Are the philosophers or are the poets, you might say,

你也许会说哲学家或诗人是真正的
the true legislators for mankind, if you want to use Shelley's dictum?

人类的立法者吗如果你想用雪莱的名言的话
Which one legislates for mankind at the time of Socrates?

谁是苏格拉底时代人类的立法者
The Greeks already had a century's long tradition of poetic education,

希腊当时的诗歌教育传统已有一个世纪之久
going back centuries to the time of Homer and Hesiod that set out

可以追溯至几个世纪前荷马和赫西奥德的时代
certain exemplary models of heroic virtue and civic life.

那时确立了英雄美德和市民生活的典范模型
The Homeric epics were to the Greek world what the Bible is to our world

荷马史诗之于希腊世界如同圣经之于我们
that is to say, in some respects the ultimate

也就是说其在很多方面享有绝对权威
authority, regarding the way of the Gods, their relation to the world

关于众神之路以及他们与世界的关系
and the type of virtues appropriate to human beings.

以及适宜人类的美德类型
The virtues endorsed by the poetic tradition of which Aristophanes is

阿里斯托芬是当时传统诗歌公认美德的
the great representative here, the great inheritor and

杰出代表及后继人