Luxury and adornment

Use in the book

Socrates asks Alcibiades to contemplate Persian wealth, luxuries, robes, trailing cloaks, perfumed anointings, crowds of attendants and refinement. Each visible detail translates the abstract resource difference into a display the young aristocrat can appreciate. The argument does not simply condemn these objects as bad. It turns Alcibiades’ own confidence in external advantages against him by showing that other people can vastly exceed him on those terms.

The reported traveller’s account at 123b–c makes the comparison comic through scale. A large, good district almost a day’s journey across is called the royal wife’s Girdle; another is her Veil; further places are set aside for her adornment. Names of small objects become names of enormous revenue-producing areas. Against them Socrates sets Deinomache’s actual adornment, perhaps fifty minae at most, and Alcibiades’ estate at Erchia. The report is attributed to a man Socrates calls trustworthy; the dialogue does not itself independently verify the grants.

The same language of luxury has already appeared as a criticism of Alcibiades’ appetite for intellectual novelty. At 114a he is “fastidious,” unwilling to taste an argument again. The connection lets dress and consumption carry a pedagogical point: cultivated preferences can become excuses not to submit a familiar belief to the same effective test.

Places to read

1. 113e–114aLuxury of taste becomes a figure for refusing a repeated argument.
2. 122b–122cThe Persian display is catalogued.
3. 123b–123cRoyal adornment districts dwarf a local household’s ornaments.

Translation in this edition

The edition distinguishes “orderliness” in the Spartan catalogue from “adornment” here, although the language is related. “Girdle” and “Veil” are names attributed to the inhabitants in the traveller’s report, not mapped administrative districts established by the editor.

ἁβρότης

Attested: ἁβρότητα (habrotēta; 122c). Refinement, delicacy or luxury; the encompassing term for the Persian material display that should make Alcibiades recognize his insufficiency. Lexical identification: lemma: ἁβρότης. See Luxury and adornment.

ἐσθής

Attested: ἐσθῆτας (esthētas; 122c). Clothing or dress; Persian refinement includes elaborate clothing alongside perfumes and numerous attendants. Lexical identification: lemma: ἐσθής. See Luxury and adornment.

ζώνη

Attested: ζώνην (zōnēn; 123b). Girdle, used as the name of an extensive royal revenue district in the traveller’s report. Lexical identification: lemma: ζώνη. See Luxury and adornment.

ἱμάτιον

Attested: ἱματίων (himatiōn; 122c). Cloak or outer garment, here trailing as part of the courtly display. Lexical identification: lemma: ἱμάτιον. See Luxury and adornment.

καλύπτρα

Attested: καλύπτραν (kalyptran; 123c). Veil, likewise used as a revenue district’s name. Lexical identification: lemma: καλύπτρα. See Luxury and adornment.

κόσμος

Attested: κόσμον (kosmon; 123c). Adornment or ornament, the support of which is assigned to royal revenue lands. Lexical identification: lemma: κόσμος. See Luxury and adornment.

μύρον

Attested: μύρων (myrōn; 122c). Scented oil or perfume; its application contributes to the Persian court's refinement and expense. Lexical identification: lemma: μύρον. See Luxury and adornment.

τρυφή

Attested: τρυφὰς (tryphas; 122c). Luxury or soft living, an object in the Persian display. Lexical identification: lemma: τρυφή. See Luxury and adornment.