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Plato's Protagoras

Πρωταγόρας ἢ σοφισταί· ἐνδεικτικός . This is how the title appears in B, except that ἐνδεικτικός (which is absent in T) is apparently from a later hand. ¹ Plato probably called the dialogue Πρωταγόρας (compare the titles Crito , Euthyphro, etc.— the majority of the dialogues are named after an interlocutor): the words ἢ σοφισταί and ἐνδεικτικός were added by Thrasylus, whose date is about the Christian era. The Protagoras is the sole example of an ‘endeictic’ dialogue: it is so called because it was thought to be an arraignment ( ἔνδειξις ) of the Sophists. That this is the meaning of ἐνδεικτικός , and not ‘probative’, can be inferred from the fact that Albinus used ἐλεγκτικός in its place ( εἰσαγωγὴ εἰς τοὺς Πλάτωνος διαλόγους , ch. v. Cobet takes the right view: see his edition of Diog. Laert. III. 51). The arrangement of the Platonic dialogues into tetralogies is also probably due to Thrasylus. The Protagoras is the second dialogue of the sixth tetralogy, the others being (1) Euthydemus, (3) Gorgias, (4) Meno. See Grote's Plato, 1, 158 ff.

Commentary on Plato, Protagoras. James Adam. ed. James Adam, ed. Adela Marion Adam. Cambridge. 1921.

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Current edition Perseus

Commentary on Plato, Protagoras (English) (Plato. Platonis Protagoras. Adam, James; Adam, Adela Marion, editors. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1921.)

Editions (1)

Πρωταγόρας Perseus (Platonis Opera, Tomus III: Tetralogia V-VII. Burnet, John, editor. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1903.) — 309 focus

[309] 309 309a

ΕΤ.

πόθεν, ὦ Σώκρατες, φαίνῃ; ἢ δῆλα δὴ ὅτι ἀπὸ κυνηγεσίου τοῦ περὶ τὴν Ἀλκιβιάδου ὥραν; καὶ μήν μοι καὶ πρῴην ἰδόντι καλὸς μὲν ἐφαίνετο ἀνὴρ ἔτι, ἀνὴρ μέντοι, ὦ Σώκρατες, ὥς γʼ ἐν αὐτοῖς ἡμῖν εἰρῆσθαι, καὶ πώγωνος ἤδη ὑποπιμπλάμενος.

ΣΩ.

εἶτα τί τοῦτο; οὐ σὺ μέντοι Ὁμήρου ἐπαινέτης εἶ, 309b ὃς ἔφη χαριεστάτην ἥβην εἶναι τοῦ πρῶτον ὑπηνήτου, ἣν νῦν Ἀλκιβιάδης ἔχει;

ΕΤ.

τί οὖν τὰ νῦν; ἦ παρʼ ἐκείνου φαίνῃ; καὶ πῶς πρός σε ὁ νεανίας διάκειται;

ΣΩ.

εὖ, ἔμοιγε ἔδοξεν, οὐχ ἥκιστα δὲ καὶ τῇ νῦν ἡμέρᾳ· καὶ γὰρ πολλὰ ὑπὲρ ἐμοῦ εἶπε βοηθῶν ἐμοί, καὶ οὖν καὶ ἄρτι ἀπʼ ἐκείνου ἔρχομαι. ἄτοπον μέντοι τί σοι ἐθέλω εἰπεῖν· παρόντος γὰρ ἐκείνου, οὔτε προσεῖχον τὸν νοῦν, ἐπελανθανόμην τε αὐτοῦ θαμά. 309c

ΕΤ.

καὶ τί ἂν γεγονὸς εἴη περὶ σὲ κἀκεῖνον τοσοῦτον πρᾶγμα; οὐ γὰρ δήπου τινὶ καλλίονι ἐνέτυχες ἄλλῳ ἔν γε τῇδε τῇ πόλει.

ΣΩ.

καὶ πολύ γε.

ΕΤ.

τί φῄς; ἀστῷ ἢ ξένῳ;

ΣΩ.

ξένῳ.

ΕΤ.

ποδαπῷ;

ΣΩ.

Ἀβδηρίτῃ.

ΕΤ.

καὶ οὕτω καλός τις ὁ ξένος ἔδοξέν σοι εἶναι, ὥστε τοῦ Κλεινίου ὑέος καλλίων σοι φανῆναι;

ΣΩ.

πῶς δʼ οὐ μέλλει, ὦ μακάριε, τὸ σοφώτατον κάλλιον φαίνεσθαι;

ΕΤ.

ἀλλʼ ἦ σοφῷ τινι ἡμῖν, ὦ Σώκρατες, ἐντυχὼν πάρει; 309d

ΣΩ.

σοφωτάτῳ μὲν οὖν δήπου τῶν γε νῦν, εἴ σοι δοκεῖ σοφώτατος εἶναι Πρωταγόρας.

ΕΤ.

ὢ τί λέγεις; Πρωταγόρας ἐπιδεδήμηκεν;

ΣΩ.

τρίτην γε ἤδη ἡμέραν.

ΕΤ.

καὶ ἄρτι ἄρα ἐκείνῳ συγγεγονὼς ἥκεις;

Translations (1)

Protagoras Perseus (Plato in Twelve Volumes, Vol. 2. Lamb, W.R.M., translator. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1924 (printing).) — 309 focus

309a

Fr.

Where have you been now, Socrates? Ah, but of course you have been in chase of Alcibiades and his youthful beauty! Well, only the other day, as I looked at him, I thought him still handsome as a man—for a man he is, Socrates, between you and me, and with quite a growth of beard.

Soc.

And what of that? Do you mean to say you do not approve of Homer,¹ 309b who said that youth has highest grace in him whose beard is appearing, as now in the case of Alcibiades?

Fr.

Then how is the affair at present? Have you been with him just now? And how is the young man treating you?

Soc.

Quite well, I considered, and especially so today: for he spoke a good deal on my side, supporting me in a discussion—in fact I have only just left him. However, there is a strange thing I have to tell you: although he was present, I not merely paid him no attention, but at times forgot him altogether.

309c

Fr.

Why, what can have happened between you and him? Something serious! For surely you did not find anyone else of greater beauty there,—no, not in our city.

Soc.

Yes, of far greater.

Fr.

What do you say? One of our people, or a foreigner?

Soc.

A foreigner.

Fr.

Of what city?

Soc.

Abdera.

Fr.

And you found this foreigner so beautiful that he appeared to you of greater beauty than the son of Cleinias?

Soc.

Why, my good sir, must not the wisest appear more beautiful?

Fr.

Do you mean it was some wise man that you met just now?

309d

Soc.

Nay, rather the wisest of our generation, I may tell you, if wisest is what you agree to call Protagoras.

Fr.

Ah, what a piece of news! Protagoras come to town!

Soc.

Yes, two days ago.

Fr.

And it was his company that you left just now?

Notes on the current edition

Commentary on Plato, Protagoras

1. B denotes the Bodleian MS. = Bekker's U: T a manuscript in the library of St Mark's at Venice (append. class. 4 cod. 1) = Bekker's t. The former is the best representative of the MSS. of the first class: the latter is supposed by Schanz to be the source of all the MSS. of the second class.

Search the Perseus Catalog for:

Search the Perseus Catalog for:

Plato's Protagoras

Current edition Perseus

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