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Plato Bilingual Anthology : TYRANNY AND SLAVERY

from Politeia, * 577c--580a, translated by B. Jowett

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Page 4

And is not this the sort of prison in which the tyrant will be bound --he who being by nature such as we have described, is full of all sorts of fears and lusts? His soul is dainty and greedy, and yet alone, of all men in the city, he is never allowed to go on a journey, or to see the things which other freemen desire to see, but he lives in his hole like a woman hidden in the house, and is jealous of any other citizen who goes into foreign parts and sees anything of interest. Very true, he said. And amid evils such as these will not he who is ill-governed in his own person --the tyrannical man, I mean --whom you just now decided to be the most miserable of all --will not he be yet more miserable when, instead of leading a private life, he is constrained by fortune to be a public tyrant? He has to be master of others when he is not master of himself: he is like a diseased or paralytic man who is compelled to pass his life, not in retirement, but fighting and combating with other men. Yes, he said, the similitude is most exact. Ἆρ΄ οὖν οὐκ ἐν τοιούτῳ μὲν δεσμωτηρίῳ δέδεται ὁ τύραννος͵ φύσει ὢν οἷον διεληλύθαμεν͵ πολλῶν καὶ παντοδαπῶν φόβων καὶ ἐρώτων μεστός· λίχνῳ δὲ ὄντι αὐτῷ τὴν ψυχὴν μόνῳ τῶν ἐν τῇ πόλει οὔτε ἀποδημῆσαι ἔξεστιν οὐδαμόσε͵ οὔτε θεωρῆσαι ὅσων δὴ καὶ οἱ ἄλλοι ἐλεύθεροι ἐπιθυμηταί εἰσιν͵ καταδεδυκὼς δὲ ἐν τῇ οἰκίᾳ τὰ πολλὰ ὡς γυνὴ ζῇ͵ φθονῶν καὶ τοῖς ἄλλοις πολίταις͵ ἐάν τις ἔξω ἀποδημῇ καί τι ἀγαθὸν ὁρᾷ; Παντάπασιν μὲν οὖν͵ ἔφη. Οὐκοῦν τοῖς τοιούτοις κακοῖς πλείω καρποῦται ἀνὴρ ὃς ἂν κακῶς ἐν ἑαυτῷ πολιτευόμενος͵ ὃν νυνδὴ σὺ ἀθλιώτατον ἔκρινας͵ τὸν τυραννικόν͵ ὡς μὴ ἰδιώτης καταβιῷ͵ ἀλλὰ ἀναγκασθῇ ὑπό τινος τύχης τυραννεῦσαι καὶ ἑαυτοῦ ὢν ἀκράτωρ ἄλλων ἐπιχειρήσῃ ἄρχειν͵ ὥσπερ εἴ τις κάμνοντι σώματι καὶ ἀκράτορι ἑαυτοῦ μὴ ἰδιωτεύων ἀλλ΄ ἀγωνιζόμενος πρὸς ἄλλα σώματα καὶ μαχόμενος ἀναγκάζοιτο διάγειν τὸν βίον. Παντάπασιν͵ ἔφη͵ ὁμοιότατά τε καὶ ἀληθέστατα λέγεις͵ ὦ Σώκρατες.
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Reference address : https://www.ellopos.net/elpenor/greek-texts/ancient-greece/plato-tyranny-slavery.asp?pg=4