George Martin's Song of Ice and Fire provides a modern take on Plato's Republic. There, I said it. George takes the themes of Plato's masterwork and sends them marching across our pages in the form of zombies and dragons, eunuchs and lost little girls. Certainly the most famous portion of the Republic is the Allegory of the Cave. It's five pages of Plato's metaphysics and epistemology--or it's about the process of education. Or all of these and more. What's more, it's an allegory--it's begging you to interpret it as having lessons and insights into human nature. Whereas Plato's allegory is five pages long, George's allegory is currently five books long. But it too is begging you to interpret the series as having lessons and insights into human nature. This is the first of several planned episodes looking at the relationship between Plato's Republic and GRRM's ASOIAF. 

Here we show the direct influence, scene by scene and line by line, of Plato's Cave on George's series. 

Clarifying Socrates' role in the story--I realize that in the pod I often make reference to Socrates, without explaining his role in the story. To be clear, Socrates was Plato's great teacher. It was only after Socrates' death that Plato began to write the dialogues for which he (and Socrates) would become famous, including the Republic. Plato made Socrates the hero of virtually all of his writing, so the action of the Republic is the story of Socrates going down to the Peiraeus, down into the metaphorical cave of ignorance, and educating the people he encounters there. So Plato is the author of the tale, but Socrates is its hero. Socrates is the one who actually talks out the Allegory of the Cave. 

All of these special episodes contain ***MAJOR SPOILERS***

Time stamps so you can jump directly to the most relevant bits:

0:00 Intro and Plato's Republic in ASOIAF

7:59 Plato biography--what a truly remarkable life this guy lived. 

14:07 Plato and Dante similarities--trying to solve for factionalism and political failings by creating wise, just, compassionate citizens. 

21:41 The Allegory of the Cave--five of the simplest but most profound pages in Western philosophy

31:16 Plato's metaphysics and the divided line/The Matrix/modern media bubbles

38:16 BAM! Plato's Cave in the books, beginning with the Prologue of Book One--"The right eye was open. The pupil burned blue. It saw."

42:06 Gared and Ned in the context of the end of the allegory

54:48 Arya 3 and 5/Chs. 32 and 65 GoT--Arya into and out of Plato's Cave

1:01:59 Mel, Stannis the Mannis and the cave of self deception

1:19:24 Sansa 1/Ch. 10 AFFC Littlefinger inviting others into his cave of false reality--come on in, the water's fine! 

1:21:21 Davos 2/Ch. 42 ACOK One of the best chapters in the entire series, absolutely derivative of Plato's Cave. "Something is wrong here, the onetime smuggler thought. Yet he nodded and said, "I see."" Davos sees, and unfortunately for Stannis and Mel, he's the only one

1:28:34 North and South of the Wall, outside and inside Plato's cave and the the divided line  

Thanks for listening!