Cookery

Use in the book

At 117c Socrates asks Alcibiades about preparing a dish. He knows that he does not know how to do it. Consequently he does not oscillate between confident opinions about the recipe but leaves the work to someone who knows. The example supports a precise distinction: lack of knowledge alone does not generate the bewildered errors under examination; false presumption of knowledge does.

Its ordinariness is useful. One need not turn all ignorance into shame or demand mastery of every activity. There are competent ways to act while lacking a particular skill, especially acknowledging the lack and entrusting that task to another. The pilot example immediately generalizes this responsible deference to a setting with obvious physical stakes.

Places to read

1. 117cKnown ignorance about preparing food leads to competent delegation rather than wandering opinion

Translation in this edition

“Preparing a dish” is appropriately modest. Calling it a fully described theory of cookery would supply details the dialogue does not give.

ὄψον / σκευασία / σκευάζω

Attested: ὄψου σκευασίας (opsou skeuasias; 117c). At 117c: Preparing a dish, an activity Alcibiades knows he does not know. Lexical identification: family label: ὄψον / σκευασία / σκευάζω. See Cookery.

Use in the book

The cook follows the gardener in the sequence of knowledgeable writers (316e–317a). Socrates asks whose writings and lawful usages concern the preparation of dishes. The companion identifies cooks; Socrates calls the rules laws of cookery and then asks whether they belong to those who know how to rule that preparation. Cookery thereby provides a second, independent non-political use of “rule” immediately before the question about ruling cities.

The parenthetical “as they say” belongs to Socrates' question whether cooks know how (317a). It should not be expanded into a wholesale rejection of the profession, but neither should it be silently removed from the dialogue's attribution. The companion answers that they do know how. The exchange is quick and does not test a named cook or a specific recipe.

Cookery reappears when Socrates formulates the distinction between right and lawful on one side and wrong and lawless on the other (317b). A rule's correctness is assessed in its own field, whether medical, culinary, or horticultural. The example is thus doing more than enlarging a list of crafts: it helps detach nomos from exclusively civic enactment and makes the standard apply across disparate practical domains.

No polemic against cookery as mere flattery is developed here. Importing such a contrast from another dialogue would obscure the local argument, which treats the cook as the possessor of the relevant know-how. Conversely, it would be too strong to infer that every text on cooking or every person called a cook has thereby been certified as knowledgeable. The operative qualification remains actual ability to direct the preparation.

Places to read

1. 316eτὰ περὶ ὄψου σκευασίας συγγράμματά τε καὶ νόμιμα — The subject is the preparation of dishes
2. 316eΜαγείρων — The companion supplies the practitioners' name
3. 316eΜαγειρικοὶ ἄρα οὗτοι νόμοι — Socrates extends the designation “laws” to the culinary rules
4. 316e–317aὄψου σκευασίας ἄρχειν — “Rule” concerns directing preparation rather than holding civic office
5. 317aἘπίστανται δέ, ὥς φασιν, οἱ μάγειροι — The claim about cooks' competence includes Socrates' qualification “as they say”
6. 317bτὸ μαγειρικόν — Cookery returns among the fields in which rightness makes a rule lawful

Translation in this edition

“Preparation of dishes,” “cooks,” and “laws of cookery” keep the ordinary practical vocabulary clear. The translation retains “rule” for archein even in this unfamiliar combination, allowing the transfer into civic rule to remain audible.

Cooks — μάγειρος (mageiros)

μάγειρος (mageiros)

Cooks. Those responsible for preparing dishes, named as possessing the corresponding writings and lawful usages. Attested: Μαγείρων (316e). Cookery and the preparation of dishes.

Dishes — ὄψον (opson)

ὄψον (opson)

Dishes. Food prepared as a dish, commonly an accompaniment to a staple. The passage is not restricted to a named ingredient or recipe. Attested: ὄψου (316e). Cookery and the preparation of dishes.

Of cookery — μαγειρικός (mageirikos)

μαγειρικός (mageirikos)

Of cookery. Culinary; Socrates calls the practitioners’ rules laws of cookery before applying the same construction to cities. Attested: Μαγειρικοὶ (316e). Cookery and the preparation of dishes.

Preparation — σκευασία (skeuasia)

σκευασία (skeuasia)

Preparation. The preparing or making ready of food; this practical process is what the cook knows how to direct. Attested: σκευασίας (316e). Cookery and the preparation of dishes.

Use in the book

The genitive σκευασίας follows περί in the hypothetical demonstration that Socrates and Lysis understand the preparation of food better than the king’s son. The practical test concerns adding ingredients to boiling meat or broth.

The noun identifies a particular area of competence, rather than knowledge generally or a high-status art. This lowly culinary example is intentionally paired with royal authority. Even a handful of salt is permitted to those regarded as knowledgeable, whereas the heir would be prevented from adding a little.

Places to read

1. 209eπερὶ ὄψου σκευασίας — about preparing a dish.