Euthydemus

CRITO: Who was it, Socrates, with whom you were talking yesterday in the Lyceum? Indeed, a large crowd stood around you, so that I, though wishing to hear and having approached, was not able to hear anything clearly; looking over, however, I caught sight of him, and he seemed to me to be some stranger with whom you were talking. Who was he? SOCRATES: Are you asking which of the two, Crito? For there was not one, but there were two. CRITO: The one I mean was sitting third from you on the right; in the middle of you was the youth, the son of Axiochus. And he seemed to me, Socrates, to have grown very much, and not to differ much in age from our Critobulus. But while the former is slender, this one is well-developed, handsome, and of noble appearance. SOCRATES: This one whom you ask about, Crito, is Euthydemus; and the one sitting next to me on the left is his brother, Dionysodorus. He also takes part in the discussion. CRITO: I know neither of them, Socrates. These are some new sophists again, as it seems. Where do they come from, and what is their wisdom? SOCRATES: In race, as I think, they are from somewhere around Chios, but they emigrated to Thurii, and fleeing from there they have now for many years been spending time in these parts. As for their wisdom which you ask about, it is marvelous, Crito; the two of them are absolutely all-wise; before this, I did not even know what pancratiasts were. For these two are completely all-fighting. They did not turn out like the two Acarnanian brothers who were pancratiasts; for those two were able to fight with the body only, but these two, first, are most formidable in body — —for they are themselves very skilled at fighting in armor and able to make anyone else so who pays them a fee — second, they are best at fighting the battle in the courts, both at contending themselves and at teaching another to speak and write speeches of the sort suitable for the courts. Before this, then, they were clever only at these things, but now they have put the finishing touch to the pancratiastic art. For the remaining kind of battle which they left unworked, they have now fully worked out, so that not even a single person is able to stand up against them; they have become so formidable at fighting in arguments and refuting whatever is said at any time, whether it be false or true. I, therefore, Crito, have it in mind to entrust myself to the two men; for they say that in a short time they would make anyone else whomsoever clever in these very same things. CRITO: But how so, Socrates? Do you not fear your age, lest you are already too old? SOCRATES: Not at all, Crito; I have sufficient proof and encouragement for not fearing. For these very two, as the saying goes, being old men, began this wisdom which I desire, the eristic art; last year or the year before they were not yet wise. But I fear only one thing, lest I bring reproach upon the two strangers, just as upon Connus, the son of Metrobius, the cithara-player, who even now still teaches me to play the cithara; seeing this, therefore, the boys who are my fellow-pupils laugh at me and call Connus ‘the teacher of old men’. Lest someone should reproach the two strangers with this very same thing; and they, perhaps fearing this very thing, might quickly not be willing to accept me. But I, Crito, have persuaded others, old men, to go thither as fellow-pupils with me, and here indeed I will try to persuade others. And why do you not join me as a fellow-pupil? We shall bring your sons as a bait for them; for, desiring them, I know that they will educate us as well. CRITO: Well, nothing prevents it, Socrates, if it seems good to you. But first describe to me what the wisdom of the two men is, so that I may know what we shall actually learn. SOCRATES: You cannot hear it too soon; for I could not say that I did not pay attention to them, but indeed I paid close attention and I remember, and I will try to describe everything to you from the beginning. For by some divine chance I happened to be sitting there, where you saw me, alone in the changing-room, and I already had it in mind to stand up; but as I was rising, my accustomed sign, the divine sign, occurred.