King

Use in the book

The interlocutor accepts “tyrant and king” as names of the sole right orderer and agrees that his kingly and tyrannical crafts are the same as the capacities already identified. The discussion then passes to household manager and master before listing all the roles with temperate and just people. The unity asserted is a unity of knowledge for right ordering across different descriptions.

The passage should not be read as verifying the virtue of every historical king. A royal title is not independently investigated, and the stipulated correct governance does much of the work. Nor does it establish that a king and household manager hold the same institutional office. Their functions are treated as applications of one art.

At 138d the king appears alongside the judge as a person whose speech the philosopher ought to be able to follow and contribute to. The interlocutor rejects any exemption from shame for ignorance about matters so great. The final demand is still more exacting when the philosopher himself has responsibility: he must not merely be an informed audience member.

Kingship consequently supplies a model of authoritative judgment in the late argument, but the conclusion does not require that every philosopher become a monarch. It explicitly includes one’s household, friends’ arbitrations and decisions commissioned by the city. Those settings keep the practical challenge broader than possession of a royal office.

Places to read

1. 138bὄνομά γε τούτῳ οὐ τύραννός τε καὶ βασιλεύς — The right sole ruler receives the paired titles.
2. 138bβασιλικῇ τε καὶ τυραννικῇ τέχνῃ — The next question moves from titles to crafts.
3. 138dδικαστὴς ἢ βασιλεὺς — King and judge exemplify discourse about weighty practical matters.

Translation in this edition

Edition note 29 compares the Statesman’s identification of governing knowledges, while noting that its treatment of the tyrant differs. This parallel helps explain the king’s place in the list without importing a complete Platonic political theory into the short dialogue.

Use in the book

The Hermetic arrangement assigns earth’s humans and other animals to the king in power at the relevant time, while the moon, sun, and maker govern other levels. The human king is therefore one ruler within a larger ordered scheme. He is not identified with the creator of the whole.

Places to read

1. I.49.45.2The earthly king occupies one level of a four-region hierarchy.

Translation in this edition

“King” is direct; preserve the distinction between regional and universal governance.