Plato, Republic, ed. John Burnet, 3.397

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[397] 397a
οὐκοῦν, ἦν δʼ ἐγώ, ὁ μὴ τοιοῦτος αὖ, ὅσῳ ἂν φαυλότερος ᾖ, πάντα τε μᾶλλον διηγήσεται καὶ οὐδὲν ἑαυτοῦ ἀνάξιον οἰήσεται εἶναι, ὥστε πάντα ἐπιχειρήσει μιμεῖσθαι σπουδῇ τε καὶ ἐναντίον πολλῶν, καὶ ἃ νυνδὴ ἐλέγομεν, βροντάς τε καὶ ψόφους ἀνέμων τε καὶ χαλαζῶν καὶ ἀξόνων τε καὶ τροχιλιῶν, καὶ σαλπίγγων καὶ αὐλῶν καὶ συρίγγων καὶ πάντων ὀργάνων φωνάς, καὶ ἔτι κυνῶν καὶ προβάτων καὶ ὀρνέων φθόγγους· 397b καὶ ἔσται δὴ ἡ τούτου λέξις ἅπασα διὰ μιμήσεως φωναῖς τε καὶ σχήμασιν, ἢ σμικρόν τι διηγήσεως ἔχουσα;
ἀνάγκη, ἔφη, καὶ τοῦτο.
ταῦτα τοίνυν, ἦν δʼ ἐγώ, ἔλεγον τὰ δύο εἴδη τῆς λέξεως.
καὶ γὰρ ἔστιν, ἔφη.
οὐκοῦν αὐτοῖν τὸ μὲν σμικρὰς τὰς μεταβολὰς ἔχει, καὶ ἐάν τις ἀποδιδῷ πρέπουσαν ἁρμονίαν καὶ ῥυθμὸν τῇ λέξει, ὀλίγου πρὸς τὴν αὐτὴν γίγνεται λέγειν τῷ ὀρθῶς λέγοντι καὶ ἐν μιᾷ ἁρμονίᾳ—σμικραὶ γὰρ αἱ μεταβολαί—καὶ δὴ καὶ ἐν 397c ῥυθμῷ ὡσαύτως παραπλησίῳ τινί;
κομιδῇ μὲν οὖν, ἔφη, οὕτως ἔχει.
τί δὲ τὸ τοῦ ἑτέρου εἶδος; οὐ τῶν ἐναντίων δεῖται, πασῶν μὲν ἁρμονιῶν, πάντων δὲ ῥυθμῶν, εἰ μέλλει αὖ οἰκείως λέγεσθαι, διὰ τὸ παντοδαπὰς μορφὰς τῶν μεταβολῶν ἔχειν;
καὶ σφόδρα γε οὕτως ἔχει.
ἆρʼ οὖν πάντες οἱ ποιηταὶ καὶ οἵ τι λέγοντες ἢ τῷ ἑτέρῳ τούτων ἐπιτυγχάνουσιν τύπῳ τῆς λέξεως ἢ τῷ ἑτέρῳ ἢ ἐξ ἀμφοτέρων τινὶ συγκεραννύντες;
ἀνάγκη, ἔφη. 397d
τί οὖν ποιήσομεν; ἦν δʼ ἐγώ· πότερον εἰς τὴν πόλιν πάντας τούτους παραδεξόμεθα ἢ τῶν ἀκράτων τὸν ἕτερον ἢ τὸν κεκραμένον;
ἐὰν ἡ ἐμή, ἔφη, νικᾷ, τὸν τοῦ ἐπιεικοῦς μιμητὴν ἄκρατον.
ἀλλὰ μήν, ὦ Ἀδείμαντε, ἡδύς γε καὶ ὁ κεκραμένος, πολὺ δὲ ἥδιστος παισί τε καὶ παιδαγωγοῖς ὁ ἐναντίος οὗ σὺ αἱρῇ καὶ τῷ πλείστῳ ὄχλῳ.
ἥδιστος γάρ.
ἀλλʼ ἴσως, ἦν δʼ ἐγώ, οὐκ ἂν αὐτὸν ἁρμόττειν φαίης τῇ 397e ἡμετέρᾳ πολιτείᾳ, ὅτι οὐκ ἔστιν διπλοῦς ἀνὴρ παρʼ ἡμῖν οὐδὲ πολλαπλοῦς, ἐπειδὴ ἕκαστος ἓν πράττει.
οὐ γὰρ οὖν ἁρμόττει.
οὐκοῦν διὰ ταῦτα ἐν μόνῃ τῇ τοιαύτῃ πόλει τόν τε σκυτοτόμον σκυτοτόμον εὑρήσομεν καὶ οὐ κυβερνήτην πρὸς τῇ σκυτοτομίᾳ, καὶ τὸν γεωργὸν γεωργὸν καὶ οὐ δικαστὴν πρὸς τῇ γεωργίᾳ, καὶ τὸν πολεμικὸν πολεμικὸν καὶ οὐ χρηματιστὴν πρὸς τῇ πολεμικῇ, καὶ πάντας οὕτω;
ἀληθῆ, ἔφη.

Republic. Plato. ed. John Burnet. Oxford. 1905.

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Πολιτεία (Greek) (Platonis Opera Tomus IV: Tetralogia VIII. Burnet, John, editor. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1905.)

Translations (1)

Republic Perseus (Plato in Twelve Volumes, Vol. 5-6. Shorey, Paul, translator. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1935-37 (printing).) — 3.397 focus

[397] Then, said I, 397a the other kind speaker, the more debased he is the less will he shrink from imitating anything and everything. He will think nothing unworthy of himself, so that he will attempt, seriously and in the presence of many,¹ to imitate all things, including those we just now mentioned—claps of thunder, and the noise of wind and hail and axles and pulleys, and the notes of trumpets and flutes and pan-pipes, and the sounds of all instruments, and the cries of dogs, sheep, and birds; and so his style will depend wholly on imitation 397b in voice and gesture, or will contain but a little of pure narration. That too follows of necessity, he said. These, then, said I, were the two types of diction of which I was aking. There are those two, he replied. Now does not one of the two involve slight variations,² and if we assign a suitable pitch and rhythm to the diction, is not the result that the right speaker speaks almost on the same note and in one cadence—for the changes are slight— 397c and similarly in a rhythm of nearly the same kind? Quite so. But what of the other type? Does it not require the opposite, every kind of pitch and all rhythms, if it too is to have appropriate expression, since it involves manifold forms of variation? Emphatically so. And do all poets and speakers hit upon one type or the other of diction or some blend which they combine of both? 397d They must, he said. What, then, said I, are we to do? Shall we admit all of these into the city, or one of the unmixed types, or the mixed type? If my vote prevails, he said, the unmixed imitator of the good. Nay, but the mixed type also is pleasing, Adeimantus, and far most pleasing to boys and their tutors and the great mob is the opposite of your choice. Most pleasing it is. But perhaps, said I, you would affirm it to be ill-suited 397e to our polity, because there is no twofold or manifold man³ among us, since every man does one thing. It is not suited. And is this not the reason why such a city is the only one in which we shall find the cobbler a cobbler and not a pilot in addition to his cobbling, and the farmer a farmer and not a judge added to his farming, and the soldier a soldier and not a money-maker in addition to his soldiery, and so of all the rest? True, he said.⁴

Commentary

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

μιμήσεται . See cr. n. The choice of reading lies between this and Madvig's emendation <μιμήσεται ἢ> διηγήσεται. In favour of μιμήσεται is μᾶλλον, which correlates with ὅσῳ ἂν φαυλότερος ᾖ. The corruption doubtless arose from a misinterpretation of μᾶλλον. Thinking that an ἤ clause was needed to explain it, a scribe added ἢ διηγήσεται in the margin, and διηγήσεται was afterwards taken as a variant and ousted μιμήσεται. These arguments, which are Hartman's, seem to me conclusive in favour of μιμήσεται, which Schneider first restored.

σπουδῇ τε καὶ ἐναντίον πολλῶν : like the professional dramatist or actor.

τροχιλιῶν κτλ. Cf. supra 396 B note

σχήμασιν ‘gestures.’

ἔλεγον . 396 B, C.

πρὸς τὴν αὐτήν : sc. ἁρμονίαν, as Schneider saw. To supply λέξιν with Stallbaum, Hartman, and others is not satisfactory, nor is it easy to understand χορδήν (with Campbell). On the other hand ἁρμονίαν may be readily supplied in view of ἐν μιᾷ ἁρμονίᾳ following. ὁ λόγος qualifies τὴν αὐτήν. The somewhat vague expression πρὸς τὴν αὐτήν, where the musical sense of προς may be illustrated by πρὸς Λιβὺν λακεῖν | αὐλόν ( Eur. Alc. 346 ), is afterwards made more explicit and precise by ἐν μιᾷ ἁρμονίᾳ i.e. ‘in one musical mode’ (see on 398 E), as opposed to πασῶν—ἁρμονιῶν in C. μεταβολή was technically used of passing from one ἁρμονία to another: see Cleonid. Isag. Harm. 13 and Bacchius Isag. 53 ed. von Jan. We shall best apprehend the full meaning of the whole passage if we read it in connexion with 399 A, B. The general sentiment may be illustrated from Arist. Eth. Nic. IV 8. 1125^{a} 12 ff. καὶ κίνησις δὲ βραδεῖα τοῦ μεγαλοψύχου δοκεῖ εἶναι, καὶ φωνὴ βαρεῖα, καὶ λέξις στάσιμος, Pl. Charm. 159 B , Dem. 37. 52 and elsewhere.

διὰ τὸ παντοδαπὰς ‐‐ ἔχειν . As the λέξις itself is full of variety, it requires for its proper or appropriate ( οἰκείως) expression every variety of mode and rhythm or musical time. μορφὰς τῶν μεταβολῶν is surely good enough Greek: I cannot see the point of Richards' μορφὰς ἐκ τῶν μεταβολῶν, still less why Hartman should eject τῶν μεταβολῶν or— as an alternative— μορφάς.

ἐπιτυγχ άνουσιν = ‘hit upon,’ ‘stumble upon,’ as if by accident and ἄνευ νοῦ, not ‘succeed,’ as J. B. Mayor is disposed to construe ( Cl. Rev. X p. 109). The same scholar proposes to change ξυγκεραννύντες into ξυγκεκραμένῳ, but the text is much more idiomatic as it stands.

τὸν ἕτερον : ‘one or other.’ Presently τοῦ ἐπιεικοῦς ‘the good man’ is said for ‘the good man's style of speaking’; see 398 B and cf. 399 B note Before ἄκρατον, many editors add τόν (with Ξ^{2}): but the position of ἄκρατον is normal: cf. τὰ ἐν ὕδασι φαντάσματα θεῖα VII 532 C and note ad loc.

παισί ‐‐ τῷ πλείστῳ ὄχλῳ . The expression recurs in Laws 700 C (quoted by J. and C.).

οὐκοῦν διὰ ταῦτα κτλ. There is probably a satirical reference to Athenian democracy: see Prot. 319 D .

Plato Republic 3.397

ed. John Burnet

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