Diotimos Library · Plato Collection · Bilingual Edition
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Facing Pages · Branch 15 of 20
Minos · 320d–321c
Ancient Greek
p. 24ΕΤ. Διὰ τί οὖν ποτε, ὦ Σώκρατες, αὕτη ἡ φήμη κατε320eσκέδασται τοῦ Μίνω ὡς ἀπαιδεύτου τινὸς καὶ χαλεποῦ ὄντος;
ΣΩ. Δι’ ὃ καὶ σύ, ὦ βέλτιστε, ἐὰν σωφρονῇς, εὐλαβήσῃ, καὶ ἄλλος πᾶς ἀνὴρ ὅτῳ μέλει τοῦ εὐδόκιμον εἶναι, μηδέποτε ἀπεχθάνεσθαι ἀνδρὶ ποιητικῷ μηδενί. οἱ γὰρ ποιηταὶ μέγα δύνανται εἰς δόξαν, ἐφ’ ὁπότερα ἂν ποιῶσιν εἰς τοὺς ἀνθρώπους, ἢ εὐλογοῦντες ἢ κακηγοροῦντες. ὃ δὴ καὶ ἐξήμαρτεν ὁ Μίνως, πολεμήσας τῇδε τῇ πόλει, ἐν ᾗ ἄλλη τε πολλὴ σοφία ἐστὶ καὶ ποιηταὶ παντοδαποὶ τῆς τε ἄλλης ποιήσεως 321a καὶ τραγῳδίας. ἡ δὲ τραγῳδία ἐστὶν παλαιὸν ἐνθάδε, οὐχ ὡς οἴονται ἀπὸ Θέσπιδος ἀρξαμένη οὐδ’ ἀπὸ Φρυνίχου, ἀλλ’ εἰ θέλεις ἐννοῆσαι, πάνυ παλαιὸν αὐτὸ εὑρήσεις ὂν τῆσδε τῆς πόλεως εὕρημα. ἔστιν δὲ τῆς ποιήσεως δημοτερπέστατόν τε καὶ ψυχαγωγικώτατον ἡ τραγῳδία· ἐν ᾗ δὴ καὶ ἐντείνοντες ἡμεῖς τὸν Μίνων τιμωρούμεθα ἀνθ’ ὧν ἡμᾶς ἠνάγκασε τοὺς δασμοὺς τελεῖν ἐκείνους. τοῦτο οὖν ἐξήμαρτεν ὁ Μίνως, ἀπεχθόμενος ἡμῖν, ὅθεν δή, ὃ σὺ ἐρωτᾷς, κακοδοξότερος 321b γέγονεν. ἐπεὶ ὅτι γε ἀγαθὸς ἦν καὶ νόμιμος, ὅπερ καὶ ἐν τοῖς πρόσθεν ἐλέγομεν, νομεὺς ἀγαθός, τοῦτο μέγιστον σημεῖον, ὅτι ἀκίνητοι αὐτοῦ οἱ νόμοι εἰσίν, ἅτε τοῦ ὄντος περὶ πόλεως οἰκήσεως ἐξευρόντος εὖ τὴν ἀλήθειαν.
ΕΤ. Δοκεῖς μοι, ὦ Σώκρατες, εἰκότα τὸν λόγον εἰρηκέναι.
ΣΩ. Οὐκοῦν εἰ ἐγὼ ἀληθῆ λέγω, δοκοῦσί σοι παλαιοτάτοις Κρῆτες οἱ Μίνω καὶ Ῥαδαμάνθυος πολῖται νόμοις χρῆσθαι;
ΕΤ. Φαίνονται.
ΣΩ. Οὗτοι ἄρα τῶν παλαιῶν ἄριστοι νομοθέται γεγό321cνασιν, νομῆς τε καὶ ποιμένες ἀνδρῶν, ὥσπερ καὶ Ὅμηρος ἔφη ποιμένα λαῶν εἶναι τὸν ἀγαθὸν στρατηγόν.
Minos
p. 25Comp. Why then, Socrates, has this report been spread abroad 320e about Minos, that he was an uneducated and harsh man?
Soc. For a reason for which you too, my excellent friend, if you are temperate, will be wary of ever incurring the hatred of any poetic man at all, and so will every other man who cares about being well thought of. For the poets have great power over opinion, in whichever direction they make their poems about people, whether speaking well of them or speaking ill. That is just where Minos made a mistake, in waging war against this city, in which there is much wisdom besides, and poets of every sort, of the other kinds of poetry 321a and of tragedy. Tragedy is old here, not, as people think, beginning from Thespis or from Phrynichus;1 but if you are willing to think of it, you will find that it is a very old finding of this city. And of poetry the most delightful to the people and the most able to lead souls is tragedy; in which, indeed, we stretch Minos out and take vengeance on him, in return for his compelling us to pay that tribute.2 This, then, is where Minos made a mistake, in incurring our hatred; and that is why, to answer what you ask, 321b he has come to be held in worse opinion. For that he was good and lawful, as we were also saying before, a good distributor, this is the greatest sign: that his laws are unmoved, as of one who discovered well the truth of what is concerning the administration of a city.
Comp. I think, Socrates, that you have made a reasonable argument.
Soc. Then if what I say is true, do the Cretans, the citizens of Minos and Rhadamanthys, seem to you to use the oldest laws?
Comp. They appear so.
Soc. Then these have proved the best lawgivers among the men of old, 321c distributors and shepherds of men, just as Homer too said that the good general is “shepherd of the people”.3
Socrates
Reading Minos · Minos · 320d–321c
Ask about a concept, passage, contradiction, or connection.
Socrates will begin with this book and its sources.About This Reading Edition
Socrates and an unnamed companion ask what law is, testing custom, civic decrees, true opinion, and the discovery of what is. The conversation turns to the crafts and to Minos as the lawgiver of Crete, before ending with an unanswered question about what improves the soul. This complete edition presents the dialogue, 313a–321d, across thirteen Greek–English page pairs, with an introduction, key words, outline, glossary, critical apparatus, and thirty translator’s notes. Transmitted among Plato’s works, its authorship is disputed.
Historical Text and Translation
The Greek follows John Burnet’s Platonis Opera, volume V (Oxford, 1907), in the supplied later impression printed by John Johnson, not before 1936. The supplied edition checks the Perseus Digital Library transcription against the printed pages. Burnet’s speaker names, quoted verse, editorial signs, and critical apparatus remain available. The companion PDF preserves the printed lineation and complete page layout.
About Diotimos Editions
Diotimos Editions prepared the independent English translation and notes. Each English dialogue page translates the Greek page opposite it, with Stephanus references in the margin and all thirty translator’s notes attached to their passages. The introduction and Key Words of the Dialogue precede the text; the Outline, Editorial Note, Glossary of Key Terms, and Note on this Edition follow it.
Rights
The ancient Greek work and Burnet’s historical text are in the public domain. The Perseus digital Greek transcription and its modifications are attributed to the Perseus Digital Library, Tufts University, and reused under CC BY-SA 4.0. The independent English translation and editorial matter were prepared by Diotimos Editions, 2026, and are published with the site owner’s permission. The complete supplied edition is available as PDF, EPUB, Word, and Markdown.
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