{"collection":"philosophy-ethics","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_1181/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_1181","id":"gutenberg_1181","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1181","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Classics of Literature","Category: Philosophy & Ethics","Classical literature","Philosophy, Ancient","Socrates, 470 BC-399 BC"],"text":"Produced by John Bickers\n\n\n\n\n\nTHE SYMPOSIUM\n\nBy Xenophon\n\nTranslation by H. G. Dakyns\n\n\n\n\n          Xenophon the Athenian was born 431 B.C. He was a\n          pupil of Socrates. He marched with the Spartans,\n          and was exiled from Athens. Sparta gave him land\n          and property in Scillus, where he lived for many\n          years before having to move once more, to settle\n          in Corinth. He died in 354 B.C.\n\n          The Symposium records the discussion of Socrates\n          and company at a dinner given by Callias for the\n          youth Autolycus. Dakyns believed that Plato knew\n          of this work, and that it influenced him to some\n          degree when he wrote his own \"Symposium.\"\n\n\n\n\n     PREPARER'S NOTE\n\n     This was typed from Dakyns' series, \"The Works of Xenophon,\" a\n     four-volume set. The complete list of Xenophon's works (though\n     there is doubt about some of these) is:\n\n     Work                                   Number of books\n\n     The Anabasis                                         7\n     The Hellenica                                        7\n     The Cyropaedia                                       8\n     The Memorabilia                                      4\n     The Symposium                                        1\n     The Economist                                        1\n     On Horsemanship                                      1\n     The Sportsman                                        1\n     The Cavalry General                                  1\n     The Apology                                          1\n     On Revenues                                          1\n     The Hiero                                            1\n     The Agesilaus                                        1\n     The Polity of the Athenians and the Lacedaemonians   2\n\n     Text in brackets \"{}\" is my transliteration of Greek text into\n     English using an Oxford English Dictionary alphabet table. The\n     diacritical marks have been lost.\n\n\n\n\nTHE SYMPOSIUM\n\nor\n\nThe Banquet\n\n\n\nI\n\nFor myself, (1) I hold to the opinion that not alone are the serious\ntransactions of \"good and noble men\" (2) most memorable, but that words\nand deeds distinctive of their lighter moods may claim some record. (3)\nIn proof of which contention, I will here describe a set of incidents\nwithin the scope of my experience. (4)\n\n (1) See Aristid. ii. foll.\n\n (2) Or, \"nature's noblemen.\"\n\n (3) Cf. Plut. \"Ages.\" 29 (Clough, iv. 35): \"And indeed if, as Xenophon\n    says, in conversation good men, even in their sports and at their\n    wine, let fall many sayings that are worth preserving.\" See Grote,\n    \"Plato,\" ii. 228 foll. as to the sportive character of the work.\n\n (4) Or, \"let me describe a scene which I was witness of.\" See Hug.\n    \"Plat. Symp.\" p. xv. foll.\n\nThe occasion was a horse-race (5) at the great Panathenaic festival. (6)\nCallias, (7) the son of Hipponicus, being a friend and lover of the\nboy Autolycus, (8) had brought the lad, himself the winner of the\npankration, (9) to see the spectacle.\n\n (5) See \"Hipparch,\" ii. 1.\n\n (6) \"Held towards the end of July (Hecatombaeon) every year, and with\n    greater pomp every four years (the third of each Olympiad).\"--Gow,\n    84, 129, n.\n\n (7) Callias. Cobet, \"Pros. X.\" p. 67 foll.; Boeckh, \"P. E. A.\" p. 481.\n\n (8) See Cobet, op. cit. p. 54; Plut. \"Lysand.\" 15 (Clough, iii. 120);\n    Grote, \"H. G.\" ix. 261.\n\n (9) 420 B.C., al. 421. The date is fixed by the \"Autolycus\" of\n    Eupolis. See Athen. v. 216. For the pankration, which comprised\n    wrestling and boxing, see Aristot. \"Rhet.\" i. S. 14.\n\nAs soon as the horse race was over, (10) Callias proceeded to escort\nAutolycus and his father, Lycon, to his house in the Piraeus, being\nattended also by Niceratus. (11) But catching sight of Socrates along\nwith certain others (Critobulus, (12) Hermogenes, Antisthenes, and\nCharmides), he bade an attendant conduct the party with Autolycus,\nwhilst he himself approached the group, exclaiming:\n\n (10) See A. Martin, op. cit. p. 265.\n\n (11) Niceratus. See Cobet, op. cit. 71; Boeckh, \"P. E. A.\" 480; Plat.\n    \"Lach.\" 200 C; \"Hell.\" II. iii. 39; Lys. xviii.; Diod. xiv. 5.\n\n (12) Critobulus, Hermogenes, Antisthenes, Charmides. See \"Mem.\"\n\nA happy chance brings me across your path, just when I am about to\nentertain Autolycus and his father at a feast. The splendour of the\nentertainment shall be much enhanced, I need not tell you, if my hall\n(13) should happily be graced by worthies like yourselves, who have\nattained to purity of soul, (14) rather than by generals and cavalry\ncommanders (15) and a crowd of place-hunters. (16)\n\n (13) Or, \"dining-room.\" See Becker, \"Charicles,\" 265.\n\n (14) See Grote, \"H. G.\" viii. 619 foll. Cf. Plat. \"Rep.\" 527 D;\n    \"Soph.\" 230 E.\n\n (15) Lit. Strategoi, Hipparchs.\n\n (16) Or, \"petitioners for offices of state.\" Reading {spoudarkhiais}.\n\nWhereat Socrates: When will you have done with your gibes, Callias? Why,\nbecause you have yourself spent sums of money on Protagoras, (17) and\nGorgias, and Prodicus, and a host of others, to learn wisdom, must you\npour contempt on us poor fellows, who are but self-taught tinkers (18)\nin philosophy compared with you?\n\n (17) As to Protagoras of Abdera, Gorgias of Leontini, Prodicus of\n    Ceos, see Plat. \"Prot.\" 314 C, \"Rep.\" x. 600 C, \"Apol.\" 19 E;\n    \"Anab.\" II. vi. 17; \"Mem.\" II. i. 21; \"Encyc. Brit.\" \"Sophists,\"\n    H. Jackson.\n\n (18) Or, \"hand-to-mouth cultivators of philosophy,\" \"roturiers.\" Cf.\n    Plat. \"Rep.\" 565 A: \"A third class who work for themselves\"; Thuc.\n    i. 141: \"The Peloponnesians cultivate their own soil, and they\n    have no wealth either public or private.\" Cf. \"Econ.\" v. 4.\n\nHitherto, no doubt (retorted Callias), although I had plenty of wise\nthings to say, I have kept my wisdom to myself; but if only you will\nhonour me with your company to-day, I promise to present myself in quite\nanother light; you will see I am a person of no mean consideration after\nall. (19)\n\n (19) Or, \"I will prove to you that I am worthy of infinite respect.\"\n\nSocrates and the others, while thanking Callias politely for the\ninvitation, were not disposed at first to join the dinner party; but the\nannoyance of the other so to be put off was so obvious that in the end\nthe party were persuaded to accompany their host.\n\nAfter an interval devoted to gymnastic exercise (and subsequent\nanointing of the limbs) by some, whilst others of them took a bath, the\nguests were severally presented to the master of the house.\n\nAutolycus was seated next his father, as was natural, (20) while the\nrest reclined on couches. Noting the scene presented, the first idea to\nstrike the mind of any one must certainly have been that beauty has\nby nature something regal in it; and the more so, if it chance to\nbe combined (as now in the person of Autolycus) with modesty and\nself-respect. Even as when a splendid object blazes forth at night, the\neyes of men are riveted, (21) so now the beauty of Autolycus drew on him\nthe gaze of all; nor was there one of those onlookers but was stirred\nto his soul's depth by him who sat there. (22) Some fell into unwonted\nsilence, while the gestures of the rest were equally significant.\n\n (20) Al. \"Autolycus found a seat beside his father, while the rest\n    reclined on couches in the usual fashion.\" See Schneider's note.\n\n (21) Passage imitated by Max. Tyr. \"Or.\" xxiv. 4.\n\n (22) Cf. Plat. \"Charm.\" 154.\n\nIt seems the look betokening divine possession, no matter who the god,\nmust ever be remarkable. Only, whilst the subject of each commoner\nemotion passion-whirled may be distinguished by flashings of the eye, by\nterror-striking tones of voice, and by the vehement fervour of the man's\nwhole being, so he who is inspired by temperate and harmonious love (23)\nwill wear a look of kindlier welcome in his eyes; the words he utters\nfall from his lips with softer intonation; and every gesture of his\nbodily frame conform to what is truly frank and liberal. Such, at any\nrate, the strange effects now wrought on Callias by love. He was like\none transformed, the cynosure of all initiated in the mysteries of this\ndivinity. (24)\n\n (23) Cf. Plat. \"Rep.\" iii. 403 A: \"Whereas true love is a love of\n    beauty and order, temperate and harmonious.\"\n\n (24) Cf. \"Econ.\" xxi. 12.\n\nSo they supped in silence, the whole company, as if an injunction had\nbeen laid upon them by some superior power. But presently there came\na knocking on the door! Philippus the jester bade the doorkeeper (25)\nannounce him, with apologies for seeking a night's lodging: (26) he had\ncome, he said, provided with all necessaries for dining, at a friend's\nexpense: his attendant was much galled with carrying, nothing but an\nempty bread-basket. (27) To this announcement Callias, appealing to his\nguests, replied: \"It would never do to begrudge the shelter of one's\nroof: (28) let him come in.\" And as he spoke, he glanced across to where\nAutolycus was seated, as if to say: \"I wonder how you take the jest.\"\n\n (25) Lit. \"him who answers the knock,\" \"the concierge\" or hall-porter.\n    Cf. Theophr. \"Char.\" xiv. 7; Aristot. \"Oec.\" i. 6.\n\n (26) Lit. \"and why he wished to put up.\"\n\n (27) Lit. \"and being breakfastless\"; cf. Theocr. i. 51. The jester's\n    humour resembles Pistol's (\"Merry Wives,\" i. 3. 23) \"O base\n    Hungarian wight!\"\n\n (28) Or, \"How say you, my friends, it would hardly do, methinks, to\n    shut the door upon him.\" See Becker, \"Charicles,\" p. 92.\n\nMeanwhile the jester, standing at the door of the apartment where the\nfeast was spread, addressed the company:\n\nI believe you know, sirs, that being a jester by profession, it is my\nbusiness to make jokes. I am all the readier, therefore, to present\nmyself, feeling convinced it is a better joke to come to dinner thus\nunbidden than by solemn invitation.\n\nBe seated, (29) then (replied the host). The company are fully fed on\nserious thoughts, you see, if somewhat starved of food for laughter.\n\n (29) Lit. \"Pray, find a couch then.\"\n\nThe feast proceeded; and, if only to discharge the duty laid upon him at\na dinner-party, Philippus must try at once to perpetrate a jest. Failing\nto stir a smile, poor fellow, he made no secret of his perturbation.\nPresently he tried again; and for the second time the joke fell flat.\nWhereat he paused abruptly in the middle of the course, and muffling up\nhis face, fell prostrate on the couch.\n\nThen Callias: What ails you, sirrah? Have you the cramp? the toothache?\nwhat?\n\nTo which the other heaving a deep groan: Yes, Callias, an atrocious\nache; since laughter has died out among mankind, my whole estate is\nbankrupt. (30) In old days I would be asked to dinner to amuse the\ncompany with jests. (31) Now all is changed, and who will be at pains to\nask me out to dinner any more? I might as well pretend to be immortal\nas to be serious. Nor will any one invite me in hopes of reclining at\nmy board in his turn. Everyone knows so serious a thing as dinner in my\nhouse was never heard of; it's against the rules--the more's the pity.\n\n (30) Cf. \"Cyrop.\" VI. i. 3; Plat. \"Laws,\" 677 C.\n\n (31) Lit. \"by the laughter which I stirred in them.\"\n\nAnd as he spoke he blew his nose and snuffled, uttering the while so\ntruly dolorous a moan (32) that everybody fell to soothing him. \"They\nwould all laugh again another day,\" they said, and so implored him\nto have done and eat his dinner; till Critobulus could not stand his\nlamentation longer, but broke into a peal of laughter. The welcome sound\nsufficed. The sufferer unveiled his face, and thus addressed his inner\nself: (33) \"Be of good cheer, my soul, there are many battles (34) yet\nin store for us,\" and so he fell to discussing the viands once again.\n\n (32) Philippus would seem to have anticipated Mr. Woodward; see\n    Prologue to \"She Stoops to Conquer\":\n\nPray, would you know the reason I'm crying? The Comic Muse long sick is\nnow a-dying! And if she goes...\n\n\n (33) Cf. \"Cyrop.\" I. iv. 13; Eur. \"Med.\" 1056, 1242; Aristoph. \"Ach.\"\n    357, 480.\n\n (34) Or add, \"ere we have expended our last shot.\" Philippus puns on\n    the double sense of {sumbolai}. Cf. Aristoph. \"Ach.\" 1210, where\n    Lamachus groans {talas ego xumboles bareias}, and Dicaeopolis\n    replies {tois Khousi gar tis xumbolas epratteto}.\n\nLam. 'Twas at the final charge; I'd paid before\n   A number of the rogues; at least a score.\n\nDic. It was a most expensive charge you bore:\n   Poor Lamachus! he was forced to pay the score.\n\nH. Frere.\n\n\n\nII\n\nNow the tables were removed, and in due order they had poured out the\nlibation, and had sung the hymn. (1) To promote the revelry, there\nentered now a Syracusan, with a trio of assistants: the first, a\nflute-girl, perfect in her art; and next, a dancing-girl, skilled to\nperform all kinds of wonders; lastly, in the bloom of beauty, a boy,\nwho played the harp and danced with infinite grace. This Syracusan went\nabout exhibiting his troupe, whose wonderful performance was a source of\nincome to him.\n\n (1) See Plat. \"Symp.\" 176 A; Athen. ix. 408.\n\nAfter the girl had played to them upon the flute, and then the boy in\nturn upon the harp, and both performers, as it would appear, had set the\nhearts of every one rejoicing, Socrates turned to Callias:\n\nA feast, upon my word, O princeliest entertainer! (2) Was it not enough\nto set before your guests a faultless dinner, but you must feast our\neyes and ears on sights and sounds the most delicious?\n\n (2) Lit. \"in consummate style.\"\n\nTo which the host: And that reminds me, a supply of unguents might not\nbe amiss; (3) what say you? Shall we feast on perfumes also? (4)\n\n (3) Lit. \"suppose I tell the servant to bring in some perfumes, so\n    that we may further feast on fragrance...\" Cf. Theophr. \"Char.\"\n    vii. 6 (Jebb ad loc.)\n\n (4) See Athen. xv. 686.\n\nNo, I protest (the other answered). Scents resemble clothes. One dress\nis beautiful on man and one on woman; and so with fragrance: what\nbecomes the woman, ill becomes the man. Did ever man anoint himself with\noil of myrrh to please his fellow? Women, and especially young women\n(like our two friends' brides, Niceratus' and Critobulus'), need no\nperfume, being but compounds themselves of fragrance. (5) No, sweeter\nthan any perfume else to women is good olive-oil, suggestive of the\ntraining-school: (6) sweet if present, and when absent longed for. And\nwhy? Distinctions vanish with the use of perfumes. The freeman and the\nslave have forthwith both alike one odour. But the scents derived from\ntoils--those toils which every free man loves (7)--need customary habit\nfirst, and time's distillery, if they are to be sweet with freedom's\nbreath, at last. (8)\n\n (5) Cf. Solomon's Song, iv. 10: \"How fair is thy love, my sister, my\n    spouse! how much better is thy love than wine! and the smell of\n    thine ointments than all spices!\"\n\n (6) Lit. \"the gymnasium.\"\n\n (7) Cf. Aristoph. \"Clouds,\" 1002 foll. See J. A. Symonds, \"The Greek\n    Poets,\" 1st s., p. 281.\n\n (8) See \"Mem.\" III. x. 5; \"Cyrop.\" VIII. i. 43.\n\nHere Lycon interposed: That may be well enough for youths, but what\nshall we do whose gymnastic days are over? What fragrance is left for\nus?\n\nSoc. Why, that of true nobility, of course.\n\nLyc. And whence shall a man obtain this chrism?\n\nSoc. Not from those that sell perfumes and unguents, in good sooth.\n\nLyc. But whence, then?\n\nSoc. Theognis has told us:\n\n    From the good thou shalt learn good things, but if with the evil\n    Thou holdest converse, thou shalt lose the wit that is in thee. (9)\n\n (9) Theog. 35 foll. See \"Mem.\" I. ii. 20; Plat. \"Men.\" 95 D.\n\nLyc. (turning to his son). Do you hear that, my son?\n\nThat he does (Socrates answered for the boy), and he puts the precept\ninto practice also; to judge, at any rate, from his behaviour. When he\nhad set his heart on carrying off the palm of victory in the pankration,\nhe took you into his counsel; (10) and will again take counsel to\ndiscover the fittest friend to aid him in his high endeavour, (11) and\nwith this friend associate.\n\n (10) It looks as if something had been lost intimating that Autolycus\n    would have need of some one to instruct him in spiritual things.\n    For attempts to fill up the lacuna see Schenkl.\n\n (11) Or, \"these high pursuits.\"\n\nThereupon several of the company exclaimed at once. \"Where will he find\na teacher to instruct him in that wisdom?\" one inquired. \"Why, it is not\nto be taught!\" exclaimed another; to which a third rejoined: \"Why should\nit not be learnt as well as other things?\" (12)\n\n (12) Cf. for the question {ei arete didakton}, \"Mem.\" I. ii. 19; IV.\n    i; \"Cyrop.\" III. i. 17; III. iii. 53.\n\nThen Socrates: The question would seem at any rate to be debatable.\nSuppose we defer it till another time, and for the present not interrupt\nthe programme of proceedings. I see, the dancing-girl is standing ready;\nthey are handing her some hoops.\n\nAnd at the instant her fellow with the flute commenced a tune to keep\nher company, whilst some one posted at her side kept handing her the\nhoops till she had twelve in all. With these in her hands she fell\nto dancing, and the while she danced she flung the hoops into the\nair--overhead she sent them twirling--judging the height they must be\nthrown to catch them, as they fell, in perfect time. (13)\n\n (13) \"In time with the music and the measure of the dance.\"\n\nThen Socrates: The girl's performance is one proof among a host of\nothers, sirs, that woman's nature is nowise inferior to man's. All she\nwants is strength and judgment; (14) and that should be an encouragement\nto those of you who have wives, to teach them whatever you would have\nthem know as your associates. (15)\n\n (14) Reading, as vulg. {gnomes de kai iskhuos deitai}; al. continuing\n    {ouden} from the first half of the sentence, transl. \"she has no\n    lack of either judgment or physical strength.\" Lange conj. {romes}\n    for {gnomes}, \"all she needs is force and strength of body.\" See\n    Newman, op. cit. i. 419.\n\n (15) Lit. \"so that, if any of you has a wife, he may well take heart\n    and teach her whatever he would wish her to know in dealing with\n    her.\" Cf. \"N. A.\" i. 17.\n\nAntisthenes rejoined: If that is your conclusion, Socrates, why do you\nnot tutor your own wife, Xanthippe, (16) instead of letting her (17)\nremain, of all the wives that are, indeed that ever will be, I imagine,\nthe most shrewish?\n\n (16) See Cobet, \"Pros. Xen.\" p. 56; \"Mem.\" II. ii. 1; Aul. Gell. \"N.\n    A.\" i. 17.\n\n (17) Lit. \"dealing with her,\" \"finding in her\"; {khro} corresponding\n    to {khresthai} in Socrates' remarks.\n\nWell now, I will tell you (he answered). I follow the example of\nthe rider who wishes to become an expert horseman: \"None of your\nsoft-mouthed, docile animals for me,\" he says; \"the horse for me to own\nmust show some spirit\": (18) in the belief, no doubt, if he can manage\nsuch an animal, it will be easy enough to deal with every other horse\nbesides. And that is just my case. I wish to deal with human beings, to\nassociate with man in general; hence my choice of wife. (19) I know full\nwell, if I can tolerate her spirit, I can with ease attach myself to\nevery human being else.\n\n (18) Lit. \"Because I see the man who aims at skill in horsemanship\n    does not care to own a soft-mouthed, docile animal, but some\n    restive, fiery creature.\"\n\n (19) Lit. \"being anxious to have intercourse with all mankind, to deal\n    with every sort of human being, I possess my wife.\"\n\nA well-aimed argument, not wide of the mark by any means! (20) the\ncompany were thinking.\n\n (20) Cf. Plat. \"Theaet.\" 179 C.\n\nHereupon a large hoop studded with a bristling row of upright swords\n(21) was introduced; and into the centre of this ring of knives and\nout of it again the girl threw somersaults backwards, forwards, several\ntimes, till the spectators were in terror of some accident; but with the\nutmost coolness and without mishap the girl completed her performance.\n\n (21) See Becker, \"Char.\" p. 101. Cf. Plat. \"Symp.\" 190; \"Euthyd.\" 294.\n\nHere Socrates, appealing to Antisthenes: None of the present company,\nI take it, who have watched this spectacle will ever again deny that\ncourage can be taught, (22) when the girl there, woman should she be,\nrushes so boldly into the midst of swords.\n\n (22) Cf. \"Mem.\" III. ix. 1.\n\nHe, thus challenged, answered: No; and what our friend, the Syracusan\nhere, should do is to exhibit his dancing-girl to the state. (23) Let\nhim tell the authorities he is prepared, for a consideration, to give\nthe whole Athenian people courage to face the hostile lances at close\nquarters.\n\n (23) Or, \"to the city,\" i.e. of Athens.\n\nWhereat the jester: An excellent idea, upon my word; and when it\nhappens, may I be there to see that mighty orator (24) Peisander\nlearning to throw somersaults (25) into swords; since incapacity to\nlook a row of lances in the face at present makes him shy of military\nservice. (26)\n\n (24) Or, \"tribune of the people.\" Cf. Plat. \"Gorg.\" 520 B; \"Laws,\" 908\n    D.\n\n (25) Or, \"learning to go head over heels into swords.\"\n\n (26) For Peisander see Cobet, \"Pros. Xen.\" p. 46 foll. A thoroughgoing\n    oligarch (Thuc. viii. 90), he was the occasion of much mirth to\n    the comic writers (so Grote, \"H. G.\" viii. 12). See re his \"want\n    of spirit\" Aristoph. \"Birds,\" 1556:\n\n{entha kai Peisandros elthe deomenos psukhen idein, e zont ekeinon\nproulipe, k.t.l.}\n\n    where the poet has a fling at Socrates also:\n\nSocrates beside the brink, Summons from the murky sink Many a\ndisembodied ghost; And Peisander reached the coast To raise the spirit\nthat he lost; With conviction strange and new, A gawky camel which he\nslew, Like Ulysses.--Whereupon, etc.\n\nH. Frere\n\n    Cf. \"Peace,\" 395; \"Lysistr.\" 490.\n\nAt this stage of the proceedings the boy danced.\n\nThe dance being over, Socrates exclaimed: Pray, did you notice how the\nbeauty of the child, so lovely in repose, became enhanced with every\nmovement of his supple body?\n\nTo which Charmides replied: How like a flatterer you are! one would\nthink you had set yourself to puff the dancing-master. (27)\n\n (27) See \"The Critic,\" I. ii.\n\nTo be sure (he answered solemnly); and there's another point I could\nnot help observing: how while he danced no portion of his body remained\nidle; neck and legs and hands together, one and all were exercised. (28)\nThat is how a man should dance, who wants to keep his body light and\nhealthy. (29) (Then turning to the Syracusan, he added): I cannot say\nhow much obliged I should be to you, O man of Syracuse, for lessons in\ndeportment. Pray teach me my steps. (30)\n\n (28) Cf. \"Pol. Lac.\" v. 9.\n\n (29) Cf. Aristot. \"H. A.\" vi. 21. 4.\n\n (30) \"Gestures,\" \"postures,\" \"figures.\" See Eur. \"Cycl.\" 221;\n    Aristoph. \"Peace,\" 323; Isocr. \"Antid.\" 183.\n\nAnd what use will you make of them? (the other asked).\n\nGod bless me! I shall dance, of course (he answered).\n\nThe remark was greeted with a peal of merriment.\n\nThen Socrates, with a most serious expression of countenance: (31)\nYou are pleased to laugh at me. Pray, do you find it so ridiculous\nmy wishing to improve my health by exercise? or to enjoy my victuals\nbetter? to sleep better? or is it the sort of exercise I set my heart\non? Not like those runners of the long race, (32) to have my legs\ngrow muscular and my shoulders leaner in proportion; nor like a boxer,\nthickening chest and shoulders at expense of legs; but by distribution\nof the toil throughout my limbs (33) I seek to give an even balance to\nmy body. Or are you laughing to think that I shall not in future have\nto seek a partner in the training school, (34) whereby it will not be\nnecessary for an old man like myself to strip in public? (35) All I\nshall need will be a seven-sofa'd chamber, (36) where I can warm to\nwork, (37) just like the lad here who has found this room quite ample\nfor the purpose. And in winter I shall do gymnastics (38) under cover,\nor when the weather is broiling under shade.... But what is it you keep\non laughing at--the wish on my part to reduce to moderate size a paunch\na trifle too rotund? Is that the source of merriment? (39) Perhaps you\nare not aware, my friends, that Charmides--yes! he there--caught me only\nthe other morning in the act of dancing?\n\n (31) \"Bearing a weighty and serious brow.\"\n\n (32) \"Like your runner of the mile race.\" Cf. Plat. \"Prot.\" 335 E.\n\n (33) Or, \"resolute exercise of the whole body.\" See Aristot. \"Pol.\"\n    viii. 4. 9; \"Rhet.\" i. 5. 14.\n\n (34) Or, \"be dependent on a fellow-gymnast.\" \"Pol. Lac.\" ix. 5; Plat.\n    \"Soph.\" 218 B; \"Laws,\" 830 B; \"Symp.\" 217 B, C.\n\n (35) Or, \"to strip in public when my hair turns gray.\" Socrates was\n    (421 B.C.) about 50, but is pictured, I think, as an oldish man.\n\n (36) See Aristot. \"H. A.\" ix. 45. 1; \"Econ.\" viii. 13.\n\n (37) Passage referred to by Diog. Laert. ii. 5. 15; Lucian, \"de Salt.\"\n    25; Plut. \"Praec. San.\" 496.\n\n (38) \"Take my exercise.\"\n\n (39) Zeune cf. Max. Tyr. \"Diss.\" vii. 9; xxxix. 5.\n\nYes, that I will swear to (the other answered), and at first I stood\naghast, I feared me you had parted with your senses; but when I heard\nyour explanation, pretty much what you have just now told us, I went\nhome and--I will not say, began to dance myself (it is an accomplishment\nI have not been taught as yet), but I fell to sparring, (40) an art of\nwhich I have a very pretty knowledge.\n\n (40) \"Sparring,\" etc., an art which Quintil. \"Inst. Or.\" i. 11, 17,\n    attributes to Socrates. Cf. Herod. vi. 129 concerning\n    Hippocleides; and Rich, \"Dict. of Antiq.\" s.v. \"Chironomia.\"\n\nThat's true, upon my life! (exclaimed the jester). One needs but look at\nyou to see there's not a dram of difference between legs and shoulders.\n(41) I'll be bound, if both were weighed in the scales apart, like \"tops\nand bottoms,\" the clerks of the market (42) would let you off scot-free.\n\n (41) Lit. \"your legs are equal in weight with your shoulders.\" Cf.\n    \"Od.\" xviii. 373, {elikes... isophoroi boes}, \"of equal age and\n    force to bear the yoke.\"--Butcher and Lang.\n\n (42) See Boeckh, \"Public Economy of Athens,\" p. 48; Aristoph.\n    \"Acharn.\" 723; Lys. 165, 34.\n\nThen Callias: O Socrates, do please invite me when you begin your\ndancing lessons. I will be your vis-a-vis, (43) and take lessons with\nyou.\n\n (43) Cf. \"Anab.\" V. iv. 12.\n\nCome on (the jester shouted), give us a tune upon the pipe, and let me\nshow you how to dance.\n\nSo saying up he got, and mimicked the dances of the boy and girl in\nburlesque fashion, and inasmuch as the spectators had been pleased to\nthink the natural beauty of the boy enhanced by every gesture of his\nbody in the dance, so the jester must give a counter-representation,\n(44) in which each twist and movement of his body was a comical\nexaggeration of nature.\n\n (44) Reading {antepedeizen}. Cf. Plat. \"Theaet.\" 162 B; \"Ages.\" i. 12;\n    if vulg. {antapedeizen}, transl. \"would prove per contra each\n    bend,\" etc. Cf. Aristot. \"Rhet.\" ii. 26. 3.\n\nAnd since the girl had bent herself backwards and backwards, till she\nwas nearly doubled into the form of a hoop, so he must try to imitate a\nhoop by stooping forwards and ducking down his head.\n\nAnd as finally, the boy had won a round of plaudits for the manner in\nwhich he kept each muscle of the body in full exercise whilst dancing,\nso now the jester, bidding the flute-girl quicken the time (presto!\npresto! prestissimo!), fell to capering madly, tossing legs and arms\nand head together, until he was fairly tired out, and threw himself dead\nbeat upon the sofa, gasping:\n\nThere, that's a proof that my jigs too are splendid exercise; at any\nrate, I am dying of thirst; let the attendant kindly fill me the mighty\ngoblet. (45)\n\n (45) Cf. Plat. \"Symp.\" 223 C.\n\nQuite right (said Callias), and we will pledge you. Our throats are\nparched with laughing at you.\n\nAt this point Socrates: Nay, gentlemen, if drinking is the order of the\nday, I heartily approve. Wine it is in very truth that moistens the soul\nof man, (46) that lulls at once all cares to sleep, even as mandragora\n(47) drugs our human senses, and at the same time kindles light-hearted\nthoughts, (48) as oil a flame. Yet it fares with the banquets of men,\n(49) if I mistake not, precisely as with plants that spring and shoot\non earth. When God gives these vegetable growths too full a draught\nof rain, they cannot lift their heads nor feel the light air breathe\nthrough them; but if they drink in only the glad supply they need, they\nstand erect, they shoot apace, and reach maturity of fruitage. So we,\ntoo, if we drench our throats with over-copious draughts, (50) ere long\nmay find our legs begin to reel and our thoughts begin to falter; (51)\nwe shall scarce be able to draw breath, much less to speak a word in\nseason. But if (to borrow language from the mint of Gorgias (52)), if\nonly the attendants will bedew us with a frequent mizzle (53) of small\nglasses, we shall not be violently driven on by wine to drunkenness, but\nwith sweet seduction reach the goal of sportive levity.\n\n (46) Cf. Plat. \"Laws,\" 649; Aristoph. \"Knights,\" 96:\n\nCome, quick now, bring me a lusty stoup of wine, To moisten my\nunderstanding and inspire me (H. Frere).\n\n (47) Cf. Plat. \"Rep.\" vi. 488 C; Dem. \"Phil.\" iv. 133. 1; Lucian v.,\n    \"Tim.\" 2; lxxiii., \"Dem. Enc.\" 36. See \"Othello,\" iii. 3. 330:\n\nNot poppy, nor mandragora, Nor all the drowsy syrups of the world;\n\n    \"Antony and Cl.\" i. 5, 4.\n\n (48) Cf. 1 Esdras iii. 20: \"It turneth also every thought into jollity\n    and mirth,\" {eis euokhian kai euphrosunen}. The whole passage is\n    quoted by Athen. 504. Stob. \"Fl.\" lvi. 17.\n\n (49) Reading {sumposia}, cf. Theog. 298, 496; or if after Athen.\n    {somata} transl. \"persons.\"\n\n (50) Or, \"if we swallow at a gulp the liquor.\" Cf. Plat. \"Sym.\" 176 D.\n\n (51) See \"Cyrop.\" I. iii. 10, VIII. viii. 10; Aristoph. \"Wasps,\" 1324;\n    \"Pol. Lac.\" v. 7.\n\n (52) For phrases filed by Gorgias, see Aristot. \"Rhet.\" iii. 3;\n    \"faults of taste in the use of metaphors,\" Longin. \"de Subl.\" 3.\n    See also Plat. \"Symp.\" 198 C.\n\n (53) Cf. Aristoph. \"Peace,\" 1141; Theophr. \"Lap.\" 13; Lucian, xvii.,\n    \"De merc. cond.\" 27; Cic. \"Cat. m.\" 14, transl. \"pocula...\n    minuta atque rorantia.\"\n\nThe proposition was unanimously carried, with a rider appended by\nPhilippus: The cup-bearers should imitate good charioteers, and push the\ncups round, quickening the pace each circuit. (54)\n\n (54) Or, \"at something faster than a hand-gallop each round.\" See the\n    drinking song in \"Antony and Cl.\" i. 7. 120.\n\n\n\nIII\n\nDuring this interval, whilst the cup-bearers carried out their duties,\nthe boy played on the lyre tuned to accompany the flute, and sang. (1)\n\n (1) Cf. Plat. \"Laws,\" 812 C; Aristot. \"Poet.\" i. 4.\n\nThe performance won the plaudits of the company, and drew from Charmides\na speech as follows: Sirs, what Socrates was claiming in behalf of wine\napplies in my opinion no less aptly to the present composition. So\nrare a blending of boyish and of girlish beauty, and of voice with\ninstrument, is potent to lull sorrow to sleep, and to kindle Aphrodite's\nflame.\n\nThen Socrates, reverting in a manner to the charge: The young people\nhave fully proved their power to give us pleasure. Yet, charming as they\nare, we still regard ourselves, no doubt, as much their betters. What\na shame to think that we should here be met together, and yet make no\neffort ourselves to heighten the festivity! (2)\n\n (2) See Plat. \"Prot.\" 347 D; \"A company like this of ours, and men\n    such as we profess to be, do not require the help of another's\n    voice,\" etc.--Jowett. Cf. id. \"Symp.\" 176: \"To-day let us have\n    conversation instead; and if you will allow me, I will tell you\n    what sort of conversation.\"\n\nSeveral of the company exclaimed at once: Be our director then yourself.\nExplain what style of talk we should engage in to achieve that object.\n(3)\n\n (3) {exegou}. \"Prescribe the form of words we must lay hold of to\n    achieve the object, and we will set to work, arch-casuist.\"\n\nNothing (he replied) would please me better than to demand of Callias\na prompt performance of his promise. He told us, you recollect, if we\nwould dine with him, he would give us an exhibition of his wisdom.\n\nTo which challenge Callias: That I will readily, but you on your side,\none and all, must propound some virtue of which you claim to have the\nknowledge.\n\nSocrates replied: At any rate, not one of us will have the least\nobjection to declaring what particular thing he claims to know as best\nworth having.\n\nAgreed (proceeded Callias); and for my part I proclaim at once what I\nam proudest of. My firm belief is, I have got the gift to make my\nfellow-mortals better.\n\nMake men better! (cried Antisthenes); and pray how? by teaching them\nsome base mechanic art? or teaching them nobility of soul? (4)\n\n (4) Or, \"beauty and nobility of soul\" ({kalokagathia}). See \"Mem.\" I.\n    vi. 14.\n\nThe latter (he replied), if justice (5) be synonymous with that high\ntype of virtue.\n\n (5) i.e. \"social uprightness.\"\n\nOf course it is (rejoined Antisthenes) the most indisputable specimen.\nSince, look you, courage and wisdom may at times be found calamitous to\nfriends or country, (6) but justice has no single point in common with\ninjustice, right and wrong cannot commingle. (7)\n\n (6) See \"Mem.\" IV. ii. 33.\n\n (7) i.e. \"the one excludes the other.\"\n\nWell then (proceeded Callias), as soon (8) as every one has stated his\npeculiar merit, (9) I will make no bones of letting you into my secret.\nYou shall learn the art by which I consummate my noble end. (10) So\nnow, Niceratus, suppose you tell us on what knowledge you most pride\nyourself.\n\n (8) Reading {emon}. Al. {umon}, \"when you others.\"\n\n (9) Lit. \"what he has for which to claim utility.\"\n\n (10) Or, \"give the work completeness.\" Cf. Plat. \"Charm.\" 173 A;\n    \"Gorg.\" 454 A.\n\nHe answered: My father, (11) in his pains to make me a good man,\ncompelled me to learn the whole of Homer's poems, and it so happens that\neven now I can repeat the \"Iliad\" and the \"Odyssey\" by heart. (12)\n\n (11) Nicias.\n\n (12) Of, \"off-hand.\" See \"Mem.\" III. vi. 9; Plat. \"Theaet.\" 142 D.\n\nYou have not forgotten (interposed Antisthenes), perhaps, that besides\nyourself there is not a rhapsodist who does not know these epics?\n\nForgotten! is it likely (he replied), considering I had to listen to\nthem almost daily?\n\nAnt. And did you ever come across a sillier tribe of people than these\nsame rhapsodists? (13)\n\n (13) Cf. \"Mem.\" IV. ii. 10.\n\nNic. Not I, indeed. Don't ask me to defend their wits.\n\nIt is plain (suggested Socrates), they do not know the underlying\nmeaning. (14) But you, Niceratus, have paid large sums of money to\nAnaximander, and Stesimbrotus, and many others, (15) so that no single\npoint in all that costly lore is lost upon you. (16) But what (he added,\nturning to Critobulus) do you most pride yourself upon?\n\n (14) i.e. \"they haven't the key (of knowledge) to the allegorical or\n    spiritual meaning of the sacred text.\" Cf. Plat. \"Crat.\" 407;\n    \"Ion,\" 534; \"Rep.\" 378, 387; \"Theaet.\" 180; \"Prot.\" 316. See\n    Grote, \"H. G.\" i. 564.\n\n (15) See Aristot. \"Rhet.\" iii. 11, 13. \"Or we may describe Niceratus\n     (not improbably our friend) as a 'Philoctetes stung by Pratys,'\n    using the simile of Thrasymachus when he saw Niceratus after his\n    defeat by Pratys in the rhapsody with his hair still dishevelled\n    and his face unwashed.\"--Welldon. As to Stesimbrotus, see Plat.\n    \"Ion,\" 530: \"Ion. Very true, Socrates; interpretation has\n    certainly been the most laborious part of my art; and I believe\n    myself able to speak about Homer better than any man; and that\n    neither Metrodorus of Lampsacus, nor Stesimbrotus of Thasos, nor\n    Glaucon, nor any one else who ever was, had as good ideas about\n    Homer, or as many of them, as I have.\"--Jowett. Anaximander,\n    probably of Lampsacus, the author of a {'Erologia}; see Cobet,\n    \"Pros. Xen.\" p. 8.\n\n (16) Or, \"you will not have forgotten one point of all that precious\n    teaching.\" Like Sir John Falstaff's page (2 \"Henry IV.\" ii. 2.\n    100), Niceratus, no doubt, has got many \"a crown's worth of good\n    interpretations.\"\n\nOn beauty (answered Critobulus).\n\nWhat (Socrates rejoined), shall you be able to maintain that by your\nbeauty you can make us better?\n\nCrit. That will I, or prove myself a shabby sort of person.\n\nSoc. Well, and what is it you pride yourself upon, Antisthenes?\n\nOn wealth (he answered).\n\nWhereupon Hermogenes inquired: Had he then a large amount of money? (17)\n\n (17) i.e. \"out at interest,\" or, \"in the funds,\" as we should say.\n\nNot one sixpence: (18) that I swear to you (he answered).\n\n (18) Lit. \"not an obol\" = \"a threepenny bit,\" circa.\n\nHerm. Then you possess large property in land?\n\nAnt. Enough, I daresay, for the youngster there, Autolycus, to dust\nhimself withal. (19)\n\n (19) i.e. \"to sprinkle himself with sand, after anointing.\" Cf.\n    Lucian, xxxviii., \"Amor.\" 45.\n\nWell, we will lend you our ears, when your turn comes (exclaimed the\nothers).\n\nSoc. And do you now tell us, Charmides, on what you pride yourself.\n\nOh, I, for my part, pride myself on poverty (he answered).\n\nUpon my word, a charming business! (exclaimed Socrates). Poverty! of\nall things the least liable to envy; seldom, if ever, an object of\ncontention; (20) never guarded, yet always safe; the more you starve it,\nthe stronger it grows.\n\n (20) Cf. Plat. \"Rep.\" 521 A; \"Laws,\" 678 C.\n\nAnd you, Socrates, yourself (their host demanded), what is it you pride\nyourself upon?\n\nThen he, with knitted brows, quite solemnly: On pandering. (21) And\nwhen they laughed to hear him say this, (22) he continued: Laugh to your\nhearts content, my friends; but I am certain I could make a fortune, if\nI chose to practise this same art.\n\n (21) Or, more politely, \"on playing the go-between.\" See Grote, \"H.\n    G.\" viii. 457, on the \"extremely Aristophanic\" character of the\n    \"Symposium\" of Xenophon.\n\n (22) \"Him, the master, thus declare himself.\"\n\nAt this point Lycon, turning to Philippus: We need not ask you what you\ntake the chiefest pride in. What can it be, you laughter-making man,\nexcept to set folk laughing?\n\nYes (he answered), and with better right, I fancy, than Callippides,\n(23) the actor, who struts and gives himself such pompous airs, to think\nthat he alone can set the crowds a-weeping in the theatre. (24)\n\n (23) For illustrative tales about him see Plut. \"Ages.\" xxi.; \"Alcib.\"\n    xxxii.; Polyaen. vi. 10. Cf. \"Hell.\" IV. viii. 16.\n\n (24) Or, \"set for their sins a-weeping.\"\n\nAnd now you, Lycon, tell us, won't you (asked Antisthenes), what it is\nyou take the greatest pride in?\n\nYou all of you, I fancy, know already what that is (the father\nanswered); it is in my son here.\n\nAnd the lad himself (some one suggested) doubtless prides himself,\nbeyond all else, on having won the prize of victory.\n\nAt that Autolycus (and as he spoke he blushed) answered for himself:\n(25) No indeed, not I.\n\n (25) Cf. Plat. \"Charm.\" 158 C.\n\nThe company were charmed to hear him speak, and turned and looked; and\nsome one asked: On what is it then, Autolycus?\n\nTo which he answered: On my father (and leaned closer towards him).\n\nAt which sight Callias, turning to the father: Do you know you are the\nrichest man in the whole world, Lycon?\n\nTo which Lycon: Really, I was not aware of that before.\n\nThen Callias: Why then, it has escaped you that you would refuse the\nwhole of Persia's wealth, (26) in exchange for your own son.\n\n (26) Lit. \"of the Great King.\" Cf. \"Cyrop.\" VIII. iii. 26.\n\nMost true (he answered), I plead guilty; here and now I am convicted\n(27) of being the wealthiest man in all the world!\n\n (27) \"Caught flagrante delicto. I do admit I do out-Croesus Croesus.\"\n\nAnd you, Hermogenes, on what do you plume yourself most highly? (asked\nNiceratus).\n\nOn the virtue and the power of my friends (he answered), and that being\nwhat they are, they care for me.\n\nAt this remark they turned their eyes upon the speaker, and several\nspoke together, asking: Will you make them known to us?\n\nI shall be very happy (he replied).\n\n\n\nIV\n\nAt this point, Socrates took up the conversation: It now devolves on us\nto prove in turn that what we each have undertaken to defend is really\nvaluable.\n\nThen Callias: Be pleased to listen to me first: My case is this, that\nwhile the rest of you go on debating what justice and uprightness are,\n(1) I spend my time in making men more just and upright.\n\n (1) {to to dikaion}; cf. \"Mem.\" IV. iv.\n\nSoc. And how do you do that, good sir?\n\nCall. By giving money, to be sure.\n\nAntisthenes sprang to his feet at once, and with the manner of a\ncross-examiner demanded: Do human beings seem to you to harbour justice\nin their souls, or in their purses, (2) Callias?\n\n (2) Or, \"pockets.\"\n\nCall. In their souls.\n\nAnt. And do you pretend to make their souls more righteous by putting\nmoney in their pockets?\n\nCall. Undoubtedly.\n\nAnt. Pray how?\n\nCall. In this way. When they know that they are furnished with the\nmeans, that is to say, my money, to buy necessaries, they would rather\nnot incur the risk of evil-doing, and why should they?\n\nAnt. And pray, do they repay you these same moneys?\n\nCall. I cannot say they do.\n\nAnt. Well then, do they requite your gifts of gold with gratitude?\n\nCall. No, not so much as a bare \"Thank you.\" In fact, some of them are\neven worse disposed towards me when they have got my money than before.\n\nNow, here's a marvel! (exclaimed Antisthenes, and as he spoke he eyed\nthe witness with an air of triumph). You can render people just to all\nthe world, but towards yourself you cannot?\n\nPray, where's the wonder? (asked the other). Do you not see what scores\nof carpenters and house-builders there are who spend their time in\nbuilding houses for half the world; but for themselves they simply\ncannot do it, and are forced to live in lodgings. And so admit that\nhome-thrust, Master Sophist; (3) and confess yourself confuted.\n\n (3) \"Professor of wisdom.\"\n\nUpon my soul, he had best accept his fate (4) (said Socrates). Why,\nafter all, you are only like those prophets who proverbially foretell\nthe future for mankind, but cannot foresee what is coming upon\nthemselves.\n\n (4) Or, \"the coup de grace.\"\n\nAnd so the first discussion ended. (5)\n\n (5) Or, \"so ended fytte the first of the word-controversy.\"\n\nThereupon Niceratus: Lend me your ears, and I will tell you in what\nrespects you shall be better for consorting with myself. I presume,\nwithout my telling you, you know that Homer, being the wisest of\nmankind, has touched upon nearly every human topic in his poems. (6)\nWhosoever among you, therefore, would fain be skilled in economy, or\noratory, or strategy; whose ambition it is to be like Achilles, or Ajax,\nNestor, or Odysseus--one and all pay court to me, for I have all this\nknowledge at my fingers' ends.\n\n (6) Or, \"his creations are all but coextensive with every mortal\n    thing.\"\n\nPray (interposed Antisthenes), (7) do you also know the way to be a\nking? (8) since Homer praises Agamemnon, you are well aware, as being\n\n    A goodly king and eke a spearman bold. (9)\n\n (7) Some modern critics (e.g. F. Dummler, \"Antisthenica,\" p. 29 foll.)\n    maintain plausibly that the author is here glancing (as also Plato\n    in the \"Ion\") at Antisthenes' own treatises against the\n    Rhapsodists and on a more correct interpretation of Homer, {peri\n    exegeton} and {peri 'Omerou}.\n\n (8) Or, \"Have you the knowledge also how to play the king?\"\n\n (9) \"Il.\" iii. 179. See \"Mem.\" III. ii. 2.\n\nNic. Full well I know it, and full well I know the duty of a skilful\ncharioteer; how he who holds the ribbons must turn his chariot nigh the\npillar's edge (10)\n\nHimself inclined upon the polished chariot-board A little to the left\nof the twin pair: the right hand horse Touch with the prick, and shout a\ncheery shout, and give him rein. (11)\n\nI know another thing besides, and you may put it to the test this\ninstant, if you like. Homer somewhere has said: (12)\n\n    And at his side an onion, which to drink gives relish.\n\nSo if some one will but bring an onion, you shall reap the benefit of\nmy sage lore (13) in less than no time, and your wine will taste the\nsweeter.\n\n (10) \"Il.\" xxiii. 335; Plat. \"Ion,\" 537.\n\n (11) Lit. \"yield him the reins with his hands.\"\n\n (12) \"Il.\" xi.630: \"And set out a leek savourer of drink\" (Purves).\n    Plat. \"Ion,\" 538 C.\n\n (13) \"My culinary skill.\"\n\nHere Charmides exclaimed: Good sirs, let me explain. Niceratus is\nanxious to go home, redolent of onions, so that his fair lady may\npersuade herself, it never entered into anybody's head to kiss her lord.\n(14)\n\n (14) See Shakesp. \"Much Ado,\" v. 2. 51 foll.; \"Mids. N. D.\" iv. 2.\n\nBless me, that isn't all (continued Socrates); if we do not take care,\nwe shall win ourselves a comic reputation. (15) A relish must it be, in\nvery truth, that can sweeten cup as well as platter, this same onion;\nand if we are to take to munching onions for desert, see if somebody\ndoes not say of us, \"They went to dine with Callias, and got more than\ntheir deserts, the epicures.\" (16)\n\n (15) Lit. \"I warrant you! (quoth Socrates) and there's another funny\n    notion we have every chance of getting fathered on us.\"\n\n (16) Or, \"and had a most hilarious and herbaceous time.\"\n\nNo fear of that (rejoined Niceratus). Always take a bite of onion before\nspeeding forth to battle, just as your patrons of the cock-pit give\ntheir birds a feed of garlic (17) before they put them for the fight.\nBut for ourselves our thoughts are less intent perhaps on dealing blows\nthan blowing kisses. (18)\n\n (17) Cf. Aristoph. \"Knights,\" 494:\n\nChorus. And here's the garlic. Swallow it down! Sausage Seller.... What\nfor? Chorus. It will prime you up and make you fight the better.\n\nH. Frere.\n\n (18) \"We are concerned less with the lists of battle than of love\";\n    \"we meditate no furious close of battle but of lips.\" Lit. \"how we\n    shall kiss some one rather than do battle with.\"\n\nAfter such sort the theme of their discourse reached its conclusion.\n\nThen Critobulus spoke: It is now my turn, I think, to state to you the\ngrounds on which I pride myself on beauty. (19)\n\n (19) See \"Hellenica Essays,\" p. 353.\n\nA chorus of voices rejoined: Say on.\n\nCrit. To begin with, if I am not beautiful, as methinks I be, you will\nbring on your own heads the penalty of perjury; for, without waiting to\nhave the oath administered, you are always taking the gods to witness\nthat you find me beautiful. And I must needs believe you, for are you\nnot all honourable men? (20) If I then be so beautiful and affect you,\neven as I also am affected by him whose fair face here attracts me, (21)\nI swear by all the company of heaven I would not choose the great king's\nempire in exchange for what I am--the beauty of the world, the paragon\nof animals. (22) And at this instant I feast my eyes on Cleinias (23)\ngladlier than on all other sights which men deem fair. Joyfully will I\nwelcome blindness to all else, if but these eyes may still behold him\nand him only. With sleep and night I am sore vexed, which rob me of\nhis sight; but to daylight and the sun I owe eternal thanks, for they\nrestore him to me, my heart's joy, Cleinias. (24)\n\n (20) Or, \"beautiful and good.\"\n\n (21) Or, \"whose fair face draws me.\" Was Cleinias there as a \"muta\n    persona\"? Hardly, in spite of {nun}. It is the image of him which\n    is present to the mind's eye.\n\n (22) Lit. \"being beautiful\"; but there is a touch of bombast infused\n    into the speech by the artist. Cf. the speech of Callias (\"Hell.\"\n    VI. iii. 3) and, for the humour, \"Cyrop.\" passim.\n\n (23) See Cobet, \"Pros. Xen.\" p. 59. Cf. \"Mem.\" I. iii. 8.\n\n (24) Or, \"for that they reveal his splendour to me.\"\n\nYes, and herein also have we, the beautiful, (25) just claim to boast.\nThe strong man may by dint of toil obtain good things; the brave, by\ndanger boldly faced, and the wise by eloquence of speech; but to the\nbeautiful alone it is given to achieve all ends in absolute quiescence.\nTo take myself as an example. I know that riches are a sweet possession,\nyet sweeter far to me to give all that I have to Cleinias than to\nreceive a fortune from another. Gladly would I become a slave--ay,\nforfeit freedom--if Cleinias would deign to be my lord. Toil in his\nservice were easier for me than rest from labour: danger incurred in his\nbehalf far sweeter than security of days. So that if you, Callias, may\nboast of making men more just and upright, to me belongs by juster\nright than yours to train mankind to every excellence. We are the\ntrue inspirers (26) who infuse some subtle fire into amorous souls, we\nbeauties, and thereby raise them to new heights of being; we render them\nmore liberal in the pursuit of wealth; we give them a zest for toil that\nmocks at danger, and enables them where honour the fair vision leads, to\nfollow. (27) We fill their souls with deeper modesty, a self-constraint\nmore staunch; about the things they care for most, there floats a\nhalo of protecting awe. (28) Fools and unwise are they who choose not\nbeauteous men to be their generals. How merrily would I, at any rate,\nmarch through fire by the side of Cleinias; (29) and so would all of\nyou, I know full well, in company of him who now addresses you.\n\n (25) \"We beauties.\"\n\n (26) The {eispnelas} in relation to the {aitas}, the Inspirer to the\n    Hearer. Cf. Theocr. xii. 13; Ael. \"V. H.\" iii. 12. See Muller,\n    \"Dorians,\" ii. 300 foll.\n\n (27) {philokaloterous}. Cf. Plat. \"Phaedr.\" 248 D; \"Criti.\" 111 E;\n    Aristot. \"Eth. N.\" iv. 4. 4; x. 9. 3.\n\n (28) Lit. \"they feel most awe of what they most desire.\"\n\n (29) Cf. \"Mem.\" I. iii. 9.\n\nCease, therefore, your perplexity, O Socrates, abandon fears and doubts,\nbelieve and know that this thing of which I make great boast, my beauty,\nhas power to confer some benefit on humankind.\n\nOnce more, let no man dare dishonour beauty, merely because the flower\nof it soon fades, since even as a child has growth in beauty, so is it\nwith the stripling, the grown man, the reverend senior. (30) And\nthis the proof of my contention. Whom do we choose to bear the sacred\nolive-shoot (31) in honour of Athena?--whom else save beautiful old men?\nwitnessing thereby (32) that beauty walks hand in hand as a companion\nwith every age of life, from infancy to eld.\n\n (30) Cf. ib. III. iii. 12.\n\n (31) Cf. Aristoph. \"Wasps,\" 544.\n\n (32) Or, \"beauty steps in attendance lovingly hand in hand at every\n    season of the life of man.\" So Walt Whitman, passim.\n\nOr again, if it be sweet to win from willing hearts the things we seek\nfor, I am persuaded that, by the eloquence of silence, I could win a\nkiss from yonder girl or boy more speedily than ever you could, O sage!\nby help of half a hundred subtle arguments.\n\nEh, bless my ears, what's that? (Socrates broke in upon this final\nflourish of the speaker). So beautiful you claim to rival me, you\nboaster?\n\nCrit. Why, yes indeed, I hope so, or else I should be uglier than all\nthe Silenuses in the Satyric drama. (33)\n\n (33) The MSS. add  (\"to whom, be it noted, Socrates indeed bore a\n    marked resemblance\"). Obviously a gloss. Cf. Aristoph. \"Clouds,\"\n    224; Plat. \"Symp.\" 215 B.\n\nGood! (Socrates rejoined); the moment the programme of discussion is\nconcluded, (34) please remember, we must obtain a verdict on the point\nof beauty. Judgment shall be given--not at the bar of Alexander, son\nof Priam--but of these (35) who, as you flatter yourself, have such a\nhankering to kiss you.\n\n (34) Lit. \"the arguments proposed have gone the round.\"\n\n (35) i.e. \"the boy and girl.\" Al. \"the present company, who are so\n    eager to bestow on you their kisses.\"\n\nOh, Socrates (he answered, deprecatingly), will you not leave it to the\narbitrament of Cleinias?\n\nThen Socrates: Will you never tire of repeating that one name? It is\nCleinias here, there, and everywhere with you.\n\nCrit. And if his name died on my lips, think you my mind would less\nrecall his memory? Know you not, I bear so clear an image of him in my\nsoul, that had I the sculptor's or the limner's skill, I might\nportray his features as exactly from this image of the mind as from\ncontemplation of his actual self.\n\nBut Socrates broke in: Pray, why then, if you bear about this lively\nimage, why do you give me so much trouble, dragging me to this and that\nplace, where you hope to see him?\n\nCrit. For this good reason, Socrates, the sight of him inspires\ngladness, whilst his phantom brings not joy so much as it engenders\nlonging.\n\nAt this point Hermogenes protested: I find it most unlike you, Socrates,\nto treat thus negligently one so passion-crazed as Critobulus.\n\nSocrates replied: Do you suppose the sad condition of the patient dates\nfrom the moment only of our intimacy?\n\nHerm. Since when, then?\n\nSoc. Since when? Why, look at him: the down begins to mantle on his\ncheeks, (36) and on the nape (37) of Cleinias' neck already mounts.\nThe fact is, when they fared to the same school together, he caught the\nfever. This his father was aware of, and consigned him to me, hoping\nI might be able to do something for him. Ay, and his plight is not so\nsorry now. Once he would stand agape at him like one whose gaze is\nfixed upon the Gorgons, (38) his eyes one stony stare, and like a stone\nhimself turn heavily away. But nowadays I have seen the statue actually\nblink. (39) And yet, may Heaven help me! my good sirs, I think, between\nourselves, the culprit must have bestowed a kiss on Cleinias, than which\nlove's flame asks no fiercer fuel. (40) So insatiable a thing it is\nand so suggestive of mad fantasy. (And for this reason held perhaps in\nhigher honour, because of all external acts the close of lip with lip\nbears the same name as that of soul with soul in love.) (41) Wherefore,\nsay I, let every one who wishes to be master of himself and sound of\nsoul abstain from kisses imprinted on fair lips. (42)\n\n (36) Lit. \"creeping down beside his ears.\" Cf. \"Od.\" xi. 319:\n\n{prin sphoin upo krotaphoisin ioulous anthesai pukasai te genus euanthei\nlakhne.}\n\n    \"(Zeus destroyed the twain) ere the curls had bloomed beneath\n    their temples, and darked their chins with the blossom of youth.\"\n    --Butcher and Lang. Cf. Theocr. xv. 85: {praton ioulon apo\n    krotaphon kataballon}, \"with the first down upon his cheeks\"\n    (Lang); Aesch. \"Theb.\" 534.\n\n (37) {pros to opisthen}, perhaps = \"ad posteriorem capitis partem,\"\n    which would be more applicable to Critobulus, whose whiskers were\n    just beginning to grow, than to Callias. Possibly we should read\n    (after Pollux, ii. 10) {peri ten upenen}, \"on the upper lip.\" See\n    Plat. \"Protag.\" 309 B; \"Il.\" xxiv. 348; \"Od.\" x. 279.\n\n (38) Cf. Pind. \"Pyth.\" x. 75.\n\n (39) See \"Cyrop.\" I. iv. 28; Shakesp. \"Ven. and Ad.\" 89: \"But when her\n    lips were ready for his pay, he winks, and turns his lips another\n    way.\"\n\n (40) Or, \"a kiss which is to passion as dry combustious matter is to\n    fire,\" Shakesp. ib. 1162.\n\n (41) Or, \"is namesake of the love within the soul of lovers.\" The\n    whole passage, involving a play on the words {philein\n    phileisthai}, \"where kisses rain without, love reigns within,\" is\n    probably to be regarded as a gloss. Cf. \"Mem.\" I. iii. 13.\n\n (42) Cf. \"Mem.\" I. iii. 8-14.\n\nThen Charmides: Oh! Socrates, why will you scare your friends with these\nhobgoblin terrors, (43) bidding us all beware of handsome faces,\nwhilst you yourself--yes, by Apollo, I will swear I saw you at the\nschoolmaster's (44) that time when both of you were poring over one\nbook, in which you searched for something, you and Critobulus, head to\nhead, shoulder to shoulder bare, as if incorporate? (45)\n\n (43) Cf. Plat. \"Crit.\" 46 D; \"Hell.\" IV. iv. 17; Arist. \"Birds,\" 1245.\n\n (44) \"Grammarian's.\" Plat. \"Protag.\" 312 B; 326 D; Dem. 315. 8.\n\n (45) Like Hermia and Helena, \"Mids. N. D.\" iii. 2. 208.\n\nAs yes, alack the day! (he answered); and that is why, no doubt, my\nshoulder ached for more than five days afterwards, as if I had been\nbitten by some fell beast, and methought I felt a sort of scraping at\nthe heart. (46) Now therefore, in the presence of these witnesses, I\nwarn you, Critobulus, never again to touch me till you wear as thick a\ncrop of hair (47) upon your chin as on your head.\n\n (46) Reading {knisma}, \"scratching.\" Plat. \"Hipp. maj.\" 304 A. Al.\n    {knesma}.\n\n (47) See Jebb, \"Theophr. Ch.\" xxiv. 16.\n\nSo pell-mell they went at it, half jest half earnest, and so the medley\nended. Callias here called on Charmides.\n\nCall. Now, Charmides, it lies with you to tell us why you pride yourself\non poverty. (48)\n\n (48) Zeune, cf. \"Cyrop.\" VIII. iii. 35-50.\n\nCharmides responded: On all hands it is admitted, I believe, that\nconfidence is better than alarm; better to be a freeman than a slave;\nbetter to be worshipped than pay court to others; better to be trusted\nthan to be suspected by one's country.\n\nWell now, I will tell you how it fared with me in this same city when\nI was wealthy. First, I lived in daily terror lest some burglar should\nbreak into my house and steal my goods and do myself some injury. I\ncringed before informers. (49) I was obliged to pay these people court,\nbecause I knew that I could injure them far less than they could injure\nme. Never-ending the claims upon my pocket which the state enforced\nupon me; and as to setting foot abroad, that was beyond the range of\npossibility. But now that I have lost my property across the frontier,\n(50) and derive no income from my lands in Attica itself; now that my\nvery household goods have been sold up, I stretch my legs at ease, I get\na good night's rest. The distrust of my fellow-citizens has vanished;\ninstead of trembling at threats, it is now my turn to threaten; at last\nI feel myself a freeman, with liberty to go abroad or stay at home as\nsuits my fancy. The tables now are turned. It is the rich who rise to\ngive me their seats, who stand aside and make way for me as I meet them\nin the streets. To-day I am like a despot, yesterday I was literally a\nslave; formerly it was I who had to pay my tribute (51) to the sovereign\npeople, now it is I who am supported by the state by means of general\ntaxation. (52)\n\n (49) \"And police agents.\"\n\n (50) Cf. \"Mem.\" II. viii. 1.\n\n (51) {phoros}, tributum. Al. \"property-tax.\" Cf. \"Econ.\" ii. 6.\n\n (52) {telos}, vectigal. Sturz, \"Lex. Xen.\" s.v. Cf. \"Pol. Ath.\" i. 3.\n\nAnd there is another thing. So long as I was rich, they threw in my\nteeth as a reproach that I was friends with Socrates, but now that I am\nbecome a beggar no one troubles his head two straws about the matter.\nOnce more, the while I rolled in plenty I had everything to lose, and,\nas a rule, I lost it; what the state did not exact, some mischance stole\nfrom me. But now that is over. I lose nothing, having nought to lose;\nbut, on the contrary, I have everything to gain, and live in hope of\nsome day getting something. (53)\n\n (53) \"I feed on the pleasures of hope, and fortune in the future.\"\n\nCall. And so, of course, your one prayer is that you may never more be\nrich, and if you are visited by a dream of luck your one thought is to\noffer sacrifice to Heaven to avert misfortune. (54)\n\n (54) Or, \"you wake up in a fright, and offer sacrifice to the\n    'Averters.'\" For {tois apotropaiois} see Aristoph. \"Plutus,\" 359;\n    Plat. \"Laws,\" 854 B; \"Hell.\" III. iii. 4.\n\nChar. No, that I do not. On the contrary, I run my head into each danger\nmost adventurously. I endure, if haply I may see a chance of getting\nsomething from some quarter of the sky some day.\n\nCome now (Socrates exclaimed), it lies with you, sir, you, Antisthenes,\nto explain to us, how it is that you, with means so scanty, make so loud\na boast of wealth.\n\nBecause (he answered) I hold to the belief, sirs, that wealth and\npoverty do not lie in a man's estate, but in men's souls. Even in\nprivate life how many scores of people have I seen, who, although they\nroll in wealth, yet deem themselves so poor, there is nothing they will\nshrink from, neither toil nor danger, in order to add a little to their\nstore. (55) I have known two brothers, (56) heirs to equal fortunes,\none of whom has enough, more than enough, to cover his expenditure; the\nother is in absolute indigence. And so to monarchs, there are not a\nfew, I perceive, so ravenous of wealth that they will outdo the veriest\nvagrants in atrocity. Want (57) prompts a thousand crimes, you must\nadmit. Why do men steal? why break burglariously into houses? why hale\nmen and women captive and make slaves of them? Is it not from want?\nNay, there are monarchs who at one fell swoop destroy whole houses, make\nwholesale massacre, and oftentimes reduce entire states to slavery, and\nall for the sake of wealth. These I must needs pity for the cruel malady\nwhich plagues them. Their condition, to my mind, resembles that poor\ncreature's who, in spite of all he has (58) and all he eats, can never\nstay the wolf that gnaws his vitals.\n\n (55) Cf. \"Cyrop.\" VIII. ii. 21; Hor. \"Epist.\" i. 2. 26, \"semper avarus\n    eget.\"\n\n (56) Is Antisthenes thinking of Callias and Hermogenes? (presuming\n    these are sons of Hipponicus and brothers). Cf. \"Mem.\" II. x. 3.\n\n (57) Or, \"'Tis want that does it.\" See \"Pol. Ath.\" i. 5; \"Rev,\" i. 1.\n\n (58) Reading {ekhon}, or if {pinon}, transl. \"who eats and drinks, but\n    never sates himself.\"\n\nBut as to me, my riches are so plentiful I cannot lay my hands on them\nmyself; (59) yet for all that I have enough to eat till my hunger is\nstayed, to drink till my thirst is sated; (60) to clothe myself withal;\nand out of doors not Callias there, with all his riches, is more safe\nthan I from shivering; and when I find myself indoors, what warmer\nshirting (61) do I need than my bare walls? what ampler greatcoat than\nthe tiles above my head? these seem to suit me well enough; and as to\nbedclothes, I am not so ill supplied but it is a business to arouse me\nin the morning.\n\n (59) \"That I can scarce discover any portion of it.\" Zeune cf. \"Econ.\"\n    viii. 2.\n\n (60) So \"the master\" himself. See \"Mem.\" I. ii. 1, vi. 5.\n\n (61) Cf. Aristot. \"Pol.\" ii. 8. 1, of Hippodamus.\n\nAnd as to sexual desire, my body's need is satisfied by what comes first\nto hand. Indeed, there is no lack of warmth in the caress which greets\nme, just because it is unsought by others. (62)\n\n (62) Cf. \"Mem.\" I. iii. 14, the germ of cynicism and stoicism, the\n    Socratic {XS} form of \"better to marry than to burn.\"\n\nWell then, these several pleasures I enjoy so fully that I am much more\napt to pray for less than more of them, so strongly do I feel that some\nof them are sweeter than what is good for one or profitable.\n\nBut of all the precious things in my possession, I reckon this the\nchoicest, that were I robbed of my whole present stock, there is no work\nso mean, but it would amply serve me to furnish me with sustenance. Why,\nlook you, whenever I desire to fare delicately, I have not to purchase\nprecious viands in the market, which becomes expensive, but I open\nthe storehouse of my soul, and dole them out. (63) Indeed, as far as\npleasure goes, I find it better to await desire before I suffer meat\nor drink to pass my lips, than to have recourse to any of your costly\nviands, as, for instance, now, when I have chanced on this fine Thasian\nwine, (64) and sip it without thirst. But indeed, the man who makes\nfrugality, not wealth of worldly goods, his aim, is on the face of it a\nmuch more upright person. And why?--the man who is content with what he\nhas will least of all be prone to clutch at what is his neighbour's.\n\n (63) Or, \"turn to the storehouse of a healthy appetite.\" See \"Apol.\"\n    18, the same sentiment \"ex ore Socratis.\"\n\n (64) See Athen. \"Deipnos.\" i. 28.\n\nAnd here's a point worth noting. Wealth of my sort will make you liberal\nof soul. Look at Socrates; from him it was I got these riches. He did\nnot supply me with it by weight or by measure, but just as much as I\ncould carry, he with bounteous hand consigned to me. And I, too, grudge\nit to no man now. To all my friends without distinction I am ready to\ndisplay my opulence: come one, come all; and whosoever likes to take\na share is welcome to the wealth that lies within my soul. Yes, and\nmoreover, that most luxurious of possessions, (65) unbroken leisure, you\ncan see, is mine, which leaves me free to contemplate things worthy of\ncontemplation, (66) and to drink in with my ears all charming sounds.\nAnd what I value most, freedom to spend whole days in pure scholastic\nintercourse (67) with Socrates, to whom I am devoted. (68) And he,\non his side, is not the person to admire those whose tale of gold and\nsilver happens to be the largest, but those who are well-pleasing to him\nhe chooses for companions, and will consort with to the end.\n\n (65) See Eur. \"Ion,\" 601. Lit. \"at every moment I command it.\"\n\n (66) \"To gaze upon all fairest shows (like a spectator in the\n    theatre), and to drink in sounds most delectable.\" So Walt\n    Whitman.\n\n (67) Aristot. \"Rhet.\" ii. 4. 12; \"Eth. N.\" ix. 4. 9.\n\n (68) See \"Mem.\" III. xi. 17.\n\nWith these words the speaker ended, and Callias exclaimed:\n\nBy Hera, I envy you your wealth, Antisthenes, firstly, because the state\ndoes not lay burthens on you and treat you like a slave; and secondly,\npeople do not fall into a rage with you when you refuse to be their\ncreditor.\n\nYou may stay your envy (interposed Niceratus), I shall presently present\nmyself to borrow of him this same key of his to independence. (69)\nTrained as I am to cast up figures by my master Homer--\n\n    Seven tripods, which ne'er felt the fire, and of gold ten talents\n    And burnished braziers twenty, and horses twelve-- (70)\n\nby weight and measure duly reckoned, (71) I cannot stay my craving\nfor enormous wealth. And that's the reason certain people, I daresay,\nimagine I am inordinately fond of riches.\n\n (69) Or, \"his want-for-nothing,\" or, \"supply-all.\"\n\n (70) Niceratus quotes \"Il.\" ix. 122, 123, 263, 264.\n\n (71) Or, \"by number and by measure,\" \"so much apiece, so much a\n    pound,\" in reference to Antisthenes' remark that Socrates does not\n    stint his \"good things.\"\n\nThe remark drew forth a peal of laughter from the company, who thought\nthe speaker hit the truth exactly.\n\nThen some one: It lies with you, Hermogenes, to tell us who your friends\nare; and next, to demonstrate the greatness of their power and their\ncare for you, if you would prove to us your right to pride yoruself on\nthem.\n\nHerm. That the gods know all things, that the present and the future\nlie before their eyes, are tenets held by Hellenes and barbarians\nalike. This is obvious; or else, why do states and nations, one and all,\ninquire of the gods by divination what they ought to do and what they\nought not? This also is apparent, that we believe them able to do us\ngood and to do us harm; or why do all men pray to Heaven to avert the\nevil and bestow the good? Well then, my boast is that these gods, who\nknow and can do all things, (72) deign to be my friends; so that, by\nreason of their care for me, I can never escape from their sight, (73)\nneither by night nor by day, whithersoever I essay to go, whatsoever I\ntake in hand to do. (74) But because they know beforehand the end and\nissue of each event, they give me signals, sending messengers, be it\nsome voice, (75) or vision of the night, with omens of the solitary\nbird, which tell me what I should and what I should not do. When I\nlisten to their warnings all goes well with me, I have no reason to\nrepent; but if, as ere now has been the case, I have been disobedient,\nchastisement has overtaken me.\n\n (72) Cf. \"Mem.\" I. i. 19; I. iv. 18.\n\n (73) Schneid. cf. Hom. \"Il.\" x. 279, {oude se letho kinomenos}, \"nor\n    doth any motion of mine escape thee\" (A. Lang); and see Arrian,\n    \"Epictet.\" i. 12. 3.\n\n (74) Cf. Ps. cxxxix. \"Domine probasti.\"\n\n (75) See \"Mem.\" I. i. 3; \"Apol.\" xii. 13; \"Cyrop.\" VIII. vii. 3.\n\nThen Socrates: All this I well believe, (76) but there is one thing\nI would gladly learn of you: What service do you pay the gods, so to\nsecure their friendship?\n\n (76) Lit. \"Nay, nought of the things you tell us is incredible,\n    but...\"\n\nTruly it is not a ruinous service, Socrates (he answered)--far from it.\nI give them thanks, which is not costly. I make return to them of all\nthey give to me from time to time. I speak well of them, with all the\nstrength I have. And whenever I take their sacred names to witness, I do\nnot wittingly falsify my word.\n\nThen God be praised (said Socrates), if being what you are, you have\nsuch friends; the gods themselves, it would appear, delight in nobleness\nof soul. (77)\n\n (77) {kalokagathia}, \"beautiful and gentle manhood.\"\n\nThus, in solemn sort, the theme was handled, thus gravely ended.\n\nBut now it was the jester's turn, and so they fell to asking him: (78)\nWhat could he see to pride himself upon so vastly in the art of making\npeople laugh?\n\n (78) Lit. \"now that they had come to Philippus (in the 'period' of\n    discussion), they...\" Or read, after Hartman, \"An. Xen.\" p.\n    242, {eken} (sc. {o logos}).\n\nSurely I have good reason (he replied). The whole world knows my\nbusiness is to set them laughing, so when they are in luck's way,\nthey eagerly invite me to a share of it; but if ill betide them,\nhelter-skelter off they go, and never once turn back, (79) so fearful\nare they I may set them laughing will he nill he.\n\n (79) Plat. \"Rep.\" 620 E; \"Laws,\" 854 C.\n\nNic. Heavens! you have good reason to be proud; with me it is just the\nopposite. When any of my friends are doing well, they take good care\nto turn their backs on me, (80) but if ever it goes ill with them,\nthey claim relationship by birth, (81) and will not let their long-lost\ncousin out of sight.\n\n (80) Or, \"they take good care to get out of my way,\" \"they hold aloof\n    from me entirely.\"\n\n (81) Or, \"produce the family-pedigree and claim me for a cousin.\" Cf.\n    Lucian v., \"Tim.\" 49; Ter. \"Phorm.\" ii. 33, 45.\n\nCharm. Well, well! and you, sir (turning to the Syracusan), what do you\npride yourself upon? No doubt, upon the boy?\n\nThe Syr. Not I, indeed; I am terribly afraid concerning him. It is plain\nenough to me that certain people are contriving for his ruin. (82)\n\n (82) {diaphtheirai} = (1) to destroy, make away with; (2) to ruin and\n    corrupt, seduce by bribes or otherwise.\n\nGood gracious! (83) (Socrates exclaimed, when he heard that), what crime\ncan they conceive your boy is guilty of that they should wish to make an\nend of him?\n\n (83) Lit. \"Heracles!\" \"Zounds!\"\n\nThe Syr. I do not say they want to murder him, but wheedle him away with\nbribes to pass his nights with them.\n\nSoc. And if that happened, you on your side, it appears, believe the boy\nwill be corrupted?\n\nThe Syr. Beyond all shadow of a doubt, most villainously.\n\nSoc. And you, of course, you never dream of such a thing. You don't\nspend nights with him?\n\nThe Syr. Of course I do, all night and every night.\n\nSoc. By Hera, what a mighty piece of luck (84) for you--to be so happily\ncompounded, of such flesh and blood. You alone can't injure those who\nsleep beside you. You have every right, it seems, to boast of your own\nflesh, if nothing else.\n\n (84) Cf. Plat. \"Symp.\" 217 A.\n\nThe Syr. Nay, in sooth, it is not on that I pride myself.\n\nSoc. Well, on what then?\n\nThe Syr. Why, on the silly fools who come and see my puppet show. (85) I\nlive on them.\n\n (85) \"My marionettes.\" Cf. Herod. ii. 48; Lucian lxxii., \"De Syr. d.\"\n    16; Aristot. \"de Mund.\" 6.\n\nPhil. Ah yes! and that explains how the other day I heard you praying to\nthe gods to grant you, wheresoe'er you chance to be, great store of corn\nand wine, but dearth of wits. (86)\n\n (86) Or, \"of fruits abundance, but of wits a famine.\" Cf. Plat. \"Rep.\"\n    546 A. His prayer resembles that of the thievish trader in Ovid,\n    \"Fast.\" v. 675 foll., \"Grant me to-day my daily... fraud!\" but\n    in spite of himself (like Dogberry), he seems to pray to the gods\n    to \"write him down an ass\"!\n\nPass on (said Callias); now it is your turn, Socrates. What have you to\nsay to justify your choice? How can you boast of so discredited an art?\n(87)\n\n (87) Sc. \"the hold-door trade.\"\n\nHe answered: Let us first decide (88) what are the duties of the good\ngo-between; (89) and please to answer every question without hesitating;\nlet us know the points to which we mutually assent. (90) Are you agreed\nto that?\n\n (88) Or, \"define in common.\" Cf. \"Mem.\" IV. vi. 15.\n\n (89) Or, \"man-praiser.\" Cf. \"The Manx Witch,\" p. 47 (T. E. Brown),\n    \"And Harry, more like a dooiney-molla For Jack, lak helpin him to\n    woo.\" See, too, Mr. Hall Caine's \"Manxman,\" p. 73.\n\n (90) See Plat. \"Rep.\" 342 D, for a specimen of Socratic procedure,\n    \"from one point of agreement to another.\"\n\nThe Company, in chorus. Without a doubt (they answered, and the formula,\nonce started, was every time repeated by the company, full chorus).\n\nSoc. Are you agreed it is the business of a good go-between to make him\n(or her) on whom he plies his art agreeable to those with them? (91)\n\n (91) Al. \"their followers.\" See \"Mem.\" II. vi. 36.\n\nOmnes. Without a doubt.\n\nSoc. And, further, that towards agreeableness, one step at any rate\nconsists in wearing a becoming fashion of the hair and dress? (92) Are\nyou agreed to that?\n\n (92) See Becker, \"Char.\" Exc. iii. to Sc. xi.\n\nOmnes. Without a doubt.\n\nSoc. And we know for certain, that with the same eyes a man may dart a\nlook of love or else of hate (93) on those he sees. Are you agreed?\n\n (93) See \"Mem.\" III. x. 5.\n\nOmnes. Without a doubt.\n\nSoc. Well! and with the same tongue and lips and voice may speak with\nmodesty or boastfulnes?\n\nOmnes. Without a doubt.\n\nSoc. And there are words that bear the stamp of hate, and words that\ntend to friendliness? (94)\n\n (94) Cf. Ep. St. James iii. 10, \"Out of the same mouth proceedeth\n    blessing and cursing.\"\n\nOmnes. Without a doubt.\n\nSoc. The good go-between will therefore make his choice between them,\nand teach only what conduces to agreeableness?\n\nOmnes. Without a doubt.\n\nSoc. And is he the better go-between who can make his clients pleasing\nto one person only, or can make them pleasing to a number? (95)\n\n (95) Or, \"to the many.\" The question is ambiguous. {e} = \"an\" or\n    \"quam.\"\n\nThe company was here divided; the one half answered, \"Yes, of course,\nthe largest number,\" whilst the others still maintained, \"Without a\ndoubt.\"\n\nAnd Socrates, remarking, \"That proposition is agreed to also,\" thus\nproceeded: And if further he were able to make them pleasing to the\nwhole community, should we not have found in this accomplished person an\narch-go-between?\n\nClearly so (they answered with one voice).\n\nSoc. If then a man had power to make his clients altogether pleasing;\nthat man, I say, might justly pride himself upon his art, and should by\nrights receive a large reward? (96)\n\n (96) Or, \"he deserves to do a rattling business,\" \"to take handsome\n    fees.\" Cf. Sheridan's Mrs. Coupler, in \"A Trip to Scarborough.\"\n\nAnd when these propositions were agreed to also, he turned about\nand said: Just such a man, I take it, is before you in the person of\nAntisthenes! (97)\n\n (97) See Diog. Laert. \"Antisth.\" VI. i. 8; Plut. \"Symp.\" ii. 1. 503.\n\nWhereupon Antisthenes exclaimed: What! are you going to pass on the\nbusiness? will you devolve this art of yours on me as your successor,\nSocrates? (98)\n\n (98) Or, \"going to give up business, and hand on the trade to me as\n    your successor?\"\n\nI will, upon my word, I will (he answered): since I see that you have\npractised to some purpose, nay elaborated, an art which is the handmaid\nto this other.\n\nAnd what may that be? asked Antisthenes.\n\nSoc. The art of the procurer. (99)\n\n (99) Cf. Plat. \"Theaet.\" 150 A; Aristot. \"Eth. N.\" v. 2, 13; Aeschin.\n    3, 7; Plut. \"Solon,\" 23.\n\nThe other (in a tone of deep vexation): Pray, what thing of the sort are\nyou aware I ever perpetrated?\n\nSoc. I am aware that it was you who introduced our host here, Callias,\nto that wise man Prodicus; (100) they were a match, you saw, the one\nenamoured of philosophy, and the other in need of money. It was you\nagain, I am well enough aware, who introduced him once again to Hippias\n(101) of Elis, from whom he learnt his \"art of memory\"; (102) since\nwhich time he has become a very ardent lover, (103) from inability to\nforget each lovely thing he sets his eyes on. And quite lately, if I\nam not mistaken, it was you who sounded in my ears such praise of our\nvisitor from Heraclea, (104) that first you made me thirst for his\nsociety, and then united us. (105) For which indeed I am your debtor,\nsince I find him a fine handsome fellow and true gentleman. (106) And\ndid you not, moreover, sing the praises of Aeschylus of Phlius (107) in\nmy ears and mine in his?--in fact, affected us so much by what you said,\nwe fell in love and took to coursing wildly in pursuit of one another\nlike two dogs upon a trail. (108)\n\n (100) Or, \"the sage,\" \"the sophist.\" See \"Mem.\" I. vi. 13; II. i. 21.\n\n (101) See \"Mem.\" IV. iv. 5; and for his art of memory cf. Plat. \"Hipp.\n    min.\" 368 D; \"Hipp. maj.\" 285 E.\n\n (102) The \"memoria technica\" (see Aristot. \"de An.\" iii. 3, 6), said\n    to have been invented by Simonides of Ceos. Cic. \"de Or.\" ii. 86;\n    \"de Fin.\" ii. 32; Quinct. xi. 2. 559.\n\n (103) Or, \"has grown amorous to a degree\"  (al. \"an adept in love's\n    lore himself.\" Cf. Plat. \"Rep.\" 474 D, \"an authority in love.\"--\n    Jowett) \"for the simple reason he can't forget each lovely thing\n    he once has seen.\" Through the \"ars memoriae\" of Hippias, it\n    becomes an \"idee fixe\" of the mind.\n\n (104) Perhaps Zeuxippus. See Plat. \"Prot.\" 318 B. Al. Zeuxis, also a\n    native of Heraclea. See \"Mem.\" I. iv. 3; \"Econ.\" x. 1.\n\n (105) Or, \"introduced him to me.\" Cf. \"Econ.\" iii. 14; Plat. \"Lach.\"\n    200 D.\n\n (106) \"An out-and-out {kalos te kagathos}.\"\n\n (107) Who this Phliasian is, no one knows.\n\n (108) Al. \"like two hounds chevying after one another.\"\n\nWith such examples of your wonder-working skill before my eyes, I\nmust suppose you are a first-rate matchmaker. For consider, a man with\ninsight to discern two natures made to be of service to each other, and\nwith power to make these same two people mutually enamoured! That is the\nsort of man, I take it, who should weld together states in friendship;\ncement alliances with gain to the contracting parties; (109) and, in\ngeneral, be found an acquisition to those several states; to friends and\nintimates, and partisans in war, a treasure worth possessing. (110) But\nyou, my friend, you got quite angry. One would suppose I had given you\nan evil name in calling you a first-rate matchmaker.\n\n (109) Al. \"and cement desirable matrimonial connections.\" Cf. Aristot.\n    \"Pol.\" iii. 9, 13. 1280 B; v. 4, 5-8. 1303 B.\n\n (110) See the conversation with Critobulus, so often referred to,\n    {peri philias}, in \"Mem.\" II. vi.\n\nYes (he answered meekly), but now I am calm. It is clear enough, if\nI possess these powers I shall find myself surcharged with spiritual\nriches.\n\nIn this fashion the cycle of the speeches was completed. (111)\n\n (111) See Hug, \"Einleitung,\" xxxi. \"Quellen des Platonischen\n    Symposion.\"\n\n\n\nV\n\nThen Callias: Our eyes are on you, Critobulus. Yours to enter the lists\n(1) against the champion Socrates, who claims the prize of beauty. Do\nyou hesitate?\n\n (1) Soph. \"Fr.\" 234; Thuc. i. 93.\n\nSoc. Likely enough he does, for possibly he sees Sir Pandarus stands\nhigh in their esteem who are the judges of the contest.\n\nIn spite of which (retorted Critobulus), I am not for drawing back. (2)\nI am ready; so come on, and if you have any subtle argument to prove\nthat you are handsomer than I am, now's your time, instruct us. But just\nstop one minute; have the goodness, please, to bring the lamp a little\ncloser.\n\n (2) Or, \"I do; but all the same, I am not for shirking.\" Cf. Aristoph.\n    \"Frogs,\" 860, {etiomos eum egoge, kouk anaduomai, daknein}: \"I'm\n    up to it; I am resolved\" (Frere); Dem. \"de F. Leg.\" 406 20: \"His\n    resolution never reached that point, but shrank back, for his\n    conscience checked it\" (Kennedy).\n\nSoc. Well then, I call upon you first of all, as party to this suit,\nto undergo the preliminary examination. (3) Attend to what I say, and\nplease be good enough to answer.\n\n (3) The {anakrisis}, or \"previous inquiry\" (before one of the archons)\n    of parties concerned in a suit, to see whether the action lay. Cf.\n    Plat. \"Charm.\" 176 C. See Gow, \"Companion,\" xiv. 74.\n\nCrit. Do you be good enough yourself to put your questions.\n\nSoc. Do you consider that the quality of beauty is confined to man, or\nis it to be found in other objects also? What is your belief on this\npoint?\n\nCrit. For my part, I consider it belongs alike to animals--the horse,\nthe ox--and to many things inanimate: that is to say, a shield, a sword,\na spear are often beautiful.\n\nSoc. How is it possible that things, in no respect resembling one\nanother, should each and all be beautiful? (4)\n\n (4) See \"Mem.\" III. viii. 5, quoted by Galen, \"de Usu Part.\" i. 370.\n\nCrit. Of course it is, God bless me! if well constructed by the hand\nof man to suit the sort of work for which we got them, or if naturally\nadapted to satisfy some want, the things in either case are beautiful.\n\nSoc. Can you tell me, then, what need is satisfied by our eyes?\n\nCrit. Clearly, the need of vision.\n\nSoc. If so, my eyes are proved at once to be more beautiful than yours.\n\nCrit. How so?\n\nSoc. Because yours can only see just straight in front of them, whereas\nmine are prominent and so projecting, they can see aslant. (5)\n\n (5) Or, \"squint sideways and command the flanks.\"\n\nCrit. And amongst all animals, you will tell us that the crab has\nloveliest eyes? (6) Is that your statement?\n\n (6) Or, \"is best provided in respect of eyeballs.\"\n\nSoc. Decidedly, the creature has. And all the more so, since for\nstrength and toughness its eyes by nature are the best constructed.\n\nCrit. Well, let that pass. To come to our two noses, which is the more\nhandsome, yours or mine?\n\nSoc. Mine, I imagine, if, that is, the gods presented us with noses for\nthe sake of smelling. Your nostrils point to earth; but mine are spread\nout wide and flat, as if to welcome scents from every quarter.\n\nCrit. But consider, a snubness of the nose, how is that more beautiful\nthan straightness? (7)\n\n (7) Or, \"your straight nose.\" Cf. Plat. \"Theaet.\" 209 C: Soc. \"Or, if\n    I had further known you not only as having nose and eyes, but as\n    having a snub nose and prominent eyes, should I have any more\n    notion of you than myself and others who resemble me?\" Cf. also\n    Aristot. \"Pol.\" v. 9, 7: \"A nose which varies from the ideal of\n    straightness to a hook or snub may still be a good shape and\n    agreeable to the eye; but if the excess be very great, all\n    symmetry is lost, and the nose at last ceases to be a nose at all\n    on account of some excess in one direction or defect in the other;\n    and this is true of every other part of the human body. The same\n    law of proportion holds in states.\"--Jowett.\n\nSoc. For this good reason, that a snub nose does not discharge the\noffice of a barrier; (8) it allows the orbs of sight free range of\nvision: whilst your towering nose looks like an insulting wall of\npartition to shut off the two eyes. (9)\n\n (8) Or, \"the humble snub is not a screen or barricade.\"\n\n (9) Cf. \"Love's Labour Lost,\" v. 2. 568: Boyet. \"Your nose says no,\n    you are not, for it stands too right\"; also \"The Song of Solomon,\"\n    vii. 4: \"Thy nose is the tower of Lebanon, which looketh toward\n    Damascus.\"\n\nAs to the mouth (proceeded Critobulus), I give in at once; for, given\nmouths are made for purposes of biting, you could doubtless bite off a\nmuch larger mouthful with your mouth than I with mine.\n\nSoc. Yes, and you will admit, perhaps, that I can give a softer kiss\nthan you can, thanks to my thick lips.\n\nCrit. It seems I have an uglier mouth than any ass.\n\nSoc. And here is a fact which you will have to reckon with, if further\nevidence be needed to prove that I am handsomer than you. The naiads,\nnymphs, divine, have as their progeny Sileni, who are much more like\nmyself, I take it, than like you. Is that conclusive?\n\nNay, I give it up (cried Critobulus), I have not a word to say in\nanswer. I am silenced. Let them record the votes. I fain would know at\nonce what I must suffer or must pay. (10) Only (he added) let them vote\nin secret. (11) I am afraid your wealth and his (Antisthenes') combined\nmay overpower me.\n\n (10) For this formula see \"Dict. Ant.\" {timema}. Cf. \"Econ.\" xi. 25;\n    Plat. \"Apol.\" 36 B; \"Statesm.\" 299 A; \"Laws,\" freq.; Dem. 529. 23;\n    533. 2.\n\n (11) And not as in the case described (Thuc. iv. 74), where the people\n    (at Megara) were compelled to give sentence on the political\n    opponents of the oligarchs by an open vote. Cf. Lysias, 133, 12,\n    {ten de psephon ouk eis kadiskous, alla phaneran epi tas trapezas\n    tautas dei tithenai}.\n\nAccordingly the boy and girl began to register the votes in secret,\nwhile Socrates directed the proceedings. He would have the lamp-stand\n(12) this time brought close up to Critobulus; the judges must on no\naccount be taken in; the victor in the suit would get from the two\njudges, not a wreath of ribands (13) for a chaplet, but some kisses.\n\n (12) {ton lukhnon} here, above, S. 2, {ton lamptera}. Both, I take it,\n    are oil-lamps, and differ merely as \"light\" and \"lamp.\"\n\n (13) Cf. Plat. \"Symp.\" 213; \"Hell.\" V. i. 3.\n\nWhen the urns were emptied, it was found that every vote, without\nexception, had been cast for Critobulus. (14)\n\n (14) Lit. \"When the pebbles were turned out and proved to be with\n    Critobulus, Socrates remarked, 'Papae!'\" which is as much to say,\n    \"Od's pity!\"\n\nWhereat Socrates: Bless me! you don't say so? The coin you deal in,\nCritobulus, is not at all like that of Callias. His makes people just;\nwhilst yours, like other filthy lucre, can corrupt both judge and jury.\n(15)\n\n (15) {kai dikastas kai kritas}, \"both jury and presiding judges,\" i.e.\n    the company and the boy and girl.\n\n\n\nVI\n\nThereupon some members of the party called on Critobulus to accept the\nmeed of victory in kisses (due from boy and girl); others urged him\nfirst to bribe their master; whilst others bandied other jests. Amidst\nthe general hilarity Hermogenes alone kept silence.\n\nWhereat Socrates turned to the silent man, and thus accosted him:\nHermogenes, what is a drunken brawl? Can you explain to us?\n\nHe answered: If you ask me what it is, I do not know, but I can tell you\nwhat it seems to me to be.\n\nSoc. That seems as good. What does it seem?\n\nHer. A drunken brawl, in my poor judgment, is annoyance caused to people\nover wine.\n\nSoc. Are you aware that you at present are annoying us by silence?\n\nHer. What, whilst you are talking?\n\nSoc. No, when we pause a while.\n\nHer. Then you have not observed that, as to any interval between your\ntalk, a man would find it hard to insert a hair, much more one grain of\nsense.\n\nThen Socrates: O Callias, to the rescue! help a man severely handled by\nhis cross-examiner.\n\nCall. With all my heart (and as he spoke he faced Hermogenes). Why, when\nthe flute is talking, we are as silent as the grave.\n\nHer. What, would you have me imitate Nicostratus (1) the actor, reciting\nhis tetrameters (2) to the music of the fife? Must I discourse to you in\nanswer to the flute?\n\n (1) See Cobet, \"Pros. Xen.\" p. 53; and cf. Diog. Laert. iv. 3, 4;\n    Polyaen. vi. 10; \"Hell.\" IV. viii. 18.\n\n (2) See Aristoph. \"Clouds,\" where Socrates is giving Strepsiades a\n    lesson in \"measures,\" 639-646: {poteron to trimetron e to\n    tetrametron}.\n\nThen Socrates: By all that's holy, I wish you would, Hermogenes. How\ndelightful it would be. Just as a song sounds sweeter in concert with\nthe flute, so would your talk be more mellifluous attuned to its soft\npipings; and particularly if you would use gesticulation like the\nflute-girl, to suit the tenor of your speech.\n\nHere Callias demanded: And when our friend (Antisthenes) essays to\ncross-examine people (3) at a banquet, what kind of piping (4) should he\nhave?\n\n (3) Or, \"a poor body,\" in reference to the elentic onslaught made on\n    himself by Antisthenes above.\n\n (4) {to aulema}, a composition for reed instruments, \"music for the\n    flute.\" Cf. Aristoph. \"Frogs,\" 1302.\n\nAnt. The person in the witness-box would best be suited with a\nserpent-hissing theme. (5)\n\n (5) Or, \"motif on a scrannel pipe.\" See L. & S. s.v. {puthaules}. Cf.\n    Poll. iv. 81, {puthikon aulema}, an air ({nomos}) played on the\n    {puthois aulos}, expressing the battle between Apollo and the\n    Python, the hiss of which was imitated.\n\nThus the stream of talk flowed on; until the Syracusan, who was\npainfully aware that while the company amused themselves, his\n\"exhibition\" was neglected, turned, in a fit of jealous spleen, at last\non Socrates. (6)\n\n (6) \"The Syracusan is 'civil as an orange, and of that jealous\n    complexion.'\"\n\nThe Syr. They call you Socrates. Are you that person commonly nicknamed\nthe thinker? (7)\n\n (7) Apparently he has been to see the \"Clouds\" (exhibited first in 423\n    B.C.), and has conceived certain ideas concerning Socrates, \"a\n    wise man, who speculated about the heaven above, and searched into\n    the earth beneath, and made the worse appear the better cause.\"\n    Plat. \"Apol.\" 18 B, 19 C. \"Clouds,\" 101, 360, {khair o presbuta\n   ... ton nun meteorosophiston... ta te meteora phrontistes}.\n\nSoc. Which surely is a better fate than to be called a thoughtless\nperson?\n\nThe Syr. Perhaps, if you were not thought to split your brains on things\nabove us--transcendental stuff. (8)\n\n (8) Or, \"if only you were held to be less 'meteoric,' less head-in-\n    airy in your speculations.\"\n\nSoc. And is there anything more transcendental than the gods?\n\nThe Syr. By heaven! no, it is not the gods above us whom you care for,\nbut for matters void of use and valueless. (9)\n\n (9) It is impossible to give the play on words. The Syr.\n    {anophelestaton}. Soc. {ano... ophelousin}. Schenkl after\n    Madvig emend.: {ton ano en nephelais onton} = \"but for things in\n    the clouds above.\"\n\nSoc. It seems, then, by your showing I do care for them. How value less\nthe gods, not more, if being above us they make the void of use to send\nus rain, and cause their light to shine on us? And now, sir, if you do\nnot like this frigid (10) argument, why do you cause me trouble? The\nfault is yours. (11)\n\n (10) Cf. \"Cyrop.\" VIII. iv. 22, 23.\n\n (11) {pho parekhousin... pragmata moi parekhon}. Lit. \"cause light\n   ... causing me trouble.\"\n\nWell, let that be (the other answered); answer me one question: How\nmany fleas' feet distance is it, pray, from you to me? (12) They say you\nmeasure them by geometric scale.\n\n (12) See Aristoph. \"Clouds,\" 144 foll.:\n\n{aneret' arti Khairephonta Sokrates psullan oposous alloito tous autes\npodas dakousa gar...}\n\n    Cf. Lucian, ii. \"Prom. in Verb. 6,\" and \"Hudibras, the Second Part\n    of,\" canto iii.:\n\nHow many scores a Flea will jump Of his own length from Head to Rump\nWhich Socrates and Chaerephon In vain essayed so long agon.\n\nBut here Antisthenes, appealing to Philippus, interposed: You are a\nman full of comparisons. (13) Does not this worthy person strike you as\nsomewhat like a bully seeking to pick a quarrel? (14)\n\n (13) Like Biron, \"L. L. L.\" v. 2. 854. Or, \"you are a clever\n    caricaturist.\" See Plat. \"Symp.\" 215 A; Hug, \"Enleitung,\" xiv.;\n    Aristoph. \"Birds,\" 804 (Frere, p. 173); \"Wasps,\" 1309.\n\n (14) Aristoph. \"Frogs,\" 857, \"For it ill beseems illustrious bards to\n    scold like market-women.\" (Frere, p. 269); \"Knights,\" 1410, \"to\n    bully\"; \"Eccles.\" 142:\n\n{kai loidorountai g' osper empepokotes, kai ton paroinount' ekpherous'\noi toxotai.}\n\nYes (replied the jester), he has a striking likeness to that person and\na heap of others. He bristles with metaphors.\n\nSoc. For all that, do not you be too eager to draw comparisons at his\nexpense, or you will find yourself the image of a scold and brawler.\n(15)\n\n (15) Or, \"a striking person.\"\n\nPhil. But what if I compare him to all the primest creatures of the\nworld, to beauty's nonpareils, (16) to nature's best--I might be justly\nlikened to a flatterer but not a brawler. (17)\n\n (16) Lit. \"compare him to those in all things beauteous and the best.\"\n    With {tois pasi kalois kai tois beltistois} cf. Thuc. v. 28, {oi\n    'Argeioi arista eskhon tois pasi}, \"The Argives were in excellent\n    condition in all respects.\" As to Philippus's back-handed\n    compliment to the showman, it reminds one of Peter Quince's\n    commendation of Bottom: \"Yea and the best person too; and he is a\n    very paramour for a sweet voice.\"\n\n (17) It is not easy to keep pace with the merryman's jests; but if I\n    follow his humour, he says to Socrates: \"If the cap is to fit, you\n    must liken me to one who quits 'assault and battery' for\n    'compliments  (sotto voce, \"lies\") and flattery.'\"\n\nSoc. Why now, you are like a person apt to pick a quarrel, since you\nimply they are all his betters. (18)\n\n (18) When Socrates says {ei pant' autou beltio phes einai, k.t.l.},\n    the sense seems to be: \"No, if you say that all these prime\n    creatures are better than he is, you are an abusive person still.\"\n\nPhil. What, would you have me then compare him to worse villains?\n\nSoc. No, not even to worse villains.\n\nPhil. What, then, to nothing, and to nobody?\n\nSoc. To nought in aught. Let him remain his simple self--\n\nPhil. Incomparable. But if my tongue is not to wag, whatever shall I do\nto earn my dinner?\n\nSoc. Why, that you shall quite easily, if with your wagging tongue you\ndo not try to utter things unutterable.\n\nHere was a pretty quarrel over wine soon kindled and soon burnt.\n\n\n\nVII\n\nBut on the instant those who had not assisted in the fray gave tongue,\nthe one part urging the jester to proceed with his comparisons, and the\nother part dissuading.\n\nThe voice of Socrates was heard above the tumult: Since we are all so\neager to be heard at once, what fitter time than now to sing a song, in\nchorus.\n\nAnd suiting the action to the words, he commenced a stave.\n\nThe song was barely finished, when a potter's wheel was brought in, on\nwhich the dancing-girl was to perform more wonders.\n\nAt this point Socrates addressed the man of Syracuse: It seems I am\nlikely to deserve the title which you gave me of a thinker in good\nearnest. Just now I am speculating by what means your boy and girl may\npass a happy time, and we spectators still derive the greatest pleasure\nfrom beholding them; and this, I take it, is precisely what you would\nyourself most wish. Now I maintain, that throwing somersaults in and out\nof swords is a display of danger uncongenial to a banquet. And as for\nwriting and reading on a wheel that all the while keeps whirling, I do\nnot deny the wonder of it, but what pleasure such a marvel can present,\nI cannot for the life of me discover. Nor do I see how it is a whit more\ncharming to watch these fair young people twisting about their bodies\nand imitating wheels than to behold them peacefully reposing.\n\nWe need not fare far afield to light on marvels, if that is our object.\nAll about us here is full of marvel; we can begin at once by wondering,\nwhy it is the candle gives a light by dint of its bright flame, while\nside by side with it the bright bronze vessel gives no light, but shows\nwithin itself those other objects mirrored. (1) Or, how is it that oil,\nbeing moist and liquid, keeps that flame ablaze, but water, just because\nit is liquid, quenches fire. But no more do these same marvels tend to\npromote the object of the wine-cup. (2)\n\n (1) Cf. \"Mem.\" IV. vii. 7. Socrates' criticism of Anaxagoras' theory\n    with regard to the sun.\n\n (2) Lit. \"work to the same end as wine.\"\n\nBut now, supposing your young people yonder were to tread a measure to\nthe flute, some pantomime in dance, like those which the Graces and the\nHours with the Nymphs are made to tread in pictures, (3) I think they\nwould spend a far more happy time themselves, and our banquet would at\nonce assume a grace and charm unlooked for.\n\n (3) Cf. Plat. \"Laws,\" vii. 815 C; Hor. \"Carm.\" i. 4. 6:\n\niunctaeque Nymphis Gratiae decentes alterno terram quatiunt pede.\n\nThe Graces and the Nymphs, together knit, With rhythmic feet the meadow\nbeat (Conington).\n\n    Ib. iv. 7. 5.\n\nThe Syracusan caught the notion readily.\n\nBy all that's holy, Socrates (he cried), a capital suggestion, and for\nmy part, I warrant you, I will put a piece upon the stage, which will\ndelight you, one and all.\n\n\n\nVIII\n\nWith these words the Syracusan made his exit, bent on organising his\nperformance. (1) As soon as he was gone, Socrates once more essayed a\nnovel argument. (2) He thus addressed them:\n\n (1) {sunekroteito}, \"on the composition of his piece.\" Al. \"amidst a\n    round of plaudits.\"\n\n (2) \"Struck the keynote of a novel theme.\" Cf. Plat. \"Symp.\" 177 E.\n\nIt were but reasonable, sirs, on our part not to ignore the mighty\npower here present, (3) a divinity in point of age coequal with the\neverlasting gods, yet in outward form the youngest, (4) who in magnitude\nembraces all things, and yet his shrine is planted in the soul of man.\nLove (5) is his name! and least of all should we forget him who are one\nand all votaries of this god. (6) For myself I cannot name the time at\nwhich I have not been in love with some one. (7) And Charmides here has,\nto my knowledge, captivated many a lover, while his own soul has gone\nout in longing for the love of not a few himself. (8) So it is with\nCritobulus also; the beloved of yesterday is become the lover of to-day.\nAy, and Niceratus, as I am told, adores his wife, and is by her adored.\n(9) As to Hermogenes, which of us needs to be told (10) that the soul\nof this fond lover is consumed with passion for a fair ideal--call it by\nwhat name you will--the spirit blent of nobleness and beauty. (11) See\nyou not what chaste severity dwells on his brow; (12) how tranquil\nhis gaze; (13) how moderate his words; how gentle his intonation; now\nradiant his whole character. And if he enjoys the friendship of the most\nholy gods, he keeps a place in his regard for us poor mortals. But how\nis it that you alone, Antisthenes, you misanthrope, love nobody?\n\n (3) Cf. Shelley, \"Hymn to Intellectual Beauty\":\n\nThe awful shadow of some unseen Power Floats, though unseen, among\nus....\n\n (4) Reading with L. D. after Blomfield (Aesch. \"Ag.\" p. 304),\n    {idrumenou}, or if as vulg. {isoumenou}, transl. \"but in soul is\n    fashioned like to mortal man.\"\n\n (5) \"Eros.\"\n\n (6) Or, \"who are each and all of us members of his band.\" For\n    {thiasotai} cf. Aristot. \"Eth. N.\" viii. 9. 5; Aristoph. \"Frogs,\"\n    327.\n\n (7) Cf. Plat. \"Symp.\" 177 D: \"No one will vote against you,\n    Erysimachus, said Socrates; on the only subject  ({ta erotika}) of\n    which I profess to have any knowledge, I certainly cannot refuse\n    to speak, nor, I presume, Agathon and Pasuanias; and there can be\n    no doubt of Arisophanes, who is the constant servant of Dionysus\n    and Aphrodite; nor will any one disagree of those I see around me\"\n    (Jowett).\n\n (8) Or, \"has had many a passionate admirer, and been enamoured of more\n    than one true love himself.\" See Plat. \"Charm.,\" ad in.\n\n (9) For Love and Love-for-Love, {eros} and {anteros}, see Plat.\n    \"Phaedr.\" 255 D. Cf. Aristot. \"Eth. N.\" ix. 1.\n\n (10) Lit. \"which of us but knows his soul is melting away with\n    passion.\" Cf. Theocr. xiv. 26.\n\n (11) Lit. \"beautiful and gentle manhood.\"\n\n (12) Lit. \"how serious are his brows.\"\n\n (13) The phrases somehow remind one of Sappho's famous ode:\n\n{phainetai moi kenos isos theoisin emmen oner, ostis enantios toi\nizanei, kai plasion adu phoneusas upakouei kai gelosas imeroen}.\n\n    But there we must stop. Hermogenes is a sort of Sir Percivale,\n    \"such a courtesy spake thro' the limbs and in the voice.\"\n\nNay, so help me Heaven! (he replied), but I do love most desperately\nyourself, O Socrates!\n\nWhereat Socrates, still carrying on the jest, with a coy, coquettish\nair, (14) replied: Yes; only please do not bother me at present. I have\nother things to do, you see.\n\n (14) Al. \"like a true coquet.\" Cf. Plat. \"Phaedr.\" 228 C.\n\nAntisthenes replied: How absolutely true to your own character, arch\ngo-between! (15) It is always either your familiar oracle won't suffer\nyou, that's your pretext, and so you can't converse with me; or you are\nbent upon something or somebody else.\n\n (15) See \"Mem.\" III. xi. 14.\n\nThen Socrates: For Heaven's sake, don't carbonado (16) me, Antisthenes,\nthat's all. Any other savagery on your part I can stand, and will stand,\nas a lover should. However (he added), the less we say about your love\nthe better, since it is clearly an attachment not to my soul, but to my\nlovely person.\n\n (16) Or, \"tear and scratch me.\"\n\nAnd then, turning to Callias: And that you, Callias, do love Autolycus,\nthis whole city knows and half the world besides, (17) if I am not\nmistaken; and the reason is that you are both sons of famous fathers,\nand yourselves illustrious. For my part I have ever admired your nature,\nbut now much more so, when I see that you are in love with one who does\nnot wanton in luxury or languish in effeminacy, (18) but who displays to\nall his strength, his hardihood, his courage, and sobriety of soul.\nTo be enamoured of such qualities as these is a proof itself of a true\nlover's nature.\n\n (17) Lit. \"many a foreign visitor likewise.\"\n\n (18) See the Attic type of character, as drawn by Pericles, Thuc. ii.\n    40.\n\nWhether indeed Aphrodite be one or twain (19) in personality, the\nheavenly and the earthly, I cannot tell, for Zeus, who is one and\nindivisible, bears many titles. (20) But this thing I know, that these\ntwain have separate altars, shrines, and sacrifices, (21) as befits\ntheir nature--she that is earthly, of a lighter and a laxer sort; she\nthat is heavenly, purer and holier in type. And you may well conjecture,\nit is the earthly goddess, the common Aphrodite, who sends forth the\nbodily loves; while from her that is named of heaven, Ourania, proceed\nthose loves which feed upon the soul, on friendship and on noble deeds.\nIt is by this latter, Callias, that you are held in bonds, if I mistake\nnot, Love divine. (22) This I infer as well from the fair and noble\ncharacter of your friend, as from the fact that you invite his father to\nshare your life and intercourse. (23) Since no part of these is hidden\nfrom the father by the fair and noble lover.\n\n (19) For Aphrodite Ourania and Pandemos see Plat. \"Symp.\" 180.\n\n (20) Lit. \"that is believed to be the same.\" See Cic. \"De N. D.\" iii.\n    16. Cf. Aesch. \"Prom.\" 210 (of Themis and Gaia), {pollon onomaton\n    morphe mia}.\n\n (21) e.g. to Aphrodite Pandemos a white goat, {mekas leuke}, but to\n    Aphrodite Ourania a heifer, and {thusiai nephaliai}, offerings\n    without wine, i.e. of water, milk, and honey. Schol. to Soph.\n    \"Oed. Col.\" 100; Lucian, lxvii. \"Dial. Mer.\" 7. 1.\n\n (22) Lit. \"by Eros.\"\n\n (23) Cf. Plat. \"Prot.\" 318 A; Aristoph. \"Thesmoph.\" 21, \"learned\n    conversazioni.\"\n\nHermogenes broke in: By Hera, Socrates, I much admire you for many\nthings, and now to see how in the act of gratifying Callias you are\ntraining him in duty and true excellence. (24)\n\n (24) Lit. \"teaching him what sort of man he ought to be.\" This, as we\n    know, is the very heart and essence of the Socratic (= {XS})\n    method. See \"Mem.\" I. ii. 3.\n\nWhy, yes (he said), if only that his cup of happiness may overflow, I\nwish to testify to him how far the love of soul is better than the love\nof body.\n\nWithout friendship, (25) as we full well know, there is no society of\nany worth. And this friendship, what is it? On the part of those whose\nadmiration (26) is bestowed upon the inner disposition, it is well named\na sweet and voluntary compulsion. But among those whose desire (26) is\nfor the body, there are not a few who blame, nay hate, the ways of their\nbeloved ones. And even where attachment (26) clings to both, (27) even\nso the bloom of beauty after all does quickly reach its prime; the\nflower withers, and when that fails, the affection which was based upon\nit must also wither up and perish. But the soul, with every step she\nmakes in her onward course towards deeper wisdom, grows ever worthier of\nlove.\n\n (25) Lit. \"That without love no intercourse is worth regarding, we all\n    know.\"\n\n (26) N.B.--{agamenon, epithumounton, sterxosi}. Here, as often, the\n    author seems to have studied the {orthoepeia} of Prodicus. See\n    \"Mem.\" II. i. 24.\n\n (27) i.e. \"body and character.\"\n\nAy, and in the enjoyment of external beauty a sort of surfeit is\nengendered. Just as the eater's appetite palls through repletion with\nregard to meats, (28) so will the feelings of a lover towards his idol.\nBut the soul's attachment, owing to its purity, knows no satiety.\n(29) Yet not therefore, as a man might fondly deem, has it less of the\ncharacter of loveliness. (30) But very clearly herein is our prayer\nfulfilled, in which we beg the goddess to grant us words and deeds that\nbear the impress of her own true loveliness. (31)\n\n (28) Cf. \"Mem.\" III. xi. 13.\n\n (29) Lit. \"is more insatiate.\" Cf. Charles Wesley's hymn:\n\nO Love Divine, how sweet Thou art! When shall I find my willing heart\nAll taken up by Thee?\n\n (30) Lit. \"is she, the soul, more separate from Aphrodite.\"\n\n (31) Or, \"stamped with the image of Aphrodite.\" Zeune cf. Lucr. i. 24,\n    addressing Venus, \"te sociam studeo scribendis versibus esse,\" \"I\n    would have thee for a helpmate in writing the verses...\"; and\n    below, 28, \"quo magis aeternum da dictis, diva, leporem,\"\n    \"Wherefore all the more, O lady, lend my lays an ever-living\n    charm\" (H. A. J. Munro).\n\nThat a soul whose bloom is visible alike in beauty of external form,\nfree and unfettered, and an inner disposition, bashful, generous; a\nspirit (32) at once imperial and affable, (33) born to rule among its\nfellows--that such a being will, of course, admire and fondly cling to\nhis beloved, is a thesis which needs no further argument on my part.\nRather I will essay to teach you, how it is natural that this same type\nof lover should in turn be loved by his soul's idol. (34)\n\n (32) Cf. Plat. \"Phaedr.\" 252 E.\n\n (33) The epithet {philophron} occurs \"Mem.\" III. i. 6, of a general;\n    ib. III. v. 3 (according to the vulg. reading), of the Athenians.\n\n (34) Or, \"the boy whom he cherishes.\"\n\nHow, in the first place, is it possible for him to hate a lover who,\nhe knows, regards him as both beautiful and good? (35) and, in the next\nplace, one who, it is clear, is far more anxious to promote the fair\nestate of him he loves (36) than to indulge his selfish joys? and above\nall, when he has faith and trust that neither dereliction, (37) nor\nloss of beauty through sickness, nor aught else, will diminish their\naffection.\n\n (35) Or, \"perfection.\"\n\n (36) Lit. \"the boy.\"\n\n (37) Reading {en para ti poiese}. Al. \"come what come may,\" lit. \"no\n    alteration\"; or if reading {parebese} transl. \"although his May of\n    youth should pass, and sickness should mar his features, the tie\n    of friendship will not be weakened.\"\n\nIf, then, they own a mutual devotion, (38) how can it but be, they will\ntake delight in gazing each into the other's eyes, hold kindly converse,\ntrust and be trusted, have forethought for each other, in success\nrejoice together, in misfortune share their troubles; and so long as\nhealth endures make merry cheer, day in day out; or if either of\nthem should fall on sickness, then will their intercourse be yet more\nconstant; and if they cared for one another face to face, much more will\nthey care when parted. (39) Are not all these the outward tokens of true\nloveliness? (40) In the exercise of such sweet offices, at any rate,\nthey show their passion for holy friendship's state, and prove its\nbliss, continuously pacing life's path from youth to eld.\n\n (38) For beauty of style (in the original) Zeune cf. \"Mem.\" II. vi. 28\n    foll.; III. xi. 10.\n\n (39) \"Albeit absent from one another in the body, they are more\n    present in the soul.\" Cf. Virg. \"Aen.\" iv. 83, \"illum absens\n    absentem auditque videtque.\"\n\n (40) Or, \"bear the stamp of Aphrodite.\"\n\nBut the lover who depends upon the body, (41) what of him? First, why\nshould love-for-love be given to such a lover? because, forsooth, he\nbestows upon himself what he desires, and upon his minion things of dire\nreproach? or that what he hastens to exact, infallibly must separate\nthat other from his nearest friends?\n\n (41) Or, \"is wholly taken up with.\" Cf. Plat. \"Laws,\" 831 C.\n\nIf it be pleaded that persuasion is his instrument, not violence; is\nthat no reason rather for a deeper loathing? since he who uses violence\n(42) at any rate declares himself in his true colours as a villain,\nwhile the tempter corrupts the soul of him who yields to his\npersuasions.\n\n (42) Cf. \"Hiero,\" iii. 3; \"Cyrop.\" III. i. 39.\n\nAy, and how should he who traffics with his beauty love the purchaser,\nany more than he who keeps a stall in the market-place and vends to the\nhighest bidder? Love springs not up, I trow, because the one is in his\nprime, and the other's bloom is withered, because fair is mated with\nwhat is not fair, and hot lips are pressed to cold. Between man and\nwoman it is different. There the wife at any rate shares with her\nhusband in their nuptial joys; but here conversely, the one is sober and\nwith unimpassioned eye regards his fellow, who is drunken with the wine\nof passion. (43)\n\n (43) Lit. \"by Aphrodite.\" Cf. Plat. \"Phaedr.\" 240, \"But the lover\n   ... when he is drunk\" (Jowett); \"Symp.\" 214 C.\n\nWherefore it is no marvel if, beholding, there springs up in his breast\nthe bitterest contempt and scorn for such a lover. Search and you shall\nfind that nothing harsh was ever yet engendered by attachment based on\nmoral qualities; whilst shameless intercourse, time out of mind, has\nbeen the source of countless hateful and unhallowed deeds. (44)\n\n (44) Zeune cf. Ael. \"V. H.\" viii. 9, re Archelaus king of Macedon,\n    concerning whom Aristotle, \"Pol.\" v. 10. 1311 B: \"Many\n    conspiracies have originated in shameful attempts made by\n    sovereigns on the persons of their subjects. Such was the attack\n    of Crataeus upon Archelaus,\" etc. (Jowett).\n\nI have next to show that the society of him whose love is of the body,\nnot the soul, is in itself illiberal. The true educator who trains\nanother in the path of virtue, who will teach us excellence, whether\nof speech or conduct, (45) may well be honoured, even as Cheiron and\nPhoenix (46) were honoured by Achilles. But what can he expect, who\nstretches forth an eager hand to clutch the body, save to be treated\n(47) as a beggar? That is his character; for ever cringing and\npetitioning a kiss, or some other soft caress, (48) this sorry suitor\ndogs his victims.\n\n (45) Phoenix addresses Achilles, \"Il.\" ix. 443:\n\n{muthon te reter' emenai, prektera te ergon}\n\nTherefore sent he (Peleus) me to thee to teach thee all things, To be\nboth a speaker of words and a doer of deeds (W. Leaf).\n\n (46) See \"Il.\" xi. 831; \"Hunting,\" ch. i., as to Cheiron and his\n    scholars, the last of whom is Achilles.\n\n (47) {an periepoito}. \"He will be scurvily treated.\" Cf. \"Hell.\" III.\n    i. 19.\n\n (48) Cf. \"Mem.\" I. ii. 29.\n\nIf my language has a touch of turbulence, (49) do not marvel: partly the\nwine exalts me; partly that love which ever dwells within my heart\nof hearts now pricks me forward to use great boldness of speech (50)\nagainst his base antagonist. Why, yes indeed, it seems to me that he who\nfixes his mind on outward beauty is like a man who has taken a farm on\na short lease. He shows no anxiety to improve its value; his sole object\nbeing to take off it the largest crops he can himself. But he whose\nheart is set on loyal friendship resembles rather a man who has a\nfarmstead of his own. At any rate, he scours the wide world to find what\nmay enhance the value of his soul's delight. (51)\n\n (49) Or, \"wantonness\"; and for the apology see Plat. \"Phaedr.\" 238: \"I\n    appear to be in a divine fury, for already I am getting into\n    dithyrambics\" (Jowett).\n\n (50) Lit. \"to speak openly against that other sort of love which is\n    its rival.\"\n\n (51) Cf. Michelet, I think, as to the French peasant-farmer regarding\n    his property as \"sa femme.\"\n\nAgain, let us consider the effect upon the object of attachment. Let him\nbut know his beauty is a bond sufficient to enthrall his lover, (52) and\nwhat wonder if he be careless of all else and play the wanton. Let him\ndiscover, on the contrary, that if he would retain his dear affection\nhe must himself be truly good and beautiful, and it is only natural he\nshould become more studious of virtue. But the greatest blessing which\ndescends on one beset with eager longing to convert the idol of his soul\ninto a good man and true friend is this: necessity is laid upon himself\nto practise virtue; since how can he hope to make his comrade good,\nif he himself works wickedness? Is it conceivable that the example he\nhimself presents of what is shameless and incontinent, (53) will serve\nto make the beloved one temperate and modest?\n\n (52) Or, \"that by largess of beauty he can enthrall his lover.\"\n\n (53) See Plat. \"Symp.\" 182 A, 192 A.\n\nI have a longing, Callias, by mythic argument (54) to show you that not\nmen only, but gods and heroes, set greater store by friendship of\nthe soul than bodily enjoyment. Thus those fair women (55) whom Zeus,\nenamoured of their outward beauty, wedded, he permitted mortal to\nremain; but those heroes whose souls he held in admiration, these he\nraised to immortality. Of whom are Heracles and the Dioscuri, and there\nare others also named. (56) As I maintain, it was not for his body's\nsake, but for his soul's, that Ganymede (57) was translated to Olympus,\nas the story goes, by Zeus. And to this his very name bears witness, for\nis it not written in Homer?\n\n    And he gladdens ({ganutai}) to hear his voice. (58)\n\nThis the poet says, meaning \"he is pleased to listen to his words.\"\n\n (54) Or, \"I have a desire to romance a little,\" \"for your benefit to\n    explain by legendary lore.\" Cf. Isocr. 120 C; Plat. \"Rep.\" 392 B.\n\n (55) e.g. Leda, Danae, Europa, Alcmena, Electra, Latona, Laodamia\n    (Zeune).\n\n (56) See \"Hunting,\" i.; \"Hell.\" VI. iii. 6.\n\n (57) See Plat. \"Phaedr.\" 255 C; Cic. \"Tusc.\" i. 26, \"nec Homerum audio\n   ... divina mallem ad nos,\" a protest against anthropomorphism in\n    religion.\n\n (58) Not in \"our\" version of Homer, but cf. \"Il.\" xx. 405, {ganutai de\n    te tois 'Enosikhthon}; \"Il.\" xiii. 493, {ganutai d' ara te phrena\n    poimen}.\n\nAnd again, in another passage he says:\n\n    Knowing deep devices ({medea}) in his mind, (59)\n\nwhich is as much as to say, \"knowing wise counsels in his mind.\"\nGanymede, therefore, bears a name compounded of the two words, \"joy\" and\n\"counsel,\" and is honoured among the gods, not as one \"whose body,\" but\n\"whose mind\" \"gives pleasure.\"\n\n (59) Partly \"Il.\" xxiv. 674, {pukina phresi mede' ekhontes}; and \"Il.\"\n    xxiv. 424, {phila phresi medea eidos}. Cf. \"Od.\" vi. 192; xviii.\n    67, 87; xxii. 476.\n\nFurthermore (I appeal to you, Niceratus), (60) Homer makes Achilles\navenge Patroclus in that brilliant fashion, not as his favourite, but\nas his comrade. (61) Yes, and Orestes and Pylades, (62) Theseus\nand Peirithous, (63) with many another noble pair of demigods, are\ncelebrated as having wrought in common great and noble deeds, not\nbecause they lay inarmed, but because of the admiration they felt for\none another.\n\n (60) As an authority on Homer.\n\n (61) Cf. Plat. \"Symp.\" 179 E: \"The notion that Patroclus was the\n    beloved one is a foolish error into which Aeschylus has fallen,\"\n    etc. (in his \"Myrmidons\"). See J. A. Symonds, \"The Greek Poets,\"\n    2nd series, \"Achilles,\" p. 66 foll.\n\n (62) Concerning whom Ovid (\"Pont.\" iii. 2. 70) says, \"nomina fama\n    tenet.\"\n\n (63) See Plut. \"Thes.\" 30 foll. (Clough, i. p. 30 foll.); cf. Lucian,\n    xli. \"Toxaris,\" 10.\n\nNay, take the fair deeds of to-day: and you shall find them wrought\nrather for the sake of praise by volunteers in toil and peril, than by\nmen accustomed to choose pleasure in place of honour. And yet Pausanias,\n(64) the lover of the poet Agathon, (65) making a defence in behalf (66)\nof some who wallow in incontinence, has stated that an army composed\nof lovers and beloved would be invincible. (67) These, in his opinion,\nwould, from awe of one another, have the greatest horror of destruction.\nA truly marvellous argument, if he means that men accustomed to turn\ndeaf ears to censure and to behave to one another shamelessly, are more\nlikely to feel ashamed of doing a shameful deed. He adduced as evidence\nthe fact that the Thebans and the Eleians (68) recognise the very\nprinciple, and added: Though they sleep inarmed, they do not scruple\nto range the lover side by side with the beloved one in the field of\nbattle. An instance which I take to be no instance, or at any rate\none-sided, (69) seeing that what they look upon as lawful with us is\nscandalous. (70) Indeed, it strikes me that this vaunted battle-order\nwould seem to argue some mistrust on their part who adopt it--a\nsuspicion that their bosom friends, once separated from them, may forget\nto behave as brave men should. But the men of Lacedaemon, holding that\n\"if a man but lay his hand upon the body and for lustful purpose, he\nshall thereby forfeit claim to what is beautiful and noble\"--do, in\nthe spirit of their creed, contrive to mould and fashion their \"beloved\nones\" to such height of virtue, (71) that should these find themselves\ndrawn up with foreigners, albeit no longer side by side with their own\nlovers, (72) conscience will make desertion of their present friends\nimpossible. Self-respect constrains them: since the goddess whom the men\nof Lacedaemon worship is not \"Shamelessness,\" but \"Reverence.\" (73)\n\n (64) See Cobet, \"Pros. Xen.\" p. 15; Plat. \"Protag.\" 315 D; Ael. \"V.\n    H.\" ii. 21.\n\n (65) Ib.; Aristot. \"Poet.\" ix.\n\n (66) Or, \"in his 'Apology' for.\"\n\n (67) Plat. \"Symp.\" 179 E, puts the sentiment into the mouth of\n    Phaedrus: \"And if there were only some way of contriving that a\n    state or an army should be made up of lovers and their loves, they\n    would be the very best governors of their own city, abstaining\n    from all dishonour, and emulating one another in honour; and when\n    fighting at one another's side, although not a mere handful, they\n    would overcome the world. For what lover would not choose rather\n    to be seen by all mankind than by his beloved, either when\n    abandoning his post or throwing away his arms? He would be ready\n    to die a thousand deaths rather than endure this. Or would desert\n    his beloved or fail him in the hour of danger? The veriest coward\n    would become an inspired hero, equal to the bravest, at such a\n    time; Love would inspire him. That courage which, as Homer says,\n    the god breathes into the soul of heroes, Love of his own nature\n    infuses into the lover\" (Jowett). Cf. \"Hunting,\" xii. 20; \"Anab.\"\n    VII. iv. 7; \"Cyrop.\" VII. i. 30.\n\n (68) Sc. in their institutions. Cf. Plat. \"Symp.\" 182, \"in Elis and\n    Boeotia\"; \"Pol. Lac.\" ii. 13; Ael. \"V. H.\" iii. 12, xiii. 5;\n    Athen. xiii. 2. For the Theban Sacred Band see Plut. \"Pelop.\" 18,\n    19 (Clough, ii. 218).\n\n (69) Or, \"not in pari materia, so to speak.\"\n\n (70) Is not Xenophon imputing himself to Socrates? Henkel cf. Plat.\n    \"Crito,\" 52 E. See Newman, op. cit. i. 396.\n\n (71) Or, \"shape to so fine a manhood that...\"\n\n (72) Reading {en te aute taxei}. Al. {... polei}, transl. \"nor\n    indeed in the same city.\" Cf. \"Hell.\" V. iv. 33, re death of\n    Cleonymus at Leuctra.\n\n (73) Lit. \"Aidos not Anaideia.\" See Paus. \"Lac.\" xx. 10; \"Attica,\"\n    xvii. 1; Cic. \"de Leg.\" ii. 11, a reference which I owe to M.\n    Eugene Talbot, \"Xen.\" i. 236.\n\nI fancy we should all agree with one another on the point in question,\nif we thus approached it. Ask yourself to which type of the two must\nhe (74) accord, to whom you would entrust a sum of money, make him\nthe guardian of your children, look to find in him a safe and sure\ndepositary of any favour? (75) For my part, I am certain that the very\nlover addicted to external beauty would himself far sooner have his\nprecious things entrusted to the keeping of one who has the inward\nbeauty of the soul. (76)\n\n (74) He (the master-mistress of my passion).\n\n (75) {kharitas} = \"kindly offices,\" beneficia. Cf. \"Ages.\" iv. 4;\n    \"Mem.\" IV. iv. 17. Al. = delicias, \"to deposit some darling\n    object.\"\n\n (76) Or, \"some one truly lovable in soul and heart.\"\n\nAh, yes! and you, my friend (he turned to Callias), you have good reason\nto be thankful to the gods who of their grace inspired you with love for\nyour Autolycus. Covetous of honour, (77) beyond all controversy, must he\nbe, who could endure so many toils and pains to hear his name proclaimed\n(78) victor in the \"pankration.\"\n\n (77) See \"Mem.\" II. iii. 16; \"Isocr.\" 189 C, {ph. kai megalopsukhoi}.\n\n (78) i.e. \"by the public herald.\"\n\nBut what if the thought arose within him: (79) his it is not merely\nto add lustre to himself and to his father, but that he has ability,\nthrough help of manly virtue, to benefit his friends and to exalt his\nfatherland, by trophies which he will set up against our enemies in war,\n(80) whereby he will himself become the admired of all observers, nay,\na name to be remembered among Hellenes and barbarians. (81) Would he not\nin that case, think you, make much of (82) one whom he regarded as his\nbravest fellow-worker, laying at his feet the greatest honours?\n\n (79) Cf. Theogn. 947:\n\n{patrida kosmeso, liparen polin, out' epi demo trepsas out' adikois\nandrasi peithomenos}.\n\n (80) Who in 421 B.C. were of course the Lacedaemonians and the allies.\n    Autolycus was killed eventually by the Thirty to please the\n    Lacedaemonian harmost. See Plut. \"Lysand.\" 15 (Clough, iii. 120);\n    Paus. i. 18. 3; ix. 32. 8. Cf. \"Hell.\" II. iii. 14.\n\n (81) Cf. \"Anab.\" IV. i. 20; \"Mem.\" III. vi. 2.\n\n (82) {periepein}. Cf. \"Cyrop.\" IV. iv. 12; \"Mem.\" II. ix. 5.\n\nIf, then, you wish to be well-pleasing in his eyes, you had best inquire\nby what knowledge Themistocles (83) was able to set Hellas free. You\nshould ask yourself, what keen wit belonged to Pericles (83) that he was\nheld to be the best adviser of his fatherland. You should scan (84) the\nfield of history to learn by what sage wisdom Solon (85) established\nfor our city her consummate laws. I would have you find the clue to\nthat peculiar training by which the men of Lacedaemon have come to be\nregarded as the best of leaders. (86) Is it not at your house that their\nnoblest citizens are lodged as representatives of a foreign state? (87)\n\n (83) See \"Mem.\" II. vi. 13; III. vi. 2; IV. ii. 2.\n\n (84) For the diction, {skepteon, skepteon, aphreteon, ereuneteon,\n    epistamenos, eidos, philosopheras}, Xenophon's rhetorical style\n    imitates the {orthoepeia} of Prodicus.\n\n (85) See \"Econ.\" xiv. 4.\n\n (86) Or, \"won for themselves at all hands the reputation of noblest\n    generalship.\" Cf. \"Ages.\" i. 3; \"Pol. Lac.\" xiv. 3.\n\n (87) Reading as vulg. {proxenoi d' ei...} or if with Schenkl,\n    {proxenos d' ei...} transl. \"You are their consul-general; at\n    your house their noblest citizens are lodged from time to time.\"\n    As to the office, cf. Dem. 475. 10; 1237. 17; Thuc. ii. 29;\n    Boeckh, \"P. E. A.\" 50. Callias appears as the Lac. {proxenos}\n    (\"Hell.\" V. iv. 22) 378 B.C., and at Sparta, 371 B.C., as the\n    peace commissioner (\"Hell.\" VI. iii. 3).\n\nBe sure that our state of Athens would speedily entrust herself to your\ndirection were you willing. (88) Everything is in your favour. You are\nof noble family, \"eupatrid\" by descent, a priest of the divinities,\n(89) and of Erechtheus' famous line, (90) which with Iacchus marched to\nencounter the barbarian. (91) And still, at the sacred festival to-day,\nit is agreed that no one among your ancestors has ever been more fitted\nto discharge the priestly office than yourself; yours a person the\ngoodliest to behold in all our city, and a frame adapted to undergo\ngreat toils.\n\n (88) Cf. \"Mem.\" III. vii.\n\n (89) i.e. Demeter and Core. Callias (see \"Hell.\" VI. l.c.) was\n    dadouchos (or torch-holder) in the mysteries.\n\n (90) Or, \"whose rites date back to Erechtheus.\" Cf. Plat. \"Theag.\"\n    122.\n\n (91) At Salamis. The tale is told by Herod. viii. 65, and Plut.\n    \"Themist.\" 15; cf. Polyaen. \"Strat.\" iii. 11. 2. Just as\n    Themistocles had won the battle of Salamis by help of Iacchus on\n    the 16th Boedromion, the first day of the mysteries, so Chabrias\n    won the sea-fight of Naxos by help of the day itself, {to 'Alade\n    mustai}, 376 B.C.\n\nBut if I seem to any of you to indulge a vein more serious than befits\nthe wine-cup, marvel not. It has long been my wont to share our city's\npassion for noble-natured souls, alert and emulous in pursuit of virtue.\n\nHe ended, and, while the others continued to discuss the theme of his\ndiscourse, Autolycus sat regarding Callias. That other, glancing the\nwhile at the beloved one, turned to Socrates.\n\nCall. Then, Socrates, be pleased, as go-between, (92) to introduce me\nto the state, that I may employ myself in state affairs and never lapse\nfrom her good graces. (93)\n\n (92) Lit. \"as pander.\"\n\n (93) So Critobulus in the conversation so often referred to. \"Mem.\"\n    II. vi.\n\nNever fear (he answered), if only people see your loyalty to virtue is\ngenuine, (94) not of mere repute. A false renown indeed is quickly seen\nfor what it is worth, being tested; but true courage (95) (save only\nwhat some god hinder) perpetually amidst the storm and stress of\ncircumstance (96) pours forth a brighter glory.\n\n (94) See \"Mem.\" I. vii. 1, passim; II. vi. 39; \"Econ.\" x. 9.\n\n (95) Cf. Thuc. ii. 42, {andragathia}, \"true courage in the public\n    service covers a multitude of private shortcomings.\"\n\n (96) {en tais praxesi}. Cf. Plat. \"Phaedr.\" 271 D, \"in actual life.\"\n\n\n\nIX\n\nOn such a note he ended his discourse.\n\nAt that, Autolycus, whose hour for walking exercise had now come, arose.\nHis father, Lycon, was about to leave the room along with him, but\nbefore so doing, turned to Socrates, remarking:\n\nBy Hera, Socrates, if ever any one deserved the appellation \"beautiful\nand good,\" (1) you are that man!\n\n (1) For {kalos ge kalathos} see \"Econ.\" vii. 2 and passim.\n\nSo the pair departed. After they were gone, a sort of throne was first\nerected in the inner room abutting on the supper chamber. Then the\nSyracusan entered, with a speech:\n\nWith your good pleasure, sirs, Ariadne is about to enter the bridal\nchamber set apart for her and Dionysus. Anon Dionysus will appear, fresh\nfrom the table of the gods, wine-flushed, and enter to his bride. In the\nlast scene the two will play (2) with one another.\n\n (2) {paixountai}. The Syracusan naturally uses the Doric form. See\n    Cobet, \"Pros. Xen.\" p. 16, note 23. Rutherford, \"N. Phrynicus,\" p.\n    91.\n\nHe had scarce concluded, when Ariadne entered, attired like a bride. She\ncrossed the stage and sate herself upon the throne. Meanwhile, before\nthe god himself appeared a sound of flutes was heard; the cadence of the\nBacchic air proclaimed his coming.\n\nAt this point the company broke forth in admiration of the\nballet-master. For no sooner did the sound of music strike upon the ear\nof Ariadne than something in her action revealed to all the pleasure\nwhich it caused her. She did not step forward to meet her lover, she did\nnot rise even from her seat; but the flutter of her unrest was plain to\nsee. (3)\n\n (3) Lit. \"the difficulty she had to keep so still was evident.\"\n\nWhen Dionysus presently caught sight of her he loved, lightly he danced\ntowards her, and with show of tenderest passion gently reclined upon her\nknees; his arms entwined about her lovingly, and upon her lips he sealed\na kiss; (4)--she the while with most sweet bashfulness was fain to wind\nresponsive arms about her lover; till the banqueters, the while they\ngazed all eyes, clapped hands and cried \"Encore!\" But when Dionysus rose\nupon his feet, and rising lifted Ariadne to her full height, the action\nof those lovers as they kissed and fondled one another was a thing to\ncontemplate. (5) As to the spectators, they could see that Dionysus was\nindeed most beautiful, and Ariadne like some lovely blossom; nor were\nthose mocking gestures, but real kisses sealed on loving lips; and so,\n(6) with hearts aflame, they gazed expectantly. They could hear the\nquestion asked by Dionysus, did she love him? and her answer, as\nprettily she swore she did. And withal so earnestly, not Dionysus only,\nbut all present, had sworn an oath in common: the boy and girl were\nverily and indeed a pair of happy lovers. So much less did they resemble\nactors, trained to certain gestures, than two beings bent on doing what\nfor many a long day they had set their hearts on.\n\n (4) Or, \"and encircling his arms about her impressed upon her lips a\n    kiss.\"\n\n (5) Or, \"then was it possible to see the more than mimic gestures.\"\n\n (6) Or, \"on the tiptoe of excitement.\" Cf. \"Hell.\" III. i. 14, iv. 2.\n\nAt last when these two lovers, caught in each other's arms, were seen to\nbe retiring to the nuptial couch, the members of the supper party turned\nto withdraw themselves; and whilst those of them who were unmarried\nswore that they would wed, those who were wedded mounted their horses\nand galloped off to join their wives, in quest of married joys.\n\nOnly Socrates, and of the rest the few who still remained behind, anon\nset off with Callias, to see out Lycon and his son, and share the walk.\n\nAnd so this supper party, assembled in honour of Autolycus, broke up.","title":"The Symposium","tradition":"philosophy-ethics","translated_text":null,"word_count":22839}