T h e   G o d d e s s   A t h e n a
    i n   P l a t o ' s   E u t h y d e m u s
     

    Plato Euthydemus 302d (Loeb)

       Then, after a pause, in which he seemed to be lost in the contemplation of something great, he said:  Tell me, Socrates, have you an "ancestral Zeus"?  Here, anticipating the final move, like a person caught in a net, who gives a desperate twist that he may get away, I said:  No, Dionysodorus, I have not.
       What a miserable man you must be then, [302c] he said, and you are not an Athenian at all, if you have no ancestral Gods, nor shrines, nor anything else that denotes a gentleman! 
       Enough, Dionysodorus; I said, do not be rough, and don't browbeat your pupil! For I have altars and shrines, domestic and ancestral, and all that other Athenians have.
       And have not other Athenians, he asked, an "ancestral Zeus"?
       That name, I said, is not to be found among the Ionians, neither we nor those who have left this city to settle abroad: they have an "ancestral Apollo", [302d] there is, who is the father of Ion, and a "family Zeus", and a "Zeus guardian of the phratry", and an "Athena
    guardian of the phratry".  But the name of "ancestral Zeus" is unknown to us.
       That will do, said Dionysodorus; you have, it seems, Apollo and Zeus and Athena.
       Certainly, I said.
       Then these must be your Gods? he said.
       My ancestors, I said, and lords.
       Well, at least, you have them, he said: or have you not admitted they are yours?
       I have admitted it, I replied: what else could I do?
       And are not these Gods animals? He asked: you know you have admitted [302e] that whatever has life is an animal. Or have these Gods no life?
       They have life, I replied.
       Then are they not animals?
       Yes, animals, I said.
       And you admitted that of animals those are yours which you could give away or sell or offer in sacrifice to any God, as you pleased?
       I have admitted it, I replied; there is no escape for me, Euthydemus.


      Previous page Next page


    Back to the top


     Copyright ©1999 Roy George