Portraits · Philosophers & essayists · V of XII

Plato

c. 428–348 BC · Philosopher

…the beginning is the most important part of any work.
ἀρχὴ παντὸς ἔργου μέγιστον
Plato · Socrates speaking, Republic, c. 375 BC

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Plato wrote his philosophy as dialogues, so these are the words of his teacher Socrates, a character in the Republic, around 375 BC. Socrates is speaking of children: the first stories they hear shape them most, because that is when character is formed.

Republic, Book II (Stephanus 377a–b). The Republic, tr. Benjamin Jowett, Project Gutenberg eBook #1497; Greek from the Perseus Burnet text (tlg0059.tlg030.perseus-grc2).

The originals

Marble herm of Plato with a long full beard — **The likeness**ROMAN HERM AFTER SILANION · ORIGINAL c. 370 BCOur portrait is painted after it.Public domain (Roman marble herm after a Greek original, Museo Pio-Clementino, Vatican, inv. 305; photograph by Jastrow released into the public domain).

A manuscript page of small Greek script in two columns, with notes in the margins — **The Republic, c. 900 AD**The opening of the Republic in a Greek manuscript copied around 900 AD, among the oldest surviving copies of his dialogues.Plato, Republic, opening. Bibliothèque nationale de France, Codex Parisinus graecus 1807, c. 900 AD, from Henri Omont's facsimile (Paris, 1908), public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.