712 E

Laws 712 E-714 A

ΑΘ. Ὄντως γάρ, ὦ ἄριστοι, πολιτειῶν μετέχετε· ἃς δὲ ὠνομάκαμεν νῦν, οὐκ εἰσὶ πολιτεῖαι, πόλεων δὲ οἰκήσεις 713 δεσποζομένων τε καὶ δουλευουσῶν μέρεσιν ἑαυτῶν τισί, τὸ τοῦ δεσπότου δὲ ἑκάστη προσαγορεύεται κράτος. χρῆν δ', εἴπερ τοῦ τοιούτου τὴν πόλιν ἔδει ἐπονομάζεσθαι, τὸ τοῦ ἀληθῶς τῶν τὸν νοῦν ἐχόντων δεσπόζοντος θεοῦ ὄνομα λέγεσθαι.

ΚΛ. Τίς δ' ὁ θεός ;

ΑΘ. Αρ ̓ οὖν μύθῳ μέλλομεν ἐμμελῶς πως οὐκοῦν χρὴ ταύτῃ δρᾶν ; ΚΛ. Πάνυ μὲν οὖν.

σμικρά γ ̓ ἔτι προσχρηστέον, εἰ δηλῶσαι τὸ νῦν ἐρωτώμενον ;

ΑΘ. Τῶν γὰρ δὴ πόλεων, ὧν ἔμπροσθεν τὰς ξυνοικήΒ σεις διήλθομεν, ἔτι προτέρα τούτων πάμπολυ λέγεταί τις ἀρχή τε καὶ οἴκησις γεγονέναι ἐπὶ Κρόνου μάλ ̓ εὐδαίμων, ἧς μίμημα ἔχουσά ἐστιν, ἥτις τῶν νῦν ἄριστα οἰκεῖται.

713 C

φήμην τοίνυν παραδεδέγμεθα τῆς τῶν τότε μακαρίας ζωῆς, ὡς ἄφθονά τε καὶ αὐτόματα πάντ' εἶχεν. ἡ δὲ τούτων αἰτία λέγεται τοιάδε τις· γιγνώσκων ὁ Κρόνος ἄρα, καθάπερ ἡμεῖς διεληλύθαμεν, ὡς ἀνθρωπεία φύσις οὐδὲ μία ἱκανὴ τὰ ἀνθρώπινα διοικοῦσα αὐτοκράτωρ πάντα μὴ οὐχ ὕβρεώς τε καὶ ἀδικίας μεστοῦσθαι, ταῦτ ̓ οὖν διανοούμενος D ἐφίστη βασιλέας τε καὶ ἄρχοντας ταῖς πόλεσιν ἡμῶν οὐκ ἀνθρώπους, ἀλλὰ γένους θειοτέρου ΤΕ καὶ ἀμείνονος, δαίμονας· οἷον νῦν ἡμεῖς δρῶμεν τοῖς ποιμνίοισι καὶ ὅσων

も

THE MYTH OF THE GOLDEN AGE

Athenian Stranger. The cities whereof we just now spake are not polities, or true cities, but mere dwelling-places, the inhabitants whereof are slaves in subjection unto certain ones among themselves; and each one of these dwelling-places is called "the government of such and such," after them that be masters therein: but, if it is meet that a city should be called after her masters, the True City will be called after God, who verily ruleth over men of understanding.

Cleinias. And who is this God?

Ath. I must still, for a little while, use Fable for the

more convenient answering of thy inquiry-what thinkest thou?

Cleinias. Yea-Fable.

Ath. Before that those cities were, the inhabitation whereof we have set forth in the former part of this Discourse-yea, very long time before these-it is told that there was a Government and Settlement when Cronus was King; whereof the blessedness was great, and whichsoever city is now ordered best is an image of that exemplar.

This, then, is the Tale which we have received concerning the blessed life of the men who lived in those days: It telleth that they had all things, without stint, spontaneous, and that the cause thereof was this: Cronus, saith the Tale, knowing that Human Nature could in no wise be left with sole authority in the administration of all things human and yet not become a vessel filled with insolency and injustice, took thought of the matter, and set over our cities, to be kings and rulers thereof, not men, but those of a more divine and excellent sort, to wit, Daemons; just as we ourselves do with

ἥμεροί εἰσιν ἀγέλαι· οὐ βοῦς βοῶν οὐδὲ αἶγας αἰγῶν ἄρχοντας ποιοῦμεν αὐτοῖσί τινας, ἀλλὰ ἡμεῖς γ' αὐτῶν δεσπόζομεν, ἄμεινον ἐκείνων γένος. ταὐτὸν δὴ καὶ ὁ θεὸς ἄρα [καὶ] φιλάνθρωπος ὢν τὸ γένος ἄμεινον ἡμῶν ἐφίστη τὸ τῶν δαιμόνων, ὃ διὰ πολλῆς μὲν αὐτοῖς ῥαστώνης, Ε πολλῆς δ ̓ ἡμῖν ἐπιμελούμενον ἡμῶν, εἰρήνην τε καὶ αἰδῶ καὶ εὐνομίαν καὶ ἀφθονίαν δίκης παρεχόμενον, ἀστασίαστα καὶ εὐδαίμονα τὰ τῶν ἀνθρώπων ἀπειργάζετο γένη. λέγει δὴ καὶ νῦν οὗτος ὁ λόγος ἀληθείᾳ χρώμενος, ὡς ὅσων ἂν πόλεων μὴ θεὸς ἀλλά τις ἄρχῃ θνητός, οὐκ ἔστι κακῶν αὐτοῖς οὐδὲ πόνων ἀνάφυξις· ἀλλὰ μιμεῖσθαι δεῖν ἡμᾶς οἴεται πάσῃ μηχανῇ τὸν ἐπὶ τοῦ Κρόνου λεγόμενον βίον, καὶ ὅσον ἐν ἡμῖν ἀθανασίας ἔνεστι, τούτῳ πειθομένους 714 δημοσίᾳ καὶ ἰδίᾳ τάς τ' οἰκήσεις καὶ τὰς πόλεις διοικεῖν, τὴν τοῦ νοῦ διανομὴν ἐπονομάζοντας νόμον.

our cattle and flocks-for we set not oxen over oxen, or goats over goats, but we ourselves rule over them, being of a race more excellent than theirs. In like manner God, they say, of his loving-kindness toward men, set over us the race of Daemons, which is more excellent than ours; and they, to their own great content and to ours, caring for us, and providing for us peace, and modesty, and good government, and justice without stint, made the nations of mankind peaceable and happy.

This Tale, then, hath in it truth, inasmuch as it signifieth that whichsoever city hath not God, but a mortal man, for ruler, hath no way of escape from evils and troubles: wherefore, according to the admonition of the Tale, must we by all means make our life like unto the life which was when Cronus was King; and in so far as that which is Immortal dwelleth in us, must we be obedient unto the voice thereof in all our doings private and public, and govern our households and cities according to Law, which, being interpreted, is the Award of Reason.1

This Myth ought to be taken in close connection not only with the Politicus Myth, but with the Discourse of Diotima, in the Symposium, and the doctrine of Daemons set forth in that Discourse; for which see pp. 434 ff. infra.

OBSERVATIONS ON THE POLITICUS MYTH

I

The

I cannot do better at the outset than refer the reader for the general characteristics of the Politicus Myth to Jowett's Introduction to the Statesman (Dialogues of Plato), where his admirable remarks, indeed, leave little to be added. philosophical import of the Myth, it will be gathered from Jowett's remarks, consists in its presentation of the "distinctions between God causing and permitting evil, and between his more or less immediate government of the world." Interesting observations will also be found on the art with. which Plato gives verisimilitude to his own Myth "by adopting received traditions (as the tradition about the sun having originally risen in the West and that about the yŋyeveîs)— traditions of which he pretends to find an explanation in his own larger conceptions." We have had instances of this art in the Platonic Myths already examined, which we have found securing credit to themselves by explaining not only old traditional Myths, but the facts and doctrines of "modernscience"; and we have found the same art employed by Dante.

1

Having referred to Jowett's Introduction for a general view of this Myth, I will now add some observations on special points.

The doctrine of periodical terrestrial "catastrophes," universal or local, leaving on each occasion a few scattered survivors to build up society afresh, mythologically explained in the Politicus, was part of the "science" of Plato's day,2 and was afterwards a prominent tenet of the Peripatetics.3

It was also" scientific" in Plato's day to explain at least the general course of terrestrial phenomena as caused by the motion of the Heavens. It is thus that the phenomena of

1 I would also refer to Grote's Plato, ii. 480, note s-a long and instructive note; and to Stallbaum's Prolegomena to the Politicus.

2 Laws, iii. 676 ff.

3 See Newman's notes on Arist. Pol. ii. 5. 1269 a 5 and 6.