Plato's ΠΟΛΙΤΕΙΑ - THE REPUBLIC, Book Ten, The One and the Many
From the Introduction
TRANSLATORS before me have commented on the fact that 'The Republic' is not an acurate reading of Πολιτεία, which means civilization, or citizenship. It is about how to be a good citizen. The conceit that runs through the dialogue is that the individual soul is the model for a city; that all the aspects of a city can be found within a person's soul. It follows that in order to be able to co-operate with one another we need to know and value correctly the different forces that move us from within. People who have overestimated the political emphasis in Plato's thought may also have underestimated him as a psychologist, and as a poet.
It is likely that Freud took up Plato's ideas and transformed his three parts of the soul (the reason, the will and desire), into the super-ego, the ego and the id. Freud recognised the force of eros, of sex, and made it the cornerstone of his psychoanalytic theory. Many others have shied away from Plato's acknowledgement of eros, and have instead picked up on his advocacy of reason, thus creating a dualism that has infected western thought ever since. While the different religious traditions that followed on from Plato understood him as a mystic, many thinkers in the Western philosophical tradition have neglected him both as a mystic and a poet. Now, in our post-religious and post-Freudian era, in a time when we are thinking again about how to be good citizens, when what we value most is freedom of thought and freedom from dogma, it is time to look at Plato again.
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Some comments on Book 10:
'The translation of Republic 10 was beautifully produced, was very accurate and read well.'
TERRY BIRD
Teacher and former Head of Classics, Colchester Royal Grammar School
'I read it with great pleasure and a feeling of recognition that I have had from no other translation. In fact I will read the Greek with different ears because you have brought out the uncanny combination of simplicity and poetry that one can miss if one reads too swiftly...'
DR. WILLIAM FITZGERALD
Director of Studies, Caius College, Cambridge
'Irene Noel-Baker's free verse translation works brilliantly in catching the spontaneity and airiness of the original, the way it catches thought on the wing, and moves from phrase to phrase as much as argument to argument.'
HARRY EYRES
Financial Times
'... one reads it again and again and shouts, 'Yes, that's it of course -she's got it!' I know it's what Plato wrote, but your version drives it so cleanly, throwing out the fluff, stripping to the bone. And your short lines and purge of punctuation hold one's eye to the simple good words. Do you write poetry? Well, you do, and it shows... it's beautifully turned out, a delight to handle. From the start I was firmly and happily hooked and read with mounting admiration all through.'
NICHOLAS WOLLASTON
Novelist and writer
'I hadn't realised Plato was so good - I mean so enjoyable and invigorating. Your introduction has inspired me to go out and buy The Republic in full... So, hurry up with the next installment. Perhaps you will help us to make us all good citizens. And if we fall short of that at least we shall have Plato's poetry and humour flowing in our veins.'
ANNE BARNES
Teacher and educationalist
Introduction and translation
© Irene Noel-Baker 2004
2004, 64 pages
ISBN 0953100421
£8.95