Plato, Republic, Book 6, section 510e

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[510e] And so in all cases. The very things which they mould and draw, which have shadows and images of themselves in water, these things they treat in their turn¹ as only images, but what they really seek is to get sight of those realities which can be seen

1 i.e. a bronze sphere would be the original of its imitative reflection in water, but it is in turn only the imperfect imitation of the mathematical idea of a sphere.

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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