Phaedrus — Plato

p. 386ures of honor, but the delight which is to be found in the knowledge of true being is known to the philosopher only. His experience, then, will enable him to judge better than any one ? Far better. And he is the only one who has wisdom as well as experience? Certainly. The very faculty which is the instrument of judgment is not possessed by the covetous or avaricious man, but only by the philosopher ? What faculty ?

Reason, which, as we were saying, ought to have the decision. Yes. And reasoning is peculiarly his instrument ? Certainly. If wealth and gain were the criterion, then what the lover of gain praised and blamed would surely be truest ? Assuredly. Or if honor or victory or courage, in that case the ambitious or contentious would decide best ? Clearly.

But since experience and wisdom and reason are the judges, the inference of course is, that the truest pleasures are those which are approved by the lover of wisdom and reason. And ^ so we arrive at the result, that the pleasure of the intel- ^^^" ligent part of the soul is the pleasantest of the three, and ^ ^ that he in whom this is the ruling principle has the pleasantest life ?

Unquestionably, he said, the wise man has the fullest right to approve of his own life. And what does the judge aflfirm to be the life which is next, and the pleasure which is next ? Clearly that of the soldier and lover of honor : that is nearer to himself than that of the trader. Last comes the lover of gain. Very true, he said. Twice, then, has the just man overthrown the unjust ; and now comes the third trial, which is sacred to the 2p. 387saviour Zeus ^ : a sage whispers in my ear that no pleasure except that of the wise is quite true and pure — all others are a shadow only ; and this will surely prove the greatest and most decisive of fdls ?

Yes, the greatest ; but will you explain how this is ? [Socrates leads a discussion intended to prove that the pleasures of the sensual and also of the spirited part of man's nature are less real and less satisfying than those of the rational part.

He continues : ] Those then who know not wisdom and virtue, and are always busy with gluttony and sensuality, go down and up again as far as the mean ; and in this space they move g^ at random throughout life, but they never pass into the true upper world ; thither they neither look, nor do they ever find their way, neither are they truly filled with true being, nor do they taste of true and abiding pleasure./^Like brute animals, with their eyes down and bodies bent to the earth or leaning on the dining-table, they fatten and feed and breed, and, in their excessive love of these delights, they kick and butt at one another with horns and hoofs which are made of iron ; and they kill one another by reason of their insatiable lusj/^ For they fill themselves with that which is not substantial, and the part of themselves which they fill is also unsubstantial and incontinent.

Verily, Socrates, said Glaucon, you describe the life of the many like an oracle. Their pleasures are mixed with pains. How can they be otherwise ?

For they are mere images and shadows of the true, and are colored only by contrast, and this way of looking at them doubly exaggerates them, and implants in the minds of fools insane desires of them ; and they are fought about as Stesichorus says that the Greeks fought about the shadow of Helen at Troy * in ignorance of the truth. Yes, inevitably, he said ; that is the way. * One of the titles of Zeus was saviour.

The third cup of wine was dedicated to him. To drink this cup came to be a symbol of good luck, and the third time came to mean the lucky time. In allusion to this Socrates says the third victory of the just man should be dedicated to the Olympian saviour. * See Phaedrus, note 37. According to Stesichorus, Paris did not carry to Troy the real Helen, but only a phantom of her created by the goddess Hera (h^'ra), the Roman Juno.