the ἰδέα; he can only be stationed before it. For that reason, of the φύσει κλίνη Socrates says: ἣν φαῖμεν ἄν, ὡς ἐγᾦμαι, θεὸν ἐργάσασθαι, "of which we may well say, as I believe, that a god produced it and brought it forth."

μία δέ γε ἣν ὁ τέκτων. "But it is a different bedframe which the craftsman manufactures." μία δὲ ἣν ὁ ζωγράφος. "And again another which the painter brings about."

The threefold character of the one bedframe, and so naturally of every particular being that is at hand, is captured in the following statement (597 b): ζωγράφος δή, κλινοποιός, θεός, τρεῖς οὗτοι ἐπιστάται τρισὶν εἴδεσι κλινῶν. "Thus the painter, the framemaker, the god-these three are ἐπιστάται, those who dedicate themselves to, or preside over, three types of outward appearance of the bedframe." Each presides over a distinct type of self-showing, which each sees to in his own way; he is the overseer for that type, watching over and mastering the self-showing. If we translate εἶδος here simply as "type," three types of bedframes, we obfuscate what is decisive. For Plato's thought [185] is here moving in the direction of visualizing how the selfsame shows itself in various ways: three ways of self-showing; hence, of presence; hence, three metamorphoses of Being itself. What matters is the unity of the basic character that prevails throughout self-showing in spite of all difference: appearing in this or that fashion and becoming present in outward appearance.

Let us also observe something else that accompanied us everywhere in our previous considerations: whenever we mentioned genuine being we also spoke of ὂν τῇ ἀληθείᾳ being "in truth." Grasped in a Greek manner, however, "truth" means nondistortion, openness, namely for the self-showing itself.

The interpretation of Being as εἶδος, presencing in outward appearance, presupposes the interpretation of truth as ἀλήθεια, nondistortion. We must heed that if we wish to grasp the relation of art (μίμησις) and truth in Plato's conception correctly, which is to say, in a Greek manner. Only in such a realm do Plato's questions unfold. From it they derive the possibility of receiving answers. Here at the peak of the Platonic interpretation of the Being of beings as ἰδέα, the