Fire and renewed confidence

Use in the book

Socrates begins confident that he can speak easily with Charmides. Once the youth sits beside him, that confidence is knocked away, and the erotic glimpse sets him burning. He says he is no longer in his own possession. The doctor is initially less composed than the patient he has proposed to examine.

Charmides' assent to the analogy of good medical treatment reverses the state. Socrates takes courage again, his earlier boldness gathers, and he is rekindled. The fire metaphor is reused for renewed conversational confidence rather than merely repeated as unaltered sexual excitement. This is a subtle account of changing affect within inquiry: recovery happens through the other's response, not through a narrated act of passionless withdrawal.

The sequence can support a reading of Socrates as redirecting desire into philosophical engagement. It should not, however, become a proof that thrasytēs is itself temperance or that desire has been permanently extinguished. The dialogue dramatizes a recovery of effective speech while leaving the virtue's definition to the ensuing questions.

Places to read

1. 155c–eEarlier boldness collapses and erotic fire leaves Socrates beside himself
2. 156c–d2Charmides’ approval restores confidence, narrated as rekindling

Translation in this edition

The edition's “I was on fire” and “I was rekindled” preserve the image across the page break. Rendering the second simply “I recovered” would lose a deliberate lexical and imaginative connection.

ἀναζωπυρέω

Attested: ἀνεζωπυρούμην (anezōpyroumēn). I was being rekindled; Socrates regains conversational boldness after the boy accepts the medical analogy. References: 156d. Lexical identification: lemma: ἀναζωπυρέω. See Fire and renewed confidence.

θρασύτης

Attested: θρασύτης (thrasytēs). Boldness or confidence; Socrates loses his easy assurance in conversation when Charmides sits beside him, then recovers it as the boy accepts the medical account. References: 155c, 156d. Lexical identification: lemma: θρασύτης. See Fire and renewed confidence.

φλέγω

Attested: ἐφλεγόμην (ephlegomēn). I was burning; Socrates describes the force of erotic excitement. References: 155d. Lexical identification: lemma: φλέγω. See Fire and renewed confidence.

ἐξεκέκοπτο (exekekopto)

Had been knocked out; Socrates’ earlier confidence is abruptly lost in Charmides’ presence. References: 155c. Lemma: ἐκκόπτω. See Fire and renewed confidence.

συνηγείρετο (synēgeireto)

Was rising or reviving again; Socrates’ boldness returns as Charmides approves the medical account. References: 156d. Lemma: συνεγείρω. See Fire and renewed confidence.