Plato

On Polity [The Republic]

The Matters of Polities via the Logos

~A~

~Book I~

Socrates

Yesterday I descended into the Peiraieus with Glaucon, of Ariston,

both to supplicate the Goddess,

and simultaneously,

with the intention of observing in what sort of turn the festival will be produced,

since it is being conducted first in the present.

Indeed, then, to me,

the pomp of the inhabitants appeared to be beautiful,

yet the one that the Thracians were transmitting emerged as no less appropriate.

Having supplicated and having observed,

we were departing upwards towards the urban area,

and then,

Polemarchos, of Cephalos,

having noticed us from afar,

set in motion for our domicile,

ordered his boy to run and give us orders to remain.

And from the rear, the boy, having seized my himation,

said,

'Polemarchos orders you to remain.'

And I turned around and inquired where self might be.

   'This one,' he said,

'approaching from the rear,

but remain.'

'Well then, indeed, let us remain,' said Glaucon.

And a moment later,

Polemarchos was present,

and Adeimantos, the brother of Glaucon,

and Niceratos, of Nicias,

and some others as if they were from the pomp.

Then Polemarchos said,

'O Socrates,

you appear to me as though set in motion,

departing towards the urban area.'

Indeed, you do not opine badly, I said.

'Do you see, then,' said he,

'how numerous we are?'

Indeed, how could I not?

'Either generate of these,' said he,

'superior, or be persuaded to remain of self.'

Is there not, said I,

even now, one that subsists?

How might we convince you that it is requisite to release us?

'Or in turn, do you have power?' said he,

'to persuade those who do not hear?'

'There is no way,' said Glaucon.

'Then,' [said he,]  'In what way for us who do not hear?

By what way might you consider?'

And Adeimantos said,

'Indeed, is it not so, surely,

that you do not know of the lamp event?

It will be in the evening,

from horses, for the Goddess.'

From horses, I said, and indeed,

this lamp event that is being exhibited,

they will pass to one another,

contending by means of horses,

or in what way, you say?

'In this way,'

said Polemarchos,

'And more particularly,

we will produce a vigil per the night.

Surely not, an apt spectacle?

And, to succeed the repast,

we shall elevate and spectate the vigil per the night,

and we shall be conjoined with a multitude of neoteric persons in the self-same place,

and we shall engage in the dialectic.

So, remain and do not create differently.'

And Glaucon said,

'It is apparent that one must remain.'

Well, if it appears so, said I,

then it is necessary to create this.

So, then we came into the residency of Polemarchos,

and in the self-same place,

we discovered,

Lysias and Euthydemos,

brothers of Polemarchos,

and indeed, also,

Thrasymachos the Chalcedonian,

Charmantides the Paeanian,

Cleitophon of Aristonymos.

And, interior,

was the patriarch of Polemarchos, Cephalos.

Indeed, by any consideration,

he appeared to me to be extremely aged.

For there had been an interval of time since I had viewed self.

He was crowned and in a sedentary position,

with a head-pillow, upon a diphros, having sacrificed.

Indeed, we were in the enclosure,

and then we assumed a sedentary position at the side of self.

In the self-same place, diphroi were situated in a circle.

Then, with my appearance,

Cephalos immediately provided a salutation,

and said,

'O Socrates, you do not frequent us,

by descending into the Peiraieus.

One surely is obliged.

For if on the one hand,

I was presently able to make a passage more effortlessly,

and approach the urban area,

there would be no requirement for you to journey here,

and preferably, we would journey and proceed to you.

But, on the other hand,

it is now a requirement for you to journey here more frequently.

Well, as you should know, for my part,

to the extent that,

the other hedonisms down the body waste away,

to such an extent,

the intense desires and also hedonisms around the logos are augmented.

Then do not create otherwise, but here,

and retain the company of these newer men,

frequent here and be by the side of us,

thus in the company of the affectionate and absolutely intimate."

Indeed, O Cephalos, said I.

Of course,

I delight in dialogue,

especially with those who are senior.

For it appears to me,

a requirement to investigate from the side of those selves,

as those certain ones have proceeded a pathway,

by means of which, equally,

it may also be appropriate for us to make a passage.

Of what sort is it?

Is it arduous and a strain?

or

Is it facile and passable?

And indeed,

I would also hedonically inquire how this appears to you,

seeing that you are,

by now,

at this stage of your helical progression,

which indeed the poets assert,

'to be subsequent to the entrance of senior age,'

of the two,

is it an arduous existence?

or how would you announce self?

'I vow to Zeus, O Socrates,' he said,

'of course, I will say of what sort it appears to me.

For certain ones,

of approximately the same state of helical progression, 

frequently convene at the self-same place,

preserving the ancient proverb.

[The one Jackdaw proceeds to the other Jackdaw and is sedentary]

Then the majority of us assemble and complain,

recollecting in and yearning for,

the hedonism of the neoteric:

around aphrodisia,

and around the potations,

and also feastings,

and of the certain and closely connected other things of that sort.

And we are aggrieved having been deprived of something mega.

On the one hand,

existing agreeably then,

and,

on the other hand,

not existing now.

And also,

certain ones complain of their family,

who deride their senior age,

and indeed with this,

they chant of the amount of injuries,

for them, senior age is the culprit.

But for me, O Socrates,

these ones appear not to make the culpable the culprit.

For if it were this culprit,

then I would also have suffered these self-same things in the course of senior age,

and the same for all of the multitude of others,

that came to this stage in the helical progression.

And, as for me,

I have by now,

encountered others that are not in this state.

And indeed,

I was also at the procreation [of an idea] when the poet,

Sophocles,

was being questioned by a certain one,

'O Sophocles,' he said,

'How are you disposed to the aphrodisia?

Are you, even now,

able to have sexual intercourse with a female?'

And, in reply, he said,

'Euphemistically, O man.

In fact, most satisfyingly, I escaped from self,

as though,

having escaped from some rabid and feral despot.'

So, it appeared to me then [Cephalos], that,

that one there had an agreeable voice,

and now, it has not been reduced.

For, of course,

at a senior age,

a magnificent peace comes into existence,

and there is liberty from these sorts of things.

From when,

the intense desires are paused,

 and the catastrophic tension diminishes,

absolutely,

that of Sophocles comes into existence:

to be released apart from,

an extreme number of maniacal despots.

But, of course,

also around these things,

as for one's family,

senior age is not the one that is the culprit,

O Socrates,

but the turning of the person.

For, on the one hand,

if they are adorned and tractable,

then senior age is a measured labour,

but, on the other hand,

if they are not,

O Socrates,

then both in senior age and in the new,

for this sort,

there is a connection with vexation.'

And I,

being in admiration of self,

having expressed these things,

was intending for self to say more on this.

And, I said,

I suppose, O Cephalos,

whenever you mention these things,

the multitude is not accepting,

for the hegemonic that facilitates the preference for senior age,

is not by way of the turning,

but by way of the quantity of ousia that one possesses,

for the opulent assert there to be much assuagement.

'What you mention is alethic,

for they do not accept,

and indeed,

what they say is certainly not, of course, the amount they suppose.

But, what Themistocles maintains is agreeable,

whom the Seriphian was being abusive to,

by saying,

he is admired, not by way of self, but by way of the polis,

and the response was,

neither would self have generated renown as a Seriphian,

nor would that other one if he were an Athenian.

And indeed,

for those who are not opulent and prefer vexation in the course of senior age,

well, the self-same logos is maintained,

that is,

neither would the extremely equitable one facilitate senior age when associated with conveying penury,

nor would the inequitable one, having become opulent, be able, at any time, to generate satisfaction for himself.'

And I said,

but which, O Cephalos,

of what you now possess,

is the majority,

that which you received,

or,

 that which you acquired?

How did I acquire, O Socrates? he said,

I have generated as a chrematist the median of both,

the grandfather and the father.

For, on the one hand,

the grandfather, who is also homonymous to me,

was approximately equal to me in the quantity of ousian I now possess,

and having received,

he produced it more numerous and substantial,

on the other hand,

Lysanias, the father, produced a decrease in self by more than ousẽs is now.

But I am gratified if I relinquish to these,

not a decrease,

but of course, in modicum,

something that is the majority versus what I received.'

Be assured, I said,

it was in consideration of the following that I asked that question:

You appeared to me not especially gratified by the chrematistics,

as this is how those create,

who are more numerous,

and who do not acquire selves.

But those having acquired,

doubly salute selves,

 versus the others.

For just as the poets express gratitude for selves' poems,

and the fathers for their children,

indeed, in the self-same way,

the chrematist gives merit to money,

as the work of their self,

and its subsequent use,

just as the others.

So, they are arduous to coexist with,

and they are inclined to praise nothing except opulence.

'What you have mentioned is genuine,' he said.

Indeed, completely so, said I,

and besides this,

speak to me substantially,

about what you suppose to be,

apolaustically,

the most majestic agathon,

from the magnitude of ousian you possess?

'Oh indeed,' said he,

'and equally,

I would not persuade the multitude by speaking agreeably,

for be sure, O Socrates,' he affirmed,

'from when someone supposes that he will be imminently conducted to télos,

terror and anxiety enter self concerning things that had previously not entered.

As for the myths that are mentioned around those things in Hades,

such as,

how the ones in this place who have acted unjustly,

are restrained in that place to collect justice,

these were gelastic up until now,

but now indeed,

the psyche self torques,

may they not be alethic.

This work is not complete.

It is being edited on a regular basis.

Some entries in the Greek lexicon

are not translated.

Self by Self is responsible for these words

and their morphology:

Agathón | Logos | Ousia | Télos

Plato, On Polity A (The Republic, Book 1) 

New English Recensional Translation

Written in Lineated Prose

An Approach to Dionysos for the Anagogical

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