[173e]
And all these things the philosopher does not even know that he does not know; for he does not keep aloof from them for the sake of gaining reputation, but really it is only his body that has its place and home in the city; his mind, considering all these things petty and of no account, disdains them and is borne in all directions, as Pindar1 says, “both below the earth,” and measuring the surface of the earth, and “above the sky,” studying the stars, and investigating the universal nature
1 This may refer to Pind. Nem. 10.87 f.:ἥμισυ μέν κε πνέοις γαίας ὑπένερθεν ἐών, ἥμισυ δ᾽ οὐρανοῦ ἐν χρυσέοις δόμοσιν“Thou (Polydeuces) shalt live being half the time under the earth and half the time in the golden dwellings of heaven,” but it may be a quotation from one of the lost poems of Pindar.
Plato. Plato in Twelve Volumes, Vol. 12 translated by Harold N. Fowler. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1921.
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