Note 277 — Chapter IV · THE SPRING KALLIRRHOË-ENNEAKROUNOS ‘NEAR’ THE CITADEL.

Mr F. M. Cornford draws my attention to the striking resemblance between the plan of the Kallirrhoë cavern (Figs. 36 and 43) and the curious arrangement of the ‘cavernous underground chamber’ which in Plato (Rep. VII. 514) symbolizes the prison-house of earthly existence. This chamber was entered by a long and steep descent from the outer air and had at the opposite end a low parapet, answering to the well-parapet in Kallirrhoë. Even the image in the niche has its Platonic counterpart in the shadows cast by the fire-light upon the inmost wall from the images carried along the parapet. One can imagine that Plato himself had often visited the well, had seen his own shadow thrown across the parapet by the torch of his guide standing at the foot of the entrance-stair, and heard the echo of his own voice as though it were proceeding from the shadow (Plat. Rep. 515 B).