An overwhelming Footnote 1Humorous as in 509 C
he said, ὑπερβολῆς
. and baffling calculation,of the difference Footnote 2Cf. Phileb. 13 A, 14 A, Parmen. 141 C, Theaet. 209 A and D. between the just and
the unjust man in respect of pleasure and pain!
And what is more, it is a true number and pertinent to the lives of men if days and nights and months and years pertain to them.
They certainly do,
he said. Then if in point of pleasure the victory of the good and just man over the bad and unjust is so great as this, he will surpass him inconceivably in decency and beauty of life and virtue.
Inconceivably indeed, by Zeus,
he said.
Very good,
said I. And now that we have come to this point in the argument, let us take up again the statement with which we began and that has brought us to this pass. Footnote 3Plato keeps to the point. Cf. 472 B, Phileb. 27 C, and p. 339 note e, on 572 B. It was, I believe, averred that injustice is profitable to the completely unjust Footnote 4Cf. 348 B, 361 A. man who is reputed just. Was not that the proposition?
Yes, that.
Let us, then, reason with its proponent now that we have agreed on the essential nature of injustice and just conduct.
How?
he said. By fashioning in our discourse a symbolic image of the soul, that the maintainer of that proposition may see precisely what it is that he was saying.
What sort of an image?
he said. One of those natures that the ancient fables tell of,
said I, as that of the Chimaera Footnote 5Cf. Homer, Il. vi. 179-182, Phaedr. 229 D. or Scylla Footnote 6Od. xii. 85 ff. or Cerberus, Footnote 7Hesiod, Theog. 311-312. and the numerous other examples that are told of many forms grown together in one.
Yes, they do tell of them.
Mould, then, a single shape of a manifold and many-headed beast Footnote 8Stallbaum ad loc. gives a long list of writers who imitated this passage. Hesiod, Theog. 823 f., portrays a similar monster in Typhoeus, who had a hundred serpent-heads. For the animal in man c. Tim. 70 E, Charm. 155 D-E, Phaedr. 230 A, 246 A ff., Boethius, Cons. iv. 2-3, Horace Epist. i. 1. 76, Iamblichus, Protrept. chap. iii. that has a ring of heads of tame and wild beasts and can change them and cause to spring forth from itself all such growths.
It is the task of a cunning artist, Footnote 9Cf. 596 C.
he said, but nevertheless, since speech is more plastic than wax Footnote 10Cf. Cic. De or. iii. 45
sicut mollissimam ceram . . . fingimus.
Otto, 80, says it is a proverb. For the development of this figure cf. Pliny, Epist. vii. 9 ut laus est cerae, mollis cedensque sequatur.
For the idea that word is more precise or easy than deed Cf. 473 A, Phaedo 99 E, Laws 636 A, 736 B, Tim. 19 E. and other such media, assume that it has been so fashioned.Then fashion one other form of a lion and one of a man and let the first be far the largest Footnote 11Cf. 442 A. and the second second in size.
That is easier,
he said, and is done.
Join the three in one, then, so as in some sort to grow together.
They are so united,
he said. Then mould about them outside the likeness of one, that of the man, so that to anyone who is unable to look within Footnote 12Cf. 577 A. but who can see only the external sheath it appears to be one living creature, the man.
The sheath is made fast about him,
he said.
Book 9