Lion’s tracks and hoarded money

Use in the book

Socrates has claimed that precious metals flow into Lacedaemon over many generations from Greeks and non-Greeks but go out nowhere. The fox’s observation to the lion gives that claim a memorable visible form. The money is treated like creatures whose inward journey leaves traces but whose return never appears. The edition’s note supplies the familiar cave setting and the lion’s deadly pretence; those details should not be called words narrated by Socrates here.

The image compresses a claim about stock into a story about flow: repeated inward movement and absent outward movement are supposed to explain exceptional holdings. It is not an audited account of revenue, and the colourful analogy cannot independently verify Socrates’ totals. The king’s receipts and tribute then reinforce the hierarchy within Sparta before the whole Spartan fortune is itself dwarfed by Persian wealth. The joke contributes to a deliberately escalating scale.

Places to read

1. 122e–123bA one-way inflow of money leads to the tracks comparison and then royal wealth.

Translation in this edition

Burnet retains the explanatory phrase about the fox speaking to the lion and the words specifying the direction of the tracks while recording deletion proposals. “Lion’s cave” is a useful lookup title from the allusion’s explanation, not an attested Greek noun phrase in this passage.

εἴσειμι

Attested: εἰσιόντος (eisiontos; 123a). To go in or enter, of money flowing into Lacedaemon. Lexical identification: lemma: εἴσειμι. See Lion’s tracks and hoarded money.

ἔξειμι

Attested: ἐξιόντος (exiontos; 123a). To go out or leave, the money movement whose tracks cannot be found. Lexical identification: lemma: ἔξειμι. See Lion’s tracks and hoarded money.

ἴχνος

Attested: ἴχνη (ichnē; 123a). A track or footprint; visible incoming tracks without outgoing tracks turn the accumulation of money into the lion-and-fox image. Lexical identification: lemma: ἴχνος. See Lion’s tracks and hoarded money.