Plato: On the Existence of the Tyrant

Socrates: But, in what way does he exist?

Adeimantos: How? In the way of one who participates in infantile activities. And this will be your locution to me.

Socrates: Indeed. Then, I suppose, there are festive periods generated among these selves, and revelry, and assembling to participate in feasts, and courtesans, and such things of this sort. All of which results when Eros the tyrant resides internally, piloting the entire soul.

Adeimantos: Of necessity, it is so.

Socrates: So then, do not many terrible desires germinate adjacent to one another, by day and by night, each one being bound in requirement of plenty of things?

Adeimantos: Many indeed.

Socrates:  So then, if there are certain sources of revenue, they are consumed rapidly.

Adeimantos: How could they not?

Socrates: And then this would result in debt and subtractions from substance [property].

Adeimantos: What then?

Socrates: And when indeed all things are deficient, is it not necessity that on the one hand, the nesting desires vociferate both frequently and vehemently, and on the other hand, is it just as if they [those sort of men], are being impelled by acute stings, both by those other desires, and especially by self under Eros, as if all others are the spear-bearers with him [Eros] the hegemon, in a state of sensual mania observing who has tenure of something of potential and using apheresis either by deception or by force?

Adeimantos: Vehemently, indeed.

Socrates: Indeed, then it will be necessary to suffer from all sides or be constrained by both mega travails and pains.

Adeimantos: It will be necessary.

Socrates: So then, exactly as the hedonism within him was the major, and had succeeded the more ancient ones whose property suffered apheresis, so too this self, being the new one, will believe it appropriate to have more property than his patriarch and mother, and will use apheresis if his own portion has been consumed, allotting from the patrimonial property.

Adeimantos: But what is the concern?

Socrates: If indeed they do not serve him, then surely, will not his primary aim be to position his hand and simultaneously steal and deceive the parents?

Adeimantos: Absolutely.

Socrates: But whenever he does not have the dynamic, will he not snatch and act with violence, and not according to governing principles?

Adeimantos: I am of this opinion.

Socrates: Then, O wonderful companion, when the aged man and aged female are resisting and combating, would he revere and refrain from acting tyrannically?

Adeimantos: Not completely, indeed, I  am confident of this while the parents are in existence.

Socrates: By Zeus, O Adeimantos,

And then, as a consequence, a recently cherished one, a hetaera who is not necessary, the aged cherished mother who is necessary...

And as a consequence of this, recently cherished one of the hour, having generated the unnecessary, the aged and necessary father, who of all the cherished is the distinguished and cherished one...

Does it appear to you that such a sort would afflict pains and bring enslavement upon those same selves if that sort themself should introduce that certain one into the domicile?

Adeimantos: By Zeus. yes.

Socrates: Absolutely, indeed, it appears a fortunate one the tyrannical ethos engenders.

Adeimantos: Not entirely so.

Socrates: But what then?

Indeed, once those things of his father and mother become deficient for such a sort, then there are, by now, many accumulating, and hedonism swarms within self.

And then primarily, will he not, on the one hand, make contact with the wall of a person's domicile, or of a person's cloak, one who is moving through the late of night, and after these things, on the other hand, some sanctuary, he being the temple-attendant.

And indeed, in all these things, he used to hold ancient opinions from adolescence concerning both the noble and the iniquitous. But with these declarations having now been produced and newly released from salvery, the spear-bearers with Eros will rule over this one. 

However, the previous ones were being released during hypnosis in the oneiric, when self remained under the customs of the patriarch, being democratically governed within himself.

But under the tyranny of Eros, such things are rarely generated in the oneiric; rather, in vigilance, and such a one is eternally generating; he will not abstain from any horrendous slaughter nor urge of voraciousness. And as Eros is tyrannically within self, there is a complete anarcharic and anomic existence, as self is the monarch possessing self, and exactly as a polity will conduct into all audacity, self and those around self will be nourished from the commotion, on the one hand having entered externally from abject conversation, and on the other hand from internally under the same manner, releasing and liberating himself.

And is this not the existence of such ones?

Adeimantos: Indeed, this one is so.

Plato, The Republic IX 

New English Recensional Translation by The Editor of ClassicalPhilosophy.org, Chichester, England, 2025.