Plato (427 BC - 347 BC)

Phaedrus

c. 370-365 B.C.

"Let the soul be compared to a pair of winged horses and charioteer joined in natural union."

To show her true nature would be a theme of large and more than mortal discourse, but an image of it may be given in a briefer discourse within the scope of man; in this way, then, let us speak. Let the soul be compared to a pair of winged horses and charioteer joined in natural union. Now the horses and the charioteers of the gods are all of them noble and of noble descent, but those of other races are mixed. First, you must know that the human charioteer drives a pair; and next, that one of his horses is noble and of noble breed, and the other is ignoble and of ignoble breed; so that the management of the human chariot cannot but be a difficult and anxious task.
(246b-246d)

Animals::Horse Vehicles::Chariot Population::Charioteer

Reading

Hamilton, E. and Cairns, H., Eds. The Collected Dialogues of Plato, Bollingen Series (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1978).

02/29/2012