Advice and greeting

Use in the book

Struck by Charmides' beauty, Socrates "thought Cydias the wisest of men in the ways of love, who, speaking of a beautiful boy and advising someone else, told him to beware of coming, a fawn, into the lion's presence, to be caught as a portion of meat" (155d–e). Cydias, a lyric poet otherwise almost unknown, reverses the usual image of love as a hunt: here the lover is the fawn and the boy the lion. Socrates quotes the advice as one who has not taken it: he felt he "had been caught by just such a creature" (155e).

Pressed on whether a man can be temperate without knowing himself (164a–c2), Critias all but defines temperance as knowing oneself and agrees "with the one who dedicated the inscription to that effect at Delphi" (164d). The inscription, he says, "was set up as the god's greeting to those who enter, in place of 'Rejoice!', on the view that this greeting, 'rejoice', is not the right one, and that we ought not to urge this on one another, but 'Be temperate.'" The god says it "as a prophet would, rather riddlingly" (164d–e2), and Critias explains the riddle: "For 'Know thyself' and 'Be temperate' are the same, as the inscription says and as I say; but one might think them different" (164e–165a). That, he thinks, "is what happened to those who dedicated the later inscriptions, 'Nothing too much' and 'Pledge, and ruin is near.' For they thought 'Know thyself' was a piece of advice, and not the god's greeting to those who enter; and then, so that they too, if you please, could dedicate useful advice no less, they wrote these up and dedicated them" (165a). "Pledge, and ruin is near" is usually taken as a warning against standing surety for another.

The scheme sets the god against men twice: men greet one another with "Rejoice!", the god greets with "Be temperate!", and where the god greets, men answer with advice. Critias' explanation of the riddle can be read as his own definition of temperance given a god's authority, without the god's being asked.

Socrates' last advice hangs on a condition, that Charmides has temperance: "For if you have it, I would sooner advise you to regard me as a babbler, unable to inquire into anything whatever by argument, and yourself to be happier just in proportion as you are more temperate" (176a). Charmides cannot tell whether he meets it: "But by Zeus, Socrates, I don't know whether I have it or whether I don't" (176a). He is "not altogether persuaded", and offers himself to be charmed every day (176b). Critias makes Charmides' submission to the charm the "proof", to him, of his temperance (176b), and then orders it: "Well, I do order it" (176c). The closing exchange turns on βουλή, "counsel", the root of συμβουλή, and its verb, rendered here "plotting" and "take counsel". The two have "finished plotting"; they will use force, "since this man here gives the orders"; Socrates is told to "take counsel", and answers, "There's no counsel left" (176c–d). The dialogue in which Critias denied that the god's word was advice closes on advice left hanging on its condition, an order, and no counsel left.

Places to read

1. 155d–eSocrates thinks Cydias wisest in love, who advised another to beware of coming, a fawn, before the lion; Socrates feels caught.
2. 164d–165a2Critias reads "Know thyself" as the god's greeting, "Be temperate!", in place of "Rejoice!", and says that the dedicators of the later inscriptions took it for advice.
3. 176a–b2Socrates' advice, if Charmides has temperance, to count Socrates a babbler and himself the happier; Charmides does not know whether he has it.
4. 176b–dCritias orders Charmides to submit to the charm; the two have finished plotting, and Socrates has no counsel left.

Translation in this edition

The συμβουλ- family keeps "advice" and "advise": "a piece of advice" and "useful advice" (165a), "advise" (176a). "Advising" at 155d, of Cydias, renders ὑποτίθεσθαι, the verb of "laid it down" at 163a. Πρόσρησις is "greeting" (164d, 165a), as is πρόσρημα in "this greeting, 'rejoice'" (164e), and προσαγορεύειν is "address" (164e). Χαῖρε is "Rejoice!" (164d), kept literal because Critias' argument depends on the word's sense; the infinitive is "'rejoice'" at 164e, and with ἐᾶν (ean), "let", it is "say goodbye to" (166d). Παρακελεύεσθαι is "urge" in "urge this on one another" (164e), and διανοούμενος is "had in mind" in "what the dedicator had in mind" (164e). The verb of the greeting Critias puts in the place of "Rejoice!", σωφρονεῖν (sōphronein), is "Be temperate" (164e).

διανοέομαι

Attested: διανοούμενος (dianooumenos; 164e). To have in mind, intend. The god's addressing those who enter "differently from men" is, Critias thinks, "what the dedicator had in mind when he dedicated it" (164e). Lemma: διανοέομαι.

παρακελεύομαι

Attested: παρακελεύεσθαι (parakeleuesthai; 164e). To urge on, exhort. On the view Critias ascribes to the dedicator, men ought not to urge "rejoice" on one another as a greeting, but "Be temperate" (164e). Lemma: παρακελεύομαι.

πρόσρημα

Attested: προσρήματος (prosrēmatos; 164e). A greeting. The inscription, Critias says, was set up on the view that "this greeting, 'rejoice', is not the right one" (164e), and that men should urge "Be temperate" on one another instead. Lemma: πρόσρημα.

πρόσρησις

Attested: πρόσρησις (prosrēsis; 164d), πρόσρησιν (prosrēsin; 165a). Address, greeting. The inscription "was set up as the god's greeting to those who enter" (164d), and the later dedicators thought "Know thyself" "was a piece of advice, and not the god's greeting to those who enter" (165a). Lemma: πρόσρησις.

συμβουλεύω

Attested: συμβουλεύσαιμι (symbouleusaimi; 176a). To advise. Socrates' last advice: if Charmides has temperance, Socrates would sooner advise him to regard Socrates as "a babbler, unable to inquire into anything whatever by argument", and himself as the happier the more temperate he is (176a). Lemma: συμβουλεύω.

συμβουλή

Attested: συμβουλήν (symboulēn; 165a), συμβουλάς (symboulas; 165a). Advice, counsel. The later dedicators, Critias says, took "Know thyself" for "a piece of advice", and wrote up their own sayings so that they too "could dedicate useful advice no less" (165a). Lemma: συμβουλή.

χαίρω

Attested: Χαῖρε (chaire; 164d), χαίρειν (chairein; 164e, 166d). To rejoice, to be glad; the imperative was the everyday greeting. The inscription, Critias says, was set up "in place of 'Rejoice!'" (164d), and the infinitive names the greeting again in "this greeting, 'rejoice'" (164e). With ἐᾶν, "let it rejoice", it is a farewell: Socrates tells Critias to answer as it seems to him and "say goodbye to whether it is Critias or Socrates who is being refuted" (166d–e2), which can be read as a smile at Critias, who has just banished "rejoice" as a greeting. Lemma: χαίρω.

διανοούμενος (dianooumenos)

Attested: διανοούμενος (dianooumenos; 164e). To have in mind, intend. The god's addressing those who enter "differently from men" is, Critias thinks, "what the dedicator had in mind when he dedicated it" (164e). Lemma: διανοέομαι.

προσαγορεύει (prosagoreuei)

Attested: προσαγορεύει (prosagoreuei; 164e). To address, to greet. The god, Critias says, addresses those who enter his temple "differently from men" (164e). Lemma: προσαγορεύω.

Elsewhere in Plato

In the Protagoras Socrates gives a different history of two of the same inscriptions. The Seven Sages of the sixth century BC, Thales of Miletus, Pittacus of Mytilene, Bias of Priene, Solon of Athens, Cleobulus of Lindos, Myson of Chen and the Spartan Chilon, were, he says, admirers of Spartan education, and their wisdom was of the Spartan kind, short sayings worth remembering. Meeting together, they dedicated to Apollo in his temple at Delphi, as the first-fruits of their wisdom, the sayings everyone repeats, "Know thyself" and "Nothing too much" (343a–b). There the two sayings are dedicated together, by the same men, as wisdom; in Critias' account the second is a later addition by men who misread the first.

In the Alcibiades I Socrates treats the inscription as a word to be obeyed and as advice. He bids the young Alcibiades, Pericles' ward, obey him and the inscription at Delphi and know himself (124a–b); he asks whether the man who dedicated it in the temple at Pytho, the old name of Delphi, was a nobody, or whether knowing oneself is hard and not for everyone (129a); and he offers to say what he suspects the inscription says and advises us, imagining it advising an eye, as though the eye were a man, to see itself (132d). Where Critias denies that "Know thyself" is advice, the Socrates of the Alcibiades I calls what it does advising, συμβουλεύειν.

Other ancient sources

Pausanias, the traveller of the second century AD, records that in the front porch of the temple at Delphi there were written sayings of use to men for their life, the work of the men the Greeks call wise. Of these seven he notes that Plato counted Myson of Chen in place of Periander son of Cypselus, tyrant of Corinth, and he says that the wise men, on coming to Delphi, offered to Apollo the much-sung "Know thyself" and "Nothing too much".¹ Both sayings are, for him, things of use for life, of a piece with the "useful advice" that Critias' later dedicators wrote up.

The Platonists

The god's greeting returns in On the E at Delphi by Plutarch of Chaeronea, the Platonist philosopher and biographer of the late first and early second centuries AD, a conversation held at the sanctuary about the letter E dedicated there. In the speech that closes it the philosopher Ammonius reads the E as εἶ (ei), "thou art". The god, greeting each of us as we come up to his temple, says "Know thyself", a word that is no less than "Rejoice"; and we give him back "Thou art", the address of being, which alone is true and unfeigned and belongs to him alone.² Ammonius keeps the inscription a greeting, as Critias did, and makes the greeting an exchange: the god greets, and man answers. Critias' god speaks to everyone who enters, and no answer is mentioned.