Plato: ALCIBIADES I Translated by Benjamin Jowett
PERSONS OF THE DIALOGUE: Alcibiades, Socrates.
Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg (1783-1853). Socrates and Alcibiades. Oilpainting from 1816. Thorvaldsen museum in Copenhagen.
[103B – This refers to the original text, so that we can point in any language to the exact spot in the dialogue – each numbered page is then further divided into A, B, C, D and E]
SOCRATES: I dare say that you may be surprised to find, O son of Cleinias [Alciabiades’ father], that I, who am your first lover, not having spoken to you for many years, when the rest of the world were wearying you with their attentions, am the last of your lovers who still speaks to you. The cause of my silence has been that I was hindered by a power more than human, of which I will someday explain to you the nature; this impediment has now been removed; I therefore here present myself before you, and I greatly hope that no similar hindrance will again occur. [104A] Meanwhile, I have observed that your pride has been too much for the pride of your admirers; they were numerous and high-spirited, but they have all run away, overpowered by your superior force of character; not one of them remains. And I want you to understand the reason why you have been too much for them. You think that you have no need of them or of any other man, for you have great possessions and lack nothing, beginning with the body, and ending with the soul. In the first place, you say to yourself that you are the fairest and tallest of the citizens, and this everyone who has eyes may see to be true; in the second place, that you are among the noblest of them, highly connected both on the father's and the mother's side, and sprung from one of the most distinguished families in your own state, which is the greatest in Hellas [Greek name of Greece], and having many friends and kinsmen of the best sort, who can assist you when in need; and there is one potent relative, who is more to you than all the rest, Pericles [the greatest statesman of all Greece – great leader] the son of Xanthippus, whom your father left guardian of you, and of your brother, and who can do as he pleases not only in this city, but in all Hellas, and among many and mighty barbarous [the Greeks called all those whose language is not Greek: “bar-bar”] nations.
Pericles (495-429 BCE). Generally regarded as the greatest politician in the Golden Age of Athens. The statue reads: Pericles, son of Xanthippus, Athenian. Roman copy of a Greek original by Kresilas. Vatican museum, no. 269.
[104C] Moreover, you are rich; but I must say that you value yourself least of all upon your possessions. And all these things have lifted you up; you have overcome your lovers, and they have acknowledged that you were too much for them. Have you not remarked their absence? And now I know that you wonder why I, unlike the rest of them, have not gone away, and what can be my motive in remaining.
ALCIBIADES: Perhaps, Socrates, you are not aware that I was just going to ask you the very same question — What do you want? And what is your motive in annoying me, and always, wherever I am, making a point of coming? [Compare with Plato: Symposium] I do really wonder what you mean and should greatly like to know.
SOCRATES: Then if, as you say, you desire to know, I suppose that you will be willing to hear, and I may consider myself to be speaking to an auditor who will remain, and will not run away?
ALCIBIADES: Certainly, let me hear.
SOCRATES: You had better be careful, for I may very likely be as unwilling to end as I have hitherto been to begin.
ALCIBIADES: Proceed, my good man, and I will listen.
SOCRATES: I will proceed; and, although no lover likes to speak with one who has no feeling of love in him [compare again Plato: Symposium], I will make an effort, and tell you what I meant: My love, Alcibiades, which I hardly like to confess, would long ago have passed away, as I flatter myself, if I saw you loving your good things, or thinking that you ought to pass life in the enjoyment of them. But I shall reveal other thoughts of yours, which you keep to yourself; whereby you will know that I have always had my eye on you. Suppose that at this moment some God came to you and said:
Plato’s Symposium is different from his other dialogues, in that instead of Socrates asking a famous Athenian to define a philosophical term, the Symposium is a party, where the participants each give a speech on the subject of Eros - love. Furthermore, in the middle of Socrates’s famous speech on Platonic love, a drunk man crashes the party and insists that he may also give a speech on his love of Socrates. Now, who do you think that person is?
[105A] Alcibiades, will you live as you are, or die in an instant if you are forbidden to make any further acquisition? — I verily believe that you would choose death. And I will tell you the hope in which you are at present living: Before many days have elapsed, you think that you will come before the Athenian Assembly [Athens attempted the world’s first democracy – the Athenian assembly], and will prove to them that you are more worthy of honor than Pericles, or any other man that ever lived, and having proved this, you will have the greatest power in the state.
The Assembly was a unique Athenian institution. Originally it allowed all male citizens of Athens to speak their minds and exercise their votes regarding the government of the city. In 462 BCE Ephialtes instituted a reform the increased the power of the Assembly. Thus began the worlds first democracy.
When you have gained the greatest power among us, you will go on to other Hellenic states [other Greek speaking city-states: Sparta, Corinth…], and not only to Hellenes, but to all the barbarians who inhabit the same continent with us.
The major Greek city-states. See Crete below and the Persian empire to the east.
[105C] And if the God were then to say to you again: Here in Europe is to be your seat of empire, and you must not cross over into Asia or meddle with Asiatic affairs, I do not believe that you would choose to live upon these terms; but the world, as I may say, must be filled with your power and name — no man less than Cyrus and Xerxes [the great kings of Persia – the major power to the east of Greece – a constant threat to the Greek city-states] is of any account with you.
Cyrus and Xerxes were the greatest kings of Persia. Cyrus originally conquered the Eastern part of Greece in modern Turkey (Ephesus and Miletus) in 547 BC. His grandson, Xerxes gathered one of the greatest army ever assembled and sacked Athens in 480 BC after a famous victory in the battle of Thermopylae, only to suffer a severe defeat in the sea battle of Salamis. In 480 BC united Greeks went on the offensive, decisively defeating the Persian army at the battle of Plataea.
Such I know to be your hopes — I am not guessing only — and very likely you, who know that I am speaking the truth, will reply, Well, Socrates, but what have my hopes to do with the explanation which you promised of your unwillingness to leave me? And that is what I am now going to tell you, sweet son of Cleinias and Dinomache. The explanation is, that all these designs of yours cannot be accomplished by you without my help; so great is the power which I believe myself to have over you and your concerns; and this I conceive to be the reason why the God has hitherto forbidden me to converse with you, and I have been long expecting his permission. For, as you hope to prove your own great value to the state, and having proved it, to attain at once to absolute power, so do I indulge a hope that I shall be the supreme power over you, if I am able to prove my own great value to you, and to show you that neither guardian, nor kinsman, nor any one is able to deliver into your hands the power which you desire, but I only, God being my helper. When you were young [compare again Plato: Symposium] and your hopes were not yet matured, I should have wasted my time, and therefore, as I conceive, the God forbade me to converse with you; but now, having his permission, I will speak, for now you will listen to me.
[106A] ALCIBIADES: Your silence, Socrates, was always a surprise to me. I never could understand why you followed me about, and now that you have begun to speak again, I am still more amazed. Whether I think all this or not, is a matter about which you seem to have already made up your mind, and therefore my denial will have no effect upon you. But granting, if I must, that you have perfectly divined my purposes, why is your assistance necessary to the attainment of them? Can you tell me why?
[106B] SOCRATES: You want to know whether I can make a long speech, such as you are in the habit of hearing; but that is not my way. I think, however, that I can prove to you the truth of what I am saying, if you will grant me one little favor.
ALCIBIADES: Yes, if the favor which you mean be not a troublesome one.
SOCRATES: Will you be troubled at having questions to answer?
ALCIBIADES: Not at all.
SOCRATES: Then please to answer.
ALCIBIADES: Ask me.
[106C] SOCRATES: Have you not the intention which I attribute to you?
ALCIBIADES: I will grant anything you like, in the hope of hearing what more you have to say.
SOCRATES: You do, then, mean, as I was saying, to come forward in a little while in the character of an adviser of the Athenians? And suppose that when you are ascending the bema, I pull you by the sleeve and say, Alcibiades, you are getting up to advise the Athenians [Athens – the greatest of the city-states and in continual conflict both with other city-states, such as Sparta, and they all together against the mighty eastern power of Persia] — do you know the matter about which they are going to deliberate, better than they?—How would you answer?
[106D] ALCIBIADES: I should reply, that I was going to advise them about a matter which I do know better than they.
SOCRATES: Then you are a good adviser about the things which you know?
ALCIBIADES: Certainly.
SOCRATES: And do you know anything but what you have learned of others, or found out yourself?
ALCIBIADES: That is all.
SOCRATES: And would you have ever learned or discovered anything, if you had not been willing either to learn of others or to examine yourself?
ALCIBIADES: I should not.
SOCRATES: And would you have been willing to learn or to examine what you supposed that you knew?
ALCIBIADES: Certainly not.
106E] SOCRATES: Then there was a time when you thought that you did not know what you are now supposed to know?
ALCIBIADES: Certainly.
SOCRATES: I think that I know tolerably well the extent of your acquirements; and you must tell me if I forget any of them: according to my recollection, you learned the arts of writing, of playing on the lyre [a Greek kind of guitar], and of wrestling; the flute you never would learn; this is the sum of your accomplishments, unless there were some which you acquired in secret; and I think that secrecy was hardly possible, as you could not have come out of your door, either by day or night, without my seeing you.
The Greek lyre. A string instrument typically used in recitations of lyric poetry.
The Ancient Greek Lyre…LIVE!
(Some information on the Lyre and this song, called: Lament of Simonides (Ancient Greek Musical Fragment - Arranged For Replica Kithara) - from my album, "The Ancient Greek Lyre", available now, from iTunes: http://bit.ly/bxO7Ra This lovely melody, written in the ancient Greek Hypophrygian Mode, can possibly be attributed to the ancient Greek poet & musician, Simonedes of Ceo .Simonides of Ceos (ca. 556 BC-469 BC) was a Greek lyric poet. He was born at Loulis on Kea. During his youth he taught poetry and music, and composed paeans for the festivals of Apollo. He was included, along with Sappho and Pindar, in the canonical list of nine lyric poets by the scholars of Hellenistic Alexandria. Further details can be found at: http://www.mlahanas.de/Greeks/Bios/Si... Although initially the piece sounds as if it is in the Ancient Greek Mixolydian Mode (the equivalent B-B on the white notes of the piano - not to be confused with the Medieval "Mixolydian" Mode, which is G-G!), the tonality of the melody actually implies the Ancient Greek Hypophrygian Mode (G-G). Maybe it is this ambiguity of tonality which creates the haunting, mystical feel of this beautiful ancient melody?)