Part 86

Fr. And we to you, if you will tell us.

Socr. The obligation will be mutual. Listen then. This morning, while it was yet dark, Hippocrates, son of Apollodorus and brother of Phason, knocked very hard at my gate with his stick, and as soon as it was opened to him he came in, in great haste, and calling out with a loud voice, said, “Socrates, are you awake or asleep?” And I, knowing his voice, said, “Hippocrates is here: do you bring any news?”

“None,” he replied, “but what is good.”

“You say well,” said I, “but what is it? and why have you come so early?”

“Protagoras is come,” said he, standing by my side.

4. “He came the day before yesterday,” said I, “and have you only just heard of it?”

“By the gods,” he replied, “only yesterday evening,” and at the same time feeling about my bed, he sat down at my feet, and said, “Yesterday evening, very late, on my return from the village of Œnoe, for my slave Satyrus ran away, and I was purposing to tell you that I was going in pursuit of him, but something else put it out of my head; but when I had returned, and we had supped, and were going to bed, then my brother told me that Protagoras was arrived, and my first thought was to come immediately to you, but afterwards it appeared to me too late at night. As soon, however, as sleep had refreshed me after my fatigue, I immediately arose and came here.”

5. And I, knowing his earnestness and excitability, said, “What is this to you? Does Protagoras do you any harm?”

And he, laughing, said, “By the gods, Socrates, he does, because he alone is wise, and does not make me so.”

“But, by Jupiter,” said I, “if you give him money and persuade him, he will make you wise too.”

“Would that, O Jupiter and ye gods,” he said, “it depended on that, for I would spare nothing of my own or of my friend’s property either, and I have now come to you for this very purpose, that you may speak to him in my behalf. For besides that I am too young, I have never yet seen Protagoras or heard him speak, for I was but a boy when he came here before. However, Socrates, all men praise him, and say that he is the wisest man to speak. But why do we not go to him that we may find him within? He is staying, as I have heard, with Callias son of Hipponicus. Let us go then.”

6. I said to him: “We will not go there yet my friend, it is too early; but let us rise up and go into our court, and spend the time there walking about, until it is light; then we will go. For Protagoras stays mostly within; therefore cheer up, we shall probably find him at home.”

After this we rose and walked about the court, and I in order to try the strength of Hippocrates, examined and questioned him; “Tell me,” said I, “Hippocrates, you are now purposing to go to Protagoras, and to pay him money as a fee for teaching you something; to what kind of person do you think you are going, and what do you expect to become? Just as if you thought of going to your own namesake, Hippocrates of Cos, one of the Asclepiads, and were to pay him money as a fee for teaching you, if any one asked you, ‘Tell me, Hippocrates, you are about to pay a fee to Hippocrates, in what capacity?’ what should you answer?”

“I should say,” he replied, “in that of a physician.”

“And what do you expect to become?” “A physician,” said he.

“But if you thought of going to Polycletus the Argive, or Phidias the Athenian, and were to pay them a fee for teaching you, if any one asked you, ‘In what capacity do you intend to pay this money to Polycletus and Phidias?’ what should you answer?”

“I should say, in that of statuaries.”

“And what do you expect to become yourself?”

“Clearly, a statuary.”

“Be it so,” said I. “But we are now going, you and I, to Protagoras, and we are prepared to pay him money as a fee for teaching you, if our money is sufficient for the purpose, and we can persuade him by it; but if not, we mean to borrow from our friends. If, then, some one seeing us thus earnestly bent on this, should ask; ‘Tell me, Socrates and Hippocrates, in what capacity do you intend to pay money to Protagoras?’ what answer should we give him? What other name do we hear given to Protagoras, as that of statuary is given to Phidias, and that of poet to Homer? What name of this kind do we hear given to Protagoras?”

“They call him a sophist, Socrates,” he replied.

“As to a sophist, then, we are going to pay him money?”

“Assuredly.”

8. “If, then, any one should ask you this further question, ‘What do you expect to become yourself by going to Protagoras?’”

Upon which he said, blushing, (for the day was now beginning to dawn, so that I could see him,) “If this case is at all like the former, it is evident that I expect to become a sophist.”

“But, by the gods,” said I, “should you not be ashamed to shew yourself as a sophist before the Greeks?”

“By Jupiter, I should, Socrates, if I must say what I think.”

“Do you suppose, then, Hippocrates, that the instruction of Protagoras will not be of this kind, but such as you received from a grammarian, a musician, or a teacher of gymnastics? for you were not instructed in each of these for the sake of the art, meaning to become a professor yourself, but by way of accomplishment, as is proper for a private person and a freeman.”