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[586a]
of wisdom and virtue but are ever devoted to1 feastings and that sort of thing
are swept downward, it seems, and back again to the center, and so sway and
roam2 to and fro throughout their lives, but they have never
transcended all this and turned their eyes to the true upper region nor been
wafted there, nor ever been really filled with real things, nor ever
tasted3
stable and pure pleasure, but with eyes ever bent upon the earth4 and heads bowed down over their tables
they feast like cattle,5
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grazing and copulating, ever greedy for
more of these delights; and in their greed6 kicking and butting one another with
horns and hooves of iron they slay one another in sateless avidity, because
they are vainly striving to satisfy with things that are not real the unreal
and incontinent part7 of their souls.”
“You describe in quite oracular style,8
Socrates,” said Glaucon, “the life of the
multitude.” “And are not the pleasures with which they
dwell inevitably commingled with pains, phantoms of true pleasure, illusions
of scene-painting, so colored by contrary juxtaposition9
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as to seem intense in either kind, and
to beget mad loves of themselves in senseless souls, and to be fought
for,10 as Stesichorus says the wraith of Helen11 was fought for at Troy
through ignorance of the truth?” “It is quite
inevitable,” he said, “that it should be
so.”“So, again, must
not the like hold of the high-spirited element, whenever a man succeeds in
satisfying that part of his nature—his covetousness of honor by
envy, his love of victory by violence, his ill-temper by indulgence in
anger,
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pursuing these ends without
regard to consideration and reason?” “The same sort of
thing,” he said, “must necessarily happen in this case
too.” “Then,” said I, “may we not
confidently declare that in both the gain-loving and the contentious part of
our nature all the desires that wait upon knowledge and reason, and,
pursuing their pleasures in conjunction with them,12 take only
those pleasures which reason approves,13 will, since they follow truth, enjoy the truest14
pleasures, so far as that is possible for them, and also the pleasures that
are proper to them and their own,
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if for
everything that which is best may be said to be most its
‘own’15?” “But indeed,” he said,
“it is most truly its very own.” “Then when
the entire soul accepts the guidance of the wisdom-loving part and is not
filled with inner dissension,16 the result
for each part is that it in all other respects keeps to its own task17 and is just, and likewise that
each enjoys its own proper pleasures and the best pleasures and,
1 For ξυνόντες see Blaydes on Aristoph.Clouds 1404.
2 Cf. What Plato Said, p. 528, on Phaedo 79 C for πλανάω of error in thought. This is rather the errare of Lucretius ii. 10 and the post-Aristotelian schools.
3 Cf. on 576 Aἄγευστος, and for the thought of the whole sentence cf. Dio Chrys.Or. xiii., Teubner, vol. i. p. 240.
4 Cf. Milton, Comus,“Ne'er looks to heaven amid its gorgeous feast,” Rossetti, “Nineveh,”in fine,“That set gaze never on the sky,” etc. Cf. S. O. Dickermann, De Argumentis quibusdam ap. Xenophontem, Platonem, Aristotelem obviis e structura hominis et animalium petitis,Halle, 1909, who lists Plato's Symp. 190 A, Rep. 586 A, Cratyl. 396 B, 409 C, Tim. 90 A, 91 E, and many other passages.
5 Cf. Aristot.Eth. Nic. 1095 b 20βοσκημάτων βίον. Cf. What Plato Said, p. 611, on Phileb., in fine.
6 Cf. 373 E, Phaedo 66 C ff., Berkeley, Siris 330 “For these things men fight, cheat, and scramble.”
7 τὸ στέγον: Cf. Gorg. 493 B, Laws 714 A.
8 Plato laughs at himself. Cf. 509 C and 540 B-C. The picturesque, allegorical style of oracles was proverbial. For χρησμῳδεῖν Cf. Crat. 396 D, Apol. 39 C, Laws 712 A.
9 Cf. on 584 A, p. 384, note a.
10 For περιμαχήτους cf. Aristot.Eth. Nic. 1168 b 19, Eth. Eud. 1248 b 27, and on 521 A, p. 145, note e.
11 For the Stesichorean legend that the real Helen remained in Egypt while only her phantom went to Troy Cf. Phaedr. 243 A-B, Eurip.Hel. 605 ff., Elect. 1282-1283, Isoc.Hel. 64, and Philologus 55, pp. 634 ff. Dümmler, Akademika p. 55, thinks this passage a criticism of Isoc.Helena 40. Cf. also Teichmüller, Lit. Fehden, i. pp. 113 ff. So Milton, Reason of Church Government,“A lawny resemblance of her like that air-born Helena in the fables.” For the ethical symbolism cf. 520 C-D.
12 Cf. Phaedo 69 B, and Theaet. 176 Bμετὰ φρονήσεως.
13 ἐξηγῆται has a religious tone. See on ἐξηγητής427 C. Cf. 604 B.
14 Cf. on 583 B, p. 380, note b.
15 Cf. What Plato Said, p. 491, on Lysis 221 E.
16 Cf. 352 A, 440 B and E, 442 D, 560 A, Phaedr. 237 E.
17 Cf. What Plato Said, p. 480 on Charm. 161 B.
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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