Plato, Republic, ed. John Burnet, 9.588

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[588]
ἀμήχανον, ἔφη, λογισμὸν καταπεφόρηκας τῆς διαφορότητος 588a τοῖν ἀνδροῖν, τοῦ τε δικαίου καὶ τοῦ ἀδίκου, πρὸς ἡδονήν τε καὶ λύπην.
καὶ μέντοι καὶ ἀληθῆ καὶ προσήκοντά γε, ἦν δʼ ἐγώ, βίοις ἀριθμόν, εἴπερ αὐτοῖς προσήκουσιν ἡμέραι καὶ νύκτες καὶ μῆνες καὶ ἐνιαυτοί.
ἀλλὰ μήν, ἔφη, προσήκουσιν.
οὐκοῦν εἰ τοσοῦτον ἡδονῇ νικᾷ ὁ ἀγαθός τε καὶ δίκαιος τὸν κακόν τε καὶ ἄδικον, ἀμηχάνῳ δὴ ὅσῳ πλείονι νικήσει εὐσχημοσύνῃ τε βίου καὶ κάλλει καὶ ἀρετῇ;
ἀμηχάνῳ μέντοι νὴ Δία, ἔφη. 588b
εἶεν δή, εἶπον· ἐπειδὴ ἐνταῦθα λόγου γεγόναμεν, ἀναλάβωμεν τὰ πρῶτα λεχθέντα, διʼ ἃ δεῦρʼ ἥκομεν. ἦν δέ που λεγόμενον λυσιτελεῖν ἀδικεῖν τῷ τελέως μὲν ἀδίκῳ, δοξαζομένῳ δὲ δικαίῳ· ἢ οὐχ οὕτως ἐλέχθη;
οὕτω μὲν οὖν.
νῦν δή, ἔφην, αὐτῷ διαλεγώμεθα, ἐπειδὴ διωμολογησάμεθα τό τε ἀδικεῖν καὶ τὸ δίκαια πράττειν ἣν ἑκάτερον ἔχει δύναμιν.
πῶς; ἔφη.
εἰκόνα πλάσαντες τῆς ψυχῆς λόγῳ, ἵνα εἰδῇ ὁ ἐκεῖνα λέγων οἷα ἔλεγεν. 588c
ποίαν τινά; ἦ δʼ ὅς.
τῶν τοιούτων τινά, ἦν δʼ ἐγώ, οἷαι μυθολογοῦνται παλαιαὶ γενέσθαι φύσεις, ἥ τε Χιμαίρας καὶ ἡ Σκύλλης καὶ Κερβέρου, καὶ ἄλλαι τινὲς συχναὶ λέγονται συμπεφυκυῖαι ἰδέαι πολλαὶ εἰς ἓν γενέσθαι.
λέγονται γάρ, ἔφη.
πλάττε τοίνυν μίαν μὲν ἰδέαν θηρίου ποικίλου καὶ πολυκεφάλου, ἡμέρων δὲ θηρίων ἔχοντος κεφαλὰς κύκλῳ καὶ ἀγρίων, καὶ δυνατοῦ μεταβάλλειν καὶ φύειν ἐξ αὑτοῦ πάντα ταῦτα. 588d
δεινοῦ πλάστου, ἔφη, τὸ ἔργον· ὅμως δέ, ἐπειδὴ εὐπλαστότερον κηροῦ καὶ τῶν τοιούτων λόγος, πεπλάσθω.
μίαν δὴ τοίνυν ἄλλην ἰδέαν λέοντος, μίαν δὲ ἀνθρώπου· πολὺ δὲ μέγιστον ἔστω τὸ πρῶτον καὶ δεύτερον τὸ δεύτερον.
ταῦτα, ἔφη, ῥᾴω, καὶ πέπλασται.
σύναπτε τοίνυν αὐτὰ εἰς ἓν τρία ὄντα, ὥστε πῃ συμπεφυκέναι ἀλλήλοις.
συνῆπται, ἔφη.
περίπλασον δὴ αὐτοῖς ἔξωθεν ἑνὸς εἰκόνα, τὴν τοῦ ἀνθρώπου, ὥστε τῷ μὴ δυναμένῳ τὰ ἐντὸς ὁρᾶν, ἀλλὰ τὸ 588e ἔξω μόνον ἔλυτρον ὁρῶντι, ἓν ζῷον φαίνεσθαι, ἄνθρωπον.
περιπέπλασται, 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).) — 9.588 focus

[588] An overwhelming¹ and baffling calculation, he said, of the difference² between the just and 588a the unjust man in respect of pleasure and pain! And what is more, it is a true number and pertinent to the lives of men if days and nights and months and years pertain to them. They certainly do, he said. Then if in point of pleasure the victory of the good and just man over the bad and unjust is so great as this, he will surpass him inconceivably in decency and beauty of life and virtue. Inconceivably indeed, by Zeus, he said.
Very good, said I. And now that we have come to this point in the argument, 588b let us take up again the statement with which we began and that has brought us to this pass.³ It was, I believe, averred that injustice is profitable to the completely unjust⁴ man who is reputed just. Was not that the proposition? Yes, that. Let us, then, reason with its proponent now that we have agreed on the essential nature of injustice and just conduct. How? he said. By fashioning in our discourse a symbolic image of the soul, that the maintainer of that proposition may see precisely what it is that he was saying. 588c What sort of an image? he said. One of those natures that the ancient fables tell of, said I, as that of the Chimaera⁵ or Scylla⁶ or Cerberus,⁷ and the numerous other examples that are told of many forms grown together in one. Yes, they do tell of them. Mould, then, a single shape of a manifold and many-headed beast⁸ that has a ring of heads of tame and wild beasts and can change them and cause to spring forth from itself all such growths. 588d It is the task of a cunning artist,⁹ he said, but nevertheless, since speech is more plastic than wax¹⁰ and other such media, assume that it has been so fashioned. Then fashion one other form of a lion and one of a man and let the first be far the largest¹¹ and the second second in size. That is easier, he said, and is done. Join the three in one, then, so as in some sort to grow together. They are so united, he said. Then mould about them outside the likeness of one, that of the man, so that to anyone who is unable 588e to look within¹² but who can see only the external sheath it appears to be one living creature, the man. The sheath is made fast about him, he said.

Commentary

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

προσήκοντά γε κτλ. 729 is twice 364 1/2, and Philolaus counted 364 1/2 days, and presumably therefore 364 1/2 nights in the year (Censor. de die nat. 19). This explains ἡμέραι καὶ νύκτες. It is not so obvious in what way the number 729 is related to months. On this subject J. and C. remark “12 months in a year: 30 + 1/3 days in a month: 12 x (30 + 1/3)= 364: 2 x 364 1/2=729.” I can see no point in such a calculation. Susemihl on the other hand reminds us that Philolaus believed in a so-called great year of 729 months, and as Plato is following Philolaus in ἡμέραι καὶ νύκτες, we may reasonably suppose that he does so in the rest of the passage, so that καὶ μῆνες will be a reference to Philolaus' great year. See Sus. Gen. Entw. II p. 244 note 3, and on the subject of Philolaus' year of 729 months Zeller^{5} I p. 428 note 3. I have as yet found no evidence for supposing that Philolaus went a step farther and postulated a yet greater year of 729 ordinary years, but the words καὶ ἐνιαυτοί in Plato make it probable that he did so. On this supposition the full explanation of προσήκοντα—ἐνιαυτοί will be

πλέον . See cr. n. πλέον and not πλεῖον is the classical form, though both πλέονι and πλείονι were admissible (Meisterhans^{3} p. 152). The diphthong ει (in A^{2} Π etc.) may therefore be held to favour the reading πλείονι, which I formerly adopted; but the dative is undeniably awkward, and it is better to acquiesce in πλέον: cf. τοσοῦτον ἡδονῇ νικᾷ above.

ἦν δέ που λεγόμενον . The reference is to II 361 A ff. For αὐτῷ C. Schmidt conjectured αὖ οὕτω, which I too hastily adopted in my edition of the text. Glauco and Adimantus are careful in Book II to disclaim the views which they expound; and after ἦν δέ που λεγόμενον it is easy to refer αὐτῷ to the hypothetical person (not necessarily Thrasymachus in particular: see II 358 C and 367 A) for whom they speak: cf. ὁ ἐκεῖνα λέγων presently and ὁ περὶ τοῦ τοιούτου λόγου λέγων (II 360 D), as well as φήσει λογιζόμενος (ib. 366 A). See also on 590 A.

εἰκόνα πλάσαντες κτλ. Cf. Tim. 69 D —70 E and the picture of the soul in Phaedr. 246 A , 253 D ff. We are told by Clement ( Strom. II 20, 1058 C Migne) that Basilides compared man to a wooden horse, peopled by a host of different spirits. The underlying idea of Plato's similitude is that man is a compound of the mortal and the immortal, standing midway between corruptibility and incorruptibility: θνητῆς καὶ ἀθανάτου φύσεως μεθόριον (Philo de mund. opif. 46). In the noble lines of George Herbert:

Χιμαίρας κτλ. The Scholiast thus explains: ἡ Χίμαιρα τὸ εἶδός ἐστι ‘πρόσθε λέων, ὄπιθεν δὲ δράκων, μέσση δὲ Χίμαιρα’—Σκύλλα δὲ—πρόσωπον ἔχουσα καὶ στέρνα γυναικός, ἐκ λαγόνων δὲ κυνῶν κεφαλὰς ἓξ καὶ πόδας δώδεκα—εἶχε δὲ οὗτος ( Κέρβερος) τρεῖς μὲν κυνῶν κεφαλάς, οὐρὰν δὲ δράκοντος, κατὰ νώτου δὲ παντοίων ὄφεων εἷχε κεφαλάς .

καὶ ἄλλαι τινὲς κτλ. : e.g. Hippocentaurs, Gorgons, Pegasus ( Phaedr. 229 D ). The relatival is succeeded by an independent sentence, as often (II 357 B note).

θηρίου ‐‐ πολυκεφάλου . Cf. Phaedr. 230 A θηρίον—Τυφῶνος πολυπλοκώτερον καὶ μᾶλλον ἐπιτεθυμμένον, Tim. 70 E (the ἐπιθυμητικόν as a θρέμμα ἄγριον) and Arist. Pol. Γ 16. 1287^{a} 30 ἥ τε γὰρ ἐπιθυμία τοιοῦτον (viz. θηρίον). For the epithet ποικίλου see VIII 557 C, 561 E and πολυειδίαν in 580 D.

ἡμέρων δέ . Madvig would write ἡμέρων τε: but ἡμέρων—ἀγρίων is loosely treated as a new point in the description, although it only elaborates and explains πολυκεφάλου, and δέ does not balance the preceding μέν. So also J. and C.

μέγιστον ‐‐ τὸ πρῶτον . The ἐπιθυμητικόν is the largest part of soul: see IV 442 A and II 379 C note

σύναπτε τοίνυν κτλ. Krohn finds fault with Plato for failing to preserve the essential unity of the individual throughout this comparison ( Pl. St. p. 229). But, according to Plato, the true unity of the individual is realised only through the subjection of the two lower ‘parts’ of soul to the highest (586 E note); and this subjection is described in 589 A, B.

Plato Republic 9.588

ed. John Burnet

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