High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The Allegory of the Cave—also known as the Analogy of the Cave, Plato`s Cave, or the Parable of the Cave—is an allegory used by the Greek philosopher Plato in his work The Republic to illustrate "our nature in its education and want of education" (514a). It is written as a fictional dialogue between Plato`s teacher Socrates and Plato`s brother Glaucon at the beginning of Book VII (chapter IX in Robin Waterfield`s translation) (514a–520a). The Allegory of the Cave is presented after the metaphor of the sun (507b–509c) and the analogy of the divided line (509d–513e). Allegories are summarized in the viewpoint of dialectic at the end of Book VII and VIII (531d–534e).