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Three Millennia of Greek Literature
 

Plato Bilingual Anthology : SELF-KNOWLEDGE

from Alcibiades I, * 128e-129a, 132.b-133.c, translated by B. Jowett.

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ELPENOR EDITIONS IN PRINT
Page 6

AL. Clearly, Socrates, in looking at mirrors and the like.

SO. Very true; and is there not something of the nature of a mirror in our own eyes?

AL. Certainly.

SO. Did you ever observe that the face of the person looking into the eye of another is reflected as in a mirror; and in the visual organ which is over against him, and which is called the pupil, there is a sort of image of the person looking?

AL. That is quite true.

SO. Then the eye, looking at another eye, and at that in the eye which is most perfect, and which is the instrument of vision, will there see itself?

AL. That is evident.

SO. But looking at anything else either in man or in the world, and not to what resembles this, it will not see itself?

ΑΛ. Δῆλον δή͵ ὦ Σώκρατες͵ ὅτι εἰς κάτοπτρά τε καὶ τὰ τοιαῦτα.

ΣΩ. Ὀρθῶς λέγεις. οὐκοῦν καὶ τῷ ὀφθαλμῷ ᾧ ὁρῶμεν ἔνεστί τι τῶν τοιούτων;

ΑΛ. Πάνυ γε.

ΣΩ. Ἐννενόηκας οὖν ὅτι τοῦ ἐμβλέποντος εἰς τὸν ὀφθαλμὸν τὸ πρόσωπον ἐμφαίνεται ἐν τῇ τοῦ καταντικρὺ ὄψει ὥσπερ ἐν κατόπτρῳ͵ ὃ δὴ καὶ κόρην καλοῦμεν͵ εἴδωλον ὄν τι τοῦ ἐμβλέποντος;

ΑΛ. Ἀληθῆ λέγεις.

ΣΩ. Ὀφθαλμὸς ἄρα ὀφθαλμὸν θεώμενος͵ καὶ ἐμβλέπων εἰς τοῦτο ὅπερ βέλτιστον αὐτοῦ καὶ ᾧ ὁρᾷ͵ οὕτως ἂν αὑτὸν ἴδοι.

ΑΛ. Φαίνεται.

ΣΩ. Εἰ δέ γ΄ εἰς ἄλλο τῶν τοῦ ἀνθρώπου βλέποι ἤ τι τῶν ὄντων͵ πλὴν εἰς ἐκεῖνο ᾧ τοῦτο τυγχάνει ὅμοιον͵ οὐκ ὄψεται ἑαυτόν.

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Reference address : https://www.ellopos.net/elpenor/greek-texts/ancient-Greece/plato-self-knowledge.asp?pg=6