[613c]
are laughed to scorn and run off the
field uncrowned and with their ears on their shoulders.1 But the true runners when they have come to the
goal receive the prizes and bear away the crown. Is not this the usual
outcome for the just also, that towards the end of every action and
association and of life as a whole they have honor and bear away the prizes
from men?” “So it is indeed.” “Will
you, then, bear with me if I say of them
1 English idiom would say, “with their tails between their legs.” Cf. Horace, Sat. i. 9. 20 “dimitto auriculas.” For the idea cf. also Laws 730 C-D, Demosth. ii. 10, and for εἰς τέλος, Laws 899 Eπρὸς τέλος, Hesiod, Works and Days 216ἐς τέλος ἐξελθοῦσα, Eurip.Ion 1621εἰς τέλος γὰρ οἱ μὲν ἐσθλοὶ τυγχάνουσιν ἀξίων, “for the good at last shall overcome, at last attain their right.” (Way, Loeb tr.)
Plato. Plato in Twelve Volumes, Vols. 5 & 6 translated by Paul Shorey. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1969.
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