Plato Republic 4.420

Paul Shorey (Translator)

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Republic. Plato. Paul Shorey (Translator). Cambridge, MA. 1935-37.

Sponsored by Perseus Project, Tufts University.

Funding provided by The Annenberg CPB/Project.

Current edition Perseus

Republic (English) (Plato in Twelve Volumes, Vol. 5-6. Shorey, Paul, translator. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1935-37 (printing).)

Editions (1)
Πολιτεία Perseus (Platonis Opera Tomus IV: Tetralogia VIII. Burnet, John, editor. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1905.) — 4.420 focus

Notes on the current edition

Republic

1. Other men, ordinary men. Cf. 543 B ὧν νῦν οἱ ἄλλοι, which disposes of other interpretations and misunderstandings.
2. This is, for other reasons, one of the deprivations of a tyrant (579 B). The Laws strictly limits travel (949 E). Here Plato is speaking from the point of view of the ordinary citizen.
3. The Platonic Socrates always states the adverse case strongly (Introduction p. xi), and observes the rule:
Would you adopt a strong logical attitude
Always allow your opponent full latitude.
4. Cf. 369 A.
5. ἀπολαβόντες, separating off, abstracting, may be used absolutely as in Gorgias 495 E, or with any object as 392 E.
6. That is 449 A and books VIII. and IX. The degenerate types of state are four, but the extreme opposite of the good state, the tyranny, is one.
7. So Hippias Major 290 B.
8. For this principle of aesthetics Cf. Phaedrus 264 C, Aristotle Poetics 1450 b 1-2.
9. We know how to. For the satire of the Socialist millenium which follows cf. Introduction p. xxix, and Ruskin, Fors Clavigera. Plato may have been thinking of the scene on the shield of Achilles, Iliad xviii. 541-560.
10. i.e. so that the guest on the right hand occupied a lower place and the wine circulated in the same direction. Many write ἐπὶ δεξιά, but A ἐπιδέξια.
Forever, ’tis a single word. Our rude forefathers thought it two.

Commentary

Commentary on Plato, Republic (Plato. The Republic, Vol 1-2. Adam, James, editor. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1902-1903.) focus

ἐπισίτιοι . ἐπίσιτοι (which Cobet and Hartman call for) would be more in accordance with the analogy of παράσιτος etc.; but the longer form is established by fragments of comic poets (ap. Ath. VI 246 F—247 A, where ἐπισιτίων in the fragment of Timocles defies emendation).

οἱ ἄλλοι : sc. ἐπίκουροι or mercenaries.

ἀποδημῆσαι . Regulations about ἀποδημία are laid down in Laws 949 E ff.

οἷα δὴ κτλ. For οἷα Hermann once conjectured οἷ: neatly, but οἷ is too precise. οἷα δή= οἷα δὴ ἀναλώματα. With οἱ εὐδαίμονες δοκοῦντες εἶναι cf. III 406 C. It is εὐδαιμονία in the popular sense of ‘having a good time’ which Adimantus complains is denied to the guardians.

οἶμον . A poetic word. Plato is perhaps thinking of some such phrase as Pindar's ἐπέων ο<*>μος ( Ol. IX 47). The ‘way’ is simply that each class must do its own appointed work, if the city is to be a happy and harmonious whole: cf. 423 D.

εἰ καὶ οὗτοι κτλ. καί means ‘as well as the rest of the city.’ Aristotle misrepresents Plato when, in spite of this sentence and V 465 D ff., he says that the guardians are deprived of εὐδαιμονία ( Pol. B 5. 1264^{b} 15 ff., with Susemihl's note). They are happy not only because they triumph over self (465 D), but—like the others—because they do the work to which Nature has called them: cf. I 352 D —354 A.

ὅπως ἕν τι κτλ. Cf. Laws 715 B and Thuc. II 60. 2, where Pericles says ἐγὼ γὰρ ἡγοῦμαι πόλιν πλείω ξύμπασαν ὀρθουμένην ὠφελεῖν τοὺς ἰδιώτας ἢ καθ’ ἕκαστον τῶν πολιτῶν εὐπραγοῦσαν, ἀθρόαν δὲ σφαλλομένην.

ᾠήθημεν ‐‐ σκεψόμεθα . See on II 369 A.

οὐκ ἀπολαβόντες ‐‐ τιθέντες . ἀπολαβόντες is absolute, almost adverbial (cf. Gorg. 495 E ); and ὀλίγους goes with τιθέντες. So Schneider and others rightly explain the construction.

αὐτίκα δὲ τὴν ἐναντίαν κτλ. Here we have the first express promise of Books VIII and IX, although the promise is afterwards fulfilled in an ampler manner than is indicated here. See also 427 D.

ὥσπερ οὖν ἂν ‐‐ μέλανι . Cf. (with J. and C.) Hipp. Maior 290 B. ἀνδριάντας γράφοντας means ‘painting statues of men.’ Cf. Euripides Fr. 764. 2 γραπτοὺς ἐν ἀετοῖσι προσβλέπων τύπους. The question whether statues were ever painted in the best period is an old controversy, the echoes of which have hardly yet died away. Schubart ( Fl. Jahr. 1874, pp. 20 ff.) and others prefer to take ἀνδριάντας merely as ‘likenesses of men,’ but the word was regularly, if not indeed always, used of statues. That the surface of archaic statues was regularly painted is now no longer doubtful: see Gardner Handbook of Greek Sculpture pp. 28 ff. During the best period, in the case of marble or other polished surfaces, the painting was regularly confined to the eyes, eyelids, eyebrows, hair and the like. See on the whole subject Sittl's Arch. der Kunst (in Iwan Müller's Handbuch) pp. 413, 414. μέλανι does not necessarily mean jet black, but only some dark and quiet colour. In point of fact, the eyes of the early marble statues on the Acropolis “are painted with a dark pigment, almost black” (Gardner l.c. p. 30). The use—regular in Greek—of γράφειν for painting is an interesting survival of the time when decorative art was little beyond carving in relief (Sittl l.c. p. 416). The present passage is strangely ignored by Sertorius in his interesting article “Plato und die Malerei” in Arch. f. Gesch. d. Phil. IX pp. 123—148.

ξυστίδας . The name ξυστίς was given to various kinds of purple robes or mantles—among them those worn by kings upon the stage, and by riders in festal processions. The authorities are cited in Müller Gr. Bühnenalt. p. 234 note I. If the Scholiasts on Ar. Clouds 70 and Theocr. II 74 are to be trusted, we should write ξύστιδας, not ξυστίδας.

ἐπὶ δεξιά . Whether we read ἐπιδέξια or ἐπὶ δεξιά the word should be understood as ‘from left to right.’ At a Greek banquet, the guests were always placed ἐπὶ δεξιά, i.e. so that the guest on your right hand occupied a lower place ( ὑποκατακεκλιμένος) than you, and the wine circulated from left to right of the banqueters. See Blümner Privatalt. p. 237 note 7 and Darbishire Relliq. Philol. p. 78. The word suggests a banquet with all the formalities, and heightens the incongruity of the situation, like the purple robes and golden crowns of the farmers. Schneider's exhaustive discussion seems to me conclusive in favour of writing ἐπὶ δεξιά as two words. Casaubon has been followed by most of the editors (except Schneider) in taking ἐπιδέξια as an adverb=‘commode’ (Ast), ‘commode et eleganter’ (Stallbaum etc.), or ‘dexterously,’ ‘cleverly’ (J. and C.); but it may well be doubted if the word could mean ‘commode,’ and ‘dexterously’ is inappropriate. Cf. Darbishire l.c. p. 78 note I. ἐπὶ δεξιά goes with κατακλίναντες and πρὸς τὸ πῦρ (cf. Blaydes on Ar. Ach. 751 ) with διαπίνοντας. The fire is that by which the potters bake their pottery; their workshop has for the nonce become a hall of banqueting.