§214ἀλλὰ ταύτῃ μὲν μηκέτι ἴωμεν— καὶ γὰρ χαλεπή τίς μοι φαίνεται ὥσπερ ὁδὸς ἡ σκέψις—ᾗ δὲ ἐτράπημεν, δοκεῖ μοι χρῆναι ἰέναι, σκοποῦντα κατὰ τοὺς ποιητάς· οὗτοι γὰρ ἡμῖν ὥσπερ πατέρες τῆς σοφίας εἰσὶν καὶ ἡγεμόνες.
But let us no longer go this way—for indeed the inquiry seems to me like a difficult path—but in the direction we turned, it seems to me we must go, examining according to the poets; for these are to us as it were fathers of wisdom and guides.
λέγουσι δὲ δήπου οὐ φαύλως ἀποφαινόμενοι περὶ τῶν φίλων, οἳ τυγχάνουσιν ὄντες· ἀλλὰ τὸν θεὸν αὐτόν φασιν ποιεῖν φίλους αὐτούς, ἄγοντα παρʼ ἀλλήλους.
And they speak, surely, making no mean declarations about those who happen to be friends; but they say that God himself makes them friends, bringing them to one another.
λέγουσι δέ πως ταῦτα, ὡς ἐγᾦμαι, ὡδί—
"
αἰεί τοι τὸν ὁμοῖον ἄγει θεὸς ὡς τὸν ὁμοῖον
"
καὶ ποιεῖ γνώριμον· ἢ οὐκ ἐντετύχηκας τούτοις τοῖς ἔπεσιν;
And they say this somehow, as I think, in this way: "God always brings like to like "and makes them acquainted; or have you not run across these verses?
—
ἔγωγʼ,
ἔφη.
"I have," he said.
—οὐκοῦν καὶ τοῖς τῶν σοφωτάτων συγγράμμασιν ἐντετύχηκας ταῦτα αὐτὰ λέγουσιν, ὅτι τὸ ὅμοιον τῷ ὁμοίῳ ἀνάγκη ἀεὶ φίλον εἶναι;
"Then have you also run across the writings of the wisest men saying these very things, that like is always necessarily a friend to like?
εἰσὶν δέ που οὗτοι οἱ περὶ φύσεώς τε καὶ τοῦ ὅλου διαλεγόμενοι καὶ γράφοντες. —
ἀληθῆ,
ἔφη,
λέγεις.
And these are, I suppose, those who discourse and write about nature and the universe." "You speak the truth," he said.
—ἆρʼ οὖν, ἦν δʼ ἐγώ, εὖ λέγουσιν;
"Do they then speak well?" I said.
—
ἴσως,
ἔφη.
"Perhaps," he said.
—ἴσως, ἦν δʼ ἐγώ, τὸ ἥμισυ αὐτοῦ, ἴσως δὲ καὶ πᾶν, ἀλλʼ ἡμεῖς οὐ συνίεμεν.
"Perhaps," I said, "the half of it, and perhaps even the whole, but we do not understand.
δοκεῖ γὰρ ἡμῖν ὅ γε πονηρὸς τῷ πονηρῷ, ὅσῳ ἂν ἐγγυτέρω προσίῃ καὶ μᾶλλον ὁμιλῇ, τοσούτῳ ἐχθίων γίγνεσθαι.
For it seems to us that the wicked person, the closer he comes to and the more he associates with a wicked person, the more hostile he becomes.
ἀδικεῖ γάρ· ἀδικοῦντας δὲ καὶ ἀδικουμένους ἀδύνατόν που φίλους εἶναι.
For he does injustice; and those who do injustice and those who suffer injustice cannot, I suppose, be friends.
οὐχ οὕτως; —
ναί,
ἦ δʼ ὅς.
Is it not so?" "Yes," he said.
—ταύτῃ μὲν ἂν τοίνυν τοῦ λεγομένου τὸ ἥμισυ οὐκ ἀληθὲς εἴη, εἴπερ οἱ πονηροὶ ἀλλήλοις ὅμοιοι. —
ἀληθῆ λέγεις. —ἀλλά μοι δοκοῦσιν λέγειν τοὺς ἀγαθοὺς ὁμοίους εἶναι ἀλλήλοις καὶ φίλους, τοὺς δὲ κακούς, ὅπερ καὶ λέγεται περὶ αὐτῶν, μηδέποτε ὁμοίους μηδʼ αὐτοὺς αὑτοῖς εἶναι, ἀλλʼ ἐμπλήκτους τε καὶ ἀσταθμήτους· ὃ δὲ αὐτὸ αὑτῷ ἀνόμοιον εἴη καὶ διάφορον, σχολῇ γέ τῳ ἄλλῳ ὅμοιον ἢ φίλον γένοιτʼ ἄν.
"By this, then, half of what is said would not be true, if indeed the wicked are like one another." "You speak the truth." "But they seem to me to mean that the good are like one another and friends, while the bad, as is indeed said of them, are never like, not even to themselves, but are unstable and unpredictable; and what is unlike and at variance with itself could hardly become like or a friend to anything else.
ἢ οὐ καὶ σοὶ δοκεῖ οὕτως; —
ἔμοιγʼ,
ἔφη.
Or does it not seem so to you also?" "To me it does," he said.
—τοῦτο τοίνυν αἰνίττονται, ὡς ἐμοὶ δοκοῦσιν, ὦ ἑταῖρε, οἱ τὸ ὅμοιον τῷ ὁμοίῳ φίλον λέγοντες, ὡς ὁ ἀγαθὸς τῷ ἀγαθῷ μόνος μόνῳ φίλος, ὁ δὲ κακὸς οὔτε ἀγαθῷ οὔτε κακῷ οὐδέποτε εἰς ἀληθῆ φιλίαν ἔρχεται.
"This then is what they riddle, as it seems to me, my companion, those who say like is friend to like, that only the good is friend to the good, alone to alone, while the bad never enters into true friendship either with good or with bad.
συνδοκεῖ σοι; —κατένευσεν.
Do you agree?" He nodded assent.
—ἔχομεν ἄρα ἤδη τίνες εἰσὶν οἱ φίλοι· ὁ γὰρ λόγος ἡμῖν σημαίνει ὅτι οἳ ἂν ὦσιν ἀγαθοί. —
πάνυ γε,
ἔφη,
δοκεῖ. καὶ ἐμοί, ἦν δʼ ἐγώ.
"We have then already who the friends are; for the argument indicates to us that they are whoever are good." "Very much so," he said, "it seems so." "And to me," I said.
καίτοι δυσχεραίνω τί γε ἐν αὐτῷ· φέρε οὖν, ὦ πρὸς Διός, ἴδωμεν τί καὶ ὑποπτεύω.
"And yet I am uneasy about something in it; come then, by Zeus, let us see what it is that I suspect.
ὁ ὅμοιος τῷ ὁμοίῳ καθʼ ὅσον ὅμοιος φίλος, καὶ ἔστιν χρήσιμος ὁ τοιοῦτος τῷ τοιούτῳ;
Is like a friend to like insofar as he is like, and is such a person useful to such a person?
μᾶλλον δὲ ὧδε· ὁτιοῦν ὅμοιον ὁτῳοῦν ὁμοίῳ τίνα ὠφελίαν ἔχειν ἢ τίνα βλάβην ἂν ποιῆσαι δύναιτο, ὃ μὴ καὶ αὐτὸ αὑτῷ;
Or rather in this way: what benefit could any like thing have, or what harm could it do, to any like thing, which it could not also do to itself?"