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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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Page 5

SO. I will tell you what I suspect to be the meaning and lesson of that inscription. Let me take an illustration from sight, which I imagine to be the only one suitable to my purpose.

AL. What do you mean?

SO. Consider; if some one were to say to the eye, 'See thyself,' as you might say to a man, 'Know thyself,' what is the nature and meaning of this precept? Would not his meaning be:--That the eye should look at that in which it would see itself?

AL. Clearly.

SO. And what are the objects in looking at which we see ourselves?

ΣΩ. Ἐγώ σοι φράσω͵ ὅ γε ὑποπτεύω λέγειν καὶ συμβουλεύειν ἡμῖν τοῦτο τὸ γράμμα. κινδυνεύει γὰρ οὐδὲ πολλαχοῦ εἶναι παράδειγμα αὐτοῦ͵ ἀλλὰ κατὰ τὴν ὄψιν μόνον.

ΑΛ. Πῶς τοῦτο λέγεις;

ΣΩ. Σκόπει καὶ σύ. εἰ ἡμῶν τῷ ὄμματι ὥσπερ ἀνθρώπῳ συμβουλεῦον εἶπεν ἰδὲ σαυτόν͵ πῶς ἂν ὑπελάβομεν τί παραινεῖν; ἆρα οὐχὶ εἰς τοῦτο βλέπειν͵ εἰς ὃ βλέπων ὁ ὀφθαλμὸς ἔμελλεν αὑτὸν ἰδεῖν;

ΑΛ. Δῆλον.  

ΣΩ. Ἐννοῶμεν δὴ εἰς τί βλέποντες τῶν ὄντων ἐκεῖνό τε ὁρῷμεν ἅμα ἂν καὶ ἡμᾶς αὐτούς;

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