Complete Works (125 page)

S
OCRATES
: And now that we have agreed about this, Phaedrus, we are finally able to decide the issue.

P
HAEDRUS
: What issue is that?

S
OCRATES
: The issue which brought us to this point in the first place: We wanted to examine the attack made on Lysias on account of his writing [b] speeches, and to ask which speeches are written artfully and which not. Now, I think that we have answered that question clearly enough.

P
HAEDRUS
: So it seemed; but remind me again how we did it.

S
OCRATES
: First, you must know the truth concerning everything you are speaking or writing about; you must learn how to define each thing in itself; and, having defined it, you must know how to divide it into kinds until you reach something indivisible. Second, you must understand the nature of the soul, along the same lines; you must determine which kind [c] of speech is appropriate to each kind of soul, prepare and arrange your speech accordingly, and offer a complex and elaborate speech to a complex soul and a simple speech to a simple one. Then, and only then, will you be able to use speech artfully, to the extent that its nature allows it to be used that way, either in order to teach or in order to persuade. This is the whole point of the argument we have been making.

P
HAEDRUS
: Absolutely. That is exactly how it seemed to us.

[d] S
OCRATES
: Now how about whether it’s noble or shameful to give or write a speech—when it could be fairly said to be grounds for reproach, and when not? Didn’t what we said just a little while ago make it clear—

P
HAEDRUS
: What was that?

S
OCRATES
: That if Lysias or anybody else ever did or ever does write—privately or for the public, in the course of proposing some law—a political document which he believes to embody clear knowledge of lasting importance, then this writer deserves reproach, whether anyone says so or not. For to be unaware of the difference between a dream-image and the reality [e] of what is just and unjust, good and bad, must truly be grounds for reproach even if the crowd praises it with one voice.

P
HAEDRUS
: It certainly must be.

S
OCRATES
: On the other hand, take a man who thinks that a written discourse on any subject can only be a great amusement, that no discourse worth serious attention has ever been written in verse or prose, and that those that are recited in public without questioning and explanation, in
[278]
the manner of the rhapsodes, are given only in order to produce conviction. He believes that at their very best these can only serve as reminders to those who already know. And he also thinks that only what is said for the sake of understanding and learning, what is truly written in the soul concerning what is just, noble, and good can be clear, perfect, and worth serious attention: Such discourses should be called his own legitimate children, first the discourse he may have discovered already within himself [b] and then its sons and brothers who may have grown naturally in other souls insofar as these are worthy; to the rest, he turns his back. Such a man, Phaedrus, would be just what you and I both would pray to become.

P
HAEDRUS
: I wish and pray for things to be just as you say.

S
OCRATES
: Well, then: our playful amusement regarding discourse is complete. Now you go and tell Lysias that we came to the spring which is sacred to the Nymphs and heard words charging us to deliver a message [c] to Lysias and anyone else who composes speeches, as well as to Homer and anyone else who has composed poetry either spoken or sung, and third, to Solon and anyone else who writes political documents that he calls laws: If any one of you has composed these things with a knowledge of the truth, if you can defend your writing when you are challenged, and if you can yourself make the argument that your writing is of little worth, then you must be called by a name derived not from these writings but [d] rather from those things that you are seriously pursuing.

P
HAEDRUS
: What name, then, would you give such a man?

S
OCRATES
: To call him wise, Phaedrus, seems to me too much, and proper only for a god. To call him wisdom’s lover—a philosopher—or something similar would fit him better and be more seemly.

P
HAEDRUS
: That would be quite appropriate.

S
OCRATES
: On the other hand, if a man has nothing more valuable than what he has composed or written, spending long hours twisting it around, pasting parts together and taking them apart—wouldn’t you be right to call him a poet or a speech writer or an author of laws? [e]

P
HAEDRUS
: Of course.

S
OCRATES
: Tell that, then, to your friend.

P
HAEDRUS
: And what about you? What shall you do? We must surely not forget your own friend.

S
OCRATES
: Whom do you mean?

P
HAEDRUS
: The beautiful Isocrates.
⁶⁸
What are you going to tell him, Socrates? What shall we say he is?

S
OCRATES
: Isocrates is still young, Phaedrus. But I want to tell you what
[279]
I foresee for him.

P
HAEDRUS
: What is that?

S
OCRATES
: It seems to me that by his nature he can outdo anything that Lysias has accomplished in his speeches; and he also has a nobler character. So I wouldn’t be at all surprised if, as he gets older and continues writing speeches of the sort he is composing now, he makes everyone who has ever attempted to compose a speech seem like a child in comparison. Even more so if such work no longer satisfies him and a higher, divine impulse leads him to more important things. For nature, my friend, has placed the love of wisdom in his mind. [b]

That is the message I will carry to my beloved, Isocrates, from the gods of this place; and you have your own message for your Lysias.

P
HAEDRUS
: So it shall be. But let’s be off, since the heat has died down a bit.

S
OCRATES
: Shouldn’t we offer a prayer to the gods here before we leave?

P
HAEDRUS
: Of course.

S
OCRATES
: O dear Pan and all the other gods of this place, grant that I may be beautiful inside. Let all my external possessions be in friendly [c] harmony with what is within. May I consider the wise man rich. As for
[279c]
gold, let me have as much as a moderate man could bear and carry with him.

Do we need anything else, Phaedrus? I believe my prayer is enough for me.

P
HAEDRUS
: Make it a prayer for me as well. Friends have everything in common.

S
OCRATES
: Let’s be off.

1
. Cephalus is prominent in the opening section of Plato’s
Republic
, which is set in his home in Piraeus, the port of Athens. His sons Lysias, Polemarchus, and Euthydemus were known for their democratic sympathies.

2
. Acumenus was a doctor and a relative of the doctor Eryximachus who speaks in the
Symposium.

3
. Morychus is mentioned for his luxurious ways in a number of Aristophanes’ plays.

4
. Pindar,
Isthmian
I.2, adapted by Plato.

5
. Herodicus was a medical expert whose regimen Socrates criticizes in
Republic
406a–b.

6
. According to legend, Orithuia, daughter of the Athenian king Erechtheus, was abducted by Boreas while she was playing with Nymphs along the banks of the Ilisus River. Boreas personifies the north wind.

7
. Typhon is a fabulous multiform beast with a hundred heads resembling many different animal species.

8
. Achelous is a river god. The Nymphs are benevolent female deities associated with natural phenomena such as streams, woods, and mountains.

9
. This is classic behavior in ancient Greek literature of a lovesick man pursuing his prey.

10
. The archons were magistrates chosen by lot in classical Athens. On taking office they swore an oath to set up a golden statue if they violated the laws.

11
. The Cypselids were rulers of Corinth in the seventh century
B.C.
; an ornate chest in which Cypselus was said to have been hidden as an infant was on display at Olympia, perhaps along with other offerings of theirs.

12
. A line of Pindar’s (Snell 105).

13
. Socrates here suggests a farfetched etymology for a common epithet of the Muses, as the “clear-voiced” ones, on the basis of its resemblance to the Greek name for the Ligurians, who lived in what is now known as the French Riviera.

14
. I.e.,
hubris
, which ranges from arrogance to the sort of crimes to which arrogance gives rise, sexual assault in particular.

15
. Reading
polumeles kai polueides
at a3 (lit., “multilimbed and multiformed”).

16
. A dithyramb was a choral poem originally connected with the worship of Dionysus. In classical times it became associated with an artificial style dominated by music.

17
. The overheated choral poems known as dithyrambs (see 238d) were written in lyric meters. The meter of the last line of Socrates’ speech, however, was epic, and it is the tradition in epic poetry to glorify a hero, not to attack him.

18
. Simmias, a companion of Socrates, was evidently a lover of discussion (cf.
Phaedo
85c).

19
. Ibycus was a sixth-century poet, most famous for his passionate love poetry.

20
. Frg. 18 (Edmonds).

21
. Etymologically: “Stesichorus son of Good Speaker, from the Land of Desire.” Myrrhinus was one of the demes of ancient Athens.

22
. Retaining
heaut
ē
s
at e3.

23
. Alternatively, “All soul.”

24
. Reading
pasan te genesin
at e1.

25
. I.e., a philosopher.

26
. Accepting the emendation
iont’
at b7.

27
. I.e., we philosophers; cf. 252e.

28
. “Desire” is
himeros
: the derivation is from
mer
ē
(“particles”),
ienai
(“go”) and
rhein
(“flow”).

29
. Cf. 237b, 238d, 243e.

30
. The lines are probably Plato’s invention, as the language is not consistently Homeric. The pun in the original is on
er
ō
s
and
pter
ō
s
(“the winged one”).

31
. Bacchants were worshippers of Dionysus who gained miraculous abilities when possessed by the madness of their god.

32
. Reading
teleut
ē
at c3.

33
. Cf.
Iliad
v.397 and
Odyssey
xvii.567.

34
. Cf. 243b.

35
. Cf. 234c, 238c.

36
. Apparently this was a familiar example of something named by language that means the opposite—though called “pleasant” it was really a long, nasty bend.

37
. Reading
suggramatos
at a1.

38
. This is the standard form for decisions, including legislation, made by the assembly of Athens, though it is not the standard beginning for even the most political of speeches.

39
. Lycurgus was the legendary lawgiver of Sparta. Solon reformed the constitution of Athens in the early sixth century
B.C.
and was revered by both democrats and their opponents. Darius was king of Persia (521–486
B.C.
). None of these was famous as a speech writer.

40
.
Iliad
ii.361.

41
. For a criticism of rhetoric as not an art, see
Gorgias
462b–c.

42
. Cf. 242a–b;
Symposium
209b–e.

43
. Nestor and Odysseus are Homeric heroes known for their speaking ability. Palamedes, who does not figure in Homer, was proverbial for his cunning.

44
. Gorgias of Leontini was the most famous teacher of rhetoric to visit Athens. About Thrasymachus of Chalcedon (cf. 267c) we know little beyond what we can infer from his appearance in Book 1 of the
Republic
. On Theodorus of Byzantium (not to be confused with the geometer who appears in the
Theaetetus
) see 266e and Aristotle
Rhetoric
3.13.5.

45
. The Eleatic Palamedes is presumably Zeno of Elea, the author of the famous paradoxes about motion.

46
. Reading
pephukos
at b6.

47
.
Odyssey
ii.406.

48
. Cf. 261c.

49
. Evenus of Paros was active as a sophist toward the end of the fifth century
B.C.
Only a few tiny fragments of his work survive.

50
. Tisias of Syracuse, with Corax, is credited with the founding of the Sicilian school of rhetoric, represented by Gorgias and Polus.

51
. Prodicus of Ceos, who lived from about 470 till after 400
B.C.
, is frequently mentioned by Plato in connection with his ability to make fine verbal distinctions.

52
. Hippias of Elis was born in the mid-fifth century and traveled widely teaching a variety of subjects, including mathematics, astronomy, harmony, mnemonics, ethics, and history as well as public speaking.

53
. Polus was a pupil of Gorgias; Plato represents him in the
Gorgias
, esp. at 448c and 471a–c. He was said to have composed an
Art of Rhetoric
(
Gorgias
, 462b).

54
. Licymnius of Chios was a dithyrambic poet and teacher of rhetoric.