85

whom he laughs at." And again: "And my argument would say all the same things about females as it did about males, that females ought to practice the same things equally. And without any fear I would make this argument concerning both horsemanship and gymnastics, that it would be fitting for men, but not, on the other hand, fitting for women." And who, hearing these things, would not reasonably laugh? For nature has assigned to each sex what is suitable, to women wool-working, 9.40 and to men farming and experience in warfare. For Homer, I suppose, also used this division; for in his epic he made Hector say to Andromache: but go to your house and attend to your own tasks, the loom and the distaff, and bid your handmaidens to ply their work; but war shall be the concern of men. But the philosopher did not even recognize the division of the poets, but commanded that women should train naked and ride horses. And what follows agrees with what came before; for he speaks thus: 9.41 "Let a judge, when considering the proper timing of marriages, make his decision by viewing the men naked, and the women naked down to the navel." But he who legislated these things did not even remember the words of Candaules' wife. For she indeed, when her husband ordered him to show her body naked, said very prudently that "when a woman 9.42 takes off her tunic, she also takes off her modesty with it". Therefore, the philosopher strips the brides of their modesty and teaches them shamelessness. And in the tenth book of the Laws he has written similar things: "For the sake of such zeal," he says, "it is necessary to conduct the training sessions with dancing men and dancing women, boys and girls, both seeing and being seen at the same time, with a certain reason and age having similar pretexts, naked men and naked women, up to the point of the prudent modesty 9.43 of each." But I see the outrage that springs from this, but no profit growing with it. For not only were they trained in shamelessness by being naked and seeing naked men, but they also furnished many opportunities for licentiousness to one another. For the sight of naked bodies provoked both men and women to unnatural passions. 9.44 But lest, by completely exposing the harm that springs from these laws, we should seem to be reviling the philosopher, not refuting him, let us move on to the all-beautiful laws of marriage, making our refutations moderate. Let us hear him, then, saying in the Republic: "That for all these men all women are to be in common, and no woman is to live with any man in private; and the children are to be in common in turn, and neither is a parent to know his own offspring, nor a child 9.45 his parent." Then he adds: "One lawgiver, then, I said, having selected for them the men as well as the women, will hand them over, being of the same nature as far as possible. But they, since they have common houses and common meals, and no one possesses anything of the sort in private, will indeed be together, and being mixed together both in the gymnasia and in the rest of their upbringing, they will be led by innate necessity, I think, to mix with one another; Or do I not seem to you to be speaking of necessities? -Not by geometrical necessities, he said, but by erotic ones, which are likely to be keener than those for 9.46 persuading and drawing the great mass of people." That the philosopher, then, commanded that women be in common, does not require long arguments for refutation. For he himself has expressly legislated and has devised the necessity of common intercourse. For, he said, living together and feasting together and exercising together, they will be pushed by innate desire toward mixing with one another. And this, indeed, he declares that the children born are common, as each man consorts without fear with the women he happens upon and considers the children born from them to be his own. 9.47 The interlocutor, having understood this, when Socrates said, "Or do I not seem to you to be speaking of necessities?" added, "Not by geometrical ones, but by erotic necessities, which are likely to be keener than those for persuading and drawing the great mass of people." 9.48 But I marvel at the shamelessness of those who now wish to interpret Plato's words, or rather, who try to misinterpret them; for they say that he did not intercourse

85

ᾧ γελᾷ." Καὶ πάλιν· "Ταὐτὰ δὲ καὶ περὶ θηλειῶν ὁ ἐμὸς λόγος ἂν εἴποι πάντα, ὅσαπερ καὶ περὶ τῶν ἀρρέ νων, ἴσα καὶ τὰς θηλείας ἀσκεῖν δεῖν. Καὶ οὐδὲν φοβηθεὶς εἴ ποιμ' ἂν τοῦτον τὸν λόγον οὔτε ἱππικῆς οὔτε γυμναστικῆς, ὡς ἀνδράσι μὲν πρέπον ἂν εἴη, γυναιξὶ δ' αὖ οὐκ ἂν πρέπον." Καὶ τίς οὐκ ἂν εἰκότως τούτων ἀκούων γελάσειεν; ἡ μὲν γὰρ φύσις ἀπένειμεν ἑκατέρῳ γένει τὰ πρόσφορα, γυναιξὶ μὲν ταλασίαν, 9.40 ἀνδράσι δὲ γεωργίαν καὶ πολεμικὴν ἐμπειρίαν. Ταύτῃ γάρ που τῇ διαιρέσει καὶ Ὅμηρος κέχρηται· πεποίηκε γὰρ ἐν τοῖς ἔπεσι τῇ Ἀνδρομάχῃ τὸν Ἕκτορα λέγοντα· ἀλλ' εἰς οἶκον ἰοῦσα τὰ σαυτῆς ἔργα κόμιζε, ἱστόν τ' ἠλακάτην τ' ἠδ' ἀμφιπόλοισι κέλευε ἔργον ἐποίχεσθαι· πόλεμος δ' ἄνδρεσσι μελήσει. Ὁ δὲ φιλόσοφος οὐδὲ τὴν τῶν ποιητῶν διέγνω διαίρεσιν, ἀλλὰ καὶ γυμνάζεσθαι τὰς γυναῖκας γυμνὰς καὶ ἱππεύειν ἐκέλευσεν. Καὶ τὰ ἑξῆς δὲ ξυνομολογεῖ τοῖς προτέροις· λέγει γὰρ οὕτως· 9.41 "Τὴν δὲ τοῦ τῶν γάμων χρόνου ξυμμετρίαν δικαστὴς σκοπῶν κρινέτω, γυμνοὺς μὲν τοὺς ἄρρενας, γυμνὰς δὲ ὀμφαλοῦ μέχρι θεώμενος τὰς γυναῖκας." Ὁ δὲ ταῦτα νομοθετῶν οὐδὲ τῶν τῆς Κανδαύλου γυναικὸς λόγων ἐμνήσθη. Ἐκείνη γάρ τοι, τοῦ ἀνδρὸς γυμνὸν οἱ δεῖξαι τὸ σῶμα κελεύσαντος, μάλα ἔφη σωφρό νως, ὅτι "ἀποδυομένη τὸν κιθῶνα ξυναποδύεται καὶ τὴν αἰδῶ ἡ 9.42 γυνή". Τοιγαροῦν ὁ φιλόσοφος τὰς νυμφευομένας γυμνοῖ τῆς αἰδοῦς καὶ ἀναίδειαν ἐκδιδάσκει. Κἀν τῷ δεκάτῳ δὲ τῶν Νόμων τὰ παραπλήσια γέγραφεν· "Τῆς γὰρ τοιαύτης" φησί "σπουδῆς ἕνεκα χρὴ καὶ τὰς παιδείας ποιεῖσθαι χορεύοντάς τε καὶ χορευού σας, κόρους τε καὶ κόρας, καὶ ἅμα δὴ θεωροῦντας καὶ θεωρου μένους, μετὰ λόγου τε καὶ ἡλικίας τινὸς ἐχούσας ἐοικυίας προ φάσεις, γυμνούς τε καὶ γυμνάς, μέχρι περ αἰδοῦς σώφρονος 9.43 ἑκάστων." Ἐγὼ δὲ τὴν μὲν ἐντεῦθεν φυομένην λώβην ὁρῶ, κέρδος δὲ οὐδὲν ξὺν ταύτῃ φυόμενον. Οὐ γάρ που μόνον εἰς ἀναίδειαν ἐπαιδοτριβοῦντο γυμνούμεναι καὶ γυμνοὺς ἄνδρας θεώμεναι, ἀλλὰ καὶ πολλὰς ἀλλήλοις ἀφορμὰς προὐξένουν ἀκο λασίας. Τῶν γὰρ δὴ γυμνῶν σωμάτων ἡ θεωρία καὶ τοὺς ἄνδρας καὶ τὰς γυναῖκας εἰς ἔρωτας ἐκτόπους ἠρέθιζεν. 9.44 Ἀλλ' ἵνα μὴ παντελῶς τὴν ἐκ τῶνδε τῶν νόμων φυομένην ἀπογυμνοῦντες βλάβην λοιδορεῖσθαι τῷ φιλοσόφῳ δόξωμεν, οὐκ ἐλέγχειν, ἐπὶ τοὺς παγκάλους τῶν γάμων μεταβῶμεν νόμους, μετρίους τοὺς ἐλέγχους ποιούμενοι. Ἀκούσωμεν τοίνυν ἐν Πολι τείᾳ λέγοντος· "Ἀνδρῶν τούτων ἁπάντων πάσας εἶναι γυναῖκας κοινάς, ἰδίᾳ δὲ μηδεμίαν μηδενὶ ξυνοικεῖν· καὶ τοὺς παῖδας αὖ κοινούς, καὶ μήτε γονέα ἔκγονον εἰδέναι τὸν αὑτοῦ, μήτε παῖδα 9.45 γονέα." Εἶτα ἐπιξυνάπτει· "Εἷς μὲν τοίνυν, ἦν δ' ἐγώ, νομο θέτης αὐτοῖς ὥσπερ τοὺς ἄνδρας, οὕτως καὶ τὰς γυναῖκας ἐκλέξας, παραδώσει καθόσον οἷόν τε ὁμοφυεῖς. Οἱ δέ, ἅτε δὴ οἰκίας τε καὶ ξυσσίτια κοινὰ ἔχοντες, ἰδίᾳ δὲ οὐδενὸς οὐδὲν τοιοῦτο κεκτημένου, ὁμοῦ δὴ ἔσονται, ὁμοῦ δ' ἀναμεμιγμένων καὶ ἐν γυμνασίοις καὶ ἐν τῇ ἄλλῃ τροφῇ, ὑπ' ἀνάγκης, οἶμαι, τῆς ἐμφύτου ἄξονται πρὸς τὴν ἀλλήλων μῖξιν· ἢ οὐκ ἀναγκαῖά σοι δοκῶ λέγειν; -Οὐ γεωμετρικαῖς γε, ἦ δ' ὅς, ἀλλ' ἐρωτικαῖς ἀνάγκαις, αἳ κινδυνεύουσιν ἐκείνων δριμύτεραι εἶναι πρὸς τὸ 9.46 πείθειν καὶ ἕλκειν τὸν πολὺν λεών." Ὅτι μὲν οὖν ὁ φιλόσοφος κοινὰς εἶναι τὰς γυναῖκας ἐκέλευσε, μακρῶν οὐ δεῖ λόγων εἰς ἔλεγχον. Αὐτὸς γὰρ δὴ διαρρήδην νενομοθέτηκε καὶ τῆς κοινῆς ξυνουσίας τὴν ἀνάγκην ἐπινενόηκεν. Κοινῇ γάρ, ἔφη, οἰκοῦντες καὶ κοινῇ ἑστιώμενοι καὶ γυμναζόμενοι, ὑπὸ τῆς ἐμφύτου ἐπιθυ μίας πρὸς τὴν ἀλλήλων μῖξιν ὠθήσονται. Καὶ τοῦτο δὴ κοινοὺς τοὺς τικτομένους ἀποφαίνει, ἀδεῶς ἑκάστου ταῖς προστυχούσαις ὁμιλούντων καὶ οἰκεῖά γε νομιζόντων τὰ ὑπὸ τούτων τικτόμενα. 9.47 Τοῦτό τοι νενοηκὼς ὁ προσδιαλεγόμενος, τοῦ Σωκράτους εἰρηκό τος· "Ἢ οὐκ ἀναγκαῖά σοι δοκῶ λέγειν;" ἐπήγαγεν· "Οὐ γεωμετρικαῖς γε, ἀλλ' ἐρωτικαῖς ἀνάγκαις, αἳ κινδυνεύουσιν ἐκείνων δριμύτεραι εἶναι πρὸς τὸ πείθειν καὶ ἕλκειν τὸν πολὺν λεών." 9.48 Ἐγὼ δὲ τῶν νῦν τὰ Πλάτωνος ἑρμηνεύειν ἐθελόντων, μᾶλλον δὲ παρερμηνεύειν πειρωμένων, θαυμάζω τὴν ἀναίδειαν· φασὶ γὰρ αὐτὸν μὴ ξυνουσίαν