ANNE-MARIE BOWERYfor it assumes a level of honesty and trust in the relationship between
himself and his narrative audience that was not present between the
characters in the narrated events.
The Republic also begins with Socrates speaking: “I went down
yesterday to the Piraeus with Glaucon” (327a). We do not know where
he retells the story, nor to whom he speaks. We do not know Socrates’
motivation for narrating this lengthy conversation about justice. We
do know slightly more about the narrative setting than we do in the
Lysis. Socrates says that the events of the dialogue took place the day
before. Given that the dramatic date of the journey to Piraeus occurs
in 411 b.c.e., we can set the retelling at a fi xed time as well.^20 As in the
Lysis, Socrates is headed from a particular place, Piraeus, to a particular
place, the city of Athens, but is sidetracked from his intended destina-
tion. As in the Lysis, Socrates narrates the circumstances leading to the
shift in destination: “Catching sight of us from afar as we were pressing
homewards, Polemarchus, son of Cephalus, ordered his slave boy to run
after us and order us to wait for him. The boy took hold of my cloak
from behind and said, ‘Polemarchus orders you to wait’” (327b). Seeing
that he cannot convince Polemarchus to let them continue to Athens,
Socrates agrees to visit Cephalus’ home (328b).
There Socrates converses with Cephalus (328e– 331d), Polemarchus
(331e– 336e), Thrasymachus (337a– 354c), and Glaucon and Adeimantus
long into the night. They examine the nature of justice in the soul by
looking at the nature of justice in the city. Socrates recounts their con-
versation. He tells the audience about the ring of Gyges (359d), the na-
ture of Homeric narrative and the ancient quarrel between philosophy
and poetry, the tripartite division of the soul and the corresponding
division of classes in the feverish city, the education of the guardian,
the communal sharing of women and raising of children, the necessity
of philosopher-kings, the sun as the offspring of the Good, the Divided
Line, the allegory of the Cave, the degeneration of political regimes, the
return of the poets to the city, and the Myth of Er.^21 Socrates presents
himself as a trustworthy narrator. He does not qualify his narrative with
claims about not remembering clearly. Again, there are no obvious lacu-
nae in the account and he appears willing to retell this lengthy account
to his audience. Also, Socrates’ inclusion of his own observations about
the events that he narrates increases the level of trust that the narrative
audience has in Socrates as a narrator.
In the fi rst two books of the Republic, Socrates actively narrates. He
provides detailed commentary and insight into the motivations of the
characters (336b, 337a, 338a, 342d, 344d, 350d, 357a, 368c). In book 3