[530d]
according to my opinion.
To enumerate them all will perhaps be the task of a wise man,1 but even to us two of them are
apparent.” “What are they?” “In addition
to astronomy, its counterpart, I replied.” “What is
that?” “We may venture to suppose,” I said,
“that as the eyes are framed for astronomy so the ears are
framed,2 for the movements of harmony; and
these are in some sort kindred sciences,3 as the Pythagoreans4 affirm and we admit,5 do we
not, Glaucon?” “We do,” he said.
1 The modesty is in the tone of the Timaeus.
3 The similar statement attributed to Archytas, Diels i.3 p. 331, is probably an imitation of this.
4 Pythagoras is a great name, but little is known of him. “Pythagoreans” in later usage sometimes means mystics, sometimes mathematical physicists, sometimes both. Plato makes use of both traditions but is dominated by neither. For Erich Frank's recent book, Plato und die sogenannten Pythagoreer, cf. my article in Class. Phil. vol. xxiii. (1928） pp. 347 ff. The student of Plato will do well to turn the page when he meets the name Pythagoras in a commentator.
5 For this turn of phrase cf. Vol. I. p. 333, 424 C, Protag. 316 A, Symp. 186 E.
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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