[472d]
in the sense that whosoever is likest them will
have the allotment most like to theirs. Our purpose was not to demonstrate
the possibility of the realization of these ideals.” “In
that,” he said, “you speak truly.”
“Do you think, then, that he would be any the less a good
painter,1 who, after portraying a
pattern of the ideally beautiful man and omitting no touch required for the
perfection of the picture, should not be able to prove that it is actually
possible for such a man to exist?” “Not I, by
Zeus,” he said. “Then were not we,
1 An ideal in the plastic arts is used to illustrate the thought. Cf. Aristotle Poetics 1461 b 14, Politics 1281 b 10, Cicero, Orator ii. 3, Xenophon Memorabilia iii. 10, Finsler, Platon u. d. aristotelische Poetik, p. 56. Polyb. vi. 47. 7 gives a different turn to the comaprison of the Republic to a statue. Plato is speaking from the point of view of ordinary opinion, and it is uncritical to find here and in 501 an admission that the artist copies the idea, which is denied in Book X. 597 E ff. Apelt, Platonische Aufsätze, p. 67.
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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