I Footnote 1Socrates narrates in the first person, as in the Charmides and Lysis; see Introduction p. vii, Hirzel, Der Dialog, i. p. 84. Demetrius, On Style, 205, cites this sentence as an example of trimeter members.
Editors give references for the anecdote that it was found in Plato’s tablets with many variations. For Plato’s description of such painstaking Cf. Phaedrus 278 D. Cicero De sen.. 5. 13 scribens est mortuus.
went down yesterday to the Peiraeus Footnote 2Cf. 439 E; about a five-mile walk. with Glaucon, the son of Ariston, to pay my devotions Footnote 3Plato and Xenophon represent Socrates as worshipping the gods, νόμῳ πόλεως. Athanasius, Contra gentes, 9, censures Plato for thus adoring an Artemis made with hands, and the fathers and medieval writers frequently cite the passage for Plato’s regrettable concessions to polytheism—persuasio civilis
as Minucius Felix styles it. Cf. Eusebius Praep. Evang. xiii. 13. 66. to the Goddess, Footnote 4Presumably Bendis (354 A), though, as the scholiast observes, Athena is ἡ θεός for an Athenian. For foreign cults at the Peiraeus see Holm, History of Greece , iii. p. 189. and also because I wished to see how they would conduct the festival since this was its inauguration. Footnote 5See Introduction. I thought the procession of the citizens very fine, but it was no better than the show, made by the marching of the Thracian contingent.
After we had said our prayers and seen the spectacle we were starting for town when Polemarchus, the son of Cephalus, caught sight of us from a distance as we were hastening homeward Footnote 6Headed homeward
is more exact and perhaps better. and ordered his boy Footnote 7A Greek gentleman would always be so attended. Cf. Charmides 155 A, Meno 82 B, Protagoras 310 C, Demosthenes xlvii. 36. run and bid us to wait Footnote 8The bounder
in Theophrastus, Char. xi. (xvii.), if he sees persons in a hurry will ask them to wait. for him, and the boy caught hold Footnote 9Charmides 153 B, Parmenides 126 A, 449 B. of my himation from behind and said, Polemarchus wants you to wait.
And I turned around and asked where his master Footnote 10Ipse,
Cf. Protagoras 314 D; ipse dixit;
Now you are not
—Shakes. was. ipse,
for I am he.There he is,
he said, behind you, coming this way. Wait for him.
So we will,
said Glaucon, and shortly after Polemarchus came up and Adeimantus, the brother of Glaucon, and Niceratus, the son of Nicias, and a few others apparently from the procession. Whereupon Polemarchus said, Socrates, you appear to have turned your faces townward and to be going to leave us.
Not a bad guess,
said I. But you see how many we are?
he said. Surely.
You must either then prove yourselves the better men Footnote 11Cf. the playful threat in Philebus 16 A, Phaedrus 236 C, Horace, Satire i. 4. 142. or stay here.
Why, is there not left,
said I, the alternative of our persuading Footnote 12For the characteristic Socratic contrast between force and persuasion cf. 411 D, and the anecdote in Diogenes Laertius vii. 24. you that you ought to let us go?
But could you persuade us,
said he, if we refused to listen?
Nohow,
said Glaucon. Well, we won’t listen, and you might as well make up your minds to it.
Book 1