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Three Millennia of Greek Literature
 

Plato Bilingual Anthology : PAIDEIA - OUT OF THE CAVE

from Politeia, * 514a-518d, translated by B. Jowett
* Parts translated by Elpenor in <angle brackets>

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ELPENOR EDITIONS IN PRINT
Page 9

and he who remembers this when he sees any one whose vision is perplexed and weak, will not be too ready to laugh; he will first ask whether that soul of man has come out of the brighter light, and is unable to see because unaccustomed to the dark, or having turned from darkness to the day is dazzled by excess of light. And he will count the one happy in his condition and state of being, and he will pity the other; or, if he have a mind to laugh at the soul which comes from below into the light, there will be more reason in this than in the laugh which greets him who returns from above out of the light into the den. That, he said, is a very just distinction. ταὐτὰ δὲ ταῦτα νομίσας γίγνεσθαι καὶ περὶ ψυχήν͵ ὁπότε ἴδοι θορυβουμένην τινὰ καὶ ἀδυνατοῦσάν τι καθορᾶν͵ οὐκ ἂν ἀλογίστως γελῷ͵ ἀλλ΄ ἐπισκοποῖ ἂν πότερον ἐκ φανοτέρου βίου ἥκουσα ὑπὸ ἀηθείας ἐσκότωται͵ ἢ ἐξ ἀμαθίας πλείονος εἰς φανότερον ἰοῦσα ὑπὸ λαμπροτέρου μαρμαρυγῆς ἐμπέπλησται͵ καὶ οὕτω δὴ τὴν μὲν εὐδαιμονίσειεν ἂν τοῦ πάθους τε καὶ βίου͵ τὴν δὲ ἐλεήσειεν͵ καὶ εἰ γελᾶν ἐπ΄ αὐτῇ βούλοιτο͵ ἧττον ἂν καταγέλαστος ὁ γέλως αὐτῷ εἴη ἢ ὁ ἐπὶ τῇ ἄνωθεν ἐκ φωτὸς ἡκούσῃ. Καὶ μάλα͵ ἔφη͵ μετρίως λέγεις.
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Reference address : https://ellopos.net/elpenor/greek-texts/ancient-greece/plato-paideia-cave.asp?pg=9