From the book
Alcibiades I
Plato · Diotimos Editions · 2026
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At a Glance
- The wordAesop is named as the source of the fox-and-lion fable used to picture the one-way movement of money into Sparta.
- In Alcibiades ISocrates says the signs of money entering Lacedaemon are visible, while signs of it leaving cannot be found.
- In this editionThe cave and the sick lion’s pretence are supplied in the explanatory note, not narrated in the Greek passage.
- A place to readGold and silver accumulate in Sparta; the fable supplies the tracks image.
Meaning
Aesop is named as the source of the fox-and-lion fable used to picture the one-way movement of money into Sparta.
Use in the book
Socrates says the signs of money entering Lacedaemon are visible, while signs of it leaving cannot be found. The fable is invoked through what the fox said to the lion, without a full retelling of the animals’ encounter. Its force is the readable trace: inward tracks support the claim of accumulation and the absence of outward tracks reinforces it. The analogy is witty but does not independently prove the comparative totals Socrates asserts. The dialogue employs a recognizable story as an image of hoarding within the larger humiliation of Alcibiades’ financial confidence.
Places to read
- 122e–123aGold and silver accumulate in Sparta; the fable supplies the tracks image.
Translation in this edition
The cave and the sick lion’s pretence are supplied in the explanatory note, not narrated in the Greek passage. Burnet records proposals to delete parts of the allusion but retains them in his text.
Αἴσωπος
Attested: Αἰσώπου μῦθον (aisōpou mython; 123a). Aesop, named as the source of the fox-and-lion fable. Lexical identification: lemma: Αἴσωπος. See Aesop.
ἀλώπηξ
Attested: ἀλώπηξ (alōpēx; 123a). Fox, the observer of one-way tracks in the alluded-to fable. Lexical identification: lemma: ἀλώπηξ. See Aesop.
λέων
Attested: λέοντα (leonta; 123a). Lion, addressee of the fox’s observation in the fable. Lexical identification: lemma: λέων. See Aesop.
μῦθος
Attested: μῦθον (mython; 123a). Fable or story, here the Aesopic lion-and-fox allusion. Lexical identification: lemma: μῦθος. See Aesop.
Source note
The supplied edition, note 44 on 123a, identifies Aesop, fable 142 in Perry’s numbering, and compares Horace, Epistles 1.1.73–75. The cave narrative is the note’s explanation of the abbreviated allusion.