Plato, Republic, Paul Shorey (Translator), 4.426

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[426] 426a By all means. And truly, said I, these latter go on in a most charming¹ fashion. For with all their doctoring they accomplish nothing except to complicate and augment their maladies. And² they are always hoping that some one will recommend a panacea that will restore their health. A perfect description, he said, of the state of such invalids. And isn’t this a charming trait in them, that they hate most in all the world him who tells them the truth that until a man stops drinking and gorging and wenching 426b and idling, neither drugs³ nor cautery nor the knife, no, nor spells nor periapts⁴ will be of any avail? Not altogether charming, he said, for there is no grace or charm in being angry⁵ with him who speaks well. You do not seem to be an admirer⁶ of such people, said I. No, by heaven, I am not.
Neither then, if an entire city,⁷ as we were just now saying, acts in this way, will it have your approval, or don’t you think that the way of such invalids is precisely that of those cities 426c which being badly governed forewarn their citizens not to meddle⁸ with the general constitution of the state, denouncing death to whosoever attempts that—while whoever most agreeably serves⁹ them governed as they are and who curries favor with them by fawning upon them and anticipating their desires and by his cleverness in gratifying them, him they will account the good man, the man wise in worthwhile things,¹⁰ the man they will delight to honor? Yes, he said, I think their conduct is identical, and I don’t approve it in the very least. 426d And what again of those who are willing and eager to serve¹¹ such states? Don’t you admire their valiance and light-hearted irresponsibility¹²? I do, he said, except those who are actually deluded and suppose themselves to be in truth statesmen¹³ because they are praised by the many. What do you mean? Can’t you make allowances¹⁴ for the men? Do you think it possible for a man who does not know how to measure when a multitude of others equally ignorant assure him that he is four cubits tall 426e not to suppose this to be the fact about himself? Why no,¹⁵ he said, I don’t think that. Then don’t be harsh with them. For surely such fellows are the most charming spectacle in the world when they enact and amend such laws as we just now described and are perpetually expecting to find a way of putting an end to frauds in business and in the other matters of which I was speaking because they can’t see that they are in very truth¹⁶ trying to cut off a Hydra’s head.

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

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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.) — 4.426 focus

[426]
πάνυ μὲν οὖν. 426a
καὶ μὴν οὗτοί γε χαριέντως διατελοῦσιν· ἰατρευόμενοι γὰρ οὐδὲν περαίνουσιν, πλήν γε ποικιλώτερα καὶ μείζω ποιοῦσι τὰ νοσήματα, καὶ ἀεὶ ἐλπίζοντες, ἐάν τις φάρμακον συμβουλεύσῃ, ὑπὸ τούτου ἔσεσθαι ὑγιεῖς.
πάνυ γάρ, ἔφη, τῶν οὕτω καμνόντων τὰ τοιαῦτα πάθη.
τί δέ; ἦν δʼ ἐγώ· τόδε αὐτῶν οὐ χαρίεν, τὸ πάντων ἔχθιστον ἡγεῖσθαι τὸν τἀληθῆ λέγοντα, ὅτι πρὶν ἂν μεθύων καὶ ἐμπιμπλάμενος καὶ ἀφροδισιάζων καὶ ἀργῶν παύσηται, 426b οὔτε φάρμακα οὔτε καύσεις οὔτε τομαὶ οὐδʼ αὖ ἐπῳδαὶ αὐτὸν οὐδὲ περίαπτα οὐδὲ ἄλλο τῶν τοιούτων οὐδὲν ὀνήσει;
οὐ πάνυ χαρίεν, ἔφη· τὸ γὰρ τῷ εὖ λέγοντι χαλεπαίνειν οὐκ ἔχει χάριν.
οὐκ ἐπαινέτης εἶ, ἔφην ἐγώ, ὡς ἔοικας, τῶν τοιούτων ἀνδρῶν.
οὐ μέντοι μὰ Δία.
οὐδʼ ἂν ἡ πόλις ἄρα, ὅπερ ἄρτι ἐλέγομεν, ὅλη τοιοῦτον ποιῇ, οὐκ ἐπαινέσῃ. ἢ οὐ φαίνονταί σοι ταὐτὸν ἐργάζεσθαι τούτοις τῶν πόλεων ὅσαι κακῶς πολιτευόμεναι προαγορεύουσι 426c τοῖς πολίταις τὴν μὲν κατάστασιν τῆς πόλεως ὅλην μὴ κινεῖν, ὡς ἀποθανουμένους, ὃς ἂν τοῦτο δρᾷ· ὃς δʼ ἂν σφᾶς οὕτω πολιτευομένους ἥδιστα θεραπεύῃ καὶ χαρίζηται ὑποτρέχων καὶ προγιγνώσκων τὰς σφετέρας βουλήσεις καὶ ταύτας δεινὸς ᾖ ἀποπληροῦν, οὗτος ἄρα ἀγαθός τε ἔσται ἀνὴρ καὶ σοφὸς τὰ μεγάλα καὶ τιμήσεται ὑπὸ σφῶν;
ταὐτὸν μὲν οὖν, ἔφη, ἔμοιγε δοκοῦσι δρᾶν, καὶ οὐδʼ ὁπωστιοῦν ἐπαινῶ. 426d
τί δʼ αὖ τοὺς ἐθέλοντας θεραπεύειν τὰς τοιαύτας πόλεις καὶ προθυμουμένους; οὐκ ἄγασαι τῆς ἀνδρείας τε καὶ εὐχερείας;
ἔγωγʼ, ἔφη, πλήν γʼ ὅσοι ἐξηπάτηνται ὑπʼ αὐτῶν καὶ οἴονται τῇ ἀληθείᾳ πολιτικοὶ εἶναι, ὅτι ἐπαινοῦνται ὑπὸ τῶν πολλῶν.
πῶς λέγεις; οὐ συγγιγνώσκεις, ἦν δʼ ἐγώ, τοῖς ἀνδράσιν; ἢ οἴει οἷόν τʼ εἶναι ἀνδρὶ μὴ ἐπισταμένῳ μετρεῖν, ἑτέρων 426e τοιούτων πολλῶν λεγόντων ὅτι τετράπηχύς ἐστιν, αὐτὸν ταῦτα μὴ ἡγεῖσθαι περὶ αὑτοῦ;
οὐκ αὖ, ἔφη, τοῦτό γε.
μὴ τοίνυν χαλέπαινε· καὶ γάρ πού εἰσι πάντων χαριέστατοι οἱ τοιοῦτοι, νομοθετοῦντές τε οἷα ἄρτι διήλθομεν καὶ ἐπανορθοῦντες, ἀεὶ οἰόμενοί τι πέρας εὑρήσειν περὶ τὰ ἐν τοῖς συμβολαίοις κακουργήματα καὶ περὶ ἃ νυνδὴ ἐγὼ ἔλεγον, ἀγνοοῦντες ὅτι τῷ ὄντι ὥσπερ Ὕδραν τέμνουσιν.

Notes on the current edition

Republic

1. Ironical. Quite fanciful is Dümmler’s supposition ( Kleine Schriften, i, p. 99) that this passage was meant as destructive criticism of Isocrates Panegyricus and that Antidosis 62 is a reply. Plato is obviously thinking of practical politicians rather than of Isocrates.

2. πλήν γε etc., is loosely elliptical, but emendations are superfluous.

3. For the list cf. Pindar, Pyth. iii. 50-54. οὐδ’ αὖ emphasizes the transition to superstitious remedies in which Plato doesn’t really believe. Cf. his rationalizing interpretations of ἐπῳδαί, Charmides 157 A, Theaetetus 149 C. Laws 933 A-B is to be interpreted in the spirit of the observation in Selden’s Table Talk:

The law against witches does not prove that there be any but it punishes the malice,

etc. [Demosthenes] xxv. 80 is sceptical.

4. Cf. any lexicon, Shakespeare 1 Henry VI. v. iii. 2

Now help, ye charming spells and periapts,

and Plutarch’s story of the women who hung them on Pericles’ neck on his death-bed.

5. Cf. 480 A, 354 A.

6. The noun is more forcible than the verb would be. Cf. Protagoras 309 A ἐπαινέτης.

7. We return from the illustration to its application to the state.

8. Cf. 497 B, Aristotle Politics 1301 b 11. Cf. the obvious imitation in the (probably spurious) Epistle vii. 330 E. For the thought, from the point of view of an enemy of democracy, cf. the statement in [Xenophon] Rep. Ath. 3. 9, that the faults of Athens cannot be corrected while she remains a democracy. The Athenians naturally guarded their constitution and viewed with equal suspicion the idealistic reformer and the oligarchical reactionary.

9. Cf. , p. 65 note d, and Laws 923 B. The phraseology here recalls Gorgias 517 B, Aristophanes Knights 46-63. Cf. Plato’s Laws and the Unity of Plato’s Thought, Class Phil. vol. ix. (Oct. 1914) p. 363, n. 3.

10. Almost technical. Cf. 538 B.

11. Here serve, not flatter.

12. This word εὐχέρεια is often misunderstood by lexicons and commentators. It is of course not dexterity (L. and S.) nor yet probably complaisance, nor yet humanitas or Gutmütigkeit as Adam and Schneider think. It expresses rather the light-heartedness with which such politicians rush in where wiser men fear to tread, which is akin to the lightness with which men plunge into crime. Cf. Laws 690 D τῶν ἐπὶ νόμων θέσιν ἰόντων ῥᾳδίως and 969 ἀνδρειότατος. Plato’s political physician makes come out of that a precondition of his treatment. Cf. Laws 736-737, Politicus 299 A-B, 501 A, 540 E, Epistle vii. 330 C-D, and the story in Aelian. V.H. ii. 42. of Plato’s refusal to legislate for the Arcadians because they would not accept an equalization of property.

13. Cf. Euthyphro 2 C-D, Gorgias 513 B, Politicus 275 C and 292 D.

14. Plato often condescendingly and half ironically pardons psychologically inevitable errors. Cf. 366 C, Phaedrus 269 B, Euthydemus 306 C.

15. For οὐκ αὖ cf. 393 D, 442 A, Theaetetus 161 A, Class. Phil. vol. xxiii. pp. 285-287. ἔγωγε above concurs with ἄγασαι, ignoring the irony. πλήν γε etc. marks dissent on one point. This dissent is challenged, and is withdrawn by οὐκ αὖ . . . τοῦτο γε ( οἶμαι).

16. τῷ ὄντι points the application of the proverbial ὕδραν τέμνειν, which appears in this now trite metaphorical use for the first time here and in Euthydemus 297 C. Cf. my note on Horace iv. 4. 61. For the thought cf. Isocrates vii. 40, Macrob. Sat. ii. 13

leges bonae ex malis moribus procreantur,

Arcesilaus apud Stobaeus Flor. xliii. 981 οὕτω δὴ καὶ ὅπου νόμοι πλεῖστοι ἐκεῖ καὶ ἀδικίαν εἶναι μεγίστην, Theophrastus apud Stobaeus Flor. xxxvii. 21 ὀλίγων οἱ ἀγαθοὶ νόμων δέονται.

Commentary

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

πλήν γε κτλ. If the text is sound we must take πλήν γε as πλήν γε ὅτι (which H. Wolf was wishful to restore) and καί before ἀεὶ ἐλπίζοντες as= idque (with Stallbaum), unless we supply διάγουσι or the like by a sort of zeugma after ἐλπίζοντες. As regards καὶ ἀεὶ ἐλπίζοντες, J. and C. hold that the participle is resumed from ἰατρευόμενοι; but the effect of this interpretation is very harsh, because ἰατρευόμενοι goes so closely with οὐδὲν περαίνουσι as almost to form a single expression. It is not ‘they make no advance, submitting to a cure and always hoping,’ but ‘they make no advance under treatment.’ The troublesome καί before ἐλπίζοντες is omitted by some inferior MSS, is dotted in q, and apparently erased in Ξ. I once conjectured ποιοῦντες, comparing Critias 109 B πλὴν οὐ—βιαζόμενοι, but it is perhaps safer to acquiesce in the MS reading. Dümmler ( Chron. Beitr. pp. 9—11) believes that Isocrates Antid. 62 expressly alludes to this passage. Isocrates at all events censures τοὺς ἐπιπλήττοντας τοῖς νῦν ἁμαρτανομένοις in words that might easily refer to Plato. See also on 426 C.

αὐτῶν ‐‐ μεθύων . On the plural passing into the singular see I 347 A note

τοιοῦτον . Cf. III 388 D note

προαγορεύουσι κτλ. Athens is plainly in Plato's mind. The Athenians carefully guarded their constitution by means of the γραφὴ παρανόμων and the εἰσαγγελία (see Gilbert's Gk. Const. Ant. E.T. pp. 299, 304 ff.); but nowhere were ψηφίσματα so common, and in these the demagogue found a wide field for exercising the arts of flattery and insinuation. Cf. Gilbert Beiträge zur innern Gesch. Athens pp. 73—93. With ἀποθανουμένους ὅς cf. III 411 C note, VIII 566 D ( πάντας ᾧ ἂν περιτυγχάνῃ).

ὃς δ’ ἂν σφᾶς κτλ. Dümmler (l.c.) takes this to be Isocrates, who is also—so he thinks—satirised in the similar passage VI 493 A ff., and elsewhere. If so, σοφὸς τὰ μεγάλα, οἴονται τῇ ἀληθείᾳ πολιτικοὶ εἶναι, and ἢ οἴει—περὶ αὑτοῦ (D, E) are sufficiently true and scathing. We must however observe that Plato is describing a type, and the type is that of the demagogue rather than the merely academic and sophistical rhetorician, as appears from δεινὸς ᾖ ἀποπληροῦν and 426 E. These two types are cast in similar moulds; and Dümmler may be right in supposing that Plato thought of Isocrates as he wrote this satire, and pointed his shafts accordingly. If so, they hit the mark, and rankled, as it was natural they should. Isocrates apparently attempts a reply in his Antidosis (Dümmler l.c. p. 9).

οὗτος ἄρα ‐‐ ἔσται . To insert ὡς after οὗτος (as Richards proposes) would spoil the effect, and be grammatically awkward. Plato wishes to suggest the language of a proclamation ‘he shall be a good man and true,’ etc. ἄρα is enough (as Hartman notes) to mark the indirect: cf. II 358 C note

ἀνδρείας ‐‐ εὐχερείας : ‘courage and complaisance.’ εὐχέρεια is not ‘dexterity (L. and S., with the English translators), a meaning which the word never bears in Plato; but ‘facilitas,’ ‘humanitas,’ kind, obliging behaviour. “Herzhaftigkeit und Gutmüthigkeit,” Schneider, rightly.

τετράπηχυς : ‘a six-footer.’ Dümmler (l.c.) questions this word, without saying why. It is more appropriate than a word expressing greater height; especially if any personal allusion is intended. Isocrates was not an intellectual giant, nor would even his applauding contemporaries (I think) have called him so.

οὐκ αὖ ‐‐ τοῦτό γε : sc. οἴομαι. The point of αὖ is that Adimantus returned an affirmative answer last time (426 D). οὐκ ἄν, which is generally read, has not sufficient authority, and is difficult to justify. For οὐκ αὖ cf. III 393 D and infra 442 A.

πάντων χαριέστατοι . To this perhaps Isocrates replies in Antid. 62 χαριέντως μὲν εἰρῆσθαι ταῦτα φήσουσι, τὸ γὰρ εὖ φθονήσουσιν εἰπεῖν (Dümmler l.c.).

νομοθετοῦντες κτλ. It improves the rhetorical effect to treat all the participles as coordinate, instead of making the first two dependent on the third, or the third subordinate to them. For this reason I have placed a comma after ἐπανορθοῦντες.

Plato Republic 4.426

Paul Shorey (Translator)

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