Plato, Republic, ed. John Burnet, 3.411

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[411]
καὶ τοῦ μὲν ἡρμοσμένου σώφρων τε καὶ ἀνδρεία ἡ 411a ψυχή;
πάνυ γε.
τοῦ δὲ ἀναρμόστου δειλὴ καὶ ἄγροικος;
καὶ μάλα.
οὐκοῦν ὅταν μέν τις μουσικῇ παρέχῃ καταυλεῖν καὶ καταχεῖν τῆς ψυχῆς διὰ τῶν ὤτων ὥσπερ διὰ χώνης ἃς νυνδὴ ἡμεῖς ἐλέγομεν τὰς γλυκείας τε καὶ μαλακὰς καὶ θρηνώδεις ἁρμονίας, καὶ μινυρίζων τε καὶ γεγανωμένος ὑπὸ τῆς ᾠδῆς διατελῇ τὸν βίον ὅλον, οὗτος τὸ μὲν πρῶτον, εἴ τι θυμοειδὲς εἶχεν, ὥσπερ σίδηρον ἐμάλαξεν καὶ χρήσιμον 411b ἐξ ἀχρήστου καὶ σκληροῦ ἐποίησεν· ὅταν δʼ ἐπέχων μὴ ἀνιῇ ἀλλὰ κηλῇ, τὸ δὴ μετὰ τοῦτο ἤδη τήκει καὶ λείβει, ἕως ἂν ἐκτήξῃ τὸν θυμὸν καὶ ἐκτέμῃ ὥσπερ νεῦρα ἐκ τῆς ψυχῆς καὶ ποιήσῃ μαλθακὸν αἰχμητήν.
πάνυ μὲν οὖν, ἔφη.
καὶ ἐὰν μέν γε, ἦν δʼ ἐγώ, ἐξ ἀρχῆς φύσει ἄθυμον λάβῃ, ταχὺ τοῦτο διεπράξατο· ἐὰν δὲ θυμοειδῆ, ἀσθενῆ ποιήσας τὸν θυμὸν ὀξύρροπον ἀπηργάσατο, ἀπὸ σμικρῶν ταχὺ ἐρεθιζόμενόν 411c τε καὶ κατασβεννύμενον. ἀκράχολοι οὖν καὶ ὀργίλοι ἀντὶ θυμοειδοῦς γεγένηνται, δυσκολίας ἔμπλεῳ.
κομιδῇ μὲν οὖν.
τί δὲ ἂν αὖ γυμναστικῇ πολλὰ πονῇ καὶ εὐωχῆται εὖ μάλα, μουσικῆς δὲ καὶ φιλοσοφίας μὴ ἅπτηται; οὐ πρῶτον μὲν εὖ ἴσχων τὸ σῶμα φρονήματός τε καὶ θυμοῦ ἐμπίμπλαται καὶ ἀνδρειότερος γίγνεται αὐτὸς αὑτοῦ;
καὶ μάλα γε.
τί δὲ ἐπειδὰν ἄλλο μηδὲν πράττῃ μηδὲ κοινωνῇ Μούσης 411d μηδαμῇ; οὐκ εἴ τι καὶ ἐνῆν αὐτοῦ φιλομαθὲς ἐν τῇ ψυχῇ, ἅτε οὔτε μαθήματος γευόμενον οὐδενὸς οὔτε ζητήματος, οὔτε λόγου μετίσχον οὔτε τῆς ἄλλης μουσικῆς, ἀσθενές τε καὶ κωφὸν καὶ τυφλὸν γίγνεται, ἅτε οὐκ ἐγειρόμενον οὐδὲ τρεφόμενον οὐδὲ διακαθαιρομένων τῶν αἰσθήσεων αὐτοῦ;
οὕτως, ἔφη.
μισόλογος δὴ οἶμαι ὁ τοιοῦτος γίγνεται καὶ ἄμουσος, καὶ πειθοῖ μὲν διὰ λόγων οὐδὲν ἔτι χρῆται, βίᾳ δὲ καὶ 411e ἀγριότητι ὥσπερ θηρίον πρὸς πάντα διαπράττεται, καὶ ἐν ἀμαθίᾳ καὶ σκαιότητι μετὰ ἀρρυθμίας τε καὶ ἀχαριστίας ζῇ.
παντάπασιν, ἦ δʼ ὅς, οὕτως ἔχει.

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).) — 3.411 focus

[411] And the soul of the man thus attuned is sober and brave? 411a Certainly. And that of the ill adjusted is cowardiy and rude? It surely is.
Now when a man abandons himself to music to play¹ upon him and pour² into his soul as it were through the funnel of his ears those sweet, soft, and dirge-like airs of which we were just now³ speaking, and gives his entire time to the warblings and blandishments of song, the first result is that the principle of high spirit, if he had it, 411b is softened like iron⁴ and is made useful instead of useless and brittle. But when he continues⁵ the practice without remission and is spellbound, the effect begins to be that he melts and liquefies⁶ till he completely dissolves away his spirit, cuts out as it were the very sinews of his soul and makes of himself a feeble warrior.⁷ Assuredly, he said. And if, said I, he has to begin with a spiritless⁸ nature he reaches this result quickly, but if high-spirited, by weakening the spirit he makes it unstable, 411c quickly irritated by slight stimuli, and as quickly quelled. The outcome is that such men are choleric and irascible instead of high-spirited, and are peevish and discontented. Precisely so. On the other hand, if a man toils hard at gymnastics and eats right lustily and holds no truck with music and philosophy, does he not at first get very fit and full of pride and high spirit and become more brave and bold than he was? He does indeed. But what if he does nothing but this and has no contact with the Muse in any way, 411d is not the result that even if there was some principle of the love of knowledge in his soul, since it tastes of no instruction nor of any inquiry and does not participate in any discussion or any other form of culture, it becomes feeble, deaf, and blind, because it is not aroused or fed nor are its perceptions purified and quickened? That is so, he said. And so such a man, I take it, becomes a misologist⁹ and stranger to the Muses. He no longer makes any use of persuasion by speech but achieves all his ends 411e like a beast by violence and savagery, and in his brute ignorance and ineptitude lives a life of disharmony and gracelessness. That is entirely true, he said.

Commentary

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

καταυλεῖν ‐‐ ἁρμονίας . καταυλεῖν (as Ast observes) does not govern ἁρμονίας, but is used absolutely: cf. Laws 790 E (of mothers singing and rocking their children to sleep) ἀτεχνῶς οἷον καταυλοῦσι τῶν παιδίων, καθάπερ αἱ τῶν ἐκφρόνων βακχειῶν ἰάσεις, ταύτῃ τῇ τῆς κινήσεως ἅμα χορείᾳ καὶ μούσῃ χρώμεναι. So expressive a word could ill be spared, although van Heusde's καταντλεῖν is ingenious enough. Cobet would read καταντλεῖν and cut out καὶ καταχεῖν, while Hartman inclines to eject καταυλεῖν καί, but the text is sound. ἁρμονίας depends on καταχεῖν. With χώνης cf. (with Hiller Fl. Jahrb. 1874 p. 174) Ar. Thesm. 18 δίκην δὲ χοάνης ὦτα: see Blaydes ad loc. The context in Aristophanes lends some colour to Hiller's notion that the comparison was taken from some earlier philosopher: cf. Theophr. de sensu § 9.

σίδηρον ἐμάλαξε κτλ. See on 387 C. Apparently then the first effect even of the μαλακαὶ ἁρμονίαι is good. This apparent inconsistency with 398 E ff. is emphasized by Krohn ( Pl. St. p. 25), but Krohn fails to observe that Plato is here describing the facts of common experience, whereas before he was making laws of his own. It is quite possible to admit that the relaxing modes are beneficial in moderation, and yet forbid them, because moderation in them is difficult to maintain.

ὅταν ‐‐ τήκει . The object of κηλῇ, τήκει and λείβει is τὸ θυμοειδές: that of ποιήσῃ is τὴν ψυχήν. So much is, I think, certain; but ἐπέχων is less easy. The word has been interpreted as (1) ‘listening to’ (Schneider, comparing 399 B, where, however, ὑπέχοντα should probably be read), (2) ‘pressing on,’ ‘persevering,’ ‘continuing’: cf. Theaet. 165 D ἐπέχων καὶ οὐκ ἀνιείς (J. and C.). The sense which Schneider gives to ἐπέχων is ill-supported: and we must accept the second alternative. Morgenstern's emendation ἐπιχέων (accepted by Herwerden and Hartman) is attractive but not quite convincing (“when he ceases not to pour the music in” etc.). ἐπιχέων would preserve the metaphor, which is clearly intended (in καταχεῖν, χώνης, and σίδηρον ἐμάλαξε) to suggest the process of smelting, and of which an echo still survives in τήκει, λείβει and ἐκτήξῃ. See Blümner Technologie etc. IV pp. 108 ff. notes The θυμοειδές is the iron which music softens and may even dissolve: farther than this the comparison is not to be pressed.

κηλῇ : as one might charm or fascinate a snake: Euthyd. 290 A , Phaedr. 259 A .

καὶ λείβει ‐‐ αἰχμητήν . For λείβει thus used cf. Ar. Knights 327 . μαλθακὸς αἰχμητής is said of Menelaus in Il. XVII 588.

ἐὰν ‐‐ λάβῃ : ‘if he has received,’ not ‘if he act upon’ (J. and C.). Plato means that if the individual in question received at the beginning a soul— ψυχήν is understood—naturally spiritless, he soon makes it a ‘feeble warrior.’ “Wenn er gleich eine von Natur zornlose Seele bekommen hat” (Schneider). The subject throughout is the τις with which the sentence began. For the usual Greek idiom, by which the person concerned is represented as acting on himself ( ἐκτήξῃ τὸν θυμόν etc.) instead of being acted on, cf. Eur. I. A. 187 φοινίσσουσα παρῇδ’ ἐμὰν | αἰσχύνᾳ νεοθαλεῖ with Headlam's note: also V 462 C, D notes and IX 572 A note

ἐρεθιζόμενον . ῥιπιζόμενον, suggested by Herwerden, is picturesque enough: but ‘provoked and extinguished’ is even more natural in Greek than in English, for ἐρεθίζω could readily be used of fanning a fire: see the lexica s.v.

ἀντὶ θυμοειδοῦς ‐‐ ἔμπλεοι . θυμοειδοῦς is of course masculine and not neuter (as J. and C. suggest). Even if we allow that the dative is neuter in cases like Symp. 195 C νέος—ἐστι, πρὸς δὲ τῷ νέῳ ἁπαλός, and Theaet. 185 E , the presence of the article makes all the difference. Ast (with Ξ) reads θυμοειδῶν. So harsh a change from plural to singular ( ὀργίλοι but θυμοειδοῦς) is remarkable, but hardly more so than ἀποθανουμένους ὅς in IV 426 C. Cf. also I 347 A note Krohn points out that ἀνδρεῖον is here represented as a μεσότης between σκληρόν and ὀργίλον ( Pl. St. p. 27).

εὐωχῆται : should be understood literally, of good living.

ὥσπερ θήριον ‐‐ διαπράττεται . If the MSS are right, πάντα is masculine. But although διαπράττεσθαι by itself can be used without an expressed object ( Prot. 319 C al.), it is strange to find διαπράττεσθαι πρός τινα so used: see Crat. 395 B , Alc. II 143 C. On this account διαπράττεται has been by some ejected (Hermann), by others emended into διαράττεται (Morgenstern), διατάττεται (Madvig and one Florentine MS); while others read θηρίον τὰ πάντα διαπράττεται (Lambrechts), or προσδιαπράττεται πάντα (Chandler), or expunge πρός (Bywater). Perhaps we should read ὥσπερ θηρίον πρὸς <θηρίον> κτλ. (‘attains all his ends by violence and ferocity, like one wild beast with another’). Cf. Shakespeare Rape of Lucrece “The rough beast that knows no gentle right.”

σκαιότητι . ‘Ineptitude.’ Cf. Soph. Ant. 1028 with Jebb's note.

ἀχαριστίας is ‘ungraciousness.’

εἰ μὴ εἴη πάρεργον occurs also in Phaed. 91 A (according to the Bodleian MS). Phrases of this kind seldom admit of variation; for which reason we should hesitate to admit the εἰ μὴ εἰ πάρεργον of Π^{1}.

ὅπως ἄν κτλ. The soul has, so to speak, two strings, the φιλόσοφον and the θυμοειδές, which make a kind of ἁρμονία when they are tuned to the proper pitch by Music and Gymnastic. The θυμοειδές is slackened ( ἀνίεται) by μουσική, tightened or braced ( ἐπιτείνεται) by γυμναστική (410 D, 411 A—E); conversely, we must suppose that the φιλόσοφον is slackened by γυμναστική, and tightened by μουσική. Music and Gymnastic are therefore both of them necessary for each of the two strings (cf. IV 441 E note), although the slackening of the θυμοειδές of itself also tightens the φιλόσοφον, which is likewise slackened when the tension of the other is increased. Cf. Tim. 88 B , C. The effect of all this musical imagery is to suggest that Character is the Music of the Soul: cf. Lach. 188 D .

Plato Republic 3.411

ed. John Burnet

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