The sources of Republic

1. Homer 5 authority · 4 neutral · 5 refuted · 1 extended 15 citations · 20 passages

   book 1 · book 2 6 passages anchored here · book 3 · book 4 · book 5 · book 6 · book 7 · book 8 3 passages anchored here

   and 1 more chapter

   book 10 5 passages anchored here

   Homer is named explicitly as the source of the Autolycus characterization used to test (not directly refute or endorse) the argument.

   The gods themselves are moved by prayers, And men by sacrifice and soothing vows, And incense and libation turn their wills Praying, whenever they have sinned and made transgression.

2. Aeschylus 2 neutral · 2 refuted · 1 extended 5 citations · 6 passages

   book 2 4 passages anchored here · book 8 2 passages anchored here

   Aeschylus is named explicitly as the source of the quoted phrase, first applied to the just man and then reapplied to the unjust man.

   and when we have set up an unjust man of this character, our theory must set the just man at his side—a simple and noble man, who, in the phrase of Aeschylus, does not wish to seem but be good.

3. Hesiod 3 authority · 1 refuted · 1 extended 5 citations

   book 2 2 passages anchored here · book 5 2 passages anchored here · book 8

   Hesiod is named explicitly and quoted as an authority for divine agricultural rewards to the just.

   For, throwing in good standing with the gods, they have no lack of blessings to describe, which they affirm the gods give to pious men, even as the worthy Hesiod and Homer declare, the one that the gods make the oaks bear for the just:

4. Iliad Homer 1 neutral · 1 refuted · 1 endorsed 3 citations · 8 passages

   book 3 8 passages anchored here

   Homer is repeatedly named as the source of quoted verses that the passage explicitly rejects, edits, or forbids ('we must expunge...', 'this we will affirm to be lies').

   And again the trailings of Hector’s body round the grave of Patroclus and the slaughter of the living captives upon his pyre, all these we will affirm to be lies, nor will we suffer our youth to believe that Achilles, the son of a goddess and of Peleus the most chaste of men, grandson of Zeus, and himself bred under the care of the most sage Cheiron, was of so perturbed a spirit as to be affected …

5. Pindar 1 neutral · 1 refuted · 1 endorsed 3 citations

   book 1 · book 2 · book 3

   Cephalus explicitly attributes the saying to Pindar and calls it 'a fine saying and an admirable' one, endorsing it.

   For a beautiful saying it is, Socrates, of the poet that when a man lives out his days in justice and piety sweet companion with him, to cheer his heart and nurse his old age, accompanies Hope, who chiefly rules the changeful mind of mortals.

6. Euripides 1 refuted 1 citation

   book 8

   Explicit attribution to Euripides followed by Socrates's critical response and decision to exclude tragedians who praise tyranny

   Wherefore, said I, being wise as they are, the poets of tragedy will pardon us and those whose politics resemble ours for not admitting them into our polity, since they hymn the praises of tyranny.

7. Sophocles 1 authority 1 citation

   book 1

   Cephalus explicitly names Sophocles and treats his reported answer as authoritative support ('I thought it a good answer then and now I think so still more').

   But in fact I have ere now met with others who do not feel in this way, and in particular I remember hearing Sophocles the poet greeted by a fellow who asked, How about your service of Aphrodite, Sophocles—is your natural force still unabated?

Each stands at a single passage. The chapter carries the anchors.

book 1 3 sources

Retort to the man of Seriphus · Unnamed poem or saying on justice · unnamed formula of justice as the advantage of the stronger

book 2 10 sources

Doctrine of Thrasymachus (Book I argument) · Elegy on the battle of Megara · Ritual books of Musaeus and Orpheus · Songs/books of Musaeus and his son · Sorrows of Niobe / tale of the Pelopidae / tale of Troy · Unnamed verse (the fox image) · Unnamed verses on the ease of vice · epic poetry generally (unspecified poems by Hesiod and Homer) · tragedy depicting Proteus and Thetis / Hera disguised as a priestess · unspecified poem on divine shape-shifting (gods in the likeness of strangers)

book 3 5 sources

Gnomic saying on wealth and virtue · Oracle concerning iron or brass guardians · Phoenician tale (traditional foundation myth type) · Unspecified tragic poetry · unspecified poetic tradition (mythic tales of heroes as sons of gods)

book 4 3 sources

musical theory doctrine · oracular interpretation · unnamed poem on new songs

book 5 2 sources

the Delphic oracle · unwritten law of homicide release

book 6 5 sources

proverb of the necessity of Diomede · proverb on the difficulty of fine things · saying about divine exception to human rules · saying on Heraclitus's sun · unspecified epigram on wise men and the doors of the rich

book 7 4 sources

Orphic myth / Orphic tradition · Saying on old age and learning · Unspecified Pythagorean doctrine on kinship of astronomy and harmonics · a play about Palamedes (unnamed)

book 8 4 sources

Counsel to pursue injustice · Myth of the Lycaean Zeus shrine · Oracle delivered to Croesus · The nuptial/geometrical number (doctrine attributed to the Muses)

book 9 6 sources

Cretan naming custom · account of the Trojan War / palinode · doctrine on ruling subjects for their own harm · the earlier proposition on injustice's profitability · unspecified ancient fables · unspecified poetic/philosophical saying

book 10 4 sources

epic poetry of Homer and Hesiod · traditional poetic taunts against philosophy · traditional tale told to Alcinous · unspecified doctrine/way of life

The harvest records where a citation is made: the paragraph in the citing book, and the book that paragraph stands in. It does not record which page of this book is meant. Where the citing text names a locus, you will find it in the quotation.

1. Stromata Clement of Alexandria 1 authority · 1 neutral · 3 extended 5 citations · 9 passages

   book 3 2 passages anchored here · book 4 3 passages anchored here · book 5 4 passages anchored here

   Named dialogue quoted and its correct meaning explained by Clement.

   He seems to me also to have misheard Plato, who in the Republic says that the women are common to all—meaning that those who have not yet married are common to those who would ask for them, just as a theatre is common to all the spectators, but that each woman, once a man has secured her first, belongs to that man, and the married woman is no longer common.

2. De legendis gentilium libris Basil of Caesarea 1 authority 1 citation

   de legendis gentilium libris

   Plato is named directly and his view is invoked as decisive ('if we are to believe Plato at all').

   Yet this is the uttermost limit of injustice, if we are to believe Plato at all:

3. Letters Basil of Caesarea 1 extended 1 citation

   letter 3

   Basil invokes a Platonic image of standing firm beneath a wall in a storm to characterize Candidianus's steadiness.

   Nor do you relax at all in your zeal for letters, but, as Plato says, in the storm and tempest of affairs, standing apart as it were beneath some strong wall, you fill your soul with no disturbance;

4. On the Commonwealth Cicero, Marcus Tullius 1 neutral 1 citation · 5 passages

   book 2 5 passages anchored here

   Plato's Republic and its Socratic method of state-construction are repeatedly and explicitly invoked as the reference point against which Scipio's historical approach is defined

   For that prince of writers, than whom in writing none was more excellent, took for himself a plot of ground on which to build a state at his own discretion—splendid indeed, perhaps, but far removed from the life and the manners of men;

5. The Freedom of the Seas (Mare Liberum) Hugo Grotius 1 authority 1 citation

   ch. 26

   Plato's Republic is explicitly named as showing the natural priority of wholesale trade.

   The former, as the Greek word shows, signifies trade or exchange between widely separated nations, and it ranks first in the order of Nature, as is shown in Plato’s Republic.

6. Meditations Marcus Aurelius 1 refuted 1 citation

   book nine

   Plato's Republic is named directly and its aspiration is dismissed as unrealistic, treated as a foil rather than endorsed.

   Do not hope for Plato's Republic, but be content if the smallest thing goes forward, and reflect how small a matter even the outcome of that is.