ION. No, they are the same. SOCRATES. Must he who is a good rhapsodist be also necessarily a good general? Infallibly O Socrates. ION. SOCRATES. And must a good general be also a good rhapsodist ? That does not follow. ION. SOCRATES. But you are persuaded at least that a good rhapsodist is a good general. SOCRATES. And consequently best general? ION. Be convinced of it O Socrates. SOCRATES. Why then, by all the Gods, O Ion, since you are at once the best rhapsodist and the greatest general among the Greeks, do you content yourself with wandering about rhapsodizing from city to city, and never place yourself at the head of your armies? Do you think the Greeks have so great a need of one to recite verses to them in a golden crown, and none whatever of a general? ION. Our own city, O Socrates, is subjected to yours, and can give me no employment in that branch of the art; and Athens and Sparta are so strongly persuaded of the competence of their own citizens that I doubt whether they would entrust me with a command. SOCRATES. My dear Ion, do you know Apollodorus of Cyzene1? Which Apollodorus ? ION. 1 So in the transcript,-not Cyzicus. SOCRATES. Him whom the Athenians entrusted with a command although a foreigner; Phanosthenes the Andrian and Heraclides the Clazomenian, likewise foreigners, were also promoted to many civil and military trusts in Athens on account of their reputation. Why should they not honour and elect Ion the Ephesian as their general, if he should be considered equal to the situation?-you Ephesians were originally Athenians and Ephesus is a city inferior to none.-But you are in the wrong Ion, if you are serious in your pretence of being able to illustrate Homer by Art and Knowledge. For after having promised to explain a multiplicity of subjects mentioned by Homer, and assuring me that you knew them well; you now deceive me; and although I give you every opportunity you are still found wanting even with respect to that very subject of which you profess yourself fully master. Like Proteus, you assume a multiplicity of shapes, until at last escaping through my fingers, that you may avoid giving me any proof of your skill in Homer, you suddenly stand before me in the shape of a general. If now, you have deceived me in your promise of explaining Homer in your quality of a professor in the science of rhapsody you act unjustly by me; but if the various and beautiful expressions which at times you can employ are according to my view of the subject, suggested by the influence of the divine election whilst you are possessed as it were by the spirit of Homer, and you are in yourself ignorant, and incompetent, I absolve you from all blame.-Take your choice-whether you prefer to be considered inspired or unjust. |