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come to my senses and know where I am; in the meantime I have been living in the Islands of the Blest. Such is the art of our rhetoricians, and in such manner does the sound of their words keep ringing in my ears. MENEXENUS: You are always making fun of the rhetoricians, Socrates; this time, however, I am inclined to think that the speaker who is chosen will not have much to say, for he has been called upon to speak at a moment’s notice, and he will be compelled almost to improvise. SOCRATES: But why, my friend, should he not have plenty to say? Every rhetorician has speeches ready made; nor is there any difficulty in improvising that sort of stuff. Had the orator to praise Athenians among Peloponnesians, or Peloponnesians among Athenians, he must be a good rhetorician who could succeed and gain credit. But there is no difficulty in a man’s winning applause when he is contending for fame among the persons whom he is praising. MENEXENUS: Do you think not, Socrates? SOCRATES: Certainly ‘not.’ MENEXENUS: Do you think that you could speak yourself if there should be a necessity, and if the Council were to choose you? SOCRATES: That I should be able to speak is no great wonder, Menexenus, considering that I have an excellent mistress in the art of rhetoric, —she who has made so many good speakers, and one who was the best among all the Hellenes—Pericles, the son of Xanthippus. MENEXENUS: And who is she? I suppose that you mean Aspasia. SOCRATES: Yes, I do; and besides her I had Connus, the son of Metrobius, as a master, and he was my master in music, as she was in rhetoric. No wonder that a man who has received such an education should be a finished speaker; even the pupil of very inferior masters, say, for example, one who had learned music of Lamprus, and rhetoric of Antiphon the Rhamnusian, might make a figure if he were to praise the Athenians among the Athenians. MENEXENUS: And what would you be able to say if you had to speak? SOCRATES: Of my own wit, most likely nothing; but yesterday I heard Aspasia composing a funeral oration about these very dead. For she had been told, as you were saying, that the Athenians were going to choose a speaker, and she repeated to me the sort of speech which he should deliver, partly improvising and partly from previous thought, putting together fragments of the funeral oration which Pericles spoke, but which, as I believe, she 132
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The Complete Plato
Title
The Complete Plato
Author
Plato
Date
~347 B.C.
Language
English
License
PD
Size
21.0 x 29.7 cm
Pages
1612
Keywords
Philosophy, Antique, Philosophie, Antike, Dialogues, Metaphysik, Metaphysics, Ideologie, Ideology, Englisch
Categories
Geisteswissenschaften
International

Table of contents

  1. Part 1 - Early Dialogues 3
    1. The Apology 4
    2. Charmides 37
    3. Laches 64
    4. Lysis 88
    5. Euthyphro 113
    6. Menexenus 131
    7. Ion 144
    8. Gorgias 157
    9. Protagoras 246
    10. Meno 296
  2. Part 2 - Middle Dialogues 332
    1. Euthydemus 333
    2. Craytlus 375
    3. Phaedo 436
    4. Phaedrus 498
    5. The Symposium 548
    6. Theaetetus 590
    7. Parmenides 670
  3. Part 3 - Late Dialogues 733
    1. Sophist 734
    2. Statesman 803
    3. Philebus 867
    4. Timaeus 937
    5. Critias 997
  4. Part 4 - The Republic 1010
    1. Book I 1011
    2. Book II 1044
    3. Book III 1072
    4. Book IV 1108
    5. Book V 1139
    6. Book VI 1176
    7. Book VII 1207
    8. Book VIII 1236
    9. Book IX 1267
    10. Book X 1292
  5. Part 5 - The Laws 1320
    1. Book I 1321
    2. Book II 1346
    3. Book III 1368
    4. Book IV 1394
    5. Book V 1413
    6. Book VI 1430
    7. Book VII 1459
    8. Book VIII 1493
    9. Book IX 1513
    10. Book X 1539
    11. Book XI 1565
    12. Book XII 1587
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The Complete Plato