Phaedrus — Plato

p. 389Yes. Would you know the measure of the interval between them ? If you will tell me.

There appear to be three pleasures, one genuine and two spurious ; now the transgression of the tyrant reaches a point beyond the spurious ; he has run away from the region of law and reason, and taken up his abode with certain slave pleasures which are his satellites, and the measure of his inferiority can only be expressed in a figure. [Here follows a curious, perhaps humorous, calculation to prove that the good king is 729 times happier than the tyrant.] What a wonderful calculation !

And how enormous is the interval which separates the just from the unjust in gg regard to pleasure and pain ! Yet a true calculation, I said, and a number which nearly concerns human life, if human life is concerned with days and nights and months and years. Yes, he said, human Hfe is certainly concerned with them.

Then if the good and just man be thus superior in pleasure to the evil and unjust, his superiority will be infinitely greater in propriety of life and in beauty and virtue ? Immeasurably greater, indeed, he said. Well, I said, and now we have arrived at this point I may resume the beginning of the argument, which arose out of some one saying that injustice was a gain to the perfectly unjust who was reputed to be just. Was not that said ?

Yes, that was said. Come then, I said, and now that we have determined the power and quality of justice and injustice, let us have a word with him. What shall we say to him ? Let us make an image of the soul, that he may have his own words presented before his eyes. What sort of an image ?

An ideal image of the soul, like the creations of ancient mythology, such as the Chimera * or Scylla ^ or Cerberus,' or •See Phaedrus, note 16. • Scylla (syl'la) : a sea-monster, variously described, usually with six heads, and lower limbs of barking dogs and serpents. ' Cerberus (sSr'be-rus) , a many-headed dog with serpents about his neck, stationed at the entrance to Hades. Different poets describe him differently.

p. 390any other in which two or more different natures are said to grow into one. There are said to have been such unions. Then do you now model the form of a multitudinous, polycephalous ^ beast, having a ring of heads of all manner of beasts, tame and wild, which he is able to generate and metamorphose at will.

That, he said, implies marvelous powers in the artist ; but, as language is more pliable than wax or similar substances, I have done as you say. Suppose now that you make a second form as of a lion, and a third of a man, the second smaller than the first, and the third smaller than the second. That, he said, is an easier task ; and I have made them as you say. Then now join them, and let the three grow into one. That has been accomplished.

Now fashion the outside into a single image, as of a man, so that he who is not able to look within, and sees only the outer hull or vessel, may believe the beast to be a single human creature. That is completed, he said.

And now let us say to him who maintains the profitableness of justice and the unprofitableness of injustice, that his gp doctrine amounts to this : he is asserting that his interest is to feast and strengthen the lion and the lion-like qualities and to starve and weaken the man ; who in consequence of this is at the mercy of either of the other two, and he is not to attempt to familiarize or harmonize them with one another : he ought rather to suffer them to fight and bite and devour one another.

Certainly, he said ; that is what the approver of injustice says. To him the supporter of justice makes answer that he ought rather to aim in all he says and does at strengthening the man within him, in order that he may be able to govern the many-headed monster.

Like a good husbandman he should be watching and tending the gentle shoots, and preventing the wild ones from growing ; making a treaty with the lion-heart, and uniting the several parts with one another and with themselves. * Many-headed.

p. 391Yes, hesaid, that is quite what the maintainer of justice willsay. And in every point of view, whether of pleasure, honor, or advantage, the approver of justice is right and speal« the truth, and the disapprover is wrong, and false, and ignorant ? Yes, truly. Come, now, and let us reason with the unjust, who is not intentionally in error. ''Sweet Sir,'* we will say to him, ** what think you of the noble and ignoble ?

Is not the noble that which subjects the beast to the man, or rather to the god in man ; and the ignoble that which subjects the man to the beast ? * ' He can hardly avoid admitting this,— can he now ? Not if he has any regard for my opinion. But, if he admit this, we may ask him another question : How would a man profit if he received gold and silver on the condition that he was to enslave the noblest part of him to the worst ?

Who can imagine that a man who sold his son or daughter into slavery for money, especially if he sold them into the hands of fierce and evil men, would be the gainer, however large might be the sum which he received ? And will any one say that he is not a miserable caitiff who sells his ^ own divine being to that which is most atheistical and detestable, and has no pity ?

Eriphyle ^ took the necklace as the price of her husband's life, but he is taking a bribe in order to compass a worse ruin. Yes, said Glaucon, far worse, I will answer for him. Is not intemperance censured, I said, because in this condition that huge multiform monster is allowed to be too much at large? Clearly. And pride and sullenness are blamed, as occasioning the growth and increase of the lion and serpent element out of proportion ? Yes.

And luxury and softness are blamed, because they relax and weaken this same element, and make a man a coward ? Very true. • Eriphyle (Ir'i-fyle) : according to legend, the sister of King Adrastus of Argos, and wife of Amphiarus, a sooth-sayer. It was agreed that when husband and brother differed in opinion, Eriphyle should decide between them.

Once when the question was whether Amphiarus should go to a war, Eriphyle, for the bribe of a precious necklace, decided that he must go, though she knew from her husband's prophecy that be could not return alive.