From the book
Alcibiades II
Plato · Diotimos Editions · 2026
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At a Glance
- The wordCreon and Teiresias enter through Euripides’ Phoenician Women.
- In Alcibiades IIThe roles are not interchangeable.
- In this editionNote 41 explains from Phoenician Women 852–859 that Teiresias has returned from Athens after helping the Athenians defeat Eumolpus and wears first-fruits of the spoils.
- A place to readSocrates recounts Creon’s response to the seer’s victorious garlands.
Meaning
Creon and Teiresias enter through Euripides’ Phoenician Women. Teiresias wears garlands received as first-fruits for success achieved through his craft, and Creon takes them as an omen amid his own rough sea. Socrates makes that encounter the comparison for receiving Alcibiades’ wreath.
Use in the book
The roles are not interchangeable. Teiresias has the garlands and the achievement that earned them; Creon sees and interprets their possible significance for his own endangered situation. Socrates compares his act of taking an omen to Creon’s. He does not simply proclaim himself Teiresias or declare the philosophical education already victorious.
Alcibiades’ gift acknowledges the usefulness of advice, and Socrates hopes that the judgement it expresses signals victory over the young man’s other lovers. The rough-sea phrase preserves uncertainty. A garland can be hopeful evidence of a relationship’s direction while the contest remains unresolved.
The comparison also revisits the question of craft. Teiresias’ craft has earned a concrete success, whereas the larger dialogue has denied that possession of expertise alone entails intelligent use. The ending borrows his achieved honour for a new personal hope without withdrawing that earlier caution. The learner’s continuing orientation, not the physical wreath by itself, is what Socrates prizes.
Places to read
Translation in this edition
Note 41 explains from Phoenician Women 852–859 that Teiresias has returned from Athens after helping the Athenians defeat Eumolpus and wears first-fruits of the spoils. Those details clarify the abbreviated allusion but are not all narrated here. The printed doxa at 151b is opinion, whereas Ast and Buttmann conjecture words for gift.