Then I shall go on to the Timaeus,1 in which the three ideals, or "Ideas of Reason"-Soul, Cosmos, and God-are represented in one vast composition. Having examined these Myths-all chiefly interesting as representations of ideals, or "Ideas of Reason"-I shall examine three Myths which are chiefly concerned with the deduction of Categories or Virtues. These are the Myths in the Phaedrus, Meno, and Symposium. They are mainly concerned with showing how man, as knowing subject and moral agent, is conditioned by his past. Although the "Eschatological" outlook, with its hope of future salvation, is by no means absent from these three Myths, their chief interest lies in the way in which, as "Aetiological" Myths, they exhibit the functions of the understanding and moral faculty as cases of ȧváμvnois which, quickened by epws, interprets the particular impressions, and recognises the particular duties, of the present life, in the light of the remembered vision of the Eternal Forms once seen in the Supercelestial Place. Having examined the Myths which set forth the Ideals and Categories of the Individual, I shall end my review with an examination of two Myths which set forth respectively the Ideals and the Categories of a Nation-one of which gives us the spectacle of a Nation led on by a vision of its future, while the other shows us how the life of the "social organism is conditioned by its past. These are the Atlantis Myth, introduced in the Timaeus and continued in the fragmentary Critias, and the Myth of the Earth-Born in the Republic. The Atlantis Myth (intended to complete the account of the Ideal State given in the Republic) is to be regarded as an Eschatological Myth; but it differs from the Eschatological Myths of the other class which have been examined in representing, not the future lot of the Individual Soul, but the ideal which a Nation has before it in this world-the ideal of a united Hellas, under a New Athens, maintaining civilisation against the assaults of outer barbarism. After the Atlantis Myth I shall take the Myth of the Earth-Born in the Republic, which is an Aetiological Myth, 1 Couturat, de Platonis Mythis (Paris, 1896), p. 32, Timaeus ipse totus mythicus est; and Zeller, Plato, p. 160 (Eng. Transl), "The whole investiture of the Timaeus is mythic-the Demiurgus, together with the subordinate gods, and all the history of the creation of the world." differing from the Aetiological Myths of the other class which have been examined, in deducing, not the Categoriesfaculties and virtues of the Individual, but the deep-cut characteristics of the "social organism." And yet, here again, while Categories are deduced, an Ideal-that of the orderly life of the κaλλíπoλis—is represented. Indeed, this is more or less true of all the Platonic Myths. They all view man's present life sub specie aeternitatis-in God; exhibit it as part of the great plan of Providence-as one term of a continuous progress to be reviewed at once a parte ante and a parte post. Especially in the Timaeus do we see the "Genesis and the "Apocalypse Apocalypse" of the Platonic Mythology blended in one Vision. THE PHAEDO MYTH CONTEXT OF THE MYTH IN the Phaedo, the disciple from whom the Dialogue takes its name tells some Friends what was said and done in the Prison on the day of the Master's death. The conversation was concerning the Immortality of the Soul, and was continued up to the last hour. Cebes and Simmias, the chief speakers, brought forward arguments tending to show that, even granted that the identity of Learning with Reminiscence is in favour of the Orphic doctrine of the pre-existence of the Soul, yet its after-existence, not to mention its immortality, is not proved. Thereupon Socrates brought in the Doctrine of Eternal Ideas-a doctrine which the company were already prepared to accept and showed, in accordance with it, that Life-and the Soul is Life-excludes Death. Thus was the Immortality of the Soul proved. Next came the practical question: How must a man live that it may be well with him both in this World and in the World Eternal? It was then that Socrates, standing in the very presence of death, was filled with the spirit of prophecy, and made able to help his friends before he left them :—If, he said, they took to heart the Myth which he told them, they should know how to live, and it would be well with them both now and hereafter for ever. When he had finished the telling of the Myth, and had warned his friends against a too literal interpretation of it, he gave directions about his family and some other private matters; then the Officer came in with the Cup. 107 C Phaedo 107 c-114 c ̓Αλλὰ τόδε γ ̓, ἔφη, ὦ ἄνδρες, δίκαιον διανοηθῆναι ὅτι, εἴπερ ἡ ψυχὴ ἀθάνατος, ἐπιμελείας δὴ δεῖται οὐχ ὑπὲρ τοῦ χρόνου τούτου μόνον, ἐν ᾧ καλοῦμεν τὸ ζῆν, ἀλλ ̓ ὑπὲρ τοῦ παντός, καὶ ὁ κίνδυνος νῦν δὴ καὶ δόξειεν ἂν δεινὸς εἶναι, εἴ τις αὐτῆς ἀμελήσει. εἰ μὲν γὰρ ἦν ὁ θάνατος τοῦ παντὸς ἀπαλλαγή, ἕρμαιον ἂν ἦν τοῖς κακοῖς ἀποθανοῦσι τοῦ τε σώματος ἅμα ἀπηλλάχθαι καὶ τῆς αὐτῶν κακίας μετὰ τῆς ψυχῆς· νῦν δὲ ἐπειδὴ ἀθάνατος φαίνεται οὖσα, D οὐδεμία ἂν εἴη αὐτῇ ἄλλη ἀποφυγὴ κακῶν οὐδὲ σωτηρία πλὴν τοῦ ὡς βελτίστην τε καὶ φρονιμωτάτην γενέσθαι. οὐδὲν γὰρ ἄλλο ἔχουσα εἰς "Αιδου ἡ ψυχὴ ἔρχεται πλὴν τῆς παιδείας τε καὶ τροφῆς, ἃ δὴ καὶ μέγιστα λέγεται ὠφελεῖν ἢ βλάπτειν τὸν τελευτήσαντα εὐθὺς ἐν ἀρχῇ τῆς ἐκεῖσε πορείας. λέγεται δὲ οὕτως, ὡς ἄρα τελευτήσαντα ἕκαστον ὁ ἑκάστου δαίμων, ὅσπερ ζῶντα εἰλήχει, οὗτος ἄγειν ἐπιχειρεῖ εἰς δή τινα τόπον, οἱ δεῖ τοὺς ξυλλεγέντας Η διαδικασαμένους εἰς "Αιδου πορεύεσθαι μετὰ μετὰ ἡγεμόνος ἐκείνου, ᾧ δὴ προστέτακται τοὺς ἐνθένδε ἐκεῖσε πορεῦσαι. τυχόντας δ ̓ ἐκεῖ ὧν δεῖ τυχεῖν καὶ μείναντας ὃν χρὴ χρόνον ἄλλος δεῦρο πάλιν ἡγεμὼν κομίζει ἐν πολλαῖς χρόνου καὶ μακραῖς περιόδοις. ἔστι δὲ ἄρα ἡ πορεία οὐχ 108 ὡς ὁ Αἰσχύλου Τήλεφος λέγει· ἐκεῖνος μὲν γὰρ ἁπλῆν οἶμόν φησιν εἰς "Αιδου φέρειν, ἡ δ ̓ οὔτε ἁπλῆ οὔτε μία φαίνεταί μοι εἶναι. οὐδὲ γὰρ ἂν ἡγεμόνων ἔδει· οὐ γάρ πού τις ἂν διαμάρτοι οὐδαμόσε μιᾶς ὁδοῦ οὔσης. νῦν δὲ ἔοικε σχίσεις τε καὶ περιόδους πολλὰς ἔχειν· ἀπὸ τῶν ὁσίων τε καὶ νομίμων τῶν ἐνθάδε τεκμαιρόμενος λέγω. ἡ μὲν οὖν κοσμία τε καὶ φρόνιμος ψυχὴ ἕπεταί τε καὶ οὐκ ἀγνοεῖ τὰ παρόντα· ἡ δὲ ἐπιθυμητικῶς τοῦ σώματος ἔχουσα, Β ὅπερ ἐν τῷ ἔμπροσθεν εἶπον, περὶ ἐκεῖνο πολὺν χρόνον ἐπτοημένη καὶ περὶ τὸν ὁρατὸν τόπον, πολλὰ ἀντιτείνασα καὶ πολλὰ παθοῦσα, βίᾳ καὶ μόγις ὑπὸ τοῦ προστεταγμένου δαίμονος οἴχεται ἀγομένη. ἀφικομένην δὲ ὅθιπερ αἱ ἄλλαι, τὴν μὲν ἀκάθαρτον καί τι πεποιηκυῖαν τοιοῦτον, ἢ φόνων TRANSLATION "It is meet, my friends, that we should take thought of this-that the Soul, being immortal, standeth in need of care, not only in regard of the time of this present life, but in regard of the time without end, and that 'tis now, even to-day, that the jeopardy is great, if a man will still be careless of his Soul. Were death riddance of all, 'twould be good luck for the wicked man to die and be rid of body and soul and his wickedness; but inasmuch as the Soul is manifestly immortal, no other escape from evil hath she nor salvation save this that she be perfected in righteousness and wisdom. For she taketh hence nothing with her to the House of Hades, save only her instruction and nurture-that, to wit, wherefrom they say the greatest profit cometh to the dead or greatest damage straightway at the beginning of their journey thither; for when a man dieth, his own Familiar Spirit, which had gotten him to keep whilst he lived, taketh and leadeth him to a certain place whither the dead must be gathered together; whence, after they have received their sentences, they must journey to the House of Hades with him who hath been appointed to guide thither those that are here; and when they have received there the things which are meet for them, and have sojourned the time determined, another Guide bringeth them again hither, after many long courses of time. The way, belike, is not as Aeschylus his Telephus telleth; for he saith that a single path leadeth to the House of Hades. But, methinks, if it were single and one, there would be no need of guides, for no man would go astray. Nay, that it hath many partings and windings I conclude from the offerings which men use to make unto the dead. "The Soul which ordereth herself aright and hath wisdom, understandeth well her present case, and goeth with her Familiar. But the Soul which lusteth after the body, having fluttered about it and the Visible Place for a long while, and having withstood her appointed Familiar with great strife and pain, is by him at the last mastered and carried away; and when she is come to the place where the other Souls are assembled together, inasmuch as she is impure and hath wrought that |