[617e]
No divinity1 shall
cast lots for you, but you shall choose your own deity. Let him to whom
falls the first lot first select a life to which he shall cleave of
necessity. But virtue has no master over her,2 and each shall have more
or less of her as he honors her or does her despite. The blame is his who
chooses: God is blameless.3“’ So saying, the prophet flung the lots out
among them all, and each took up the lot that fell by his side, except
himself; him they did not permit.4 And whoever took up a lot saw plainly what
number he had drawn.
1 Zeller-Nestle, p. 166, says that this looks like intentional correction of Phaedo 107 D. Cf. Phaedo 113 D and Lysias ii. 78ὅ τε δαίμων ὁ τὴν ἡμετέραν μοῖραν εἰληχὼς ἀπαραίτητος. Arnobius, Adversus gentes, ii. 64, says that similarly Christ offers us redemption but does not force it upon us.
2 Cf. Milton's “Love Virtue; she alone is free” (Comus).
3 Justin Martyr.Apol. xliv. 8, quotes this. Cf. Tim. 42 D, Dieterich, Nekyia, p. 115, Odyssey i. 32 f., Bacchylides xiv. 51 f. (Jebb, p. 366)Ζεὺς . . . οὐκ αἴτιος θνατοῖς μεγάλων ἀχέων, etc., Manitius, Gesch. d. lat. Lit. d. Mittelalters, ii. p. 169. For the problem of evil in Plato see What Plato Said, p. 578 on Theaet. 176 A, and for the freedom of the will ibid. pp. 644-645 on Laws 904 C.
4 Cf. Symp. 175 C, where the words are the same but the construction different. For the indirect reflexive cf. 614 Bοὖ ἐκβῆναι, Symp. 176 D, Symp. 223 Bἓ δὲ ὕπνον λαβεῖν.
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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