Plato, Republic, ed. John Burnet, 7.521

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[521]
οὕτω γὰρ ἔχει, ἦν δʼ ἐγώ, ὦ ἑταῖρε· εἰ μὲν βίον ἐξευρήσεις 521a ἀμείνω τοῦ ἄρχειν τοῖς μέλλουσιν ἄρξειν, ἔστι σοι δυνατὴ γενέσθαι πόλις εὖ οἰκουμένη· ἐν μόνῃ γὰρ αὐτῇ ἄρξουσιν οἱ τῷ ὄντι πλούσιοι, οὐ χρυσίου ἀλλʼ οὗ δεῖ τὸν εὐδαίμονα πλουτεῖν, ζωῆς ἀγαθῆς τε καὶ ἔμφρονος. εἰ δὲ πτωχοὶ καὶ πεινῶντες ἀγαθῶν ἰδίων ἐπὶ τὰ δημόσια ἴασιν, ἐντεῦθεν οἰόμενοι τἀγαθὸν δεῖν ἁρπάζειν, οὐκ ἔστι· περιμάχητον γὰρ τὸ ἄρχειν γιγνόμενον, οἰκεῖος ὢν καὶ ἔνδον ὁ τοιοῦτος πόλεμος αὐτούς τε ἀπόλλυσι καὶ τὴν ἄλλην πόλιν.
ἀληθέστατα, ἔφη. 521b
ἔχεις οὖν, ἦν δʼ ἐγώ, βίον ἄλλον τινὰ πολιτικῶν ἀρχῶν καταφρονοῦντα ἢ τὸν τῆς ἀληθινῆς φιλοσοφίας;
οὐ μὰ τὸν Δία, ἦ δʼ ὅς.
ἀλλὰ μέντοι δεῖ γε μὴ ἐραστὰς τοῦ ἄρχειν ἰέναι ἐπʼ αὐτό· εἰ δὲ μή, οἵ γε ἀντερασταὶ μαχοῦνται.
πῶς δʼ οὔ;
τίνας οὖν ἄλλους ἀναγκάσεις ἰέναι ἐπὶ φυλακὴν τῆς πόλεως ἢ οἳ περὶ τούτων τε φρονιμώτατοι διʼ ὧν ἄριστα πόλις οἰκεῖται, ἔχουσί τε τιμὰς ἄλλας καὶ βίον ἀμείνω τοῦ πολιτικοῦ;
οὐδένας ἄλλους, ἔφη. 521c
βούλει οὖν τοῦτʼ ἤδη σκοπῶμεν, τίνα τρόπον οἱ τοιοῦτοι ἐγγενήσονται, καὶ πῶς τις ἀνάξει αὐτοὺς εἰς φῶς, ὥσπερ ἐξ Ἅιδου λέγονται δή τινες εἰς θεοὺς ἀνελθεῖν;
πῶς γὰρ οὐ βούλομαι; ἔφη.
τοῦτο δή, ὡς ἔοικεν, οὐκ ὀστράκου ἂν εἴη περιστροφή, ἀλλὰ ψυχῆς περιαγωγὴ ἐκ νυκτερινῆς τινος ἡμέρας εἰς ἀληθινήν, τοῦ ὄντος οὖσαν ἐπάνοδον, ἣν δὴ φιλοσοφίαν ἀληθῆ φήσομεν εἶναι.
πάνυ μὲν οὖν.
οὐκοῦν δεῖ σκοπεῖσθαι τί τῶν μαθημάτων ἔχει τοιαύτην 521d δύναμιν;
πῶς γὰρ οὔ;
τί ἂν οὖν εἴη, ὦ Γλαύκων, μάθημα ψυχῆς ὁλκὸν ἀπὸ τοῦ γιγνομένου ἐπὶ τὸ ὄν; τόδε δʼ ἐννοῶ λέγων ἅμα· οὐκ ἀθλητὰς μέντοι πολέμου ἔφαμεν τούτους ἀναγκαῖον εἶναι νέους ὄντας;
ἔφαμεν γάρ.
δεῖ ἄρα καὶ τοῦτο προσέχειν τὸ μάθημα ὃ ζητοῦμεν πρὸς ἐκείνῳ.
τὸ ποῖον;
μὴ ἄχρηστον πολεμικοῖς ἀνδράσιν εἶναι.
δεῖ μέντοι, ἔφη, εἴπερ οἷόν τε.
γυμναστικῇ μὴν καὶ μουσικῇ ἔν γε τῷ πρόσθεν ἐπαιδεύοντο 521e ἡμῖν.
ἦν ταῦτα, ἔφη.
καὶ γυμναστικὴ μέν που περὶ γιγνόμενον καὶ ἀπολλύμενον τετεύτακεν· σώματος γὰρ αὔξης καὶ φθίσεως. ἐπιστατεῖ.
φαίνεται.
τοῦτο μὲν δὴ οὐκ ἂν εἴη ὃ ζητοῦμεν μάθημα.

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).) — 7.521 focus

[521] “For the fact is, dear friend,” said I, “if you can discover a better way of life than office-holding 521a for your future rulers, a well-governed city becomes a possibility. For only in such a state will those rule who are really rich,¹ not in gold, but in the wealth that makes happiness—a good and wise life. But if, being beggars and starvelings² from lack of goods of their own, they turn to affairs of state thinking that it is thence that they should grasp their own good, then it is impossible. For when office and rule become the prizes of contention,³ such a civil and internecine strife⁴ destroys the office-seekers themselves and the city as well.” 521b “Most true,” he said. “Can you name any other type or ideal of life that looks with scorn on political office except the life of true philosophers⁵?” I asked. “No, by Zeus,” he said. “But what we require,” I said, “is that those who take office⁶ should not be lovers of rule. Otherwise there will be a contest with rival lovers.” Surely. “What others, then, will you compel to undertake the guardianship of the city than those who have most intelligence of the principles that are the means of good government and who possess distinctions of another kind and a life that is preferable to the political life?” “No others,” he said. 521c
“Would you, then, have us proceed to consider how such men may be produced in a state and how they may be led upward⁷ to the light even as some⁸ are fabled to have ascended from Hades to the gods?” “Of course I would.” “So this, it seems, would not be the whirling of the shell⁹ in the children’s game, but a conversion and turning about of the soul from a day whose light is darkness to the veritable day—that ascension¹⁰ to reality of our parable which we will affirm to be true philosophy.” “By all means.” “Must we not, then, consider what studies have 521d the power to effect this?” Of course. “What, then, Glaucon, would be the study that would draw the soul away from the world of becoming to the world of being? A thought strikes me while I speak¹¹: Did we not say that these men in youth must be athletes of war¹²” “We did.” “Then the study for which we are seeking must have this additional¹³ qualification.” “What one?” “That it be not useless to soldiers.¹⁴” “Why, yes, it must,” he said, “if that is possible.” 521e “But in our previous account they were educated in gymnastics and music.¹⁵” “They were, he said. “And gymnastics, I take it, is devoted¹⁶ to that which grows and perishes; for it presides over the growth and decay of the body.¹⁷” Obviously. “Then this cannot be the study 522a that we seek.”

Commentary

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

οὐ χρυσίου κτλ. Cf. VIII 547 B φύσει ὄντε πλουσίω τὰς ψυχάς and Phaedr. ad fin. πλούσιον δὲ νομίζοιμι τὸν σοφόν.

πτωχοὶ κτλ. : ‘men who are poor and an-hungered for lack of goods of their own.’ So Schneider and Bosanquet rightly explain the passage. πεινᾶν is used almost in its original etymological sense ( πεῖνα from πέν‐ης, πέν‐ομαι): cf. Xen. Cyr. VII 5. 50 and VIII 3. 39 ὦ μακάριε σὺ τά τε ἄλλα καὶ αὐτὸ τοῦτο, ὅτι ἐκ πένητος πλούσιος γεγένησαι· πολὺ γὰρ οἴομαί σε καὶ διὰ τοῦτο ἥδιον πλουτεῖν, ὅτι πεινήσας χρημάτων πεπλούτηκας. The contrast with πλούσιοι, and the presence of πτωχοί, make it easy to catch the meaning. The translation ‘hunger after private advantages’ (D. and V., Jowett) is in my opinion incorrect.

τἀγαθόν ‘their good’ (Bosanquet), hardly ‘the chief good’ (Jowett). Not possessing any ἴδια ἀγαθά in the shape of virtue, they are fain to make up for it at the expense of the State.

περιμάχητον κτλ. For the construction cf. (with J. and C.) Phaed. 69 B .

τοῦ ἄρχειν is personified and ἰέναι ἐπ’ αὐτό should be translated ‘woo her.’ Cf. VI 489 D note

οἳ κτλ. The copula is rarely omitted in a relative clause except in statements of proportion like Gorg. 465 C . An example occurs in II 370 E: see also Kühner-Blass Gr. Gr. II 1, p. 41. We ought not to revert to the old reading οἵπερ for οἳ περὶ (with q and E. S. Thompson, Camb. Phil. Soc. Proc. XXI p. 14, who also suggests οἵπερ περὶ), even if— which is far from clear— ὅσπερ can, as Thompson says, dispense with the copula more easily than ὅς .

λέγονται δή τινες κτλ. With εἰς θεοὺς ἀνελθεῖν cf. Plut. de ser. num. vind. 566 A ἔλεγε δὲ ταύτῃ τὸν Διόνυσον εἰς θεοὺς ἀνελθεῖν. If Plato's words are to be taken in their full significance, we can hardly (with J. and C.) suppose that the allusion is to Heracles, Pollux etc., for Heracles' descent to Hades was an incident which happened long before his ascent to Heaven; and Pollux's life among the gods was intermittent. Cf. Schneider in his translation p. 304 note 187. Schneider himself suggests that Plato is thinking of legends about e.g. Aesculapius' deliverance from Hades, after Zeus had smitten him (cf. III 408 C and Roscher's Lexicon d. Mythologie I p. 620), and others have thought of Briareos and the ἑκατόγχειροι: see Il. I 402—405 and cf. Hes. Theog. 617—721. Mr Walter Headlam has pointed out to me that Semele was also raised from Hades to Heaven, citing Paus. II 31. 2 and ib. 37. 5: cf. also Plut. l.c. Διόνυσον εἰς θεοὺς ἀνελθεῖν καὶ τὴν Σεμέλην ἀνάγειν ὕστερον. These examples are certainly more to the point. It is worthy of remark that Justin Martyr in a remarkable passage of his Apologia pro Christianis speaks of the ascent of Asclepius and others into Heaven as Pagan parallels to the Christian doctrine of the Ascension: Ἰησοῦν Χριστὸν—σταυρωθέντα καὶ ἀποθανόντα καὶ ἀναστάντα ἀνεληλυθέναι εἰς τὸν οὐρανόν, οὐ παρὰ τοὺς παρ’ ὑμῖν λεγομένους υἱοὺς τῷ Διῒ καινόν τι φέρομεν. πόσους γὰρ υἱοὺς φάσκουσι τοῦ Διὸς οἱ παρ’ ὑμῖν τιμώμενοι συγγραφεῖς ἐπίστασθε, Ἑρμῆν μὲν λόγον τὸν ἑρμηνευτικὸν καὶ πάντων διδάσκαλον· Ἀσκληπιὸν δὲ καὶ θεραπευτὴν γενόμενον, κεραυνωθέντα, ἀνεληλυθέναι εἰς οὐρανόν· Διόνυσον δὲ διασπαραχθέντα κτλ. (l.c. I 21: cf. also Dialogus cum Tryphone 69). I was once half inclined to suspect that the clause ὥσπερ ἐξ Αἵδου —ἀνελθεῖν (although it appears in all MSS) might be an early satirical adscript by some Pagan scribe on the doctrine of our Lord's descent into Hell, and subsequent resurrection and ascent into Heaven. τινες might well be a specific allusion (518 B note), and there is more than a suspicion of satire in δή. But I have no longer any doubt that the text is sound.

ὀστράκου ‐‐ περιστροφή . On the different interpretations given by the ancients of this proverb see App. VI. The proverb is derived from the game of ὀστρακίνδα, the authorities for which are cited by Grasberger Erziehung u. Unterricht I pp. 57—60. The players were divided into two parties, separated by a line. A shell, black on one side, and white on the other, was thrown on the ground by one of the boys, who shouted νὺξ ἡμέρα or νὺξ ἢ ἡμέρα, ‘Heads or Tails,’ as he threw it. According as the white or black fell uppermost, one side ran away and the other gave chase. Plato means that education is not, like the ‘spinning of a coin,’ an affair of no consequence, to be settled off-hand, and by chance, but a slow and laborious scientific process, dealing with the gravest of all possible issues. See also App. VI.

ψυχῆς περιαγωγὴ κτλ. : ‘the turning round of a soul from a day which is as night into the true day, that is, the ascent into Being’ (not the tarrying in γιγνόμενον, which is the νυκτερινὴ ἡμέρα). In νυκτερινῆς τινος ἡμέρας (for which see 520 C notes) Plato, more suo, plays on the exclamation ‘ νὺξ ἡμέρα’: cf. IV 422 D, E notes (It may be noted that Plato's adaptation is from νὺξ ἡμέρα rather than from νὺξ ἢ ἡμέρα.) The words τοῦ ὄντος—ἐπάνοδον explain the figure, οὖσαν ‘that is’ being used as in φορὰν οὖσαν βάθους 528 D. The daylight in which the ἀπαίδευτος lives is darkness; the true day is the ascent of the soul out of the ὁρατόν and δοξαστόν into the νοητόν: cf. 517 B τὴν δὲ ἄνω ἀνάβασιν καὶ θέαν τῶν ἄνω τὴν εἰς τὸν νοητὸν τόπον τῆς ψυχῆς ἄνοδον τιθεὶς οὐχ ἁμαρτήσει τῆς γ’ ἐμῆς ἐλπἰδος. This and this alone is true philosophy. The phrase τὴν τοῦ ὄντος ἐπάνοδον is copied by Alcinous from Plato ( Isag. p. 7 ed. Hermann). Cf. also Clement Strom. V 14 p. 196 Migne ψυχῆς περιαγωγὴ ἐκ νυκτερινῆς τινος ἡμέρας εἰς ἀληθινὴν τοῦ ὄντος (vv. ll. ὄντος and ὄντως ὄντος) οὖσαν ἐπάνοδον κτλ. Other views on the text and interpretation of this passage are discussed in App. VI.

μέντοι . For μέντοι in questions see on I 339 B.

ἔφαμεν . Cf. III 403 E, 416 D and VIII 543 B.

δεῖ ἄρα κτλ. The subject of προσέχειν is τὸ μάθημα ὃ ζητοῦμεν: its object is τοῦτο. With προσέχειν ‘insuper habere’ (a rare use) cf. προσγενέσθαι II 375 E note

ἔν γε τῷ πρόσθεν . II 376 E ff.

τετεύτακεν . τευτάζων· πραγματευόμενος, ἐνδιατρίβων (Tim. Lex. S.V., where Ruhnken elaborately illustrates the word. See also Stephanus-Hase Thes. S.V.). τευτάζω is always, I believe, semi-contemptuous in Plato ( Phil. 56 E . Tim. 90 B ). Brugmann's connexion of the word with σεύω ( Vergl. Gr. I p. 362) may not be right, but the notion that τευτάζω is for ταὐτάζω (L. and S.) is certainly wrong.

Plato Republic 7.521

ed. John Burnet

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