Plato on the Aquiline Nose

Plato, Thomas Taylor · Constitution of Man Series · 7 pages

The key to the physical descriptions in Plato's Two Horses, which appears in batch 2 of this section — and best read immediately after it. Hermeas explains that Plato distributes the parts of the soul into different parts of the body: intellect and the reasoning power, analogous to the ruler of a city, are established in the brain, which is spherical, man being a microcosm and the brain therefore analogous to the heavens. Anger, naturally more noble than desire and analogous to those who fight in a city's defence and repress whatever is disorderly, is fixed in the heart, so as to be in the vestibules of reason and separated from the brain only by the neck. The desiderative part, irrational and like the mercenary tribe and the multitude, is placed in the liver — as an ass at a manger.

The allegorical reading of the good horse follows from that placing, and each physical feature turns out to carry a meaning. It is called straight because it receives the measures of reason; well-articulated because it is of a distinct and not a mixed nature; having its neck lofty because it always extends itself and despises things of a worse condition. And it has an aquiline nose to indicate its royal nature — the hooked or aquiline being, on this account, the royal and noble form, and far more elegant than the flat nose. Anger is thus more noble than desire as being nearer to reason, and has a better station because it is arranged in a better region of the body.

Read the full text (PDF, 0.4 MB, 7 pages)