What are Plato's views and statements on mankind?

Plato makes some pretty profound statements about man. In one of his late Dialogues named Statesman, he uses the voice of the Stranger to make an astonishing claim: that man is essentially a featherless biped. The Stranger also expounds upon the necessity of putting a statesman/ruler as a sort of "charioteer" over the common man. The statesman/charioteer figure is one who holds the power of the state in his hands.
Plato's statement about man is hardly complimentary. In Phaedrus, one of his middle Dialogues, Plato again discusses the statesman/charioteer figure. Accordingly, the charioteer's carriage is driven by two horses, one of noble breed (white) and another of ignoble breed (black). The differing temperaments and inclinations of the two horses make the charioteer's job of steering his carriage a difficult one.
The white horse is said to be "upright" and "cleanly made." He is everything that is honorable, temperate, and virtuous. Meanwhile, the black horse is a "crooked lumbering animal" and filled with "insolence and pride." The charioteer is equally a statesman in corporeal, earthly terms and an immortal soul in mystical terms.
Essentially, the charioteer must steer the dark side of man away from his irrational, wicked desires and towards his better inclinations. The charioteer must employ the whip until he succeeds in taming and humbling man's depraved nature. Plato maintains that this is the only means by which the charioteer statesman can lead the common man to enlightened wisdom.
Plato uses the chariot imagery to make the point that man is essentially made up of two opposing natures and that draconian means must be taken to tame him. If, however, any man cannot be tamed, his soul will lose its "wings." These fallen men must then be incarnated into one of nine states of probationary existence. The first state is that of the philosopher or artist; the second state that of a king or warrior chief; the third state that of a politician, economist, or tradesman; the fourth state that of a physician; the fifth state that of a prophet; the sixth state that of a poet; the seventh state that of an artisan; the eighth state that of a sophist/demagogue; and the ninth state that of a tyrant.
Plato proposes that these states are temporary in nature. Those who improve their characters will be reinstated into glory. However, he maintains that most of these men will need at least ten thousand years before they can regrow their wings; only "guileless and true" philosophers and true lovers can do it in less time. Plato's statement about man acknowledges the carnal nature that impedes man's journey towards enlightened perfection.
http://classics.mit.edu/Plato/phaedrus.html

http://classics.mit.edu/Plato/stateman.html