ΠΡΟΤΑΓΟΡΑΣ
Benjamin Jowett
Plato · Benjamin Jowett
Narrator: SOCRATES of Alopece, son of Sophroniscus
Also present: followers of Protagoras: ANTIMOERUS, CHARMIDES, PARALUS, PHILIPPIDES, XANTHIPPUS and a group of foreigners; of Hippias: ANDRON, ELIANS, ERYXIMACHUS, PHAEDRUS; of Prodicus: ADIMANTUS of Athens, ADIMANTUS of Scambonidae, AGATHON, PAUSANIAS; DOORMAN, OTHERS
Scene: Socrates’ room / courtyard outside / the street / the house of Callias
Companion: Where do you come from, Socrates? And yet I need hardly ask the question, for I know that you have been in chase of the fair Alcibiades. I saw him the day before yesterday; and he had got a beard like a man, — and he is a man, as I may tell you in your ear. But I thought that he was still very charming.
Socrates: What of his beard? Are you not of Homer’s opinion, who says
‘Youth is most charming when the beard first appears’?
And that is now the charm of Alcibiades.
Companion: Well, and how do matters proceed? Have you been visiting him, and was he gracious to you?
Socrates: Yes, I thought that he was very gracious; and especially to-day, for I have just come from him, and he has been helping me in an argument. But shall I tell you a strange thing? I paid no attention to him, and several times I quite forgot that he was present.
Companion: What is the meaning of this? Has anything happened between you and him? For surely you cannot have discovered a fairer love than he is; certainly not in this city of Athens.
Socrates: Yes, much fairer.
Companion: What do you mean — a citizen or a foreigner?
Socrates: A foreigner.
Companion: Of what country?
Socrates: Of Abdera.
Companion: And is this stranger really in your opinion a fairer love than the son of Cleinias?
Socrates: And is not the wiser always the fairer, sweet friend?
Companion: But have you really met, Socrates, with some wise one?
Socrates: Say rather, with the wisest of all living men, if you are willing to accord that title to Protagoras.
Companion: What! Is Protagoras in Athens?
Socrates: Yes; he has been here two days.
Companion: And do you just come from an interview with him?
Socrates: Yes; and I have heard and said many things.
Companion: Then, if you have no engagement, suppose that you sit down and tell me what passed, and my attendant here shall give up his place to you.
Socrates: To be sure; and I shall be grateful to you for listening.
Companion: Thank you, too, for telling us.
Socrates: That is thank you twice over. Listen then: —
Last night, or rather very early this morning, Hippocrates, the son of Apollodorus and the brother of Phason, gave a tremendous thump with his staff at my door; some one opened to him, and he came rushing in and bawled out: Socrates, are you awake or asleep?
I knew his voice, and said: Hippocrates, is that you? and do you bring any news?
Good news, he said; nothing but good.
Delightful, I said; but what is the news? and why have you come hither at this unearthly hour?
He drew nearer to me and said: Protagoras is come.
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The Athenian who turned Socratic conversation into a written philosophy and founded the Academy.
Plato was born around 428 BCE into a wealthy and politically prominent Athenian family; through his mother Perictione the family traced kinship to the lawgiver Solon, and his relatives Critias and Charmides were among the oligarchs of the Thirty. A late tradition says his given name was Aristocles and that 'Plato' — from the word for 'broad' — was a nickname. He grew up during the long agony of the Peloponnesian War and came of age amid the violence and disillusion that followed Athens' defeat.
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