Plato, Republic, ed. John Burnet, 4.431

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[431]
οὐκοῦν τὸ μὲν

κρείττω αὑτοῦ

γελοῖον; ὁ γὰρ ἑαυτοῦ κρείττων καὶ ἥττων δήπου ἂν αὑτοῦ εἴη καὶ ὁ ἥττων κρείττων· 431a ὁ αὐτὸς γὰρ ἐν ἅπασιν τούτοις προσαγορεύεται.
τί δʼ οὔ;
ἀλλʼ, ἦν δʼ ἐγώ, φαίνεταί μοι βούλεσθαι λέγειν οὗτος ὁ λόγος ὥς τι ἐν αὐτῷ τῷ ἀνθρώπῳ περὶ τὴν ψυχὴν τὸ μὲν βέλτιον ἔνι, τὸ δὲ χεῖρον, καὶ ὅταν μὲν τὸ βέλτιον φύσει τοῦ χείρονος ἐγκρατὲς ᾖ, τοῦτο λέγειν τὸ

κρείττω αὑτοῦ

—ἐπαινεῖ γοῦν—ὅταν δὲ ὑπὸ τροφῆς κακῆς ἤ τινος ὁμιλίας κρατηθῇ ὑπὸ πλήθους τοῦ χείρονος σμικρότερον τὸ βέλτιον 431b ὄν, τοῦτο δὲ ὡς ἐν ὀνείδει ψέγειν τε καὶ καλεῖν ἥττω ἑαυτοῦ καὶ ἀκόλαστον τὸν οὕτω διακείμενον.
καὶ γὰρ ἔοικεν, ἔφη.
ἀπόβλεπε τοίνυν, ἦν δʼ ἐγώ, πρὸς τὴν νέαν ἡμῖν πόλιν, καὶ εὑρήσεις ἐν αὐτῇ τὸ ἕτερον τούτων ἐνόν· κρείττω γὰρ αὐτὴν αὑτῆς δικαίως φήσεις προσαγορεύεσθαι, εἴπερ οὗ τὸ ἄμεινον τοῦ χείρονος ἄρχει σῶφρον κλητέον καὶ κρεῖττον αὑτοῦ.
ἀλλʼ ἀποβλέπω, ἔφη, καὶ ἀληθῆ λέγεις.
καὶ μὴν καὶ τάς γε πολλὰς καὶ παντοδαπὰς ἐπιθυμίας καὶ 431c ἡδονάς τε καὶ λύπας ἐν παισὶ μάλιστα ἄν τις εὕροι καὶ γυναιξὶ καὶ οἰκέταις καὶ τῶν ἐλευθέρων λεγομένων ἐν τοῖς πολλοῖς τε καὶ φαύλοις.
πάνυ μὲν οὖν.
τὰς δέ γε ἁπλᾶς τε καὶ μετρίας, αἳ δὴ μετὰ νοῦ τε καὶ δόξης ὀρθῆς λογισμῷ ἄγονται, ἐν ὀλίγοις τε ἐπιτεύξῃ καὶ τοῖς βέλτιστα μὲν φῦσιν, βέλτιστα δὲ παιδευθεῖσιν.
ἀληθῆ, ἔφη.
οὐκοῦν καὶ ταῦτα ὁρᾷς ἐνόντα σοι ἐν τῇ πόλει καὶ κρατουμένας αὐτόθι τὰς ἐπιθυμίας τὰς ἐν τοῖς πολλοῖς τε 431d καὶ φαύλοις ὑπό τε τῶν ἐπιθυμιῶν καὶ τῆς φρονήσεως τῆς ἐν τοῖς ἐλάττοσί τε καὶ ἐπιεικεστέροις;
ἔγωγʼ, ἔφη.
εἰ ἄρα δεῖ τινα πόλιν προσαγορεύειν κρείττω ἡδονῶν τε καὶ ἐπιθυμιῶν καὶ αὐτὴν αὑτῆς, καὶ ταύτην προσρητέον.
παντάπασιν μὲν οὖν, ἔφη.
ἆρʼ οὖν οὐ καὶ σώφρονα κατὰ πάντα ταῦτα;
καὶ μάλα, ἔφη.
καὶ μὴν εἴπερ αὖ ἐν ἄλλῃ πόλει ἡ αὐτὴ δόξα ἔνεστι τοῖς 431e τε ἄρχουσι καὶ ἀρχομένοις περὶ τοῦ οὕστινας δεῖ ἄρχειν, καὶ ἐν ταύτῃ ἂν εἴη τοῦτο ἐνόν. ἢ οὐ δοκεῖ;
καὶ μάλα, ἔφη, σφόδρα.
ἐν ποτέροις οὖν φήσεις τῶν πολιτῶν τὸ σωφρονεῖν ἐνεῖναι ὅταν οὕτως ἔχωσιν; ἐν τοῖς ἄρχουσιν ἢ ἐν τοῖς ἀρχομένοις;
ἐν ἀμφοτέροις που, ἔφη.
ὁρᾷς οὖν, ἦν δʼ ἐγώ, ὅτι ἐπιεικῶς ἐμαντευόμεθα ἄρτι ὡς ἁρμονίᾳ τινὶ ἡ σωφροσύνη ὡμοίωται;
τί δή;

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

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Current edition Perseus

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).) — 4.431 focus

[431] Now the phrase master of himself is an absurdity, is it not? For he who is master of himself would also be subject to himself, 431a and he who is subject to himself would be master. For the same person is spoken of in all these expressions. Of course. But, said I, the intended meaning of this way of speaking appears to me to be that the soul of a man within him has a better part and a worse part, and the expression self-mastery means the control of the worse by the naturally better part. It is, at any rate, a term of praise. But when, because of bad breeding or some association,¹ the better part, which is the smaller, is dominated by the multitude² of the worse, I think that our speech 431b censures this as a reproach,³ and calls the man in this plight unselfcontrolled and licentious. That seems likely, he said. Turn your eyes now upon our new city, said I, and you will find one of these conditions existent in it. For you will say that it is justly spoken of as master of itself if that in which⁴ the superior rules the inferior is to be called sober and self-mastered. I do turn my eyes upon it, he said, and it is as you say. And again, the mob of motley⁵ 431c appetites and pleasures and pains one would find chiefly in children⁶ and women and slaves and in the base rabble of those who are freemen in name.⁷ By all means. But the simple and moderate appetites which with the aid of reason and right opinion are guided by consideration you will find in few and those the best born and best educated. True, he said. And do you not find this too in your city and a domination there of the desires 431d in the multitude and the rabble by the desires and the wisdom that dwell in the minority of the better? I do, he said.
If, then, there is any city that deserves to be described as master of its pleasures and desires and self-mastered, this one merits that designation. Most assuredly, he said. And is it not also to be called sober⁸ in all these respects? Indeed it is, he said. And yet again, if there is any city in which 431e the rulers and the ruled are of one mind as to who ought to rule, that condition will be found in this. Don’t you think so? I most emphatically do, he said. In which class of the citizens, then, will you say that the virtue of soberness has its seat when this is their condition? In the rulers or in the ruled? In both, I suppose,⁹ he said. Do you see then, said I, that our intuition was not a bad one just now that discerned a likeness between soberness and a kind of harmony¹⁰? Why so?

Commentary

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

τι ‐‐ τὸ μὲν ‐‐ τὸ δέ . For the subdivision of τις cf. V 463 B, VIII 560 A, Gorg. 499 C . Other examples of ‘partitive apposition’ are V 461 D, 477 C, VIII 552 C: cf. also VIII 556 B, IX 592 A, X 618 E.

τὸ κρείττω αὑτοῦ : sc. φαίνεταί μοι τοῦτο λέγειν. The expression κρείττω αὑτοῦ is the subject, and τοῦτο the object. τόν for τό (see cr. n.) is indefensible. See also on τοῦτο δέ below.

πλήθους τοῦ χείρονος . II 379 C note

τοῦτο δὲ ‐‐ διακείμενον . τοῦτο is the object of ψέγειν, whose subject is still strictly speaking τὸ κρείττω αὑτοῦ or (which is the same thing) οὗτος ὁ λόγος. In ψέγειν and καλεῖν the λόγος is halfpersonified: ‘this the phrase censures as something disgraceful, and calls the man who is in this condition a slave to himself and intemperate.’ For the recapitulatory τοῦτο δέ cf. Ap. 28 E with my note ad loc. Hartman's τοῦτο δή is an unhappy suggestion.

κρείττω ‐‐ αὑτῆς . Cf. Laws 626 E ff., where κρείττων αὑτῆς is similarly applied to a city and explained in the same way.

οὗ : not the adverb, as Stallbaum supposed, but a partitive genitive: ‘that whereof the better part rules the worse’ etc.

παισί . See cr. n. The corruption—an easy one in minuscule MSS—recurs in VI 494 B. See Introd. § 5 and Bast Comm. Pal. p. 705. The object of this part of the argument is to shew that our city is σώφρων not only as being κρείττων αὑτῆς but as being κρείττων ἡδονῶν τε καὶ ἐπιθυμιῶν—a kindred, but not quite identical, notion: cf. 431 D. In adding γυναιξί Plato speaks from the ordinary Greek standpoint; in permitting some women to be guardians, he tacitly allows that in some cases their desires (unlike those of οἰκέται etc.) are μετὰ νοῦ. Cf. Laws 780 E ff.

λεγομένων is emphatic. No one is free who is a slave to his desires. Cf. 1 336 A note

τὰς δέ γε κτλ. I have returned to the MS reading. The accusative with τυγχάνω and its congeners is—except with neuter pronouns (Jebb on Soph. O. T. 1298 )—almost unexampled ( ἐπιτόσσαις with accusative in Pind. Pyth. 10. 33), and Herwerden reads the dative, an easy correction; but it is perhaps safer to take the accusative as a sort of anacoluthon “occasioned by the parallel of the previous sentence” τάς γε πολλὰς—εὕροι (J. and C.). Baiter brackets the verb ἐπιτεύξει.

καὶ μὴν ‐‐ σφόδρα gives a third feature of the σωφροσύνη of a city. We have shewn our city to be (1) κρείττων αὑτῆς. (2) κρείττων ἡδονῶν τε καὶ ἐπιθυμιῶν. It is also (3) ὁμονοητικὴ περὶ τοῦ οὕστινας δεῖ ἄρχειν. (3) corresponds to κόσμος, (2) to ἐγκράτεια, (1) to κρείττω αὑτοῦ in 430 E. Thus the discussion in this chapter follows a chiastic order.

ἐν ἀμφοτέροις . Cf. 442 C, D. Aristotle and others seem to have supposed that σωφροσύνη was the special virtue of the lowest class in the State and the lowest element in the soul: see Top. V 6. 136^{b} 10 ff. and 8. 138^{b} 1 ff. and [Arist.] περἰ ἀρετῶν καὶ κακιῶν 1. 1249^{a} 30 ff. ἐν ἀμφοτέροις proves this view erroneous. The error arose partly perhaps from a desire to make the theory superficially symmetrical, partly perhaps from a notion that Plato's rulers would not be likely to dispute their own right to rule. But σωφροσύνη in Plato's sense is necessary for his Rulers as well as for their subjects; without it, they might nolle episcopari: cf. I 346 D note

Plato Republic 4.431

ed. John Burnet

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