[563c]
“Shall we not,
then,” said he, “in Aeschylean phrase,1 say “whatever
rises to our lips’?” “Certainly,” I
said, “so I will. Without experience of it no one would believe
how much freer the very beasts2 subject to men are in such a city than
elsewhere. The dogs literally verify the adage3 and ‘like their mistresses
become.’ And likewise the horses and asses are wont to hold on
their way with the utmost freedom and dignity, bumping into everyone who
meets them and who does not step aside.4 And so all things everywhere are just bursting with the
spirit of liberty.5”
1 Nauck fr. 351. Cf. Plut.Amat. 763 C, Themist.Orat. iv. p. 52 B; also Otto, p. 39, and Adam ad loc.
2 Cf. 562 E, Julian, Misopogon, 355 B . . .μέχρι τῶν ὄνων ἐστὶν ἐλευθερία παρ᾽ αὐτοῖς καὶ τῶν καμήλων; ἄγουσί τοι καὶ ταύτας οἱ μισθωτοὶ διὰ τῶν στοῶν ὥσπερ τὰς νύμφας” . . . what great independence exists among the citizens, even down to the very asses and camels? The men who hire them out lead even these animals through the porticoes as though they were brides.” (Loeb tr.) Cf. Porphyry, Vit. Pythag.Teubner, p. 22, 23μέχρι καὶ τῶν ἀλόγων ζῴων διικνεῖτο αὐτοῦ ἡ νουθέτησις
3 Otto, p. 119. Cf. “Like mistress, like maid.”
4 Eurip.Ion 635-637 mentions being jostled off the street by a worse person as one of the indignities of Athenian city life.
5 Cf. the reflections in Laws 698 f., 701 A-C, Epist. viii. 354 D, Gorg. 461 E; Isoc.Areop. 20, Panath. 131, Eurip.Cyclops 120ἀκούει δ᾽ οὐδὲν οὐδεὶς οὐδενός, Aristot.Pol. 1295 b 15 f. Plato, by reaction against the excesses of the ultimate democracy, always satirizes the shibboleth “liberty” in the style of Arnold, Ruskin and Carlyle. He would agree with Goethe (Eckermann i. 219, Jan. 18, 1827) “Nicht das macht frei, das vir nichts über uns erkennen wollen, sondern eben, dass wir etwas verehren, das über uns ist.” Libby, Introd. to Hist. of Science, p. 273, not understanding the irony of the passage, thinks much of it the unwilling tribute of a hostile critic. In Gorg. 484 A Callicles sneers at equality from the point of view of the superman. Cf. also on 558 C, p. 291, note f; Hobbes, Leviathan xxi. and Theopompus's account of democracy in Byzantium, fr. 65. Similar phenomena may be observed in an American city street or Pullman club car.
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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