Book 2
653
Ath. Very good. Now these forms of child-training, which consist in right discipline in pleasures and pains, grow slack and weakened to a great extent in the course of men’s lives; so the gods, in pity for the human race thus born to misery, have ordained the feasts of thanksgiving as periods of respite from their troubles; and they have granted them as companions in their feasts the Muses and Apollo the master of music, and Dionysus, that they may at least set right again their modes of discipline by associating in their feasts with gods. We must consider, then, whether the account that is harped on nowadays is true to nature? What it says is that, almost without exception, every young creature is able of keeping either its body or its tongue quiet, and is always striving to move and to cry, leaping and skipping and delighting in dances and games, and uttering, also, noises of every description.
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Ath. Now, whereas all other creatures are devoid of any perception of the various kinds of order and disorder in movement (which we term rhythm and harmony), to men the very gods, who were given, as we said, to be our fellows in the dance, have granted the pleasurable perception of rhythm and harmony, whereby they cause us to move and lead our choirs, linking us one with another by means of songs and dances; and to the choir they have given its name from the cheer implanted therein.Here χορός is fancifully derived from χαρά, joy. For similar etymologies, see the Cratylus, passim. Shall we accept this account to begin with, and postulate that education owes its origin to Apollo and the Muses?
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Clin. Yes.
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Ath. Shall we assume that the uneducated man is without choir-training, and the educated man fully choir-trained?
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Clin. Certainly.
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Ath. Choir-training, as a whole, embraces of course both dancing and song.
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Clin. Undoubtedly.
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Ath. So the well-educated man will be able both to sing and dance well.
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Clin. Evidently.
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Ath. Let us now consider what this last statement of ours implies.
