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13. CONCERNING GYMNASTICS AND MUSIC

“What then, Glaucon, might be a study that draws the soul from becoming to being? But I also mean this as I speak: did we not say that it was necessary for these men to be athletes of war when they were young? We did indeed. It is necessary, then, that this study we seek should also have that quality. What quality? That it should not be useless to men of war. It must indeed, if possible. Before this they were educated by us in some way in gymnastics and music. 14.13.2 That was so, he said. And gymnastics, I suppose, is concerned with what comes into being and perishes; for it presides over the growth and decay of the body. So it appears. This then would not be the study we are seeking. 14.13.3 No, it would not. But what about music, in the way we described it before? But that, he said, if you remember, was the counterpart of gymnastics, educating the guardians by habits, imparting by harmony a certain harmoniousness, not knowledge, and by rhythm a certain rhythm, and in its words having certain other kindred habits, both those words which were mythical and those which were truer; but a study leading to such a thing as you are seeking was not in it. 14.13.4 You remind me most accurately, I said; for in reality it had nothing of the kind. But, my dear Glaucon, what could be of such a kind? For all the crafts, I suppose, seemed to be mechanical. How could they not?” 14.13.5 Then continuing in order he adds: “Lest those whom we are to rear attempt to learn anything of them that is incomplete, and not ever reaching the point to which all things must come, as we were just now saying about astronomy. Or do you not know that they do another such thing concerning harmony? For they measure against each other the consonances and sounds that are heard, 14.13.6 and labor to no avail, just like the astronomers. By the gods, he said, and ridiculously so, naming certain condensations and setting their ears to them, as if hunting a voice from their neighbors', some saying they still hear a certain sound in between and that this is the smallest interval by which it must be measured, others disputing that they are now sounding the same, 14.13.7 both setting their ears before their mind. You, I said, are speaking of the good folk who give trouble to the strings and torture them, racking them on the pegs. But lest the image grow too long, of blows from the plectrum, and of the accusation and denial and vaunting of the strings, I cease from the image and say I am not speaking of these men, 14.13.8 but of those whom we just now said were to be consulted about harmony. For they do the same as those in astronomy. For they seek the numbers in these audible consonances, but they do not rise to problems to investigate which numbers are consonant and which are not, and why in each case.” 14.13.9 But indeed let these things also lie before us as we make our defense, that not without right reason we have disregarded useless learning of this kind. Let us then consider now, beginning from the start, the dogmatic oppositions to one another of the aforementioned natural philosophers. For Plutarch, having gathered together the opinions of all the Platonists and Pythagoreans together, and of the still older so-called natural philosophers, and again of the more recent Peripatetics and Stoics and Epicureans, writes them all at once in the work he entitled, “On the Physical Doctrines Pleasing to the Philosophers,” from which I will cite the following:

14.14.1 14. OPINIONS OF THE PHILOSOPHERS CONCERNING FIRST PRINCIPLES “Thales of Miletus,” one of the seven sages, “declared the principle of things to be

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ιγʹ. ΠΕΡΙ ΓΥΜΝΑΣΤΙΚΗΣ ΚΑΙ ΜΟΥΣΙΚΗΣ

«Τί ἂν οὖν εἴη, ὦ Γλαύκων, μάθημα ψυχῆς ὁλκὸν ἀπὸ τοῦ γιγνομένου ἐπὶ τὸ ὄν; τόδε δ' ἐννοῶ λέγων ἅμα· οὐκ ἀθλητὰς μέντοι πολέμου ἔφαμεν τούτους ἀναγκαῖον εἶναι νέους ὄντας; Ἔφαμεν γάρ. ∆εῖ ἄρα καὶ τοῦτο προσέχειν τὸ μάθημα ὃ ζητοῦμεν πρὸς ἐκείνῳ. Τὸ ποῖον; Μὴ ἄχρηστον πολεμικοῖς ἀνδράσιν εἶναι. ∆εῖ μέντοι, εἴπερ οἷόν τε. Γυμναστικῇ πη καὶ μουσικῇ 14.13.2 ἔν γε τῷ πρόσθεν ἐπαιδεύοντο ἡμῖν. Ἦν ταῦτα, ἔφη. Καὶ γυμναστικὴ μέν που περὶ γιγνόμενον καὶ ἀπολλύμενον τετεύτακε· σώματος γὰρ αὔξης καὶ φθίσεως ἐπιστατεῖ. Φαίνεται. Τοῦτο μὲν δὴ οὐκ ἂν εἴη ὃ ζητοῦμεν μά14.13.3 θημα. Οὐ γάρ. Ἀλλ' ἄρα μουσικὴ ὅσην τὸ πρότερον διήλθομεν; Ἀλλ' ἦν ἐκείνη γ', ἔφη, ἀντίστροφος τῆς γυμναστικῆς, εἰ μέμνησαι, ἔθεσι παιδεύουσα τοὺς φύλακας, κατά τε ἁρμονίαν εὐαρμοστίαν τινά, οὐκ ἐπιστήμην παραδιδοῦσα καὶ κατὰ ῥυθμὸν εὐρυθμίαν, ἔν τε τοῖς λόγοις ἕτερα τούτων ἀδελφὰ ἔθη ἄττα ἔχουσα, καὶ ὅσοι μυθώδεις τῶν λόγων καὶ ὅσοι ἀληθινώτεροι ἦσαν· μάθημα δὲ πρὸς τοιοῦτόν τι ἄγον, οἷον σὺ ζητεῖς, οὐδὲν ἦν ἐν 14.13.4 αὐτῇ. Ἀκριβέστατα, ἦν δ' ἐγώ, ἀναμιμνήσκεις με· τῷ γὰρ ὄντι τοιοῦτον οὐδὲν εἶχεν. ἀλλ', ὦ δαιμόνιε Γλαύκων, τί ἂν εἴη τοιοῦτον; αἵ τε γὰρ τέχναι βάναυσοί που ἅπασαι ἔδοξαν εἶναι. Πῶς δ' οὔ;» 14.13.5 Εἶθ' ἑξῆς προϊὼν ἐπιλέγει· «Μή ποτ' αὐτῶν τι ἀτελὲς ἐπιχειρῶσιν ἡμῖν μανθάνειν οὓς θρέψομεν καὶ οὐκ ἐξῆκον ἐκεῖσε ἀεὶ οἷ πάντας δεῖ αὖ ἥκειν, οἷον ἄρτι περὶ τῆς ἀστρονομίας ἐλέγομεν. ἢ οὐκ οἶσθ' ὅτι καὶ περὶ ἁρμονίας ἕτερον τοιοῦτον ποιοῦσι; τὰς γὰρ ἀκουομένας αὖ συμφωνίας καὶ φθόγγους ἀλλήλοις ἀναμετροῦντες 14.13.6 ἀνήνυτα ὥσπερ οἱ ἀστρονόμοι πονοῦσι. Νὴ τοὺς θεούς, ἔφη, καὶ γελοίως γε, πυκνώματ' ἄττα ὀνομάζοντες καὶ παραβάλλοντες τὰ ὦτα, οἷον ἐκ γειτόνων φωνὴν θηρευόμενοι, οἱ μέν φασιν ἔτι κατακούειν ἐν μέσῳ τινὰ ἠχὴν καὶ σμικρότατον εἶναι τοῦτο διάστημα ᾧ μετρητέον, οἱ δ' ἀμφισβητοῦντες ὡς ὅμοιον 14.13.7 ἤδη φθεγγομένων, ἀμφότεροι ὦτα τοῦ νοῦ προστησάμενοι. Σὺ μέν, ἦν δ' ἐγώ, τοὺς χρηστοὺς λέγεις τοὺς ταῖς χορδαῖς πράγματα παρέχοντας καὶ βασανίζοντας, ἐπὶ τῶν κολλόπων στρεβλοῦντας. ἵνα δὲ μὴ μακροτέρα ἡ εἰκὼν γίγνηται, πλήκτρῳ τε πληγῶν γιγνομένων καὶ κατηγορίας πέρι καὶ ἐξαρνήσεως καὶ ἀλαζονείας χορδῶν, παύομαι τῆς εἰκόνος καὶ οὔ φημι τούτους 14.13.8 λέγειν, ἀλλ' ἐκείνους οὓς ἔφαμεν νῦν δὴ περὶ ἁρμονίας εἰρῆσθαι. ταὐτὸν γὰρ ποιοῦσι τοῖς ἐν τῇ ἀστρονομίᾳ. τοὺς γὰρ ἐν ταύταις ταῖς συμφωνίαις ταῖς ἀκουομέναις ἀριθμοὺς ζητοῦσιν, ἀλλ' οὐκ εἰς προβλήματα ἀνίασιν ἐπισκοπεῖν, τίνες ξύμφωνοι ἀριθμοὶ καὶ τίνες οὒ καὶ διὰ τί ἑκάτεροι.» 14.13.9 Ἀλλὰ γὰρ καὶ ταῦθ' ἡμῖν πρὸ ὁδοῦ κείσθω ἀπολογουμένοις, ὅτι μὴ δίχα διανοίας ὀρθῆς καὶ τῆς τῶν τοιῶνδε ἀχρηστομαθείας ὠλιγωρήσαμεν. σκεψώμεθα δῆτα λοιπὸν ἤδη ἄνωθεν ἀρξάμενοι τὰς τῶν εἰρημένων φυσικῶν φιλοσόφων δογματικὰς πρὸς ἀλλήλους ἀντιδοξίας. γράφει δὴ ἀθρόως ἁπάντων τῶν Πλατωνικῶν ὁμοῦ καὶ Πυθαγορείων τῶν τε ἔτι πρεσβυτέρων φυσικῶν φιλοσόφων ἐπικεκλημένων καὶ αὖ πάλιν τῶν νεωτέρων Περιπατητικῶν τε καὶ Στωϊκῶν καὶ Ἐπικουρείων τὰς δόξας συναγαγὼν ὁ Πλούταρχος ἐν οἷς ἐπέγραψε «Περὶ τῶν ἀρεσκόντων τοῖς φιλοσόφοις φυσικῶν δογμάτων,» ἐξ ὧν παραθήσομαι ταῦτα·

14.14.1 ιδʹ. ∆ΟΞΑΙ ΦΙΛΟΣΟΦΩΝ ΠΕΡΙ ΑΡΧΩΝ «Θαλῆς ὁ Μιλήσιος,» εἷς τῶν ἑπτὰ σοφῶν, «ἀρχὴν τῶν ὄντων ἀπεφήνατο εἶναι