[451c]
But
maybe this way is right, that after the completion of the male drama we
should in turn go through with the female,1 especially since you are so urgent.”“For men, then, born and bred as we
described there is in my opinion no other right possession and use of
children and women than that which accords with the start we gave them. Our
endeavor, I believe, was to establish these men in our discourse as the
guardians of a flock2?”
“Yes.”
1 Sophron's Mimes are said to have been so classified. For δρᾶμα cf. also Theaetetus 150 A.
2 For the use of analogies drawn from animals cf. 375-376, 422 D, 466 D, 467 B, 491 D-E, 537 A, 546 A-B, 564 A. Plato is only pretending to deduce his conclusions from his imagery. Aristotle's literal-minded criticism objects that animals have no “economy,”Politics 1264 b 4-6.
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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