Voices in Time

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Socrates: Our next task must be to make marriage as sacred as possible. And the sacred marriages will be those that are most beneficial.

Glaucon: Absolutely.

Socrates: How, then, will they be most beneficial? Tell me this, Glaucon: I see that you have hunting dogs and quite a flock of noble fighting birds at home. Have you noticed anything about their mating and breeding?

Glaucon: Like what?

Socrates: In the first place, although they’re all noble, aren’t there some that are the best and prove themselves to be so?

Glaucon: There are.

Socrates: Do you breed them all alike, or do you try to breed from the best as much as possible?

Glaucon: I try to breed from the best.

Socrates: And do you breed from the youngest or the oldest or from those in their prime?

Glaucon: From those in their prime.

Socrates: And do you think that if they weren’t bred in this way, your stock of birds and dogs would get much worse?

Glaucon: I do.

Socrates: What about the horses and other animals? Are things any different with them?

Glaucon: It would be strange if they were.

Socrates: Dear me! If this also holds true of human beings, our need for excellent rulers is indeed extreme.

Glaucon: It does hold of them. But what of it?

Socrates: Because our rulers will then have to use a lot of drugs. And while an inferior doctor is adequate for people who are willing to follow a regimen and don’t need drugs when drugs are needed, we know that a bolder doctor is required.

Glaucon: That’s true. But what exactly do you have in mind?

Socrates: I mean that it looks as though our rulers will have to make considerable use of falsehood and deception for the benefit of those they rule. And we said that all such falsehoods are useful as a form of drug?

Glaucon: And we were right.

Socrates: Well, it seems we were right, especially where marriages and the producing of children are concerned.

Glaucon: How so?

Socrates: It follows from our previous agreements, first, that the best men must have sex with the best women as frequently as possible, while the opposite is true of the most inferior men and women, and second, that if our herd is to be of the highest possible quality, the former’s offspring must be reared but not the latter’s. And this must all be brought about without being noticed by anyone except the rulers, so that our herd of guardians remains as free from dissension as possible.

Glaucon: That’s absolutely right.

Socrates: Therefore certain festivals and sacrifices will be established by law at which we’ll bring the brides and grooms together, and we’ll direct our poets to compose appropriate hymns for the marriages that take place. We’ll leave the number of marriages for the rulers to decide, but their aim will be to keep the number of males as stable as they can, taking into account war, disease, and similar factors, so that the city will, as far as possible, become neither too big nor too small.

Glaucon: That’s right.

Socrates: Then there’ll have to be some sophisticated lotteries introduced, so that at each marriage the inferior people we mentioned will blame luck rather than the rulers when they aren’t chosen.

Glaucon: There will.

Socrates: And among other prizes and rewards, the young men who are good in war or other things must be given permission to have sex with the women more often, since this will also be a good pretext for having them father as many of the children as possible.

Glaucon: That’s right.

Socrates: And then, as the children are born, they’ll be taken over by the officials appointed for the purpose, who may be either men or women or both, since our offices are open to both sexes.

Glaucon: Yes.

Socrates: I think they’ll take the children of good parents to the nurses in charge of the rearing pen situated in a separate part of the city, but the children of inferior parents, or any child of the others that is born defective, they’ll hide in a secret and unknown place, as is appropriate.

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