Gennaios in Plato's Republic
Reminder: The intention of such word exercises is to give you the opportunity to think through how Plato is using an important term within the dialogue. We will give you our take later this month.
Gennaios (noble/high-minded/well-born)
Note: this noble is to be distinguished from the noble that also means beautiful (kalos) and which is invoked in the idea of the gentleman (kalokagathos), literally the noble and good man.
348c12: “Then do you call justice virtue and injustice vice?” [Socrates] / “That’s likely you agreeable man,” he [Thrasymacus] said, “when I also say that injustice is profitable and justice isn’t.” / “What then?” / “The opposite,” he said. / “Is justice then vice?” / “No, but high-minded [gennaios] innocence.” / “Do you call injustice corruption?” / “No, rather good counsel.”
361b7: “…Now, let us set him down as such, and put beside him in the argument the just man in his turn, a man simple and noble [gennaios], who, according to Aeschylus, does not wish to seem, but to be, good….” [Glaucon]
363a8: “…For by throwing in good reputation with the gods, they can tell of the inexhaustible store of goods that they say gods give to the holy. And in this way they join the noble [gennaios] Hesiod and Homer. The former says that for the just the gods make the oaks Bear acorns on high, and bees in the middle,/And the fleecy sheep heavily laden with wool and many other very good things connected with these. And the other has pretty much the same to tell, as when he says, As for some blameless king who in fear of the gods/Upholds justice, the black earth bears/Barley and wheat, the trees are laden with fruit, The sheep bring forth without fail, and the /sea provides fish….” [Adeimantus]
372b4: “…Setting out noble [gennaios] loaves of barley and wheat on some reeds or clean leaves, they will stretch out on rushes strewn with yew and myrtle and feast themselves and their children….” [Socrates]
375a2: “Do you suppose,” I [Socrates] said, “that for guarding there is any difference between the noble[gennaios] puppy and that of a well-born young man?”
375e6: “One could see it in other animals too, especially, however, in the one we compared to the guardian. You know, of course, that by nature the disposition of noble [gennaios] dogs is to be as gentle as can be with their familiars and people they know and the opposite with those they don’t know.” [Socrates]
409c2: “…Well, he [Glaucon] said, “a judge who’s like that seems to be most noble [gennaiótatos: superlative]….”
414b9: “Could we,” I [Socrates] said, “somehow contrive one of those lies that come into being in case of need, of which we were just now speaking, some one noble [gennaios] lie to persuade, in the best case, even the rules, but if not them, the rest of the city?”
440c2: “And what about when a man supposes he’s doing injustice?” I [Socrates] said. “The nobler[gennaióteros: comparative] he is, won’t he be less capable of anger at suffering hunger, cold or anything else of the sort inflicted on him by one who he supposes does so justly; and, as I say, won’t his spirit be unwilling to rouse itself against that man?” / “True,” he [Glaucon] said.
440d1: “And what about when a man believes he’s being done injustice? Doesn’t his spirit in this case boil and become harsh and form an alliance for battle with what seems just; and, even if it suffers in hunger, cold and everything of the sort, doesn’t it stand firm and conquer, and not cease from its noble [gennaios]efforts before it has succeeded, or death intervenes, or before it becomes gentle, having been called in by the speech within him like a dog by a herdsman?…” [Socrates]
454a1: “Oh, Glaucon,” I [Socrates] said, “the power of the contradicting art is grand [gennaios].”
459a3: 459a7: “So then, how will they be most beneficial? Tell me this, Glaucon. For I see hunting dogs and quite a throng of noble [gennaios] cocks in your house. Did you, in the name of Zeus, ever notice something about their marriages and procreation?” [Socrates] / “What? he [Glaucon] said. / “First, although they are all noble [gennaios], aren’t there some among them who are and prove to be best?” / “There are.”
488c4: “…Enchaining the noble [gennaios] shipowner with mandrake, drink, or something else, they rule the ship, using what’s in it; and drinking and feasting, they sail as such men would be thought likely to sail….” [Socrates]
494c6: “…What do you suppose,” I [Socrates] said, “such a young man will do in such circumstances, especially if he chances to be form a big city, is rich and noble [gennaios] in it, and is, further, good-looking and tall?…”
496b2: “Then it’s a very small group, Adeimantus,” I [Socrates] said, “which remains to keep company with philosophy in a way that’s worthy; perhaps either a noble [gennaios] and well-reared disposition, held in check by exile, remains by her side consistent with nature, for want of corruption; or when a great soul grows up in a little city, despises the business of the city and looks out beyond; and, perhaps, a very few men from another art, who justly despise it because they have good natures, might come to her….”
527b9: “Then, you noble [gennaios] man, it would draw the soul toward truth and be productive of philosophic understanding in directing upward what we now improperly direct downward.”
535b1: “Well, then, so far as most of the requirements go, suppose that those are the natures that must be chosen,” I [Socrates] said. “The steadiest and most courageous must be preferred and , insofar as possible, the best looking. But besides this, one must seek for men who are not only by disposition noble [gennaios] and tough, but who also possess those qualities in their nature that are conducive to this education….”
544c6: “It won’t be hard for you to hear them,” I [Socrates] said. “For those I mean are also the ones having names; the one that is praised by the many, that Cretan and Laconian regime; and second in place and second in praise, the one called oligarchy, a regime filled with throngs of evils; and this regime’s adversary, arising next in order, democracy; and then the noble [gennaios] tyranny at last, excelling all of these, the fourth and extreme illness of the city….”
558c2: “…It’s a very noble [gennaios] regime,” he [Adeimantus] said….