Banquet

This raised a general laugh; but Socrates, with a perfectly grave expression on his face, said: You are laughing at me, are you? Is it because I want to exercise to better my health? Or because I want to take more pleasure in my food and my sleep? Or is it because I am eager for such exercises as these, not like the long-distance runners, who develop their legs at the expense of their shoulders, nor like the prize-fighters, who develop their shoulders but become thin-legged, but rather with a view to giving my body a symmetrical development by exercising it in every part?

Or are you laughing because I shall not need to hunt up a partner to exercise with, or to strip, old as I am, in a crowd, but shall find a moderate-sized room[*](Literally, a room of seven couches. Cf. Xen. Ec. 8.13.) large enough for me (just as but now this room was large enough for the lad here to get up a sweat in), and because in winter I shall exercise under cover, and when it is very hot, in the shade?

Or is this what provokes your laughter, that I have an unduly large paunch and wish to reduce it? Don’t you know that just the other day Charmides here caught me dancing early in the morning?Indeed I did, said Charmides; and at first I was dumbfounded and feared that you were going stark mad; but when I heard you say much the same things as you did just now, I myself went home, and although I did not dance, for I had never learned how, I practised shadow-boxing, for I knew how to do that.

Undoubtedly, said Philip; at any rate, your legs appear so nearly equal in weight to your shoulders that I imagine if you were to go to the market commissioners and put your lower parts in the scale against your upper parts, as if they were loaves of bread,[*](Since the Athenians were dependent largely on imported grain, they developed an elaborate system of regulations, administered by several sets of officials, to protect the consumers from speculation and extortion. One set of officials controlled the weight and the price of bread.) they would let you off without a fine. When you are ready to begin your lessons, Socrates, said Callias, pray invite me, so that I may be opposite you in the figures and may learn with you.

Come, said Philip, let me have some flute music, so that I may dance too. So he got up and mimicked in detail the dancing of both the boy and the girl.

To begin with, since the company had applauded the way the boy’s natural beauty was increased by the grace of the dancing postures, Philip made a burlesque out of the performance by rendering every part of his body that was in motion more grotesque than it naturally was; and whereas the girl had bent backward until she resembled a hoop, he tried to do the same by bending forward. Finally, since they had given the boy applause for putting every part of his body into play in the dance, he told the flute girl to hit up the time faster, and danced away, flinging out legs, hands, and head all at the same time;

and when he was quite exhausted, he exclaimed as he laid himself down: Here is proof, gentlemen, that my style of dancing, also, gives excellent exercise; it has certainly given me a thirst; so let the servant fill me up the big goblet.

Certainly, replied Callias; and the same for us, for we are thirsty with laughing at you. Here Socrates again interposed. Well, gentlemen, said he, so far as drinking is concerned, you have my hearty approval; for wine does of a truth moisten the soul[*](Apparently a reminiscence of Aristophanes’ Knights, 96.) and lull our griefs to sleep just as the mandragora does with men, at the same time awakening kindly feelings as oil quickens a flame.

However, I suspect that men’s bodies fare the same as those of plants that grow in the ground. When God gives the plants water in floods to drink, they cannot stand up straight or let the breezes blow through them; but when they drink only as much as they enjoy, they grow up very straight and tall and come to full and abundant fruitage.

So it is with us. If we pour ourselves immense draughts, it will be no long time before both our bodies and our minds reel, and we shall not be able even to draw breath, much less to speak sensibly; but if the servants frequently besprinkle us—if I too may use a Gorgian[*](Gorgias was a famous contemporary orator and teacher of rhetoric, whose speeches, though dazzling to inexperienced audiences, were over-formal and ornate. Some of his metaphors drew the criticism of Aristotle as being far-fetched. Cf. Aristot. Rhet. 3.3.4 (1406b 4 ff.).) expression—with small cups, we shall thus not be driven on by the wine to a state of intoxication, but instead shall be brought by its gentle persuasion to a more sportive mood.

This resolution received a unanimous vote, with an amendment added by Philip to the effect that the wine-pourers should emulate skilful charioteers by driving the cups around with ever increasing speed. This the wine-pourers proceeded to do.

After this the boy, attuning his lyre to the flute, played and sang, and won the applause of all; and brought from Charmides the remark, It seems to me, gentlemen, that, as Socrates said of the wine, so this blending of the young people’s beauty and of the notes of the music lulls one’s griefs to sleep and awakens the goddess of Love.

Then Socrates resumed the conversation. These people, gentlemen, said he, show their competence to give us pleasure; and yet we, I am sure, think ourselves considerably superior to them. Will it not be to our shame, therefore, if we do not make even an attempt, while here together, to be of some service or to give some pleasure one to another? At that many spoke up: You lead the way, then, and tell us what to begin talking about to realize most fully what you have in mind.

For my part, he answered, I should like to have Callias redeem his promise; for he said, you remember, that if we would take dinner with him, he would give us an exhibition of his profundity. Yes, rejoined Callias; and I will do so, if the rest of you will also lay before us any serviceable knowledge that you severally possess. Well, answered Socrates, no one objects to telling what he considers the most valuable knowledge in his possession.

Very well, then, said Callias, I will now tell you what I take greatest pride in. It is that I believe I have the power to make men better. How? asked Antisthenes. By teaching them some manual trade, or by teaching nobility of character? The latter, if righteousness[*](The word δικαιοσύνη, translated here by righteousness, is sometimes well represented by justice or honesty. It is the virtue discussed by Plato in the Republic and by Aristotle in the fifth book of his Ethics.) is the same thing as nobility. Certainly it is, replied Antisthenes, and the least debatable kind, too; for though courage and wisdom appear at times to work injury both to one’s friends and to the state, righteousness and unrighteousness never overlap at a single point.

Well, then, when every one of you has named the benefit he can confer, I will not begrudge describing the art that gives me the success that I speak of. And so, Niceratus, he suggested, it is your turn; tell us what kind of knowledge you take pride in. My father was anxious to see me develop into a good man, said Niceratus, and as a means to this end he compelled me to memorize all of Homer; and so even now I can repeat the whole Iliad and the Odyssey by heart.