[509a]
it is right to deem light
and vision sunlike, but never to think that they are the sun, so here it is
right to consider these two their counterparts, as being like the good or
boniform,1 but to think that either of
them is the good2 is not right. Still higher honor
belongs to the possession and habit3
of the good.” “An inconceivable beauty you speak
of,” he said, “if it is the source of knowledge and
truth, and yet itself surpasses them in beauty. For you surely4 cannot mean that it is
pleasure.” “Hush,” said I, “but
examine
1 ἀγαθοειδῆ occurs only here in classical Greek literature. Plato quite probably coined it for his purpose.
2 There is no article in the Greek. Plato is not scrupulous to distinguish good and the good here. cf. on 505 C, p. 89, note f.
3 ἕξις is not yet in Plato quite the technical Aristotelian “habit.” However Protag. 344 C approaches it. Cf. also Phileb. 11 D, 41 C, Ritter-Preller, p. 285. Plato used many words in periphrasis with the genitive, e.g.ἕξιςLaws 625 C,γένεσιςLaws 691 B, Tim. 73 B, 76 E,μοῖραPhaedr. 255 B, 274 E, Menex. 249 B,φύσιςPhaedo 109 E, Symp. 186 B, Laws 729 C, 845 D, 944 D, etc. He may have chosen ἕξις here to suggest the ethical aspect of the good as a habit or possession of the soul. The introduction of ἡδονή below supports this view. Some interpreters think it=τὸ ἀγαθὸν ὡς ἔχει, which is possible but rather pointless.
4 For οὐ γὰρ δήπου Cf. Apol. 20 C, Gorg. 455 A, Euthyph. 13 A.
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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