Ion

Welcome, Ion. Where have you come from now, to pay us this visit? From your home in Ephesus?

No, no, Socrates; from Epidaurus and the festival there of Asclepius.

Do you mean to say that the Epidaurians honor the god with a contest of rhapsodes also?

Certainly, and of music in general.

Why then, you were competing in some contest, were you? And how went your competition?

We carried off the first prize, Socrates.

Well done: so now, mind that we win too at the Panathenaea.

Why, so we shall, God willing.

I must say I have often envied you rhapsodes, Ion, for your art: for besides that it is fitting to your art that your person should be adorned and that you should look as handsome as possible, the necessity of being conversant with a number of good poets, and especially with Homer, the best and divinest poet of all, and of apprehending his thought and not merely learning off his words, is a matter for envy; since a man can never be a good rhapsode without understanding what the poet says. For the rhapsode ought to make himself an interpreter of the poet’s thought to his audience; and to do this properly without knowing what the poet means is impossible. So one cannot but envy all this.

What you say is true, Socrates: I at any rate have found this the most laborious part of my art; and I consider I speak about Homer better than anybody, for neither Metrodorus of Lampsacus, nor Stesimbrotus of Thasos, nor Glaucon, nor any one that the world has ever seen, had so many and such fine comments to offer on Homer as I have.

That is good news, Ion; for obviously you will not grudge me an exhibition of them.

And indeed it is worth hearing, Socrates, how well I have embellished Homer; so that I think I deserve to be crowned with a golden crown by the Homeridae.

Yes, and I must find myself leisure some time to listen to you; but for the moment, please answer this little question: are you skilled in Homer only, or in Hesiod and Archilochus as well?

No, no, only in Homer; for that seems to me quite enough.

And is there anything on which Homer and Hesiod both say the same?

Yes, I think there are many such cases.

Then in those cases would you expound better what Homer says than what Hesiod says?

I should do it equally well in those cases, Socrates, where they say the same.

But what of those where they do not say the same? For example, about the seer’s art, on which both Homer and Hesiod say something.

Quite so.

Well then, would you, or one of the good seers, expound better what these two poets say, not only alike but differently, about the seer’s art?

One of the seers.