Is society based on a lie? In Plato’s Republic, Socrates and a few of his friends act as interlocutors discussing what makes a just city. Socrates wonders how to protect the city from corruption. In this short excerpt from Book III (414-415d), Socrates tells a story of humanity’s origins, the myth of metals, reminiscent of Hesiod’s account of the ages of man. In the Platonic retelling, humans are born from the earth, and into each is mixed either some gold, appropriate for the rulers, silver app