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do not conceal that which I ask. When you declaim well, and strike your audience with admiration; whether you sing of Ulysses rushing upon the threshold of his palace, discovering himself to the suitors, and pouring his shafts out at his feet; or of Achilles assailing Hector; or those affecting passages concerning Andromache, or Hecuba, or Priam, are you then self-possessed? or, rather, are you not rapt and filled with such enthusiasm by the deeds you recite, that you fancy yourself in Ithaca or Troy, or wherever else the poem transports you?

ION. You speak most truly, Socrates, nor will I deny it; for, when I recite of sorrow, my eyes fill with tears; and when of fearful or terrible deeds, my hair stands on end, and my heart beats fast.

SOCRATES.-Tell me, Ion, can we call him in his senses, who weeps while dressed in splendid garments, and crowned with a golden coronal, not losing any of these things? and is filled with fear when surrounded by ten thousand friendly persons, not one among whom desires to despoil or injure him?

ION. To say the truth, we could not. SOCRATES.-Do you often perceive your audience moved also?

ION.-Many among them, and frequently. I, standing on the rostrum, see them weeping, with eyes fixed earnestly on me, and overcome by my declamation. I have need so to agitate them; for if they weep, I laugh, taking their money; if they should laugh, I must weep, going without it.

SOCRATES.-Do you not perceive that your auditor is the last link of that chain which I have described as held together through the power of the magnet? You rhapsodists and actors are the middle links, of which the poet is the first-and through all these the God influences whichever mind he selects, as they conduct this power one to the other; and thus, as rings from the stone, so hangs a long series of chorus-dancers, teachers, and disciples from the Muse. Some poets are influenced by one Muse, some by another; we call them possessed, and this word really expresses the truth, for they are held. Others, who are interpreters, are inspired by the first links, the poets, and are filled with enthusiasm, some by one, some

by another; some by Orpheus, some by Museus, but the greater number are possessed and inspired by Homer. You, O Ion, are influenced by Homer. If you recite the works of any other poet, you get drowsy, and are at a loss what to say; but when you hear any of the compositions of that poet you are roused, your thoughts are excited, and you grow eloquent ;-for what you say of Homer is not derived from any art or knowledge, but from divine inspiration and possession. As the Corybantes feel acutely the melodies of him by whom they are inspired, and abound with verse and gesture for his songs alone, and care for no other; thus, you, O Ion, are eloquent when you expound Homer, and are barren of words with regard to every other poet. And this explains the question you asked, wherefore Homer, and no other poet, inspires you with eloquence. It is that you are thus excellent in your praise, not through science, but from divine inspiration.

ION. You say the truth, Socrates. Yet, I am surprised that you should be able to persuade me that I am possessed and insane when I praise Homer. I think I shall not appear such to you when you hear me.

SOCRATES.-I desire to hear you, but not before you have answered me this one question. What subject does Homer treat best? for, surely, he does not treat all equally.

ION. You are aware that he treats of everything.

SOCRATES.-Does Homer mention subjects on which you are ignorant !

ION. What can those be?

SOCRATES.-Does not Homer frequently dilate on various arts-on chariot driving, for instance ! if I remember the verses, I will repeat them.

ION.-I will repeat them, for I remember them. SOCRATES.-Repeat what Nestor says to his son Antilochus, counselling him to be cautious in turning, during the chariot race at the funeral games of Patroclus.

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SOCRATES.-Enough. Now, O Ion, would a physician or a charioteer be the better judge as to Homer's sagacity on this subject?

ION. Of course, a charioteer.

SOCRATES.-Because he understands the artor from what other reason?

ION. From his knowledge of the art.

SOCRATES. For one science is not gifted with the power of judging of another—a steersman, for instance, does not understand medicine?

ION. Without doubt.

SOCRATES.-Nor a physician, architecture ?
ION. Of course not.

SOCRATES.-Is it not thus with every art? If we are adepts in one, we are ignorant of another. But first tell me, do not all arts differ one from the other? ION.-They do.

SOCRATES. For you, as well as I, can testify that when we say an art is the knowledge of one thing, we do not mean that it is the knowledge of another.

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ION.-Manifestly to the piscatorial art.

SOCRATES.-Consider whether you are not inspired to make some such demand as this to me:-Come, Socrates, since you have found in Homer an accurate description of these arts, assist me also in the inquiry as to his competence on the subject of soothsayers and divination; and how far he speaks well or ill on such subjects; for he often treats of them in the Odyssey, and especially when he introduces Theoclymenus the Soothsayer of the Melampians, prophesying to the Suitors :Δαίμονι, τί κακὸν τόδε πάσχετε ; νυκτὶ μὲν ὑμέων Εἱλύαται κεφαλαί τε προσωπά τε νέρθε τε γυια, Οιμωγὴ δὲ δέδηε, δεδάκρυνται δὲ παρειαί. Εἰδώλων τε πρέον πρόθυρον, πλείη δέ καὶ αὐλὴ Ieμévwv peßóode únd Cópov héλios dè Οὐρανοῦ ἐξαπόλωλε, κακὴ δ' επδέδρομεν ἀχλύς. Odyss. ú. 351. Often too in the Iliad, as at the battle at the walls; for he there says

Ορνις γάρ σφιν ἐπῆλθε περησέμεναι μεμαῶσιν, Αἰετὸς ὑψιπέτης, ἐπ' ἀριστερὰ λαὸν ἐέργων, Φοινήεντα δράκοντα φέρων ὀνύχεσσι πέλωρον, Ζωὸν, ἔτ ̓ ἀσπαίροντα· καὶ οὔπω λήθετο χάρμης. Κόψε γὰρ αὐτὸν ἔχοντα κατὰ στῆθος παρὰ δειρὴν,

*Tempered in this, the nymph of form divine,
Pours a large portion of the Pramnian wine;
With goats'-milk cheese, a flavorous taste bestows,
And last with flour the smiling surface strews.
Pope, Book 11.
She plunged, and instant shot the dark profound:
As, bearing death in the fallacious bait,
From the bent angle sinks the leaden weight.
Pope, Book 24.

O race to death devote! with Stygian shade
Each destined peer impending Fates invade;
With tears your wan distorted cheeks are drowned,
With sanguine drops the walls are rubied round;
Thick swarms the spacious hall with howling ghosts,
To people Orcus, and the burning coasts.
Nor gives the sun his golden orb to roll,
But universal night usurps the pole.

Pope, Book 20.

Ἰδνωθεὶς ὀπίσω. ὁ δ ̓ ἀπὸ ὅθεν ἦκε χαμάζε
Αλγήσας ὀδύνῃσι, μέσῳ δ ̓ ἐγκάββαλ ̓ ὁμίλῳ·
Αὐτὸς δὲ κλάγξας ἕπετο πνοιῇς ἀνέμοιο.*

Il. p. I assert, it belongs to a soothsayer both to observe and to judge respecting such appearances as these. ION. And you assert the truth, O Socrates. SOCRATES. And you also, my dear Ion. For we have in our turn recited from the Odyssey and the Iliad, passages relating to vaticination, to medicine and the piscatorial art; and as you are more skilled in Homer than I can be, do you now make mention of whatever relates to the rhapsodist and his art; for a rhapsodist is competent above all other men to consider and pronounce on whatever has relation to his art.

ION. Or with respect to everything else mentioned by Homer.

SOCRATES.-Do not be so forgetful as to say everything. A good memory is particularly necessary for a rhapsodist.

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SOCRATES.-You will not assert that the art of rhapsody is that of universal knowledge; a rhapsodist may be ignorant of some things.

ION.-Except, perhaps, such things as we now discuss, O Socrates.

SOCRATES.-What do you mean by such subjects, besides those which relate to other arts? And with which among them do you profess a competent acquaintance, since not with all?

ION. I imagine that the rhapsodist has a perfect knowledge of what it is becoming for a man to speak-what for a woman; what for a slave, what for a free man; what for the ruler, what for him who is governed.

SOCRATES.-How! do you think that a rhapsodist knows better than a pilot what the captain of a ship in a tempest ought to say?

* A signal omen stopped the passing host, Their martial fury in their wonder lost.

Jove's bird on sounding pinions beats the skies;

A bleeding serpent of enormous size

His talons trussed, alive and curling round,

He stung the bird, whose throat received the wound;

Mad with the smart, he drops the fatal prey,
In airy circles wings his painful way,

Floats on the winds and rends the heaven with cries:
Amidst the host the fallen serpent lies.

Pope, Book 12.

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SOCRATES.-Probably because you are learned in war, O Ion. For if you are equally expert in horsemanship and playing on the harp, you would know whether a man rode well or ill. But if I should ask you which understands riding best, a horseman or a harper, what would you answer! ION. A horseman, of course.

SOCRATES.-And if you knew a good player on the harp, you would in the same way say that he understood harp-playing and not riding? ION.-Certainly.

SOCRATES. Since you understand strategy, you can tell me which is the most excellent, the art of war or rhapsody?

ION.-One does not appear to me to excel the other.

SOCRATES.-One is not better than the other, say you? Do you say that tactics and rhapsody are two arts or one?

ION. They appear to me to be the same. SOCRATES.-Then a good rhapsodist is also a good general.

ION. Of course.

SOCRATES.-And a good general is a good rhap

sodist?

ION. I do not say that.

SOCRATES.-You said that a good rhapsodist was also a good general.

ION.-I did.

SOCRATES.-Are you not the best rhapsodist in

Greece?

ION. By far, O Socrates.

ION.-I am. I learned the art from Homer. SOCRATES.-How is it then, by Jupiter, that being both the best general and the best rhapsodist among us, that you continually go about Greece rhapsodising, and never lead our armies? Does it seem to you that the Greeks greatly need golden-crowned rhapsodists, and have no want of generals ?

since

Athens, and is Ephesus the least of cities? But SOCRATES. And you are also the most excellent if you spoke true, Ion, and praise Homer accordgeneral among the Greeks? ing to art and knowledge, you have deceived me,you declared that you were learned on the subject of Homer, and would communicate your knowledge to me-but you have disappointed me, and are far from keeping your word. For you will not explain in what you are so excessively clever, though I greatly desire to learn ; but, as various as Proteus, you change from one thing to another, and to escape at last, you disappear in the form of a general, without disclosing your Homeric wisdom. If, therefore, you possess the learning which you promised to expound on the subject of Homer, you deceive me and are false. But if you are eloquent on the subject of this Poet, not through knowledge,

ION. My native town, O Socrates, is ruled by yours, and requires no general for her wars ;-and neither will your city nor the Lacedemonians elect me to lead their armies-you think your own generals sufficient.

SOCRATES. My good Ion, are you acquainted but by inspiration, being possessed by him, ignorant with Apollodorus the Cyzicenian ?

ION. What do you mean?

SOCRATES.-He whom, though a stranger, the Athenians often elected general; and Phanosthenes the Andrian, and Heraclides the Clazomenian, all foreigners, but whom this city has chosen, as being great men, to lead its armies, and to fill other high offices. Would not, therefore, Ion the Ephesian be elected and honoured if he were esteemed capable? Were not the Ephesians originally from

the while of the wisdom and beauty you display, then I allow that you are no deceiver. Choose then whether you will be considered false or inspired?

ION. It is far better, O Socrates, to be thought inspired.

SOCRATES.-It is better both for you and for us, O Ion, to say that you are the inspired, and not the learned, eulogist of Homer.

MENEXENUS; OR, THE FUNERAL ORATION.

A Fragment.

SOCRATES and MENEXENUS. SOCRATES.-Whence comest thou, O Menexenus? from the forum ?

MENEXENUS.-Even so; and from the senate

house.

SOCRATES.-What was thy business with the senate? Art thou persuaded that thou hast attained to that perfection of discipline and philosophy, from which thou mayest aspire to undertake greater matters! Wouldst thou, at thine age, my wonderful friend, assume to thyself the government of us who are thine elders, lest thy family should at any time fail in affording us a protector? MENEXENUS.-If thou, O Socrates, shouldst permit and counsel me to enter into public life, I would earnestly endeavour to fit myself for the attempt. If otherwise, I would abstain. On the present occasion, I went to the senate-house, merely from having heard that the senate was about to elect one to speak concerning those who are dead. Thou

knowest that the celebration of their funeral approaches?

SOCRATES.-Assuredly. But whom have they

chosen ?

MENEXENUS.-The election is deferred until tomorrow; I imagine that either Dion or Archinus will be chosen.

SOCRATES.-In truth, Menexenus, the condition of him who dies in battle is, in every respect, fortunate and glorious. If he is poor, he is conducted to his tomb with a magnificent and honourable funeral, amidst the praises of all; if even he were a coward, his name is included in a panegyric pronounced by the most learned men ; from which all the vulgar expressions, which unpremeditated composition might admit, have been excluded by the careful labour of leisure; who praise so admirably, enlarging upon every topic remotely, or immediately connected with the subject, and blending so eloquent a variety of expressions, that, praising in

every manner the state of which we are citizens, and those who have perished in battle, and the ancestors who preceded our generation, and ourselves who yet live, they steal away our spirits as with enchantment. Whilst I listen to their praises, O Menexenus, I am penetrated with a very lofty conception of myself, and overcome by their flatteries. I appear to myself immeasurably more honourable and generous than before, and many of the strangers who are accustomed to accompany me, regard me with additional veneration, after having heard these relations; they seem to consider the whole state, including me, much more worthy of admiration, after they have been soothed into persuasion by the orator. The opinion thus inspired of my own majesty will last me more than three days sometimes, and the penetrating melody of the words descends through the ears into the mind, and clings to it; so that it is often three or four days before I come to my senses sufficiently to perceive in what part of the world I am, or succeed in persuading myself that I do not inhabit one of the islands of the blessed. So skilful are these orators of ours.

MENEXENUS.-Thou always laughest at the orators, O Socrates. On the present occasion, however, the unforeseen election will preclude the person chosen from the advantages of a preconcerted speech; the speaker will probably be reduced to the necessity of extemporising.

SOCRATES.-HOW so, my good friend? Every one of the candidates has, without doubt, his oration prepared; and if not, there were little difficulty, on this occasion, of inventing an unpremeditated speech. If, indeed, the question were of Athenians, who should speak in the Peloponnesus; or of Peloponnesians, who should speak at Athens, an orator who would persuade and be applauded, must employ all the resources of his skill. But to the orator who contends for the approbation of those whom he praises, success will be little difficult.

MENEXENUS. Is that thy opinion, O Socrates?
SOCRATES.-In truth it is.

MENEXENUS.-Shouldst thou consider thyself competent to pronounce this oration, if thou shouldst be chosen by the senate ?

SOCRATES.-There would be nothing astonishing if I should consider myself equal to such an undertaking. My mistress in oratory was perfect in the science which she taught, and had formed many other excellent orators, and one of the most

eminent among the Greeks, Pericles, the son of Xantippus.

MENEXENUS.-Who is she? Assuredly thou meanest Aspasia.

SOCRATES.-Aspasia, and Connus the son of Metrobius, the two instructors. From the former of these I learned rhetoric, and from the latter music. There would be nothing wonderful if a man so educated should be capable of great energy of speech. A person who should have been instructed in a manner totally different from me; who should have learned rhetoric from Antiphon the son of Rhamnusius, and music from Lampses, would be competent to succeed in such an attempt as praising the Athenians to the Athenians.

MENEXENUS. And what shouldst thou have to say, if thou wert chosen to pronounce the oration!

SOCRATES. Of my own, probably nothing. But yesterday I heard Aspasia declaim a funeral oration over these same persons. She had heard, as thou sayest, that the Athenians were about to choose an orator, and she took the occasion of suggesting a series of topics proper for such an orator to select; in part extemporaneously, and in part such as she had already prepared. I think it probable that she composed the oration by interweaving such fragments of oratory as Pericles might have left.

MENEXENUS.-Rememberest thou what Aspasia

said?

SOCRATES.-Unless I am greatly mistaken. I learned it from her; and she is so good a schoolmistress, that I should have been beaten if I had not been perfect in my lesson.

MENEXENUS.-Why not repeat it to me? SOCRATES.-I fear lest my mistress be angry, should I publish her discourse.

MENEXENUS.-O, fear not. At least deliver a discourse; you will do what is exceedingly delightful to me, whether it be of Aspasia or any other. I entreat you to do me this pleasure.

SOCRATES.-But you will laugh at me, who, being old, attempt to repeat a pleasant discourse. MENEXENUS. O no, Socrates; I entreat you to speak, however it may be.

SOCRATES.-I see that I must do what you require. In a little while, if you should ask me to strip naked and dance, I shall be unable to refuse you, at least, if we are alone. Now, listen. She spoke thus, if I recollect, beginning with the dead, in whose honour the oration is supposed to have been delivered.

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