MARK MOESte kai; gumnastikh;n ejpi; to; qumoeide;~ kai to; filovsofon, 411e5– 6). They
make it possible for these powers to be blended (412a4 – 5) into harmony
with one another, each being stretched and relaxed to the appropri-
ate degree (411e4– 412a2), as the strings of a lyre must be stretched or
relaxed if they are to be attuned to each other. Only the soul that has
harmonized the love of wisdom with the aggressive instincts becomes
at once both healthy-minded and courageous (swvfrwn te kai; ajndreiva,
411a1). Its aggressive instincts are moderated and guided by wisdom,^45
and its other pursuits (including its intellectual pursuits and not only
its athletic and gymnastic pursuits) are strenuously disciplined, tough-
minded, and fueled by spiritedness in their execution.^46 The overseer
(ejpistavto~, 412b1) of a povli~ must have a soul of this kind, if the way of
life of the povli~ (its politeiva) is to be preserved.
A corollary of this view of the coordinate roles of mousikhv and
gumnastikhv, and of the correlative unity of various virtues, is that ei-
ther discipline practiced excessively and to the exclusion of the other
can produce an unbalanced and unhealthy personality. A person who
practices lifelong gumnastikhv unaccompanied by training in mousikhv
disposes his mind toward savagery and toughness, toward raw physical
courage not moderated by wisdom. Any love of learning there might
have been in his soul becomes feeble and deaf and blind.^47 One reason
Socrates gives for this enfeeblement of the philosophic power in the ath-
lete who is “unmusical” is that he never tastes of any learning or inquiry
or partakes in any discussion (lovgou) or in any of the rest of mousikhv
(411d 2– 3). Another is that his spirited power is neither awakened nor
cultivated (ejgeirovmenon, 411d4) nor nurtured (trefovmenon, 411d5)
properly, because his perceptions are never cleansed (diakaqairomevnwn
tw`n aijsqhvsewn aujtou', 411d5).^48 Socrates even says that the person who
practices gumnastikhv without mousikhv becomes a misovlogo~ (411d7 ), a
hater of lovgo~, and unmusical (a[mouso~, 411d7). Such a person never
makes use of persuasion by means of discourses but always savagely bulls
his way through life like an animal, living in ignorance and stupidity
without either rhythm or grace.^49
On the other hand, a person who practices lifelong mousikhv with-
out gumnastikhv disposes his mind toward softness and tameness. Even
the philosophic part of his nature, instead of becoming well nurtured,
rightly cultivated, and orderly, is relaxed too far and becomes softer
than it should (410e1– 3). He exercises his wisdom-loving capacities in
too relaxed, soft-minded, and undisciplined a way, without the aggres-
siveness which prevents him from being too easily persuaded, too easily
intellectually satisfi ed, too mindlessly a partisan or ideologue, or too ob-
sequious a student or disciple.^50 He separates his mind from his aggres-