[388a]
and not
to the most worthy of them either, and to inferior men, in that those whom
we say we are breeding for the guardianship of the land may disdain to act
like these.” “We should be right,” said he.
“Again then we shall request Homer and the other poets not to
portray Achilles, the son of a goddess, as,“
Lying now on his side, and then again on his back,
And again on his face,
”Hom. Il. 24.10-121 and then rising up
and “‘Drifting distraught on the
shore of the waste unharvested ocean,’”Hom. Il. 24.10-122
1 The descripition of Achilles mourning for Patroclus, Hom. Il. 24.10-12. Cf. Juv. 3.279-280: “Noctem patitur lugentis amicum/ Pelidae, cubat in faciem mox deinde supinus.”
2 Our text of Homer reads δινεύεσκ᾽ ἀλύων παρὰ θίν᾽ ἀλός, οὐδέ μιν ἠώς. Plato's text may be intentional burlesque or it may be corrupt.
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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