Ion

​ION: Yes, by Zeus, to me indeed; for you touch my soul somehow with your words, Socrates, and those good poets seem to me to interpret these things to us from the gods by divine dispensation. SOC: And do you rhapsodes in turn interpret the works of the poets? ION: That too you say truly. SOC: Then you become interpreters of interpreters? ION: Absolutely. SOC: Hold on then, tell me this, Ion, and do not hide from me what I ask you: when you recite epic poetry well and stun the spectators most, either when you sing of Odysseus leaping onto the threshold, becoming manifest to the suitors and pouring out his arrows before his feet, or Achilles rushing upon Hector, or something of the pitiable things about Andromache, or Hecuba, or Priam, then are you in your right mind, or are you beside yourself, and does your soul think it is present at the events of which you speak, in its inspiration, whether they are in Ithaca or in Troy, or however the verses have it? ION: How vivid is this proof you have spoken, Socrates! For I will tell you without hiding it. When I speak of something pitiable, my eyes are filled with tears; and when it is fearful or terrible, my hair stands on end from fear and my heart leaps. SOC: What then? Shall we say, Ion, that this man is in his right mind at that moment, who, adorned in variegated clothing and golden crowns, weeps at sacrifices and festivals, having lost none of these things, or is terrified when standing among more than twenty thousand friendly people, with no one stripping him or doing him wrong? ION: No, by Zeus, not at all, Socrates, to say the truth. SOC: Do you know then that you also produce these same effects in most of the spectators? ION: I know it very well indeed; for I look down on them each time from the platform, weeping and looking terrified and sharing the amazement at what is said. For I must pay very close attention to them: since if I set them weeping, I myself shall laugh when receiving money, but if I set them laughing, I myself shall weep when losing money.

​SOC: Do you know then that this spectator is the last of the rings, which I said receive their power from one another by the Heraclean stone? And the middle one is you, the rhapsode and actor, and the first is the poet himself; and the god through all of these draws the soul of men wherever he wishes, hanging their power one from another. And just as from that stone a very large chain of dancers and teachers and under-teachers is suspended, hanging from the side of the rings suspended from the Muse. And one of the poets is suspended from one Muse, another from another—we call it “possessed” (katēchetai), and that is near to it: for he is held (echetai)—and from these first rings, the poets, others in turn are suspended from one or another and are inspired, some from Orpheus, others from Musaeus; but the majority are possessed and held by Homer. Of whom you, Ion, are one and are possessed by Homer, and when anyone sings of any other poet, you fall asleep and are at a loss for what to say, but when anyone utters a song of this poet, you are immediately awake and your soul dances and you have plenty to say; for it is not by art or knowledge that you say what you say about Homer, but by divine dispensation and possession, just as the Corybantes are keenly aware only of that song which belongs to the god by whom they are possessed, and for that song they have plenty of gestures and words, but pay no attention to others; so too you, Ion, when anyone mentions Homer, you have plenty to say, but about others you are at a loss. And the cause of this, which you ask me, why you have plenty to say about Homer but not about others, is that it is not by art but by divine dispensation that you are a powerful praiser of Homer. ION: You speak well, Socrates; yet I should wonder if you could speak so well as to convince me that I praise Homer while possessed and mad. And I do not think I would seem so even to you, if you were to hear me speaking about Homer. SOC: And indeed I want to hear you, but not before you answer me this: of the things Homer says, about which do you speak well? For surely not about all of them. ION: Be well assured, Socrates, there is nothing about which I do not. SOC: Surely not also about those things of which you happen to be ignorant, but which Homer speaks of? ION: And what kind of things are these which Homer speaks of, but I do not know?