[332d]
“Seasoning to
meats.” “Good. In the same way tell me the art that
renders what to whom would be denominated justice.” “If
we are to follow the previous examples,1 Socrates, it is that
which renders benefits and harms to friends and enemies.”
“To do good to friends and evil to enemies,2 then, is justice in his meaning?”
“I think so.” “Who then is the most able when
they are ill to benefit friends and harm enemies in respect to disease and
health?” “The physician.”
1 Similarly Protagoras 312 A.
2 Simonides' defintion is reduced to the formula of traditional Greek morality which Plato was the first to transcend not only in the Republic infra, 335 D-336 A, but in the Crito 49 B-C. It is often expressed by Xenophon (Memorabilia ii. 3. 14, ii. 6. 35) and Isocrates (i. 26). But the polemic is not especially aimed at them. Cf. Schmidt, Ethik, ii. 313, 319, 363, Pindar, Pyth. ii. 85, Aeschylus Choeph. 123, Jebb, introduction to Sopocles Ajax, p. xxxix, Thumser, Staats-Altertumer, p. 549, n. 6, Thompson on Meno 71 E.
Plato. Plato in Twelve Volumes, Vols. 5 & 6 translated by Paul Shorey. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1969.
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