Tragedy, tribute, and Athenian vengeance

Use in the book

The description of Minos as savage and unjust is first called an Attic and tragic tale (318d). Socrates eventually explains the Athenian perspective through the city's grievance. Minos compelled the Athenians to pay tribute; Athenians respond by subjecting him to tragic representation. The first-person plural “we” makes Socrates include his own city in the charge rather than blaming some distant people whose practices are easy to dismiss.

The passage names tragedy as both exceptionally pleasing to the people and exceptionally capable of leading souls (321a). Popular appeal and influence over the soul explain its effectiveness in producing reputation. Psychagōgikos here therefore must not automatically be translated as morally improving or philosophically educational. A medium can move souls while participating in revenge. The vocabulary also creates a pointed proximity to the final problem: the dialogue can identify a force acting strongly upon souls before it can state what the good lawgiver should distribute to make them better.

Socrates says tragedy is a very ancient Athenian finding, not an invention beginning with Thespis or Phrynichus. This is the speech's claim, whose function is to make the revenge old enough to accompany the Minos story. The supplied note records the tradition crediting Thespis as the first tragic poet and naming Phrynichus among his early successors. A lexicon should preserve the tension rather than present Socrates' assertion as an independently established chronology of theater. He offers no surviving play or date to demonstrate it.

The metaphor of stretching Minos out is deliberately strong. The edition notes the verb's use elsewhere for putting a story into verse and reports “attack” as a lexical interpretation here; it labels a play on the verse sense as possible. The words can thus be explained without deciding that a single pun or stage action is certainly intended. In any case, the expressed aim is requital for the tribute.

The tribute's contents remain unspecified in the spoken text. The edition supplies the wider Minotaur tradition in its note, but the present phrase merely says “that tribute.” Reading young victims, the labyrinth or Theseus directly into the lexical definition would turn contextual information into nonexistent dialogue.

Places to read

1. 318dἈττικόν, ὦ βέλτιστε, λέγεις μῦθον καὶ τραγικόν — The source of the hostile portrait is characterized as Attic and tragic
2. 321aοὐχ ὡς οἴονται ἀπὸ Θέσπιδος ἀρξαμένη οὐδ’ ἀπὸ Φρυνίχου — Socrates rejects the commonly assumed starting points
3. 321aτῆς πόλεως εὕρημα — Tragedy is called the city's finding or invention
4. 321aδημοτερπέστατόν τε καὶ ψυχαγωγικώτατον — Its popular appeal and soul-leading capacity receive superlatives
5. 321aἐντείνοντες ἡμεῖς τὸν Μίνων τιμωρούμεθα — The Athenian “we” names the vengeful representation
6. 321aἠνάγκασε τοὺς δασμοὺς τελεῖν ἐκείνους — Minos' compulsory tribute is the stated grievance

Translation in this edition

“The most able to lead souls” keeps the force of psychagōgikos visible without endorsing the resulting direction. “Stretch out” preserves the image and leaves its more specific interpretation to the note. Heurēma, “finding,” is an achieved invention here, distinct from heuresis as the activity or result of finding in the earlier definition of law.

Attic — Ἀττικός (Attikos)

Ἀττικός (Attikos)

Attic. Belonging to Attica or Athens; qualifies the tale that produces the companion's adverse image of Minos. Attested: Ἀττικόν (318d). Tragedy, tribute, and Athenian vengeance.

Compelled — ἀναγκάζειν (anankazein)

ἀναγκάζειν (anankazein)

Compelled. To force or require; Minos compelled Athens to pay tribute, the stated ground of the city's revenge. Attested: ἠνάγκασε (321a). Tragedy, tribute, and Athenian vengeance.

Finding — εὕρημα (heurēma)

εὕρημα (heurēma)

Finding. Something found or invented, here tragedy as an ancient Athenian invention; distinct from the finding-noun heuresis used of law. Attested: εὕρημα (321a). Tragedy, tribute, and Athenian vengeance.

Makers of tragedy — τραγῳδοποιός (tragōidopoios)

τραγῳδοποιός (tragōidopoios)

Makers of tragedy. Tragic poets, whose collective authority Socrates ranks below Homer and Hesiod in the dispute about Minos. Attested: τραγῳδοποιοί (318e). Tragedy, tribute, and Athenian vengeance.

Most able to lead souls — ψυχαγωγικός (psychagōgikos)

ψυχαγωγικός (psychagōgikos)

Most able to lead souls. Capable of moving or leading souls; the superlative marks tragic influence, without guaranteeing that its direction is ethically improving. Attested: ψυχαγωγικώτατον (321a). Tragedy, tribute, and Athenian vengeance.

Most delightful to the people — δημοτερπής (dēmoterpēs)

δημοτερπής (dēmoterpēs)

Most delightful to the people. People-pleasing; the superlative identifies tragedy's exceptional popular appeal as a condition of its reputational influence. Attested: δημοτερπέστατόν (321a). Tragedy, tribute, and Athenian vengeance.

Pay — τελεῖν (telein)

τελεῖν (telein)

Pay. To discharge an obligation or pay what is due, here the tribute imposed by Minos. Attested: τελεῖν (321a). Tragedy, tribute, and Athenian vengeance.

Phrynichus — Φρύνιχος (Phrynichos)

Φρύνιχος (Phrynichos)

Phrynichus. An early tragic poet named with Thespis among the supposed starting points Socrates rejects for Athenian tragedy. Attested: Φρυνίχου (321a). Tragedy, tribute, and Athenian vengeance.

Poetry — ποίησις (poiēsis)

ποίησις (poiēsis)

Poetry. Poetic making or poetry, the larger category within which Socrates distinguishes tragedy and other kinds. Attested: ποιήσεως (320e). Tragedy, tribute, and Athenian vengeance.

Stretching out — ἐντείνειν (enteinein)

ἐντείνειν (enteinein)

Stretching out. To stretch or strain; describes the Athenians' treatment of Minos in tragedy, with an attack sense and a possible verse-making play noted by the edition. Attested: ἐντείνοντες (321a). Tragedy, tribute, and Athenian vengeance.

Take vengeance — τιμωρεῖσθαι (timōreisthai)

τιμωρεῖσθαι (timōreisthai)

Take vengeance. To exact requital or revenge; the first-person plural includes Socrates' city in the retaliatory portrayal of Minos. Attested: τιμωρούμεθα (321a). Tragedy, tribute, and Athenian vengeance.

Tale — μῦθος (mythos)

μῦθος (mythos)

Tale. A story or tale, here the Attic tragic account of Minos; the term does not by itself establish a universal opposition between myth and reason. Attested: μῦθον (318d). Tragedy, tribute, and Athenian vengeance.

Thespis — Θέσπις (Thespis)

Θέσπις (Thespis)

Thespis. An early tragic poet whom Socrates denies to be tragedy's starting point; the edition's note records the traditional first-poet attribution. Attested: Θέσπιδος (321a). Tragedy, tribute, and Athenian vengeance.

Tragedy — τραγῳδία (tragōidia)

τραγῳδία (tragōidia)

Tragedy. The Athenian poetic form presented as especially popular and capable of leading souls, and as a means of retaliating against Minos. Attested: τραγῳδία (321a). Tragedy, tribute, and Athenian vengeance.

Tragic — τραγικός (tragikos)

τραγικός (tragikos)

Tragic. Belonging to tragedy; locates the hostile Minos narrative in its poetic medium. Attested: τραγικόν (318d). Tragedy, tribute, and Athenian vengeance.

Tribute — δασμός (dasmos)

δασμός (dasmos)

Tribute. A levy or tribute Minos compelled Athens to pay; the dialogue does not specify its contents in this clause. Attested: δασμοὺς (321a). Tragedy, tribute, and Athenian vengeance.

In return for the tribute (contextual phrase)

321a: ἀνθ’ ὧν ἡμᾶς ἠνάγκασε τοὺς δασμοὺς τελεῖν ἐκείνους. The phrase explains retaliatory motivation: the Athenians' tragic treatment of Minos answers his compelling them to pay that tribute. Socrates does not deny the exaction when he defends Minos' goodness. The demonstrative presupposes the story known to the participants; it does not spell out the Minotaur narrative in the spoken text. See Tragedy and vengeance.