James Adam, Commentary on Plato, Republic, ed. James Adam, 7.521B

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[521B] 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 .

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.) — 7.521 focus

[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.

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.”

James Adam Commentary on Plato, Republic 7.521B

ed. James Adam

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