Plato’s Republic XII

Glaucon’s objection to the city of pigs

Quickly to recap, Socrates describes the way of life of the city founded in speech thusly:

“‘Won’t they make bread, wine, clothing, and shoes? And, when they have built houses, they will work in the summer, for the most part naked and without shoes, and in the winter adequately clothed and shod. For food they will prepare barley meal  and wheat flour; they will cook it and knead it. Setting out noble 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. Afterwards they will drink wine and, crowned with wreathes, sing of the gods. So they will have sweet intercourse with one another, and not produce children beyond their means, keeping an eye out against poverty or war.’”

What is Glaucon’s reaction to all of this, what does he think of this way of life?

“And Glaucon interrupted, saying: ‘You seem to make these men have their feast without relishes.’”

“Where’s the relish, Socrates?!?”