How The Republic drew on The Odyssey
A documented line of influence: Plato demonstrably engaged Homer’s work. The commentary below is Gröblé’s, verbatim from each work’s page.
The source
The Odyssey
Homer · c. 725 BCE
Ancient GreeceThe influenced
The Republic
Plato · c. 375 BCE
Ancient GreeceRelevance
8/10
On The Republic’s page
- The poem Plato argues with for ten books, then exiles from his ideal city
- Reading the Odyssey first lets you catch what the Republic is doing: the Myth of Er reworks Homer's underworld, and the banishment of poets targets lines like Achilles' ghost preferring slavery to death
- Plato fights Homer because Homer is the rival teacher — the Odyssey is the moral education the Republic wants to replace
On The Odyssey’s page
- Plato can't stop quoting Homer even as he tries to throw him out
- The Republic's closing Myth of Er puns on Homer and hands Odysseus the choice of his next life (620a–d); Glaucon's piggish "city for pigs" echoes Circe's swine
- And in Book 10, when Plato banishes the poets, it's the Odyssey he's aiming at — Achilles' ghost saying he'd rather be a living slave than a dead king is exactly the line he says would make his guardians afraid to die