[372d]
and they will toast myrtle-berries
and acorns before the fire, washing them down with moderate potations and
so, living in peace and health, they will probably die in old age and hand
on a like life to their offspring.” And he said, “If you
were founding a city of pigs,1
Socrates, what other fodder than this would you provide?”
“Why, what would you have, Glaucon?” said I.
“What is customary,” he replied; “They must
recline on couches, I presume, if they are not to be uncomfortable,
1 Cf. Introduction p. xiv. By the mouth of the fine gentleman, Glaucon, Plato expresses with humorous exaggeration his own recognition of the inadequacy for ethical and social philosophy of his idyllic ideal. Cf. Mandeville, Preface to Fable of the Bees: “A golden age must be as free/ For acorns as for honesty.”
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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