[560e]
and purged1 of all these the soul of the youth
that they have thus possessed2 and occupied, and whom they
are initiating with these magnificent and costly rites,3 they proceed to lead home
from exile insolence and anarchy and prodigality and shamelessness,
resplendent4 in a great attendant choir and
crowned with garlands, and in celebration of their praises they
euphemistically denominate insolence ‘good breeding,’
licence ‘liberty,’ prodigality
‘magnificence,’
1 Cf. 567 C and 573 B where the word is also used ironically, and Laws 735, Polit. 293 D, Soph. 226 D.
2 κατέχομαι is used of divine “possession” or inspiration in Phaedr. 244 E, Ion 533 E, 536 B, etc., Xen.Symp. 1. 10.
3 Plato frequently employs the language of the mysteries for literary effect. Cf. Gorg. 497 C, Symp. 210 A and 218 B, Theaet. 155 E-156 A, Laws 666 B, 870 D-E, Phaedr. 250 B-C, 249 C, Phaedo 81 A, 69 C, Rep. 378 A, etc., and Thompson on Meno 76 E.
4 Cf. Eurip.fr. 628. 5 (Nauck), Soph.El. 1130.
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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