 8' (Vjxrjv e/c ye Tov erepov dTTohpdaeadai, e'l crot ho^eiev (}>(f>eXipLOV

etvai, XoLTTOv 8e hrj p,OL eaeadai, Trepl rod Svvarov

/cat fiT]. 'AAA' OVK eXadeg, rj 8' os, dirohthpaaKOiV, dXX dp,(f)OTepoiv TTepi 8t8oy Xoyov. 'Y<^eKTeov, Tjv 8 eyco, Slktjv. roaovSe [xevroi )(dpiaai fXOL'

458 eacrov fxe eoprdaaiy d'joirep ot dpyol ttjv Sidvotav

eiwdaaiv eoTidadai vcf)^ eavrwv, orav piovoi iropev-

cxjvrai. /cat yap ol tolovtol ttov, rrplv i^evpelv, TLva rpoTTOv earai ti Sv eniOvfiovaL, rovro Trap- evres, Iva fxr) Kafxvcoat ^ovXevojjLevoL Trepl tov

Bvvarov Kal p,-^, devreg wg vnap^ov etvai o ^ov- Xovrai, TJSr) rd XoLwd SiaTarTovaL /cat p^atpoucri Ste^Lovreg ola Spdoovai yevopuevov, dpydv /cat

ctAAoj? i/)V)('^v eri, dpyorepav TTOiovvreg. 7)^7] ovv

" A distinct suggestion of the topics of the " useful " and the "possible" in Aristotle's Rhetoric.

'' Cf. Isoc. ii. 47, on "those who in solitude do not deliberate but imagine what they wish," and Chesterton's saying, "All feeble spirits live in the future, because it is a soft job"; cf. further on day-dreams, Schmidt, Ethik der

454

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK V

that none shall cohabit with any privately ; and that the children shall be common, and that no parent shall know its own offspring nor any child its parent." " This is a far bigger paradox than the other, and

provokes more distrust as to its possibility and its utihty." " " I presume," said I, " that there would

be no debate about its utility, no denial that the

community of women and children would be the greatest good, supposing it possible. But I take it

that its possibility or the contrary would be the chief

topic of contention." " Both," he said, " would be right sharply debated." " You mean," said I, " that I have to meet a coalition of arguments. But I expected to escape from one of them, and that if you agreed that the thing was beneficial, it would remain for me to speak only of its feasibihty." "You have not escaped detection," he said, " in your attempted flight, but you must render an account of both." " I must pay the penalty," I said, " yet do me this much grace : Permit me to take a holiday, just as men of lazy minds are wont to feast themselves on their own thoughts when they walk alone.* Such persons, without waiting to discover how their desires may be realized, dismiss that topic to save themselves the labour of deliberating about possibilities and im- possibilities, assume their wish fulfilled, and proceed to work out the details in imagination, and take pleasure in portraying what they will do when it is realized, thus making still more idle a mind that is idle without that." I too now succumb to this weak-

Griechen, ii. p. 71, and Lucian's IlXotoi' ^ e^x"'- Plato's description anticipates the most recent psychology in every- thing except the term *' autistic thinking."

* aWws : c/. infra 495 b. 455

PLATO

B /cat avTog fiaXOaKil^ofiaL , /cat €K€tva [xev iiriOviico dva^aXeaOaL /cat varepov eTnoKeiliaodat,

fj hvvard,

vvv 8e (Ls hvvaTa)v ovrcov dels GKeipofxai, dv /not

TTapLTjs, TTOJs Siard^ovaLv avrd ol dpxovTes yiyvo-

fieva, /cat on rrdvTWV ^vpic^opajrar^ dv etr] TrpaX' devra Tjj iroXet /cat rotj (f)vXa^i. ravra Treipd- aopLal CTOi Tzporepa avvSiauKOTreLadat, varepa 8

CKelva, eiTrep TTapLTjs. 'AAAd TrapirjfjLi, ccfif], Kal aK07T€i. Oi/xat roivvv, -qv S' eyd>, etTrep eaovrai,

C OL apxovres d^Lot, tovtov tov dvopiaros, ol re rovrots eTTtKovpoL Kara ravrd, tovs fiev edeXiqaeiv TTOielv rd eTnTarropieva, tovs Se eTTtrd^eiv, rd p-kv avTOVs 7Tei6op.evovs rots vopiois, rd 8e /cat pApov-

p.4vovs daa dv eKeivoLS iTnrpeif/ojpiev. Et/cos", e</>T7» Su p,€v roivvv, rjv 8' eyw, 6 vopLoBerrjs avrols, ojomep rovs dvSpas i^eXe^as, ovrco /cat ras

yvvaiKas e/cAe^a? TrapaScoaet-s /ca^' oaov olov re

op,o(f)V€ls' ol 8e are oIkms re /cat ^voatria Kotva

exovres, t8ta 8e ovSevos ovSev roiovrov KeKrr)p.evov,

D opLov Sr) eaovrai, opLOV 8e dvapiepLiypievoiV /cat ev yvp,vaaioLs Kal ev rfj dXXr] rpo(f)fj vtt avayKrjs,

olpiaL, rrjs ep.(f)vrov d^ovrai Trpos rrjv dXXtjXatv

px^LV. Tj ovK dvayKaZd crot 8o/caj Xeyeiv ; Ot5

yecopLerpiKats ye, 7y 8' os, dAA' epcorLKais avay-

" Cf. Blaydes on Aristoph. Clouds 727. * Cf. Herod, ix. 8. He returns to the postponed topic in

466 D, but again digresses and does not take it up definitely till 471 c or rather 473 c-d. The reason is that the third wave of paradox is also the condition of the possibility of realisation. Cf. Introd. p. xvii,

^ Cf. supra on 340 a-b. ** That is to say, they are to imitate or conform to our

456

THE REPUBLIC. BOOK V

ness " and desire to postpone ^ and examine later the question of feasibility, but will at present assume that, and will, with your permission, inquire how the rulers will work out the details in practice, and try to show that nothing could be more beneficial to the state and its guardians than the effective operation of our plan. This is what I would try to consider first together with you, and thereafter the other topic, if you allow it." "I do allow it," he said

:

"proceed with the inquiry." " I think, then," said I, "that the rulers, if they are to deserve that name, and their helpers likewise, will, the one, be wilhng to accept orders,*^ and the other, to give them, in some things obe}ing our laws, and imitating** them in others which we leave to their discretion." " Pre- sumably." " You, then, the lawgiver," I said, " have picked these men and similarly will select to give over to them women as nearly as possible of the same nature.* And thev, having houses and meals in common, and no private possessions of that kind, will dwell together, and being commingled in gym- nastics and in all their life and education, will be conducted by innate necessity to sexual union. Is not what I say a necessary consequence ? " " Not by the necessities of geometry," he said, " but by

principles in the details which we leave to them. So in the Laws, 770 b, 846 c, 876 e, and the secondary divinities in the Timaeits, 69 c. Cf. Polit. 301 a, and Aristot. Pol. 1^261 b 2 fxifieiTai.

' Cf. 456 B. Plato has already explained that he means "of like nature in respect to capacity for government." There is no contradiction of the doctrine of the Politicus, 310 A {cf. Laws 773 a-b) that the mating should blend opposite temperaments. Those elements are already mixed in the selection of the guardians. Cf. supra 375 b-c, 410 d-e and Unity of Plato's Thought, p. 62, n. 481.

457

PLATO

Kais, at KtvSvvevovaiv eKetvajv SpLfxvrepai etvat

TTpos TO TreiOeiv re Kal eXKetv rov ttoXvv Xewv.

VIII. Kat fidXa, etiTOV dXXa fxera 817 ravra, o) VXavKcx)v, droLKTcos p.ev fjiiyvvadai dXX-qXois y]

E aAAo oTLovv TToielv ovre oaiov iv evBai/Jiovcov TToAet oiir' edcrovcnv ol dpxovres- Ov yap 81/caior, €(f)r}. ArjXov br) OTL ydjxovs to fierd tovto Troiryao/iev

lepovs els SvvafXLv 6 ri fxdXiara' etev 8' dv lepol ol

459 (hcj>eXipLdjTaroL. YlavTairaai fxev ovv. Ilcos ovv

8rj (l)(j>eXip.(l)raTOL eaovrai; roSe jxoi Xeye, a>

TXavKcvv opo) ydp aov ev ttj olklo. /cat /divas' drjpevTLKovs Kal rcov yevvalcov opvidoiv jxdXa

avxvovs' dp^ ovv, co irpos Atos", 7Tpoaeaxy]Kds ri

ToZs Tovrcov ydfiois re Kal TratSoTrou'ais'; To TToXov; e(f)r). Upcorov fiev avro)v rovrojv, Katrrep

ovrcov yevvalcov, dp* ovk elul rive? Kal yiyvovrai

dpiaroi; EtCTtV. Yiorepov ovv e^ drravrcov o/Ltoto)?

yevvas, rj TTpodufiel 6 n jxdXiara eK ra)v apiarojv; B 'Ek rdjv dplcrrcov. Tt 8'; €k rdjv vecordrcov t] eK

rcbv yepairdrcov rj e^ dKfia^ovrcov o Ti jxdXtara;

'Ef dKfjLai,6vr(ov. Kat edv yurj ovrco yevvdrai, TToXv aoL riyel y^Zpov eaeadai ro re rdJv dpvidcov

Kai ro raw kvvcjov yevos; tiycoy , ecpr]. 1 1 oe iTTTTCDV o'lei, rjv 8' eyo), Kal rwv dXXcov t,cLa)v; rj dXXrj TTT) exeiv; "AroTTOv pievr dv, rj 8 6s, eir].

Ba^at, rjv 8' eycv, oJ (j)iXe eraipe, d)s dpa a^ohpa

« The phrase is imitated by Plutarch, Adv. Col. 1122 d ^vffiKois, ov -yew/jifTpiKais iXKdfievoi dpdyKais.

» Cf. Laics 789 b-c. ' The riddling question to which the response is "what?"

is a mannerism derived from tragedy, which becomes very

458

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK V

those of love," which are perhaps keener and more potent than the other to persuade and constrain the multitude."

VIII. "They are, indeed," I said; "but next, Glaucon, disorder and promiscuity in these unions or in anything else they do would be an unhallowed thing in a happy state and the rulers will not suffer it." " It would not be right," he said. " Obviously, then, we must arrange marriages, sacramental so far as may be. And the most sacred marriages would be those that were most beneficial." " By all means." " How, then, would the greatest benefit result ? Tell me this, Glaucon. I see that you have in your house hunting-dogs and a number ofpedigree cocks.^ Have you ever considered something about their unions and procreations ? " " What ? " ^ he said. " In the first place," I said, " among these themselves, although they are a select breed, do not some prove better than the rest? " " They do." " Do you then breed from all indiscriminately, or are you careful to breed from the best •*? " " From the best." "And, again, do you breed from the youngest or the oldest, or, so far as may be, from those in their prime ?

"

" From those in their prime." " And if they are not thus bred, you expect, do you not, that your birds' breed and hounds will greatly degenerate ? " " I do," he said. " And what of horses and other animals?" I said ; " is it otherwise with them ? " " It would be strange if it were," said he. " Gracious," said I, " dear friend, how imperative, then, is our need of the frequent in the later style of the Sophist, Politicus and Philebus.

* This commonplace of stirpiculture or eugenics, as it is now called, begins with Theognis 184, and has thus far got no further.

459

PLATO

rjixLV Set OLKpcDV elvat raJv dpxovrojv, etTTcp Krai

776/31 TO TOJV avOpcoTTiov yivo'S waavTcos ^X^'" C 'AAAa fjikv 8r) €X€i, e(f)rj- aAAa ri hrj; "On avdyKt]

avTOLs, -^v 8' iycoy (f)appLa.Kots ttoXXoIs xPV^^'^'" Larpov he ttov firj heopbivois fxev acopiaat (f)appaKOJV,

dXXd SiaLTT) edeXovrcov viraKoveiv, /cat ^avXorepov e^apKelv rjyovfxeOa etvai- orav 8e S-;^ /cat (^apfia- K€veiv Sei7, ta/xei/ otl avSpeLorepov Set rov tarpov.

'AXrjdrj' dXXd rrpog ri Xeyeig; Ylpos rdSe, '^v o

eyo)' avxvci) rco i/reuSet /cat rfj dTrdrr] KivBvvevet,

D rjiJiiv SerjacLv ;^/3^CT^at rovs dpxovras ctt^ ci^eAeta Tcbv dpxopevcov. ecfyafiev 8e ttov iv ^apfxaKOV

etSet Trdvra ret rotaura XP"Q^^P-^ elvai. Kat opuajg ye, €(f)r]. 'Et* rot? ydpois roivvv /cat TratSoTrottatj

eot/ce TO opdov rovro yiyveadai ovk eXaxt-crrov.

Ilcbs 8t^; Aet fjiev, elirov, e/c Ta>v ojpLoXoyqpievoJV

rovs dpiarovs rats" dpiarais avyyiyveadaL cos

TrXeiaraKLs, rovs 8e <f>avXordrovs rals (j>avXorarais

E rovvavriov, /cat tcDv /xei' ra e/cyova rpe(f>eLV, roJv Se jLf^, et /ueAAei to TToipviov 6 n dKporarov etvaf /cat ravra Trdvra yiyvop^eva Xavddveiv ttXt^v avrovs

rovs dpxovras , et ai) t^ dyeXr] rcov (j^vXdKOiv o ri

fidXtara daraaiaaros earai. 'OpOorara, et^TJ-

OvKovv Srj ioprai rives vofxoderrjreat [eoovTat], ev

als ivvd^ofxev rds re vvp,(f)as /cat rovs vvp<^tovs,

/cat dvaiai /cat vfivoi TToi-qreoi roXs r]fierepoLs

460 TTOL-qrats Trperrovres rots yiyvo/xevots yapots' ro

Se TrXridos rGyv ydpcov errL rots dpxovai TTOnqaopuev,

" A recurrence to the metaphor of 389 b, as we are re- minded below in d.

* Cf. 389 B, 414 c, and Laws 663 d eir' ayadt^ ^evSecdai.. Cf. on 343 A-B and Polit. 267 b-c, 268 b. ad below merely

460

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK V

highest skill in our rulers, if the principle holds also

for mankind." " Well, it does," he said, " but what of it ? " " Tliis," said I, " that they ^^ill have to employ many of those drugs" of which we were speaking. We thought that an inferior physician sufficed for bodies that do not need drugs but yield to diet and regimen. But when it is necessary to prescribe drugs we know that a more enterprising and venturesome physician is required." " True

;

but what is the pertinency ? " " This," said I : " it seems likely that our rulers will have to make con- siderable use of falsehood and deception for the benefit* of their subjects. We said, I believe, that the use of that sort of thing was in the category of medicine." " And that was right," he said. " In our marriages, then, and the procreation of children, it seems there will be no slight need of this kind of ' right.' " " How so ? " " It follows from our former admissions," I said, " that the best men must cohabit with the best women in as many cases as possible and the worst with the worst in the fewest, and that the offspring of the one must be reared and that of the other not, if the flock "^ is to be as perfect as possible. And the way in which all this is brought to pass must be unknown to any but the rulers, if, again, the herd of guardians is to be as free as possible from dissension." " Most true," he said. " We shall, then, have to ordain certain festivals and sacri- fices, in which we shall bring together the brides and the bridegrooms, and our poets must compose hvinns suitable to the marriages that then take place. But the number of the marriages we will leave to the dis-

marks the second consideration, harmony, the first being eugenics.

461

PLATO

tv* (Lg ndXiara Staaco^coat top avrov dpidfjiov rcov dvhpcov, irpos TToAe/xou? re kol voaovs koL Trdvra

Ttt roiavra aTToaKOTTOVvres , Kal fxi^re jxeydXy] rjfiLV

rj TToXis Kara ro Svvarov fx'qre afxiKpa ylyvrjrai. Opdajs, €(f)rj. KAtjpoi S'q riveg, of/zat, TTOirjreoi

ko/jli/jol, ware rov (jyavXov eKeZvov alridadai i(f) eKdarrjs avvep^ewg rvx'rjv, dXXd jxr] rovg dpxovrag. Kat jxdXa, €(f>r).

B IX. Kat rolg dyadolg ye ttov rdJv vecov ev Tto- XepiO) rj dXXoOi ttov yepa Soreov Kal ddXa dXXa re Kal d^dovearepa -q e^ovaia rfjg rcov yvvaiKOJv

^vyKOLix'qaea)s, tva Kal dpca fxerd iTpo(f>daecog cog

TrXelcrroL rcbv Traiha)v €k rcov roiovrcov a7reipa>vrai

.

Opdcjjg. OvKovv Kal rd del yiyvofieva eKyova TTapaXajjL^dvovaaL ai inl rovrcov e(f)ear7]KVLai ap-

)(aL e'ire dv8pa>v etre yvvatKcov e'ire dpi(f)orepa'

Koival fiev ydp ttov Kal dp-^oX yvvai^i re /cai C dvhpdaiv. Nat. Td p,ev Srj rcov dyadcov, Sokco,

Xa^ovaai, elg rov gtjkov oiaovai Trapd rLvag rpo(f)Ovs,

Xcoplg OLKOvaas ev rivi fxepec rfjs TToXecos' Ta 8e

rcov x^'-pdvcov, Kal edv ri rcov erepcov avaTTTjpov

yiyvqrat, ev aTTOpprjrcp re Kal dh-qXai KaraKpv-

ijjovaiv (vs TTpevei. K'lTTep fxeXXet, e(j)rj, Kadapov ro

yevos rcov cfivXaKcov eoeadai. Ovkovv Kal rpo<f)7Js ovroi eTTiixeXrjaovraL, rdg re firjrepas ctti rov

arjKov dyovres, orav OTTapycbaij Trdaav p,7]xo-vrjv

D firjxavcojjLevoc, ottcos pLrjSepica ro avrrjs alad-qaerai,

" Plato apparently forgets that this legislation applies only to the guardians. The statement that ancient civiliza- tion was free from the shadow of Malthusianism requires qualification by this and many other passages. Cf. 372 c and Laws 740 d-e. The ancients in fact took it for granted

.

462

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK V

cretion of the rulers, that they may keep the number of the citizens as nearly as may be the same,*' taking into account wars and diseases and all such considera- tions, and that, so far as possible, our city may not grow too great or too small." " Right," he said. " Certain ingenious lots, then, I suppose, must be devised so that the inferior man at each conjugation may blame chance and not the rulers." " Yes, indeed," he said.

IX. "Andonthe youngmen, surely, whoexcelin war and other pursuits we must bestow honours and prizes, and, in particular, the opportunity of more frequent intercourse with the women, which will at the same time be a plausible pretext for having them beget as many of the children as possible." " Right." " And the children thus born will be taken over by the officials appointed for this, men or women or both, since, I take it, the official posts too are common to women and men. The offspring ofthe good, I suppose, they will take to the pen or creche, to certain nurses who Uve apart in a quarter of the city, but the offspring of the inferior, and any of those of the other sort who are born defective, they will properly dispose of in secret,* so that no one will know what has become of them." " That is the condition," he said, " of pre- serving the purity of the guardians' breed." " They will also supervise the nursing of the cliildren, con- ducting the mothers to the pen when their breasts are full, but employing every device ^ to prevent any-

* Opinions differ whether this is euphemism for exposure. On the frequency or infrequency of this practice cf. Professor La Rue Van Hook's article in T.A.P.A. vol. li, and that of H. Bolkestein, Class. Phil. vol. xvii. (19^2) pp. 222-2SQ.

« Cf. supra on 414 b and Aristot. Pol. \2&2 a 14 ff.

PLATO

KaL oAAas" yaXa ixovaas iKTropt^ovres, iav fxr] aurat LKavai (bai, Kai avTcov rovrcov e7niie\r\Govrai, oTTOis ixerpiov -)(^povov drjXaaovrai, aypvTTviag 8e

/cat Tov aXXov ttovov rirdais re Kal rpo(f)OLS rrapa- ScocTovaiv; UoXXrjv paarcovqv, €(f)rj, Aeyets" Trjs

TraiSoTTOtias' Tat? rcov (j>vXa.K(jov yvvai^iv. YVpeTrei

yap, rjv S' iyo). ro S' ecjie^rjs hieXdcop^ev o Trpo-

dvfiovfxeda. €(j)afji€v yap Sr) i^ aKpi.at,6vTU)v 8etv E TCI €Kyova yiyveadat. ^AX'qdfj. '^A.p^ ovv aoi ^vv-

So/cet jJLerpios p^poP'OS' dKp,i]s to. eiKoaL err] yvvaiKL,

avhpl Se ra rptaKovra; Td 770ta avra)v; e^'jy. VvvaLKL fjidv, rjv S' iyu), dp^apLevrj oltto et/coat-

eVtSo? p-^xpt TerTapaKOVTaeTiSos TLKreiv rfj TToXer

avSpi Se, eTretSdv" rrjv o^VTO.r'qv Spofiov dKpLr]V

napfj, TO 0.770 TOVTOV yevvav rfj iroXec p-^xpt irevre-

461 KanT€vrrjKOVTa€TOVs . ^AfKfiorepojv yovv, €(f)rj, avrrj

aKpLT] acopiaros re Kal (f)pov'qa€cos. Ovkovv iav tc TTpea^vrepos rovrcov edv re vecorepos r&v els ro KOLvov yevvqaewv dipTjrac, ovre oaiov ovre SiKaiov

(fir^oopiev ro dpLdprrjpLa, (hs 77atSa ^irvovros rfj TToXei, OS, dv Xddrj, yewiqaeraL oux i^tto dvaiajv

ouS' V7t6 evxojv <^vs, as ecf)* eKaarois rols ydfiots

ev^ovraL /cat lepeiai /cat lepeZs /cat ^vp.Traaa tj tto-

Xls e^ dyaddJv dp^eivovs /cat e^ w^eXlpiajv cu^eAi-

B pLCorepovs del rovs eKyovovs yiyveodai, dXX vtto OKorov pierd Beivijs dKpareias yeyovojs. Opdcos,

" Another favourite idea and expression. Cf. Oorg. 459 c, Laws 648 c, 713 d, 720 c, 779 a, 903 e, Isoc. iv. 36, Xen. Mem. iii. 13. 5. * Cf. supra on 458 c.

' Half humorous legal language. Cf. Aristot. Pol. 13.S5 b 28 \eiTovpyeiv . . . Trpbs reKvoirodav, and Lucan's " urbi pater est, urbique maritus " {Phars. ii. 388). The dates for marriage are given a little differently in the Laws,

464,

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK V

one from recognizing her own infant. And they will proxide others who have milk if the mothers are in- sufficient. But they will take care that the mothers themselves shall not suckle too long, and the trouble of wakeful nights and similar burdens they will devolve upon the nurses, wet and dry." " You are making maternity a soft job'' for the women of the guardians." " It ought to be," said I, " but let us pursue our design. We said that the offspring should come from parents in their prime." " True." " Do you agree that the period of the prime may be fairly estimated at twenty years for a woman and thirty for a man ? " " How do you reckon it r " * he said. " The women," I said, " beginning at the age of twenty, shall bear for the state '^ to the age of forty, and the man shall beget for the state from the time he passes liis prime in swiftness in running to the age of fifty-five." " That is," he said, " the maturity and prime for both of body and mind." " Then, if anyone older or younger than the prescribed age meddles with procreation for the state, we shall say that his error is an impiety and an injustice, since he is begetting for the city a child whose birth, if it escapes discovery, will not be^ttended by the sacri- fices and the prayers which the priests and priest- esses and the entire city prefer at the ceremonial marriages, that ever better offspring may spring from good sires'* and from fathers helpful to the state sons more helpful still. But this child will be born in darkness and conceived in foul incontinence."

785 B, 833 c-D, men 30-35, women 16-20. On tfie whole question and Aristotle's opinion cf. Newman, Introd. to Aristot. Pol. p. 183: cf. also Grube, Class. Quarterly 1927, pp. 95 ff., " The Marriage Laws in Plato's Republic."

* Cf. Horace, Odes iv. 4. 29. VOL. I 2 H 465

PLATO

^cfiYj. *0 avTos 8e y', clttov, vo^os, idv tls tcov €Ti yevvcovTCOv fxrj ^vvep^avrog ap^ovros aTTTrjrat rcov iv rjXiKia yvvatKcbv vodov yap /cat aviyyvov /cat aviepov (fiT^aofiev avrov TratSa rfj TToAet Kad-

lardvai. 'Opdorara, €(f)7).

"Orav Se St], otpuai, at re yuvat/ce? /cat ol dvSpes tov yevvav eK^wai rrjv rjXiKiav, d(f)riaopiev ttov eXevdepovs avrovs avyyi-

C yveadai <L dv ideXcoGi, ttXtjv dvyarpl /cat fiTjTpi /cat rat? TOJv Ovyarepoiv Tratcrt /cat rat? dvo) ixrjTpos,

/cat yvvoLKag av TrXrjv vUl /cat Trarpl /cat rots TOVTCjv €LS TO /caTOJ /Cat €771 TO dvct), /Cat TavTa y TJSr) Trdvra hiaKeXevodfxevoi Trpodvpieladat, fxaXiara

jxev JUTES' ei? ^ois" €K(f)€p€LV KV7]pLa fjLTjBe y* eV, eai/

yevTjrai, edv 8e rt ^idcrrjrai, ovto) ridevai, ojs

ovK ovarjg rpocf)rjg to) rotovTcp. Kat ravra fiev

y , €(/)rj, fxerptws Xeyerai' Trarepas 8e /cat dvya- D T€pas /cat a vw 8')7 e'Aeye? ttcos Siayvcoaovrai

dXX-qXcov; OvSapLCos, rjv S' iyo), dXX' d(f)* 17? ai'

rjpiepas tis avTOJV vvp.(f>ios yevqrai, /xer' eKeLvqp

Se/caro) /ZT^t't /cat i^Sopicp Srj d dv yevqrai eKyova, ravra Trdvra npoaepei rd jxev dppeva vlels, rd 8e 0-qXea dvyarepas, /cat CKelva cKeivov Trarepa, /cat

ovro) Srj rd rovrcuv eKyova Traihcov TratSa? Kat

eKelva av e/cetVoy? Trdmrovs re kol rr]dds, rd 8 ev eKeivcp rw xpovio yeyovora, iv S at pLT^repes /cat ol rrarepes avrcov eyevvcov, d8eX(j)ds re /cat

E d8eX(f)OVS' oiore, o vvv 8r) eXeyop,ev, dAAi^Aoii' p.7] dnreadai' d8eX(f>ovs Se /cat d8eX(f)ds 8a>aei 6 vopLos

» Cf. Laws 838 a and 924 e. " Cf. Newman, op. cit. p. 187. " Cf. Wundt, Elements of Folk Psychology, p. 89 ; "A

native of Hawaii, for example, calls by the name of father

466

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK V

" Right," he said. " And the same rule will apply," I said, " if any of those still within the age of procreation goes in to a woman of that age with whom the ruler has not paired him. We shall say that he is imposing on the state a base-born, uncertified, and unhallowed child." " Most rightly," he said. " But when, I take it, the men and the women have passed the age of lawful procreation, we shall leave the men free to form such relations with whomsoever they please, except " daughter and mother and their direct descendants and ascendants, and likewise the women, save with son and father, and so on, first admonishing them preferably not even to bring to light ** anything whatever thus conceived, but if they are unable to prevent a birth to dispose of it on the understanding that we cannot rear such an offspring." " All that sounds reasonable," he said ; " but how are they to distinguish one another's fathers and daughters, and the other degrees of kin that you have just mentioned ? " " They won't," said I, " except that a man will call all male offspring born in the tenth and in the seventh month after he becamie a bridegroom his sons, and all female, daughters, and they will call him father.*^ And, similarly, he will call their offspring his grandchildren'' and they will call his group grandfathers and grand- mothers. And all children born in the period in which their fathers and mojhers were procreating will regard one another as brothers and sisters. This will suffice for the prohibitions of intercourse of which we just now spoke. But the law will allow brothers

. . . every man of an age such that he could be his father." Cf. Aristoph. Eccles. 636-637.

* Cf. 363 D and Laws 899 e, 927 b.

467

PLATO

avvoiKelv, eav 6 KXijpos ravry] ^vfjLTTLTTTrj Kal 17

YlvOta Trpoaavaipfj. 'Opdorara, rj 8' og.

X. 'H iJ,€v Srj KOLVOivia, ai VXavKcov, avrrj re

Kal TOLavTTj yvvaiKcop re /cat TraiScop' tols <f)v\a^i

aoL TTJs TToXecos' (OS 8e inofievrj re rfj dXXr] TToAtreta

/cat p,aKpa) ^eXnarr], Set Si) to fiera rovro jSe^aicu-

462 aaadai Trapa tov Xoyov -^ ttcos 7roiai/i,ev; OuVcu vi] Z\ta, 7] o OS. Ap ovv ov^ 'f]oe apxt] t7]s opLoXoyias, ipeadaL 7)p,ds avTovs, ri nore to fie-

yiOTov dyaOov exopuev eiTTeiv els noXecos /cara-

GK€vriv, ov Set aTO')(^at,6pievov tov vopLodeT7]V Tidevai

Tovs vofjiovs, /cat TL fieyiaTOV /ca/cdv, etra eVtcr/ce'i/fa-

cr^at, dpa a vvv St) Bi'qXdofxev els fJLev to tov

dyadov 'i)(yos r^filv dpfioTTei, to) Se tov /ca/cou

dvapjjioaTeZ; YldvTCOv pudXiOTa, e(/)r]. "Kxopiev ovv

TL puelt^ov KaKov TToXet, T] eKelvOy o dv avTTjv StacTTra

B /cat TTOifj TToXXds dvTl pjids ; f] /xet^ov ayadov tov o dv ^vvSfj re /cat 77017^ piiav; Ou/c e^opiev.

OvKovv rj puev rjSovijs re /cat Xvtttjs KOLvojvia ^vvSel,

OTav 6 TL pidXiaTa rrdvTes ol TroAtrat twv avTcbv

yLyvopievojv re /cat drroXXvpievwv TTapaTrXrjaLcos

;^atp6DCTt /cat XvTTCOVTaL; UavTdTiaaL fxev o^v, e^^).

'H Se' ye tcov tolovtcov ISlojols StaAuei, oTav ol

piev TTepLoXyels , ol Se Trepixapels yiyvcxiVTaL enl tols

C avTOLS TTadrjpLaaL ttjs voXecos T€ /cat tcSv ev Tjj

TToAet; Tt 8' ov; ^Ap' ovv Ik TovSe to TOLovSe

yiyveTaL, oTav purj dpua (f)9eyyojVTaL ev ttj TToAei Ta

TotaSe piy/xara, to re ey^toi' /cat to ovk ep.6v, /cat

468

THE REPUBLIC, BOOK V

and sisters to cohabit if the lot so falls out and the Delphic oracle approves." " Quite right," said he.

X. " This, then, Glaucon, is the manner of the com- munity of Mrives and cliildren among the guardians. That it is consistent with the rest of our polity and bv far the best way is the next point that we must get confirmed by the argument. Is not that so ? " "It is, indeed," he said. " Is not the logical first step towards such an agreement to ask ourselves what we could name as the greatest good for the constitution of a state and the proper aim of a lawgiver in his legislation, and what would be the greatest e\il, and then to consider whether the proposals we have just set forth fit into the footprints '^ of the good and do not suit those of the evil ? " " By all means," he said. " Do we know of any greater e\il for a state than the thing that distracts it and makes it many instead of one, or a greater good than that which binds it to- gether and makes it one ? " " We do not." " Is not, then, the community of pleasure and pain the tie that binds, when, so far as may be, all the citizens rejoice and grieve alike at the same births and deaths ? " " By all means," he said. " But the indi\idualization of these feelings is a dissolvent,

when some grieve exceedingly and others rejoice at the same happenings to the city and its inhabi- tants ? " " Of course." " And the chief cause of this is when the citizens do not utter in unison such words as ' mine ' and ' not mine,' and similarly with regard