Ion by Plato
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380 BC
ION
by Plato
translated by Benjamin Jowett
ION
PERSONS OF THE DIALOGUE: SOCRATES; ION
Socrates. Welcome, Ion. Are you from your native city of Ephesus?
Ion. No, Socrates; but from Epidaurus, where I attended the festival
of Asclepius.
Soc. And do the Epidaurians have contests of rhapsodes at the
festival?
Ion. O yes; and of all sorts of musical performers.
Soc. And were you one of the competitors- and did you succeed?
Ion. I obtained the first prize of all, Socrates.
Soc. Well done; and I hope that you will do the same for us at the
Panathenaea.
Ion. And I will, please heaven.
Soc. I often envy the profession of a rhapsode, Ion; for you have
always to wear fine clothes, and to look as beautiful as you can is
a part of your art. Then, again, you are obliged to be continually
in the company of many good poets; and especially of Homer, who is the
best and most divine of them; and to understand him, and not merely
learn his words by rote, is a thing greatly to be envied. And no man
can be a rhapsode who does not understand the meaning of the poet. For
the rhapsode ought to interpret the mind of the poet to his hearers,
but how can he interpret him well unless he knows what he means? All
this is greatly to be envied.
Ion. Very true, Socrates; interpretation has certainly been the most
laborious part of my art; and I believe myself able to speak about
Homer better than any man; and that neither Metrodorus of Lampsacus,
nor Stesimbrotus of Thasos, nor Glaucon, nor any one else who ever
was, had as good ideas about Homer as I have, or as many.
Soc. I am glad to hear you say so, Ion; I see that you will not
refuse to acquaint me with them.
Ion. Certainly, Socrates; and you really ought to hear how
exquisitely I render Homer. I think that the Homeridae should give
me a golden crown.
Soc. I shall take an opportunity of hearing your embellishments of
him at some other time. But just now I should like to ask you a
question: Does your art extend to Hesiod and Archilochus, or to
Homer only?
Ion. To Homer only; he is in himself quite enough.
Soc. Are there any things about which Homer and Hesiod agree?
Ion. Yes; in my opinion there are a good many.
Soc. And can you interpret better what Homer says, or what Hesiod
says, about these matters in which they agree?
Ion. I can interpret them equally well, Socrates, where they agree.
Soc. But what about matters in which they do not agree?- for
example, about divination, of which both Homer and Hesiod have
something to say-
Ion. Very true:
Soc. Would you or a good prophet be a better interpreter of what
these two poets say about divination, not only when they agree, but
when they disagree?
Ion. A prophet.
Soc. And if you were a prophet, would you be able to interpret
them when they disagree as well as when they agree?
Ion. Clearly.
Soc. But how did you come to have this skill about Homer only, and
not about Hesiod or the other poets? Does not Homer speak of the
same themes which all other poets handle? Is not war his great
argument? and does he not speak of human society and of intercourse of
men, good and bad, skilled and unskilled, and of the gods conversing
with one another and with mankind, and about what happens in heaven
and in the world below, and the generations of gods and heroes? Are
not these the themes of which Homer sings?
Ion. Very true, Socrates.
Soc. And do not the other poets sing of the same?
Ion. Yes, Socrates; but not in the same way as Homer.
Soc. What, in a worse way?
Ion. Yes, in a far worse.
Soc. And Homer in a better way?
Ion. He is incomparably better.
Soc. And yet surely, my dear friend Ion, in a discussion about
arithmetic, where many people are speaking, and one speaks better than
the rest, there is somebody who can judge which of them is the good
speaker?
Ion. Yes.
Soc. And he who judges of the good will be the same as he who judges
of the bad speakers?
Ion. The same.
Soc. And he will be the arithmetician?
Ion. Yes.
Soc. Well, and in discussions about the wholesomeness of food,
when many persons are speaking, and one speaks better than the rest,
will he who recognizes the better speaker be a different person from
him who recognizes the worse, or the same?
Ion. Clearly the same.
Soc. And who is he, and what is his name?
Ion. The physician.
Soc. And speaking generally, in all discussions in which the subject
is the same and many men are speaking, will not he who knows the
good know the bad speaker also? For if he does not know the bad,
neither will he know the good when the same topic is being discussed.
Ion. True.
Soc. Is not the same person skilful in both?
Ion. Yes.
Soc. And you say that Homer and the other poets, such as Hesiod
and Archilochus, speak of the same things, although not in the same
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