[450b]
as I then set it forth! You don't realize what
a swarm1 of arguments you are stirring up2 by this demand, which I foresaw and evaded to save us no end of
trouble.” “Well,” said Thrasymachus,3“do you suppose this company has come here to prospect
for gold4
and not to listen to discussions?” “Yes,” I
said, “in measure.” “Nay, Socrates,”
said Glaucon, “the measure5 of listening to such discussions is the whole
of life for reasonable men. So don't consider us, and do not you yourself
grow weary
1 For the metaphor cf. Euripides Bacchae 710 and σμῆνος, Republic 574 D, Cratylus 401 C, Meno 72 A.
2 Cf. Philebus 36 D, Theaetetus 184 A, Cratylus 411 A.
3 Thrasymachus speaks here for the last time. He is mentioned in 357 A, 358 B-C, 498 C, 545 B, 590 D.
4 Lit. “to smelt ore.” The expression was proverbial and was explained by an obscure anecdote. Cf. Leutsch, Paroemiographi, ii. pp. 91, 727, and i. p. 464, and commentators on Herodotus iii. 102.
5 Plato often anticipates and repels the charge of tedious length (see Politicus 286 C, Philebus 28 D, 36 D). Here the thought takes a different turn (as 504 C). The δέ γε implies a slight rebuke (Cf. Class. Phil. xiv. pp. 165-174).
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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