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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 February 2009
This allegory (R.,514 a 1–517 a 6) is among the most well-traversed passages in Plato's dialogues and deservedly so. Its emotional impact is undeniable, yet it confronts the reader with several problems of interpretation. There is a strong sense that it is of central importance to the crucial questions of the Platonic philosopher's education and his role in society, and it possibly holds one key to an understanding of the Republic as a whole.
1 Nettleship, R. L., Lectures on the Republic of Plato, pp. 238–63.Google ScholarAdam, J., The Republic of Plato, ii. 88–95, 156–63.Google Scholar More recently defended by Raven, J. E., ‘Sun, Divided Line, and Cave’, CQ N.S. 3 (1953), 22–32;CrossRefGoogle ScholarGould, J., The Development of Plato's Ethics, pp. 165–81;Google ScholarMalcolm, J., ‘The Line and the Cave’, Phronesis 7 (1962), 38–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
2 Subsequently so called, R. 534 a 1–2.
3 Adam, , op. cit., p. 163.Google Scholar
4 510 a 1–6 
5 518 b 6–519 b 5; 521 c 5–8; 524 e 6–525 a 2.
6 Jowett, B. and Campbell, L., Plato's Republic, ii. 12–19.Google ScholarRobinson, R., Plato's Earlier Dialectic 2 (1953), pp. 180–201.Google Scholar
7 ‘Plato's Simile of Light’, CQ 16 (1922), 15–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar‘Plato's Simile of Light Again’, CQ 28 (1934), 190–210.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
8 Jackson, H., ‘On Plato's Republic VI 509D sqq.’ JPb 10 (1882), 132–50,Google ScholarStocks, J. L., ‘The Divided Line in Plato Rep. VI’, CQ 5 (1911) 73–88.CrossRefGoogle ScholarFerguson, J., ‘Sun, Line, and Cave Again’, CQ N.S. 13 (1963), 188–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
9 ‘The “Simile of Light” in Plato's Republic’, CQ 25 (1932), 93–102.Google Scholar‘Back to the Cave’, CQ 28 (1934), 211–13.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
10 loc. cit.
11 476 a 9–d 6; 479 e l–5.
12 This discussion begins at 502 c 9–d 2 with Socrates' question: 
13 The analogy of the Sun is provided as the nearest Socrates can come to this definition, 506 d 2–507 a 5. The Line is provided as an explicit expansion and completion of the Sun analogy, 509 c 5–11.
14 This question was raised by Socrates at 450 c 6–d 2, postponed twice, and finally taken up at Glaucon's insistence at 471 c 4.
15 475 d 1 ff.
16 487 b 1–d 5. These are the same charges dramatized by Aristophanes in the Clouds.
17 490 e 2 ff.
18 476 c 2–7. The condition of the prisoners who mistake the shadows for reality and cannot follow but must be dragged is called a dream world elsewhere at 520 c 1 – d 4. Cf. 534 b 8–d 1.
19 516 d 6–7: 
20 514 a 2: 
21 Relatively few of the many discussions of the Cave use as their focus Plato's explicit statement that it is an image of 
or the indications that it refers to contemporary experience. Exceptions are Nettleship, op. cit., Tanner, G. T., ‘Dianoia and Plato's Cave’, CQ N.S. 20 (1970), 85–91,CrossRefGoogle Scholar and Malcolm, loc. cit. Ferguson, A. S., loc. cit. (1922), argues that the Cave represents contemporary society but regards its emphasis as political rather than educational.Google Scholar
22 An issue has been made over whether 
represents a condition which lacks any education, a natural state of ignorance (e.g. Nettleship, op. cit.), or a false, perverting education (e.g. Ferguson, A. S., loc. cit. (1922)Google ScholarHamlyn, D. W., ‘Eikasia in Plato's Republic’, PhilosQ 8 (1958), 14–23).Google Scholar Certainly 
is a condition which lacks what Plato considers to be a true education–that which turns minds from objects of sense to intellection. In the contemporary situation he sees an education which effectively keeps men in the world of the senses. Nevertheless, as Murphy, , loc. cit. (1932), (1934), points out, there always remains a cave for the philosopher to return to.Google Scholar
23 This point has been made by, among others, Robinson, , op. cit., pp. 190–1,Google Scholar and Hamlyn, , loc. cit. 18.Google Scholar
24 Cooper, N., ‘The Importance of Dianoia in Plato's Theory of Forms’, CQ N.S. 16 (1966), 68, argues that ‘shadow belief’ is not a human state of mind and that 
in the cave is an intermediate state between ‘shadow belief’ and knowledge of physical objects.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
25 Jowett and Campbell, ii. 13. Robinson, , op. cit., pp. 184–5,Google Scholar ‘The Cave … regards the domain of opinion as an undivided unity, represented by the original state of the prisoners.’
26 Shorey, P., Plato: The Republic, ii, pp. xxx–xxxiii.Google ScholarMurphy, , loc. cit. (1932).Google Scholar
27 Hamlyn, loc. cit. 
is the state of mind corrupted by the sophists. Ross, W. D., Plato's Theory of Ideas, p. 68, views cinaoia as an ‘occasional interlude’.Google Scholar
28 475 d 1–e 4; 476 b 4–8.
29 377 d 4–e 3.
30 Nettleship, , op. cit., pp. 241–6.Google ScholarCross, R. C. and Woozley, A. D., Plato's Republic: A Philosophical Commentary, pp. 220–3.Google Scholar
31 595 a 1–b 7.
32 596 c 4–9: 
46 598 b 6–d 6.
47 514 b 5–6.
48 515 a 2–3; 515 b 7–9.
49 Shorey, , op. cit. p. 123, so dismisses hearing.Google Scholar
50 515 c 9–10; 515 e 1–4. On the pleasures of the multitude see 430 e 6– 431 d 4; 586 a 1–c 6. The guards must be tested by toils and pains, 413 a 9–414 a 4; 502 e 2–503 a 7.
51 476 c 2–8; 520 c 1–d 4.
52 534 b 8–d 1. Plato suggests specific comparison of the cave with Hades at least three times; 516 d 2–7 (cf. Od. 11. 489), 521 c 2–3, and 533 d 1. A more subtle connection is created by the use of a common euphemism for Hades 
in reference to the cave at 520 c 4 (cf. 330 d 8 and 427 b 8). Finally, the cave means death for the returning philosopher, 517 a 6.
53 600 c 2–e 2; 606 e 1–607 a 9; 607 e 4–608 b 2.
54 Nu. 961 ff.; Ra. 1054–5.
55 ‘Parataxis in Homer: A New Approach to Homeric Literary Criticism’, TAPA 80 (1949), 1–23.Google Scholar
56 Preface to Plato, pp. 1–305.Google Scholar
57 595 b 10–c 2; 598 d 7–8.
58 517 a 8–b 6. At 518 a 1 ff. the connection is made between two disturbances of the eye and the difficulties of the soul moving from the light of knowledge to the darkness of ignorance. At 529 a 9– c 3 sight is said never to lead to anything beyond opinion.
59 596 c 4–e 11.
60 601 d 1–602 b 11.
61 e.g., Prt. 312 a 1 ff.; 318 a 1 ff.
62 Prt. 316 c–317 b.
63 Pind. i. 5. 28.
64 ‘The First Greek Sophists’, CR 64 (1950), 8–10.Google Scholar
65 A History of Greek Philosophy, iii. 42–3.Google Scholar
66 Cornford, F. M., Plato's Theory of Knowledge, p. 195; Hamlyn, loc. cit.; see also note 30 above.Google Scholar
67 R. 337 d, 493 a; Ap. 20 a; La. 186 c; Prt. 310 d, 311 b–e, 313b–314a, 328 b, 349 a, 357 e; Cra. 384 b, 391 b; Grg. 519 c, 520 c; Hp.Ma. 281 b, 282 c–d, 283 b–d, 285 b; Men. 91 b, Tht. 167 c; Sph. 222 d, 223 a–b, 225 e–226 a, 231 d;etc.
68 Prt. 309 c, 313 d, 316 c–d; Ti. 19 c–e.
69 Thrasymachus' ‘justice’ depends upon the laws of a particular regime, R. 338 e 1–339 a 4.
70 233 d ff.; 264 b ff.
71 267 b–268 a.
72 E. A. Havelock has suggested to me in conversation that the dialogue Sophist reflects a pointedly professional bitterness which is occupying Plato at this time and that the dialogue may be a direct personal attack against his academic rival, Isocrates.
73 492 a 1–493 d 9.
74 600 c 2–e 3.
75 loc. cit.
76 Others have perceived that the earlier dialogues dealing with the first generation of sophists are not totally hostile to them: e.g. Guthrie, , op cit., p. 37;Google ScholarGagarin, M., ‘The Purpose of Plato's Protagoras’, TAPA 100 (1969), 133–64.Google Scholar
77 Guthrie, , op. cit., pp. 4, 14;Google ScholarMorrison, J. S., ‘An Introductory Chapter in the History of Greek Education’, DUJ 41 (1948), 56–7.Google ScholarHp.Ma. 281–282 d–the natural philosophers are considered among the sophists' predecessors. Prt. 318 d–e, Protagoras separates himself from those who teach special studies.
78 The ambition cited in R. X, to teach successfully to manage affairs both public and private, is similar to the most general aim stated by Protagoras. Cf. R. 600 c 2–d 4, Prt. 318 e 5–319 a 1.
79 The Liberal Temper in Greek Politics, pp. 160–206.Google Scholar
80 Prt. 333 e 1–334 c 6.
81 R. 338 e 1–339 a 4, 343 a 8–344 c 8. Havelock, , Liberal Temper, pp. 155–90, argues that the sophistic task was one of ‘rationalizing the procedures of society as he found it’.Google Scholar
82 517 d 4 –e 2. Shadows and their originals within the cave are equally images and objects of opinion with which the returning philosopher must deal. Cf. 532 b 6–8.
83 23 d 4–7. Havelock, Preface to Plato, argues that the sophists and Socrates were part of a common movement.
84 I wish to thank Professor E. A. Havelock for many helpful suggestions in the preparation of this paper.
