Complete Works

by Plato, Cooper, John M. , Hutchinson, D. S.

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

  SOCRATES: 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.

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

  SOCRATES: 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.

  PHAEDRUS: That would be quite appropriate.

  SOCRATES: 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]

  PHAEDRUS: Of course.

  SOCRATES: Tell that, then, to your friend.

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

  SOCRATES: Whom do you mean?

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

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

  PHAEDRUS: What is that?

  SOCRATES: 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.

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

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

  PHAEDRUS: Of course.

  SOCRATES: 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.

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

  SOCRATES: 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 heautēs 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 merē (“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 erōs and pterōs (“the winged one”).

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

  32. Reading teleutē 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 geome
ter 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.

  55. Protagoras of Abdera, whose life spanned most of the fifth century B.C., was the most famous of the early sophists. We have a vivid portrayal of him in Plato’s Protagoras and an intriguing reconstruction of his epistemology in the Theaetetus.

  56. Literally, “the might of the Chalcedonian”: a Homeric figure referring to Thrasymachus, who came from Chalcedon. Cf. 261c.

  57. Pericles, who dominated Athens from the 450s until his death in 429 B.C., was famous as the most successful orator-politician of his time. The quotation is from the early Spartan poet Tyrtaeus, fragment 12.8 (Edmonds). Adrastus is a legendary warrior hero of Argos, one of the main characters in Euripides’ Suppliants.

  58. Reading anoias at a5.

  59. Hippocrates, a contemporary of Socrates, is the famous doctor whose name is given to the Hippocratic Oath. None of the written works that have come down to us under his name express the view attributed to him in what follows. All doctors were said to be descendants of Asclepius, hero and god of healing.

  60. At 259e ff.

  61. Socrates may be referring to Corax, whose name is also the Greek word for “crow.”

  62. Literally, “is likely.”

  63. Naucratis was a Greek trading colony in Egypt. The story that follows is probably an invention of Plato’s (see 275b3) in which he reworks elements from Egyptian and Greek mythology.

  64. Theuth (or Thoth) is the Egyptian god of writing, measuring, and calculation. The Greeks identified Thoth with Hermes, perhaps because of his role in weighing the soul. Thoth figures in a related story about the alphabet at Philebus 18b.

  65. As king of the Egyptian gods, Ammon (Thamus) was identified by Egyptians with the sun god Ra and by the Greeks with Zeus.

  66. Accepting the emendation of Thamoun at d4.

  67. Gardens of Adonis were pots or window boxes used for forcing plants during the festival of Adonis.

  68. Isocrates (436–338 B.C.) was an Athenian teacher and orator whose school was more famous in its day than Plato’s Academy.

  ALCIBIADES

  Translated by D. S. Hutchinson. Except where noted, the translation follows the edition of J. Burnet; I have also consulted the edition of Antonio Carlini, Platone: Alcibiade, Alcibiade Secondo, Ipparco, Rivali (Turin, 1964).—D.S.H.

  Socrates feels that the time has come to approach Alcibiades and bring him into his intellectual and moral orbit. It is Alcibiades’ lust for power that Socrates appeals to, promising that Alcibiades will never amount to anything without his help. In the discussion that follows, Alcibiades is brought to see, very reluctantly, that he knows nothing about moral values or political expediency and that he needs to cultivate himself assiduously in order to realize his enormous ambitions.

  But what is this “self” that he needs to cultivate? It is his soul, the ruler of his body. The virtues of the soul that he needs to acquire are the intellectual skills that give it the authority to rule, over its body and over other people as well. Alcibiades is dismayed to recognize that he has no knowledge of himself and is currently fit to be ruled, not to rule. He attaches himself to Socrates to cultivate the knowledge of virtue and pledges undying devotion to Socrates and his values, a pledge which Socrates presciently distrusts, for Alcibiades was notorious in later life for his unprincipled conduct. He became a brilliant Athenian politician and general in the Peloponnesian War, but he defected to the Spartan side when accused of capital crimes in Athens and later became a double agent in the war between Athens and Persia.

  Socrates wins Alcibiades over, but their affair remains on a Platonic level; in fact, their love affair gave us the term ‘Platonic love’. Many of Socrates’ followers wrote versions of this love story: Euclides, Antisthenes, and Aeschines each wrote an Alcibiades dialogue—some fragments of Aeschines’ survive, in which Alcibiades eventually weeps with humiliation. Plato’s Symposium also contributes to this genre, in an inventive way, in the speech in praise of Socrates by the drunken Alcibiades. Platonic love is an intensely affectionate, but not a sexual, relationship; but with Socrates and Alcibiades it was also a teaching relationship, in which Socrates tried to help Alcibiades make the transition to manhood by his stimulating conversation.

  Because of its emphasis on self-knowledge as the necessary foundation of any other worthwhile knowledge, Alcibiades held pride of place in later antiquity as the ideal work with which to begin the study of Platonic philosophy. We have extensive commentaries from Olympiodorus (complete) and Proclus (first half only) and fragments of commentaries by Iamblichus, Damascius, and others. Proclus says, “Let this then be the start of philosophy and of the teaching of Plato, viz., the knowledge of ourselves.”

  Until the nineteenth century Alcibiades was assumed to be the work of Plato, but the ascription to Plato is now a minority view. It resembles Plato’s ‘Socratic’ dialogues in its plain conversational quality, but it reflects later Academic doctrine as well. The clearest argument against Plato’s authorship is probably that Plato never wrote a work whose interpretation was as simple and straightforward as that of Alcibiades. That very quality makes it an excellent introduction to philosophy.

  If Plato is not the author, the signs point to an Academic philosopher writing in the 350s or soon after (116d). The anthropology implicit in Alcibiades is similar to Aristotle’s, and the Aristotelian Magna Moralia (1213a20–24) takes up the striking idea that self-knowledge is best gained through a philosophical friendship in which we see ourselves, as if in a mirror (132c–133c).

  D.S.H.

  [103] SOCRATES: I was the first man to fall in love with you, son of Clinias, and now that the others have stopped pursuing you I suppose you’re wondering why I’m the only one who hasn’t given up—and also why, when the others pestered you with conversation, I never even spoke to you all these years. Human causes didn’t enter into it; I was prevented by some divine being, the effect of which you’ll hear about later on. But [b] now it no longer prevents me, so here I am. I’m confident it won’t prevent me in future either.

  I’ve been observing you all this time, and I’ve got a pretty good idea how you treated all those men who pursued you: they held themselves in high esteem, but you were even more arrogant and sent them packing, [104] every single one of them. I’d like to explain the reason why you felt yourself so superior.

  You say you don’t need anybody for anything, since your own qualities, from your body right up to your soul, are so great there’s nothing you lack. In the first place, you fancy yourself the tallest and best-looking man around—and it’s quite plain to see you’re not wrong about that. Next, you think that yours is the leading family in your city, which is the greatest [b] city in Greece: on your father’s side you have plenty of aristocratic friends and relations, who would be of service to you if there was any need; and on your mother’s side your connections a
re no worse and no fewer. And you have Pericles son of Xanthippus,1 whom your father left as a guardian to you and your brother; you think he’s a more powerful ally than all those people I mentioned put together—he can do whatever he likes, not only in this city, but anywhere in Greece, and also in many important foreign countries. I will also mention your wealth, but I think that’s the [c] least of the reasons you hold yourself in high esteem. You bragged about all those things and got the better of your suitors; they didn’t measure up and came off the worse. You knew what was going on.

  And so I’m sure you’re wondering what I could possibly have in mind—why don’t I give up on you? The others have all been sent packing, so what do I hope to achieve by persisting?

  ALCIBIADES: Yes, Socrates, perhaps you don’t realize that you’ve just taken the words out of my mouth. I had already decided to come and ask [d] you that very question: what could you have in mind? What do you hope to achieve by bothering me, always making so sure you’re there wherever I am? Yes, I really do wonder what you might be up to, and I’d be very glad to find out.

  SOCRATES: So then you’ll probably be eager to give me your full attention, since, as you say, you’re keen to know what I have in mind. I take it that you’ll listen carefully?

  ALCIBIADES: Yes, of course—just tell me.

  SOCRATES: Watch out—I wouldn’t be at all surprised if I found it as hard [e] to stop as it was to start.

  ALCIBIADES: Tell me, please. I will pay attention.

  SOCRATES: Speak I must, then. It’s not easy to play the role of suitor with a man who doesn’t give in to them; nevertheless, I must summon up my courage and say what’s on my mind.

  Alcibiades, if I saw that you were content with the advantages I just mentioned and thought that this was the condition in which you should live out the rest of your life, I would have given up on you long ago; at [105] least that’s what I persuade myself. But I’m going to prove to you in person what very different plans you actually have in mind. Then you’ll realize how constantly I’ve been thinking about you.