Εἰδέα

Plato makes use of different names with the same meaning. At any rate he names an idea 'form', 'genus', 'paradigm', 'principle', 'cause',¹ [this form being] neither liable to change nor remaining [the same], and it is the same thing, both one and many things.² And again [he is using] only one name in different cases [as having the same] meaning. For example, what is ordinary, which means 'simple' and 'easy', such as Euripides [says] in the Likymnios: 'ordinary, rude, what is supremely good',³ meaning simple and harmless. It is possible that when [one] lays down [something] also in what is evil, [one does the same] in any chance thing. Plato [says] in [his treatise] on the soul: 'Cebes, he said, you are looking for an ordinary thing'.⁴ And he would also lay down [this] in any chance thing. For example, "it will be [no] ordinary thing."⁵ [Meaning] a chance thing. [One] would also lay down [something] in what is simple with regard to any chance thing in this way. Plato [says]: 'this will be no ordinary thing, it seems, and will require not a little virtue'.⁶