530a
530b
Soc.
Welcome, Ion. Where have you come from now, to pay us this visit? From your home in
Ephesus
?
Ion.
No, no, Socrates; from
Epidaurus
and the festival there of Asclepius.
Soc.
Do you mean to say that the Epidaurians honor the god with a contest of rhapsodes also?
Ion.
Certainly, and of music
1
in general.
Soc.
Why then, you were competing in some contest, were you? And how went your competition?
Ion.
We carried off the first prize, Socrates.
Soc.
Well done: so now, mind that we win too at the Panathenaea.
2
Ion.
Why, so we shall, God willing.
Soc.
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
530c
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.
Ion.
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
530d
Metrodorus
3
of
Lampsacus
, nor Stesimbrotus
4
of
Thasos
, nor Glaucon,
5
nor any one that the world has ever seen, had so many and such fine comments to offer on Homer as I have.
Soc.
That is good news, Ion; for obviously you will not grudge me an exhibition of them.
Ion.
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.
6
Ion. Plato. William Rangeley Maitland Lamb (Translator). Cambridge, MA. 1925.
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