Plato, Republic, ed. John Burnet, 4.432

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[432]
ὅτι οὐχ ὥσπερ ἡ ἀνδρεία καὶ ἡ σοφία ἐν μέρει τινὶ 432a ἑκατέρα ἐνοῦσα ἡ μὲν σοφήν, ἡ δὲ ἀνδρείαν τὴν πόλιν παρείχετο, οὐχ οὕτω ποιεῖ αὕτη, ἀλλὰ διʼ ὅλης ἀτεχνῶς τέταται διὰ πασῶν παρεχομένη συνᾴδοντας τούς τε ἀσθενεστάτους ταὐτὸν καὶ τοὺς ἰσχυροτάτους καὶ τοὺς μέσους, εἰ μὲν βούλει, φρονήσει, εἰ δὲ βούλει, ἰσχύι, εἰ δέ, καὶ πλήθει ἢ χρήμασιν ἢ ἄλλῳ ὁτῳοῦν τῶν τοιούτων· ὥστε ὀρθότατʼ ἂν φαῖμεν ταύτην τὴν ὁμόνοιαν σωφροσύνην εἶναι, χείρονός τε καὶ ἀμείνονος κατὰ φύσιν συμφωνίαν ὁπότερον δεῖ ἄρχειν καὶ ἐν πόλει καὶ ἐν ἑνὶ ἑκάστῳ. 432b
πάνυ μοι, ἔφη, συνδοκεῖ.
εἶεν, ἦν δʼ ἐγώ· τὰ μὲν τρία ἡμῖν ἐν τῇ πόλει κατῶπται, ὥς γε οὑτωσὶ δόξαι· τὸ δὲ δὴ λοιπὸν εἶδος, διʼ ὃ ἂν ἔτι ἀρετῆς μετέχοι πόλις, τί ποτʼ ἂν εἴη; δῆλον γὰρ ὅτι τοῦτʼ ἐστὶν ἡ δικαιοσύνη.
δῆλον.
οὐκοῦν, ὦ Γλαύκων, νῦν δὴ ἡμᾶς δεῖ ὥσπερ κυνηγέτας τινὰς θάμνον κύκλῳ περιίστασθαι προσέχοντας τὸν νοῦν, μή πῃ διαφύγῃ ἡ δικαιοσύνη καὶ ἀφανισθεῖσα ἄδηλος γένηται. 432c φανερὸν γὰρ δὴ ὅτι ταύτῃ πῃ ἔστιν· ὅρα οὖν καὶ προθυμοῦ κατιδεῖν, ἐάν πως πρότερος ἐμοῦ ἴδῃς καὶ ἐμοὶ φράσῃς.
εἰ γὰρ ὤφελον, ἔφη. ἀλλὰ μᾶλλον, ἐάν μοι ἑπομένῳ χρῇ καὶ τὰ δεικνύμενα δυναμένῳ καθορᾶν, πάνυ μοι μετρίως χρήσῃ.
ἕπου, ἦν δʼ ἐγώ, εὐξάμενος μετʼ ἐμοῦ.
ποιήσω ταῦτα, ἀλλὰ μόνον, ἦ δʼ ὅς, ἡγοῦ.
καὶ μήν, εἶπον ἐγώ, δύσβατός γέ τις ὁ τόπος φαίνεται καὶ ἐπίσκιος· ἔστι γοῦν σκοτεινὸς καὶ δυσδιερεύνητος. ἀλλὰ γὰρ ὅμως ἰτέον. 432d
ἰτέον γάρ, ἔφη.
καὶ ἐγὼ κατιδών, ἰοὺ ἰού, εἶπον, ὦ Γλαύκων· κινδυνεύομέν τι ἔχειν ἴχνος, καί μοι δοκεῖ οὐ πάνυ τι ἐκφευξεῖσθαι ἡμᾶς.
εὖ ἀγγέλλεις, ἦ δʼ ὅς.
ἦ μήν, ἦν δʼ ἐγώ, βλακικόν γε ἡμῶν τὸ πάθος.
τὸ ποῖον;
πάλαι, ὦ μακάριε, φαίνεται πρὸ ποδῶν ἡμῖν ἐξ ἀρχῆς κυλινδεῖσθαι, καὶ οὐχ ἑωρῶμεν ἄρʼ αὐτό, ἀλλʼ ἦμεν καταγελαστότατοι· ὥσπερ οἱ ἐν ταῖς χερσὶν ἔχοντες ζητοῦσιν 432e ἐνίοτε ὃ ἔχουσιν, καὶ ἡμεῖς εἰς αὐτὸ μὲν οὐκ ἀπεβλέπομεν, πόρρω δέ ποι ἀπεσκοποῦμεν, ᾗ δὴ καὶ ἐλάνθανεν ἴσως ἡμᾶς.
πῶς, ἔφη, λέγεις;
οὕτως, εἶπον, ὡς δοκοῦμέν μοι καὶ λέγοντες αὐτὸ καὶ ἀκούοντες πάλαι οὐ μανθάνειν ἡμῶν αὐτῶν, ὅτι ἐλέγομεν τρόπον τινὰ αὐτό.
μακρόν, ἔφη, τὸ προοίμιον τῷ ἐπιθυμοῦντι ἀκοῦσαι.

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).) — 4.432 focus

[432] Because its operation is unlike that of courage and wisdom, which residing in separate parts 432a respectively made the city, the one wise and the other brave. That is not the way of soberness, but it extends literally through the entire gamut¹ throughout, bringing about² the unison in the same chant of the strongest, the weakest and the intermediate, whether in wisdom or, if you please,³ in strength, or for that matter in numbers, wealth, or any similar criterion. So that we should be quite right in affirming this unanimity⁴ to be soberness, the concord of the naturally superior and inferior 432b as to which ought to rule both in the state and the individual.⁵ I entirely concur, he said. Very well, said I. We have made out these three forms in our city to the best of our present judgement.⁶ What can be the remaining form that⁷ would give the city still another virtue? For it is obvious that the remainder is justice. Obvious. Now then,⁸ Glaucon, is the time for us like huntsmen⁹ to surround the covert and keep close watch that justice may not slip through and get away from us and vanish 432c from our sight. It plainly must be somewhere hereabouts. Keep your eyes open then and do your best to descry it. You may see it before I do and point it out to me. Would that I could, he said; but I think rather that if you find in me one who can follow you and discern what you point out to him you will be making a very fair¹⁰ use of me. Pray¹¹ for success then, said I, and follow along with me. That I will do, only lead on, he said. And truly, said I, it appears to be an inaccessible place, lying in deep shadows. It certainly is a dark covert, 432d not easy to beat up. But all the same on we must go. Yes, on. And I caught view and gave a hulloa and said, Glaucon, I think we have found its trail and I don’t believe it will get away from us. I am glad to hear that, said he. Truly, said I, we were slackers¹² indeed. How so? Why, all the time, bless your heart, the thing apparently was tumbling about our feet¹³ from the start and yet we couldn’t see it, but were most ludicrous, like 432e people who sometimes hunt for what they hold in their hands.¹⁴ So we did not turn our eyes upon it, but looked off into the distance, which perhaps was the reason it escaped us. What do you mean? he said. This, I replied, that it seems to me that though we were speaking of it and hearing about it all the time we did not understand ourselves¹⁵ or realize that we were speaking of it in a sense. That is a tedious prologue, he said, for an eager listener.

Commentary

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

δἰ ὅλης ‐‐ διὰ πασῶν . δἰ ὅλης sc. τῆς πόλεως, not λύρας, as J. and C. strangely suppose. διὰ πασῶν sc. τῶν χορδῶν should be taken with ξυνᾴδοντας (so also Schneider). ἡ διὰ πασῶν συμφωνία is the octave (Arist. Probl. XIX 35. 920^{a} 27 ff.), the καλλίστη συμφωνία, according to the Greeks (Arist. l.c.), readily sounding to the ear as absolute unison; hence the point of ταὐτόν, which is an accusative depending directly on ξυνᾴδοντας. See Arist. l.c. 14. 918^{b} 7 ff. διὰ τί λανθάνει τὸ διὰ πασῶν καὶ δοκεῖ ὁμόφωνον εἶναι, οἷον ἐν τῷ φοινικίῳ καὶ ἐν τῷ ἀνθρώπῳ; The whole expression διὰ πασῶν ξυνᾴδοντας ταὐτόν therefore means that the concord of the citizens on the matter in question is absolute and complete. Further than this I do not think the comparison is to be pressed. If we seek to find analogies between ἀσθενεστάτους, ἰσχυροτάτους, μέσους and the ὑπάτη, νήτη and μέση of the scale, we are met by the difficulty that the μέση cannot be said to produce the same ( ταὐτόν) note as the ὑπάτη and νήτη, and we are not at liberty to suppose that Plato is thinking of ἡ δὶς διὰ πασῶν in the face of his own words, which refer only to a single octave ( διὰ πασῶν παρεχομ νη κτλ.). In talking of σωφροσύνη Plato usually distinguishes only between two classes—rulers and ruled: 431 D, E and infra χείρονός τε καὶ ἀμείνονος. See also on 443 D.

φρονήσει ‐‐ ἰσχύϊ ‐‐ πλήθει define ἀσθενεστάτους, ἰσχυροτάτους, μέσους. The equipoise and measured cadence of this stately sentence may well suggest a chorus of voices singing in unison. Cf. III 401 C. Cobet's excision of the second βούλει is sadly out of tune.

ταύτην τὴν ὁμόνοιαν prepares us for the definition about to follow. There are various ὁμόνοιαι: this one is agreement ὁπότερον δεῖ ἄρχειν etc.

χείρονος κτλ. : ‘concord between the naturally better and the naturally worse, on the question which should rule, whether in a city or in an individual.’ ἐν ἑνὶ ἑκάστῳ anticipates 442 C f.; but is justified here by 431 A, B.

ὥς γε ‐‐ δόξαι . This phrase is apparently quite unique in Plato: see Grünenwald cited on 430 E.

ὥσπερ κυνηγέτας . The image is a favourite one with Plato: cf. Laws 654 E, Parm. 128 C , Lys. 218 C . Other examples may be found in Stallbaum's note on this passage. The particular kind of hunting from which Plato takes his illustration is clearly described in Xen. de Ven. 8. 4—8. A net was drawn round the bush where the hare was, and the hunters stood round, ready μεταθεῖν κατὰ τὰ ἴχνη, ἐὰν ἐκκυλισθῇ ἐκ τῶν δικτύων.

φράσῃς : ‘point out.’ There is no occasion to read (with Ast and q) καί μοι φράσεις.

μετρίῳ . See cr. n. μετρίως χρῆσθαι could only mean ‘to treat fairly,’ but this is not to the point. The only relevant meaning is ‘you will find me very tolerable,’ and μετρίῳ μοι χρήσει conveys this sense exactly. Cf. ἑπομένῳ χρῇ—καὶ δυναμένῳ and Xen. Cyr. III 2. 4 ὀλίγοις τε καὶ ἀσθενέσι χρησαίμεθ’ ἂν πολεμίοις, Symp. 2 9, 10. On the error see Introd. § 5.

εὐξάμενος : like a pious huntsman: cf. Xen. de Ven. 6. 13 εὐξάμενον τῷ Ἀπόλλωνι καὶ τῇ Ἀρτέμιδι τῇ Ἀγροτέρᾳ μεταδοῦναι τῆς θήρας. Cf. also (with Stallbaum) Phil. 25 B εὔχου δὴ καὶ σκόπει and Tim. 27 C . ἕπου οὖν (suggested by Richards) seems to me much less spirited and picturesque than ἕπου; and the cacophony is also unpleasing. For the asyndeton cf. II 373 E note

ἔστι γοῦν ‐‐ δυσδιερεύνητος has been objected to as adding little or nothing to δύσβατος—ἐπίσκιος. But δυσδιερεύνητος, ‘difficult to beat,’ said of beating or scouring the brake to rouse ( κινεῖν Xen. de Ven. 8. 7) the game and drive it out into the net, could ill be spared; so apt a word is much too good for a copyist. Cf. Menex. 240 B , where διερευνᾶσθαι is used of the famous ‘beating’ of Euboea by Datis' soldiers: and see also Laws 698 D.

ἰοῦ, ἰοῦ : ‘Joy! Joy!’ ἰού dolentis, ἰοῦ gaudentis, according to the Scholiast on Ar. Peace 318 : cf. Suidas s.v. Ancient authorities differed on the point (see Blaydes' critical note l.c.), but modern scholars for the most part agree with Suidas.

ἐκφευξεῖσθαι ‐‐ εὖ ἀγγέλλεις . The contracted form of the future of φεύγω is established by the authority both of the Paris MS, and also of Aristophanes and Euripides, as Schanz has proved (Vol. XII p. xvi). Schanz may be right in supposing that it is borrowed “ex ore populi.” For εὖ ἀγγέλλεις Phrynichus (S. V. εὐαγγελίζομαί σε) apparently read εὐαγγελεῖς, on which see Lobeck Phryn. p. 632 and Cobet N. L. p. 163. εὐαγγελῶ does not seem to be used in Attic prose. In Theaet. 144 B εὖ ἀγγέλλεις is read by B, εὖ ἀγγελεῖς by T.

Plato Republic 4.432

ed. John Burnet

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