[417b]
from
the helpers of their fellow citizens to their enemies and masters,1 and so in hating and being
hated,2 plotting and being plotted against they
will pass their days fearing far more and rather3 the townsmen within
than the foemen without—and then even then laying the course4 of near shipwreck for themselves and the
state. For all these reasons,” said I, “let us declare
that such must be the provision for our guardians in lodging and other
respects and so legislate. Shall we not?” “By all
means,” said Glaucon.
1 δεσπόται. Cf. Menexenus 238 E.
2 Cf. Laws 697 D in a passage of similar import,μισοῦντες μισοῦνται.
3 more and rather: so 396 D, 551 B.
4 The image is that of a ship nearing the fatal reef. Cf. Aeschylus, Eumenides 562. The sentiment and the heightened rhetorical tone of the whole passage recalls the last page of the Critias, with Ruskin's translation and comment in A Crown of Wild Olive.
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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