Reference address : https://ellopos.net/elpenor/greek-texts/ancient-greece/plato/plato-politeia-5.asp?pg=3

ELPENOR - Home of the Greek Word

Three Millennia of Greek Literature
PLATO HOME PAGE  /  PLATO COMPLETE WORKS  /  SEARCH PLATO WORKS  

Plato : POLITEIA

Persons of the dialogue: Socrates - Glaucon - Polemarchus
 - Adeimantus - Cephalus - Thrasymachus - Cleitophon
Translated by Benjamin Jowett - 68 Pages (Part 5) - Greek fonts
Search Plato's works / Plato Anthology / The Greek Word Library

Plato notes @ Elpenor = Note by Elpenor 

POLITEIA part 5 of 5

Part 1 / 2 / 3 / 4

ELPENOR EDITIONS IN PRINT

The Original Greek New Testament

Plato in print

This Part: 68 Pages


Part 5 Page 3

Then come impeachments and judgments and trials of one another.

True.

The people have always some champion whom they set over them and nurse into greatness.

Yes, that is their way.

This and no other is the root from which a tyrant springs; when he first appears above ground he is a protector.

Yes, that is quite clear.

How then does a protector begin to change into a tyrant? Clearly when he does what the man is said to do in the tale of the Arcadian temple of Lycaean Zeus.

What tale?

The tale is that he who has tasted the entrails of a single human victim minced up with the entrails of other victims is destined to become a wolf. Did you never hear it?

Oh, yes.

And the protector of the people is like him; having a mob entirely at his disposal, he is not restrained from shedding the blood of kinsmen; by the favourite method of false accusation he brings them into court and murders them, making the life of man to disappear, and with unholy tongue and lips tasting the blood of his fellow citizen; some he kills and others he banishes, at the same time hinting at the abolition of debts and partition of lands: and after this, what will be his destiny? Must he not either perish at the hands of his enemies, or from being a man become a wolf —that is, a tyrant? Inevitably.

This, I said, is he who begins to make a party against the rich?

The same.

After a while he is driven out, but comes back, in spite of his enemies, a tyrant full grown.

That is clear.

Previous Page / First / Next Page of this part

Politeia Part 1 / 2 / 3 / 4. You are at part 5

  Plato Home Page / Bilingual Anthology   Plato Search ||| Aristotle

Three Millennia of Greek Literature

 

Greek Literature - Ancient, Medieval, Modern

Elpenor's Greek Forum : Post a question / Start a discussion

Learned Freeware

Reference address : https://ellopos.net/elpenor/greek-texts/ancient-greece/plato/plato-politeia-5.asp?pg=3

Copyright : Elpenor 2006 -