Page - 277 - in The Complete Plato
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Lacedaemonians want to unbend and hold free conversation with their wise
men, and are no longer satisfied with mere secret intercourse, they drive out
all these laconizers, and any other foreigners who may happen to be in their
country, and they hold a philosophical seance unknown to strangers; and they
themselves forbid their young men to go out into other cities—in this they are
like the Cretans— in order that they may not unlearn the lessons which they
have taught them. And in Lacedaemon and Crete not only men but also
women have a pride in their high cultivation. And hereby you may know that
I am right in attributing to the Lacedaemonians this excellence in philosophy
and speculation: If a man converses with the most ordinary Lacedaemonian,
he will find him seldom good for much in general conversation, but at any
point in the discourse he will be darting out some notable saying, terse and
full of meaning, with unerring aim; and the person with whom he is talking
seems to be like a child in his hands. And many of our own age and of former
ages have noted that the true Lacedaemonian type of character has the love of
philosophy even stronger than the love of gymnastics; they are conscious that
only a perfectly educated man is capable of uttering such expressions. Such
were Thales of Miletus, and Pittacus of Mitylene, and Bias of Priene, and our
own Solon, and Cleobulus the Lindian, and Myson the Chenian; and seventh
in the catalogue of wise men was the Lacedaemonian Chilo. All these were
lovers and emulators and disciples of the culture of the Lacedaemonians, and
any one may perceive that their wisdom was of this character; consisting of
short memorable sentences, which they severally uttered. And they met
together and dedicated in the temple of Apollo at Delphi, as the first-fruits of
their wisdom, the far-famed inscriptions, which are in all men’s mouths
—‘Know thyself,’ and ‘Nothing too much.’
Why do I say all this? I am explaining that this Lacedaemonian brevity was
the style of primitive philosophy. Now there was a saying of Pittacus which
was privately circulated and received the approbation of the wise, ‘Hard is it
to be good.’ And Simonides, who was ambitious of the fame of wisdom, was
aware that if he could overthrow this saying, then, as if he had won a victory
over some famous athlete, he would carry off the palm among his
contemporaries. And if I am not mistaken, he composed the entire poem with
the secret intention of damaging Pittacus and his saying.
Let us all unite in examining his words, and see whether I am speaking the
truth. Simonides must have been a lunatic, if, in the very first words of the
poem, wanting to say only that to become good is hard, he inserted (Greek)
‘on the one hand’ (‘on the one hand to become good is hard’); there would be
no reason for the introduction of (Greek), unless you suppose him to speak
with a hostile reference to the words of Pittacus. Pittacus is saying ‘Hard is it
to be good,’ and he, in refutation of this thesis, rejoins that the truly hard
277
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book The Complete Plato"
The Complete Plato
- Title
- The Complete Plato
- Author
- Plato
- Date
- ~347 B.C.
- Language
- English
- License
- PD
- Size
- 21.0 x 29.7 cm
- Pages
- 1612
- Keywords
- Philosophy, Antique, Philosophie, Antike, Dialogues, Metaphysik, Metaphysics, Ideologie, Ideology, Englisch
- Categories
- Geisteswissenschaften
- International