Page - 151 - in The Complete Plato

answered a question which I have to ask. On what part of Homer do you speak well?—not surely about every part. ION: There is no part, Socrates, about which I do not speak well: of that I can assure you. SOCRATES: Surely not about things in Homer of which you have no knowledge? ION: And what is there in Homer of which I have no knowledge? SOCRATES: Why, does not Homer speak in many passages about arts? For example, about driving; if I can only remember the lines I will repeat them. ION: I remember, and will repeat them. SOCRATES: Tell me then, what Nestor says to Antilochus, his son, where he bids him be careful of the turn at the horserace in honour of Patroclus. ION: ‘Bend gently,’ he says, ‘in the polished chariot to the left of them, and urge the horse on the right hand with whip and voice; and slacken the rein. And when you are at the goal, let the left horse draw near, yet so that the nave of the well-wrought wheel may not even seem to touch the extremity; and avoid catching the stone (Il.).’ SOCRATES: Enough. Now, Ion, will the charioteer or the physician be the better judge of the propriety of these lines? ION: The charioteer, clearly. SOCRATES: And will the reason be that this is his art, or will there be any other reason? ION: No, that will be the reason. SOCRATES: And every art is appointed by God to have knowledge of a certain work; for that which we know by the art of the pilot we do not know by the art of medicine? ION: Certainly not. SOCRATES: Nor do we know by the art of the carpenter that which we know by the art of medicine? ION: Certainly not. SOCRATES: And this is true of all the arts;—that which we know with one art we do not know with the other? But let me ask a prior question: You admit that there are differences of arts? ION: Yes. 151