§10.611οὐκοῦν ὁπότε μηδʼ ὑφʼ ἑνὸς ἀπόλλυται κακοῦ, μήτε οἰκείου μήτε ἀλλοτρίου, δῆλον ὅτι ἀνάγκη αὐτὸ ἀεὶ ὂν εἶναι· εἰ δʼ ἀεὶ ὄν, ἀθάνατον.
"Therefore, when it is destroyed by not even a single bad thing, neither its own nor an external one, it is clear that it must of necessity always exist; and if it always exists, it is immortal." "Of necessity," he said.
ἀνάγκη, ἔφη. τοῦτο μὲν τοίνυν, ἦν δʼ ἐγώ, οὕτως ἐχέτω·
"Then let this indeed be so," I said.
εἰ δʼ ἔχει, ἐννοεῖς ὅτι ἀεὶ ἂν εἶεν αἱ αὐταί.
"But if it is so, do you realize that they would always be the same?
οὔτε γὰρ ἄν που ἐλάττους γένοιντο μηδεμιᾶς ἀπολλυμένης, οὔτε αὖ πλείους·
For they would not, I suppose, become fewer since none is destroyed, nor again more.
εἰ γὰρ ὁτιοῦν τῶν ἀθανάτων πλέον γίγνοιτο, οἶσθʼ ὅτι ἐκ τοῦ θνητοῦ ἂν γίγνοιτο καὶ πάντα ἂν εἴη τελευτῶντα ἀθάνατα. ἀληθῆ λέγεις. ἀλλʼ, ἦν δʼ ἐγώ, μήτε τοῦτο οἰώμεθα—ὁ γὰρ λόγος οὐκ ἐάσει—μήτε γε αὖ τῇ ἀληθεστάτῃ φύσει τοιοῦτον εἶναι ψυχήν, ὥστε πολλῆς ποικιλίας καὶ ἀνομοιότητός τε καὶ διαφορᾶς γέμειν αὐτὸ πρὸς αὑτό. πῶς λέγεις; ἔφη.
For if any of the immortal things should become more, you know that it would come from the mortal, and in the end all things would be immortal." "You speak the truth." "But," I said, "let us neither think this—for the argument will not allow it—nor again that the soul in its truest nature is such as to be full of much variety, dissimilarity, and difference within itself." "How do you mean?" he said.
οὐ ῥᾴδιον, ἦν δʼ ἐγώ, ἀίδιον εἶναι σύνθετόν τε ἐκ πολλῶν καὶ μὴ τῇ καλλίστῃ κεχρημένον συνθέσει, ὡς νῦν ἡμῖν ἐφάνη ἡ ψυχή. οὔκουν εἰκός γε. ὅτι μὲν τοίνυν ἀθάνατον ψυχή, καὶ ὁ ἄρτι λόγος καὶ οἱ ἄλλοι ἀναγκάσειαν ἄν· οἷον δʼ ἐστὶν τῇ ἀληθείᾳ, οὐ λελωβημένον δεῖ αὐτὸ θεάσασθαι ὑπό τε τῆς τοῦ σώματος κοινωνίας καὶ ἄλλων κακῶν, ὥσπερ νῦν ἡμεῖς θεώμεθα, ἀλλʼ οἷόν ἐστιν καθαρὸν γιγνόμενον, τοιοῦτον ἱκανῶς λογισμῷ διαθεατέον, καὶ πολύ γε κάλλιον αὐτὸ εὑρήσει καὶ ἐναργέστερον δικαιοσύνας τε καὶ ἀδικίας διόψεται καὶ πάντα ἃ νῦν διήλθομεν.
"It is not easy," I said, "for something to be eternal when it is composed of many parts and does not employ the finest composition, as the soul has now appeared to us." "That is indeed unlikely." "That the soul is immortal, then, both the recent argument and the others would compel us to admit; but what it is in truth, we must not contemplate it as mutilated by its partnership with the body and other evils, as we now contemplate it, but as it is when it has become pure, this must be adequately contemplated with reason, and one will find it much more beautiful and will discern justices and injustices and all the things we have just gone through much more clearly.
νῦν δὲ εἴπομεν μὲν ἀληθῆ περὶ αὐτοῦ, οἷον ἐν τῷ παρόντι φαίνεται· τεθεάμεθα μέντοι διακείμενον αὐτό, ὥσπερ οἱ τὸν θαλάττιον Γλαῦκον ὁρῶντες οὐκ ἂν ἔτι ῥᾳδίως αὐτοῦ ἴδοιεν τὴν ἀρχαίαν φύσιν, ὑπὸ τοῦ τά τε παλαιὰ τοῦ σώματος μέρη τὰ μὲν ἐκκεκλάσθαι, τὰ δὲ συντετρῖφθαι καὶ πάντως λελωβῆσθαι ὑπὸ τῶν κυμάτων, ἄλλα δὲ προσπεφυκέναι, ὄστρεά τε καὶ φυκία καὶ πέτρας, ὥστε παντὶ μᾶλλον θηρίῳ ἐοικέναι ἢ οἷος ἦν φύσει, οὕτω καὶ τὴν ψυχὴν ἡμεῖς θεώμεθα διακειμένην ὑπὸ μυρίων κακῶν.
But now we have spoken the truth about it as it appears in the present; however, we have contemplated it in such a state as those who see the marine Glaucus would no longer easily see his ancient nature, because the old parts of his body have been broken off, and others crushed and completely mutilated by the waves, while other things have grown onto him, shells and seaweed and rocks, so that he resembles any beast rather than what he was by nature; in this way we also contemplate the soul in a state corrupted by myriad evils.
ἀλλὰ δεῖ, ὦ Γλαύκων, ἐκεῖσε βλέπειν. ποῖ; ἦ δʼ ὅς.
But we must, Glaucon, look over there." "Where?" he said.
εἰς τὴν φιλοσοφίαν αὐτῆς, καὶ ἐννοεῖν ὧν ἅπτεται καὶ οἵων ἐφίεται ὁμιλιῶν, ὡς συγγενὴς οὖσα τῷ τε θείῳ καὶ ἀθανάτῳ καὶ τῷ ἀεὶ ὄντι, καὶ οἵα ἂν γένοιτο τῷ τοιούτῳ πᾶσα ἐπισπομένη καὶ ὑπὸ ταύτης τῆς ὁρμῆς ἐκκομισθεῖσα ἐκ τοῦ πόντου ἐν ᾧ νῦν ἐστίν, καὶ περικρουσθεῖσα πέτρας τε καὶ ὄστρεα ἃ νῦν αὐτῇ, ἅτε γῆν ἑστιωμένῃ, γεηρὰ καὶ πετρώδη πολλὰ καὶ ἄγρια περιπέφυκεν ὑπὸ τῶν εὐδαιμόνων λεγομένων ἑστιάσεων.
¦611e "To its love of wisdom, and reflect on what it clings to and what kind of associations it longs for, since it is akin to the divine and immortal and eternal, and what it would become if it followed such a thing with its whole being and were carried out of the sea in which it now is by this impulse, and had scraped off the rocks and shells which now, since it feasts upon earth, have grown around it in great, earthy, stony, and wild abundance because of those feastings that are called happy."