From the book
Alcibiades I
Plato · Diotimos Editions · 2026
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At a Glance
- The wordLittle garments worn threadbare become the image of an argument rejected because it has been used before.
- In Alcibiades IAlcibiades anticipates Socrates’ question about how he learned the advantageous, because the same dilemma has already undermined his claimed knowledge of justice.
- In this editionThe edition’s “little garments” preserves the diminutive and its “taste” retains the change of metaphor.
- A place to readThe change of topic produces a demand for fresh proofs and the clothes/food rebuke.
Meaning
Little garments worn threadbare become the image of an argument rejected because it has been used before. Clean and unsoiled evidence continues the clothing metaphor; tasting the same argument again changes to the language of fastidious consumption.
Use in the book
Alcibiades anticipates Socrates’ question about how he learned the advantageous, because the same dilemma has already undermined his claimed knowledge of justice. Socrates complains that the young man treats an effective proof like a worn garment he will no longer put on. Novelty is being demanded where relevance and validity should matter. The joke is therefore attached to a precise methodological resistance, not merely to an unexplained taste for fashionable clothes.
Socrates first insists that the old question would apply and then temporarily lets it go because Alcibiades is too fastidious to enjoy the same argument. He offers a new route by testing whether the just and advantageous differ. That concession does not certify that the first argument was worn out or that Alcibiades knows the advantageous. The luxury vocabulary also anticipates the later Persian display that will outdo the young aristocrat’s material standards.
Places to read
Translation in this edition
The edition’s “little garments” preserves the diminutive and its “taste” retains the change of metaphor. These clothes should not be confused with the literal cloak-making or body-care examples later in the dialogue.
ἀμπίσχω / ἀμπέχω
Attested: ἀμπίσχοιο (ampischoio; 113e). To put on or wear, in the metaphor of arguments as clothes. Lexical identification: family label: ἀμπίσχω / ἀμπέχω. See Clothes and repeated arguments.
ἄχραντος
Attested: ἄχραντον (achranton; 114a). Unstained or unsullied; an exaggerated requirement for pristine evidence continues the joke about refusing to reuse an argument. Lexical identification: lemma: ἄχραντος. See Clothes and repeated arguments.
γεύομαι
Attested: γεύσαιο (geusaio; 114a). To taste, changing the image from clothing to consumption of arguments. Lexical identification: lemma: γεύομαι. See Clothes and repeated arguments.
καθαρός
Attested: καθαρώτερόν (katharōteron; 133c); καθαρὸν (katharon; 113e). At 133c: Purer than the best region of human soul, an attribute of god in the supplied comparison with clearer mirrors. Clean, required by the fastidious recipient for a supposedly new proof. Lexical identification: lemma: καθαρός. This attestation at 133c belongs to the Eusebius passage supplied by Burnet in angle brackets, not to the text preserved in B and T. See God as mirror; Clothes and repeated arguments.
κατατρίβω
Attested: κατατετριμμένων (katatetrimmenōn; 113e). To wear down or wear threadbare, figuratively applied to arguments already used. Lexical identification: lemma: κατατρίβω. See Clothes and repeated arguments.
σκευάριον
Attested: σκευαρίων (skeuariōn; 113e). Little garment or article of dress, the diminutive in the used-argument analogy. Lexical identification: lemma: σκευάριον. See Clothes and repeated arguments.
τρυφάω
Attested: τρυφᾷς (tryphais; 114a). To be fastidious or luxurious in taste, here refusing a repeated argument. Lexical identification: lemma: τρυφάω. See Clothes and repeated arguments.