James Adam, Commentary on Plato, Republic, ed. James Adam, 10.614A

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[614A] χρὴ δ’ αὐτὰ ἀκοῦσαι κτλ. The Νέκυια of the Republic is one of the earliest extant Apocalypses, and many of its features reappear in later apocalyptic literature, including that of the early Christian era. See James Apocrypha Anecdota in Robinson's Texts and Studies. A careful comparison of the myth in the Republic with those of the Phaedrus, Gorgias, and Phaedo shews that in spite of discrepancies in detail, the four dialogues conspire to produce what is on the whole a tolerably consistent picture of the destiny of the human soul—a kind of ancient ‘Divina Commedia,’ as Döring points out ( Archiv f. Gesch. d. Philos. VI pp. 475—490). The sources and affinities of Plato's eschatological myths have been much discussed. Besides the article by Döring on Die eschatologischen Mythen d. Plato ( Archiv l.c.) the student should consult Ettig Acheruntica ( Leipziger Stud. XIII 1891, pp. 251—402, especially 284 ff.), Norden Vergilstudien ( Hermes XXVIII 1893, pp. 360—406), and especially Dieterich Nekyia (Leipzig 1893), where the common features in ancient representations of the underworld are clearly exhibited. There are traces of Νέκυιαι before the time of Plato, and the investigations of Dieterich and others have made it clear that the materials of Plato's picture are derived in large measure from Orphic or Pythagorean traditions (Dieterich l.c. pp. 128 ff.: cf. also Norden l.c. p. 374, Rohde Psyche^{2} II pp. 91 ff., and Zeller^{5} I 1. p. 450. Dieterich may be wrong in some of his conjectures, as F. Weber tries to shew in his inaugural dissertation, Platonische Notizen über Orpheus München 1899 p. 20 note, but the broad outlines of his theory are in my opinion established beyond reasonable doubt). Evidence of Pythagorean and Orphic affinities will be cited in the notes. Cf. Proclus in remp. II p. 110 Kroll εἴτε δὲ ἔχει τὰ τῆς ἱστορίας οὕτως εἴτε καὶ μή, ζητεῖν ἄτοπον, τοῦ Πλάτωνος τὰ τοιαῦτα πλάττοντος μὲν οὐδαμῶς, κατὰ δὲ τὴν χρείαν τῶν προκειμένων ἀεὶ παραλαμβάνοντος καὶ χρωμένου πᾶσι μετὰ τῆς πρεπούσης περιβολῆς καὶ οἰκονομίας, ὡς καὶ τῇ Μαντινικῇ ξένῃ καὶ τῷ κατὰ τὸν Γύγου πρόγονον διηγήματι καὶ τῷ κατὰ τοὺς Ἀτλαντικοὺς λόγῳ καὶ πᾶσι τοῖς ὁμοίοις. We may well suppose, however, that the imagination of Plato dealt freely with his materials, and the myth of the Republic bears the unmistakeable impress of Plato's own genius in its artistic finish no less than in its religious and moral teaching.

ἑκάτερος . See cr. n. The accusative appears to be in all MSS except v K and Ξ^{2}.

ἀκοῦσαι is doubted by Stephanus, and bracketed by Ast, Stallbaum, and Baiter. There is nothing offensive in the repetition ἀκοῦσαι—ἀκοῦσαι (cf. VI 511 E note), and the second ἀκοῦσαι is welcome, if not necessary, as defining the exact nature of the debt (‘due to hear,’ i.e. ‘due to be heard,’ like καλὸς ἰδεῖν and the like). “The debt which has been incurred in words” ( ἃ ἐδανείσασθε ἐν τῷ λόγῳ 612 C) “has to be paid in words” (J. and C.). ὑπὸ depends on ὀφειλόμενα rather than on ἀκοῦσαι. J. and C. take ἀκοῦσαι as=‘to have related concerning them,’ comparing ἀκοῦσαι σοφίσματα VI 496 A and Lys. 207 A ; but it is more natural to give the word the same meaning as it bears just before.

Commentary on Plato, Republic. James Adam. ed. James Adam. Cambridge. 1926-1929.

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Current edition Perseus

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

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Πολιτεία Perseus (Platonis Opera Tomus IV: Tetralogia VIII. Burnet, John, editor. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1905.) — 10.614 focus

[614]
ἃ μὲν τοίνυν, ἦν δʼ ἐγώ, ζῶντι τῷ δικαίῳ παρὰ θεῶν τε 614a καὶ ἀνθρώπων ἆθλά τε καὶ μισθοὶ καὶ δῶρα γίγνεται πρὸς ἐκείνοις τοῖς ἀγαθοῖς οἷς αὐτὴ παρείχετο ἡ δικαιοσύνη, τοιαῦτʼ ἂν εἴη.
καὶ μάλʼ, ἔφη, καλά τε καὶ βέβαια.
ταῦτα τοίνυν, ἦν δʼ ἐγώ, οὐδέν ἐστι πλήθει οὐδὲ μεγέθει πρὸς ἐκεῖνα ἃ τελευτήσαντα ἑκάτερον περιμένει· χρὴ δʼ αὐτὰ ἀκοῦσαι, ἵνα τελέως ἑκάτερος αὐτῶν ἀπειλήφῃ τὰ ὑπὸ τοῦ λόγου ὀφειλόμενα ἀκοῦσαι. 614b
λέγοις ἄν, ἔφη, ὡς οὐ πολλὰ ἄλλʼ ἥδιον ἀκούοντι.
ἀλλʼ οὐ μέντοι σοι, ἦν δʼ ἐγώ, Ἀλκίνου γε ἀπόλογον ἐρῶ, ἀλλʼ ἀλκίμου μὲν ἀνδρός, Ἠρὸς τοῦ Ἀρμενίου, τὸ γένος Παμφύλου· ὅς ποτε ἐν πολέμῳ τελευτήσας, ἀναιρεθέντων δεκαταίων τῶν νεκρῶν ἤδη διεφθαρμένων, ὑγιὴς μὲν ἀνῃρέθη, κομισθεὶς δʼ οἴκαδε μέλλων θάπτεσθαι δωδεκαταῖος ἐπὶ τῇ πυρᾷ κείμενος ἀνεβίω, ἀναβιοὺς δʼ ἔλεγεν ἃ ἐκεῖ ἴδοι. ἔφη δέ, ἐπειδὴ οὗ ἐκβῆναι, τὴν ψυχὴν πορεύεσθαι 614c μετὰ πολλῶν, καὶ ἀφικνεῖσθαι σφᾶς εἰς τόπον τινὰ δαιμόνιον, ἐν ᾧ τῆς τε γῆς δύʼ εἶναι χάσματα ἐχομένω ἀλλήλοιν καὶ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ αὖ ἐν τῷ ἄνω ἄλλα καταντικρύ. δικαστὰς δὲ μεταξὺ τούτων καθῆσθαι, οὕς, ἐπειδὴ διαδικάσειαν, τοὺς μὲν δικαίους κελεύειν πορεύεσθαι τὴν εἰς δεξιάν τε καὶ ἄνω διὰ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ, σημεῖα περιάψαντας τῶν δεδικασμένων ἐν τῷ πρόσθεν, τοὺς δὲ ἀδίκους τὴν εἰς ἀριστεράν τε καὶ κάτω, ἔχοντας καὶ τούτους ἐν τῷ ὄπισθεν σημεῖα πάντων ὧν 614d ἔπραξαν. ἑαυτοῦ δὲ προσελθόντος εἰπεῖν ὅτι δέοι αὐτὸν ἄγγελον ἀνθρώποις γενέσθαι τῶν ἐκεῖ καὶ διακελεύοιντό οἱ ἀκούειν τε καὶ θεᾶσθαι πάντα τὰ ἐν τῷ τόπῳ. ὁρᾶν δὴ ταύτῃ μὲν καθʼ ἑκάτερον τὸ χάσμα τοῦ οὐρανοῦ τε καὶ τῆς γῆς ἀπιούσας τὰς ψυχάς, ἐπειδὴ αὐταῖς δικασθείη, κατὰ δὲ τὼ ἑτέρω ἐκ μὲν τοῦ ἀνιέναι ἐκ τῆς γῆς μεστὰς αὐχμοῦ τε καὶ κόνεως, ἐκ δὲ τοῦ ἑτέρου καταβαίνειν ἑτέρας ἐκ τοῦ 614e οὐρανοῦ καθαράς. καὶ τὰς ἀεὶ ἀφικνουμένας ὥσπερ ἐκ πολλῆς πορείας φαίνεσθαι ἥκειν, καὶ ἁσμένας εἰς τὸν λειμῶνα ἀπιούσας οἷον ἐν πανηγύρει κατασκηνᾶσθαι, καὶ ἀσπάζεσθαί τε ἀλλήλας ὅσαι γνώριμαι, καὶ πυνθάνεσθαι τάς τε ἐκ τῆς γῆς ἡκούσας παρὰ τῶν ἑτέρων τὰ ἐκεῖ καὶ τὰς ἐκ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ τὰ παρʼ ἐκείναις.

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).) — 10.614 focus

[614]
Such then while he lives are the prizes, the wages, and the gifts 614a that the just man receives from gods and men in addition to those blessings which justice herself bestowed. And right fair and abiding rewards, he said. Well, these, I said, are nothing in number and magnitude compared with those that await both¹ after death. And we must listen to the tale of them, said I, in order that each may have received in full² what is due to be said of him by our argument. Tell me, he said, 614b since there are not many things to which I would more gladly listen. It is not, let me tell you, said I, the tale³ to Alcinous told⁴ that I shall unfold, but the tale of a warrior bold,⁵ Er, the son of Armenius, by race a Pamphylian.⁶ He once upon a time was slain in battle, and when the corpses were taken up on the tenth day already decayed, was found intact, and having been brought home, at the moment of his funeral, on the twelfth day⁷ as he lay upon the pyre, revived,⁸ and after coming to life related what, he said, he had seen in the world beyond. He said that when his soul⁹ went forth from his body he journeyed with a great company 614c and that they came to a mysterious region¹⁰ where there were two openings side by side in the earth, and above and over against them in the heaven two others, and that judges were sitting¹¹ between these, and that after every judgement they bade the righteous journey to the right and upwards through the heaven with tokens attached¹² to them in front of the judgement passed upon them, and the unjust to take the road to the left¹³ and downward, they too wearing behind signs 614d of all that had befallen them, and that when he himself drew near they told him that he must be the messenger¹⁴ to mankind to tell them of that other world,¹⁵ and they charged him to give ear and to observe everything in the place. And so he said that here he saw, by each opening of heaven and earth, the souls departing after judgement had been passed upon them, while, by the other pair of openings, there came up from the one in the earth souls full of squalor and dust, and from the second there came down from heaven a second procession of souls clean and pure, 614e and that those which arrived from time to time appeared to have come as it were from a long journey and gladly departed to the meadow¹⁶ and encamped¹⁷ there as at a festival,¹⁸ and acquaintances greeted one another, and those which came from the earth questioned the others about conditions up yonder, and those from heaven asked how it fared with those others.

James Adam Commentary on Plato, Republic 10.614A

ed. James Adam

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