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pleasant each day, but in truth a very salty and bitter neighbor; for by filling it with commerce and money-making through retail trade, it engenders in souls fickle and faithless habits, making the city itself faithless and friendless toward itself 12.48.6 and likewise toward other men. As a consolation for these things, it possesses the quality of being all-productive; yet being rugged, it is clear that it could not be very productive and all-productive at the same time; for if it had this, by providing much for export, it would be filled in return with silver and gold coin; than which, so to speak, no single greater evil could befall a city for the acquisition of noble and just habits.” But since so much has been demonstrated by us up to this point, let us consider how, having accepted through what we have said the manner of education among the Hebrews, he rejects the Greek one, writing thus in the tenth book of the Republic:

12.49.1 49. HOW PLATO REJECTS THE THINGS OF GREEK ELEMENTARY EDUCATION AS BEING HARMFUL

“Let it be said to you—for you will not denounce me to the tragic poets and all the other imitators—all such things seem to be a corruption of the mind of the listeners, all who do not have as an antidote 12.49.2 the knowledge of what they really are. ‘In what sense,’ he said, ‘do you mean this?’ ‘It must be said,’ I said, ‘and yet a certain friendship and reverence for Homer that I have had from childhood prevents me from speaking. For he seems to have been the first teacher and leader of all these fine tragic poets. But a man is not to be honored before the truth, but what I say must be said.’ ‘Most certainly,’ he said.’” 12.49.3 Then he adds in sequence: “‘Let us not, then, demand an account from Homer or any other of the poets about other matters, asking if any of them was a physician, and not merely an imitator of medical language, what patients any poet, ancient or modern, is said to have made healthy, as Asclepius did, or what disciples of medicine he left behind, as that one left his descendants. Nor, again, let us question him about the other arts, but 12.49.4 let us leave them be. But concerning the greatest and fairest things of which Homer undertakes to speak, about wars and strategies and administrations of cities and the education of man, it is just, I suppose, to question him, inquiring: ‘O friend Homer, if you are not in the third remove from the truth about virtue, a craftsman of an image, whom we have defined as an imitator, but are even in the second, and were able to know what pursuits make men better or worse in private and in public, tell us which of the cities was better governed because of you, as Lacedaemon was because of Lycurgus, 12.49.5 and many others, great and small, because of many other men. But what city credits you with having been a good lawgiver and with having benefited them? For Italy and Sicily credit Charondas, and we Solon; but you, who? Will you be able to name any?’ ‘I think not,’ said Glaucon; ‘at least it is not said so even by the Homeridae themselves.’ ‘But what war in Homer's time is remembered to have been well fought 12.49.6 under his command or counsel?’ ‘None.’ ‘But are many ingenious inventions for the arts or any other activities told of as the works of a wise man, such as are told of Thales the Milesian and Anacharsis the Scythian?’ ‘Nothing 12.49.7 of the sort at all.’ ‘But if not in public, is Homer himself said to have been a guide in education in his own lifetime for some individuals, who loved him for his companionship and handed down to their successors a certain Homeric way of life, just as Pythagoras was himself especially loved for these things, and his successors, even now calling their way of life Pythagorean, seem to be in some way distinguished among 12.49.8 the others?’

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ἑκάστην ἡμέραν ἡδύ, μάλα γε μὴν ὄντως ἁλμυρὸν καὶ πικρὸν γειτόνημα· ἐμπορίας γὰρ καὶ χρηματισμοῦ διὰ καπηλείας ἐμπιπλᾶσα αὐτὴν ἤθη παλίμβολα καὶ ἄπιστα ταῖς ψυχαῖς ἐντίκτουσα, αὐτὴν πρὸς αὑτὴν τὴν πόλιν ἄπιστον καὶ ἄφιλον 12.48.6 ποιεῖ καὶ πρὸς τοὺς ἄλλους ἀνθρώπους ὡσαύτως. παραμύθιον δὲ δὴ πρὸς ταῦτα καὶ τὸ πάμφορος εἶναι κέκτηται τραχεῖα τε οὖσα δῆλον ὡς οὐκ ἂν πολυφόρος τ' εἴη καὶ πάμφορος ἅμα· τοῦτο γὰρ ἔχουσα, πολλὴν ἐξαγωγὴν ἂν παρεχομένη νομίσματος ἀργυροῦ καὶ χρυσοῦ πάλιν ἀντεμπίπλαιτ' ἄν· οὗ μεῖζον κακόν, ὡς ἔπος εἰπεῖν, πόλει ἀνθ' ἑνὸς ἓν οὐδὲν ἂν γένοιτο εἰς γενναίων καὶ δικαίων ἠθῶν κτῆσιν.» Ἀλλὰ γὰρ τοσούτων ἡμῖν καὶ μέχρι τοῦδε ἀποδεδειγμένων σκεψώμεθα ὅπως τὸν τῆς παρ' Ἑβραίοις παιδείας τρόπον δι' ὧν εἰρήκαμεν ἀποδεξάμενος τὸν Ἑλληνικὸν παραιτεῖται, γράφων ἐν τῷ δεκάτῳ τῆς Πολιτείας ὧδε·

12.49.1 μθʹ. ΟΠΩΣ Ο ΠΛΑΤΩΝ ΤΑ ΤΗΣ ΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΗΣ ΠΡΟΠΑΙ∆ΕΙΑΣ ΩΣ ΕΠΙΒΛΑΒΗ ΤΥΓΧΑΝΟΝΤΑ ΠΑΡΑΙΤΕΙΤΑΙ

«Ὡς μὲν πρὸς ὑμᾶς εἰρήσθω οὐ γάρ μου κατερεῖτε πρὸς τοὺς τῆς τραγῳδίας ποιητὰς καὶ τοὺς ἄλλους πάντας τοὺς μιμητικούς, λώβη ἔοικεν εἶναι πάντα τὰ τοιαῦτα τῆς τῶν ἀκουόντων διανοίας, ὅσοι μὴ ἔχουσι φάρμακον 12.49.2 τὸ εἰδέναι αὐτὰ οἷα τυγχάνει ὄντα. Πῇ δή, ἔφη, διανοούμενος λέγεις; Ῥητέον, ἦν δ' ἐγώ, καίτοι φιλία γέ τίς με καὶ αἰδὼς ἐκ παιδὸς ἔχουσα περὶ Ὁμήρου ἀποκωλύει λέγειν. ἔοικε γὰρ τῶν καλῶν ἁπάντων τούτων τῶν τραγικῶν πρῶτος διδάσκαλός τε καὶ ἡγεμὼν γενέσθαι. ἀλλ' οὐ γὰρ πρό γε τῆς ἀληθείας τιμητέος ἀνήρ, ἀλλ' ὃ λέγω ῥητέον. Πάνυ μὲν οὖν, ἔφη.» 12.49.3 Εἶθ' ἑξῆς ἐπιλέγει· «Τῶν μὲν τοίνυν ἄλλων πέρι μὴ ἀπαιτῶμεν λόγον Ὅμηρον μηδὲ ἄλλον ὁντινοῦν τῶν ποιητῶν ἐρωτῶντες, εἰ ἰατρικὸς ἦν αὐτῶν, ἀλλὰ μὴ μιμητὴς μόνον ἰατρικῶν λόγων, τίνας ὑγιεῖς ποιητής τις τῶν παλαιῶν ἢ τῶν νέων λέγεται πεποιηκέναι, ὥσπερ Ἀσκληπιός, ἢ τίνας μαθητὰς ἰατρικῆς κατελίπετο, ὥσπερ ἐκεῖνος τοὺς ἐγγόνους. μηδ' αὖ περὶ τὰς ἄλλας τέχνας αὐτὸν ἐρωτῶμεν, ἀλλ' 12.49.4 ἐῶμεν. περὶ δὲ τῶν μεγίστων τε καὶ καλλίστων, ὧν ἐπιχειρεῖ λέγειν Ὅμηρος, πολέμων τε πέρι καὶ στρατηγιῶν καὶ διοικήσεων πόλεων καὶ παιδείας πέρι ἀνθρώπων, δίκαιόν που ἐρωτᾶν αὐτὸν πυνθανομένους· Ὦ φίλε Ὅμηρε, εἴπερ μὴ τρίτος ἀπὸ τῆς ἀληθείας εἶ ἀρετῆς πέρι εἰδώλου δημιουργός, ὃν δὴ μιμητὴν ὡρισάμεθα, ἀλλὰ καὶ δεύτερος καὶ οἷός τε ἦσθα γινώσκειν ποῖα ἐπιτηδεύματα βελτίους ἢ χείρους ἀνθρώπους ποιεῖ ἰδίᾳ καὶ δημοσίᾳ, λέγε ἡμῖν τίς τῶν πόλεων διὰ σὲ βέλτιον ᾤκησεν, ὥσπερ διὰ Λυκοῦργον Λακεδαίμων 12.49.5 καὶ δι' ἄλλους πολλοὺς πολλαὶ μεγάλαι τε καὶ σμικραί. σὲ δὲ τίς αἰτιᾶται πόλις ἀγαθὸν νομοθέτην γεγονέναι καὶ σφᾶς ὠφεληκέναι; Χαρώνδαν μὲν γὰρ Ἰταλία καὶ Σικελία, καὶ ἡμεῖς Σόλωνα· σὲ δὲ τίς; ἕξει τινὰ εἰπεῖν; Οὐκ οἴομαι, ἔφη ὁ Γλαύκων· οὔκουν λέγεταί γε οὐδ' ὑπ' αὐτῶν Ὁμηριδῶν. Ἀλλὰ δὴ τίς πόλεμος ἐπὶ Ὁμήρου ὑπ' ἐκείνου ἄρχοντος ἢ συμβουλεύοντος εὖ πολε12.49.6 μηθεὶς μνημονεύεται; Οὐδείς. Ἀλλ' οἷα δὴ εἰς τὰ ἔργα σοφοῦ ἀνδρὸς πολλαὶ ἐπίνοιαι καὶ εὐμήχανοι εἰς τέχνας ἤ τινας ἄλλας πράξεις λέγονται, ὥσπερ αὖ Θάλεώ τε πέρι τοῦ Μιλησίου καὶ Ἀναχάρσιδος τοῦ Σκύθου; Οὐδα12.49.7 μῶς τοιοῦτον οὐθέν. Ἀλλὰ δὴ εἰ μὴ δημοσίᾳ, ἰδίᾳ τισὶν ἡγεμὼν παιδείας αὐτὸς ζῶν λέγεται Ὅμηρος γενέσθαι, οἳ ἐκεῖνον ἠγάπων ἐπὶ συνουσίᾳ καὶ τοῖς ὕστερον ὁδόν τινα παρέδοσαν βίου Ὁμηρικὴν ἄν, ὥσπερ Πυθαγόρας αὐτός τε διαφερόντως ἐπὶ τούτων ἠγαπήθη καὶ οἱ ὕστεροι ἔτι καὶ νῦν Πυθαγόρειον τρόπον ἐπονομάζοντες τοῦ βίου διαφανεῖς πη δοκοῦσιν εἶναι ἐν 12.49.8 τοῖς ἄλλοις;