[487a]
“Nay, most necessary,” he said. “Is there
any fault, then, that you can find with a pursuit which a man could not
properly practise unless he were by nature of good memory, quick
apprehension, magnificent,1 gracious, friendly
and akin to truth, justice, bravery and sobriety?”
“Momus2 himself,” he said, “could not
find fault with such a combination.” “Well,
then,” said I, “when men of this sort are perfected by
education and maturity of age, would you not entrust the state solely to
them?”And Adeimantus said,
“No one, Socrates,
1 μεγαλοπρεπής is frequently ironical in Plato, but not here. For the list of qualities of the ideal student cf. also 503 C, Theaet. 144 A-B, and Friedländer, Platon, ii. p. 418. Cf. Laws 709 E on the qualifications of the young tyrant, and Cic.Tusc. v. 24, with Renaissance literature on education.
2 The god of censure, who finds fault with the gods in Lucian's dialogues. Cf. Overbeck, Schriftquellen, p. 208, n. 1091, Otto, p. 227, s. v. Momus. Cf. Callimachus, fr. 70; and Anth. Pal. xvi. 262. 3-4:αὐτὸς ὁ Μῶμος φθέγξεται, Ἄκρητος, Ζεῦ πάτερ, ἡ σοφίη, “Momus himself will cry out ‘Father Zeus, this was perfect skill.'” (L.C.L. translation.) Stallbaum refers to Erasmus, Chiliad, i. 5. 75 and interpreters on Aristaenet.Epist. i. I, p. 239, ed. Boissonade.
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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