AS EXHIBITED IN THE TENTH BOOK OF "THE REPUBLIC." 307 



Such is, as I believe, the correct translation of this astronomical apologue, which seems to 

 me to exhibit its fanciful details in a very vivid and intelligible picture. 



(2) I now proceed to examine those points in the Greek text which have been misunder- 

 stood by some or all of the previous commentators on Plato or by the translators of this 

 passage. 



A great deal of difficulty has been occasioned by the words: 66ev Kadopav avwOev Sid 

 wavTos Tov ovpavov Texafievov (f>wi evdv, otou Kiova. Bockh supposes (Z)e Platon, System. 

 Caelest. Glohor. p. vi) that this column of light is the Milky-way. Schleiermacher, who regards 

 this view as most probably correct (Uebersetz. p. 621), is in doubt whether the phrase otov 

 Kiova is to be understood in the literal sense, or as denoting the appearance from without of a 

 band of light connecting the equator with the pole. The English translators of the Republic, 

 Messrs. Davies and Vaughan, by rendering the words " a straight pillar of light stretching 

 across the whole heaven and earth," convey no intelligible sense. The Greek says: 8id 

 travTos TOV ovpavov rerafievov, and this can only mean that the column of light went 

 through (not across) the heaven ; in other words, it implies that the column was the axis 

 of the heavenly sphere. Similarly in the Tim. p. 40 b, we have : -y^v IXXo/xevrjv wepl rov 

 Sid Trayros voXov Teranevov. And Sophocles uses reraTai of light beaming down in a straight 

 line (Philoct. 820, Antig. 600). That the rainbow was regarded by the ancients as an arch, in 

 accordance with its name {New Crat. § 464, note), has nothing to do with this question ; for 

 the comparison with the rainbow here is only in respect of its brightness, as appears 

 from the epithets XanirpoTepov Kai KaOapwTepov. 



The next difficulty is created by the words : kui iSeiv avToOi /caret /xeaov to <pm e/c tov 

 ovpavov TCI uKpa avTov toJi/ Seaixwv Terafieva. For this, Schleiermacher, who is followed by 

 Stallbaum, would read tu aKpa avrov e/c twv Secr/uwv TSTUfxeva. It appears to me that this 

 alteration is not only needless, but that it destroys all the meaning of the passage. The 

 spirits are supposed to be travelling down the column of light : for they arrive o9ev KaOopdv 

 avm9ev, and they continue their progress until they get to the middle of it, i.e. to the center 

 of the sphere, where they see (of course both above and below them) the ends of the girding 

 bands of heaven, like meridian lines, reaching from all the heavenly vault and fastened to the 

 two poles of the central column of light. And here Tera/uei/o is illustrated by the use of 

 (TvvTavvw in Pind. Pyth. i. 87 : ttoWwv veipaTa crvvTavvaaK ev jipa-^^el : for Treipara means 

 "ropes" (see Hom. II. xiii. 359, xi. 336; New Crat. p. 294 (325, 3rd edit.)). It is 

 scarcely necessary to remark that Plato, like the other ancient writers on astronomy, regarded 

 the heavenly sphere as a firmament or arepewna, more or less solid, which these bonds 

 would contribute to strengthen. 



That there might be no doubt as to his meaning, Plato adds a significant comparison: 

 eivai yap tovto to (ptt/s ^vvceafxov tov ovpavov, oiov Ta vTrolwuaTa twv Tpir/pwv, ovtw iraffav 

 ^vve'xov T^v ireptcpopdv. But it is an astonishing fact that the commentators have been quite 

 unable to avail themselves of the explanation conveyed by this reference. Some, misled by a 

 scholion on Aristophanes (^Equites, 279), identify the v-n-oXiinaTa with the ^1/70 of the trireme, 

 and Liddell and Scott define viroQaixa as " the rowers' bench which runs across the ship's 



