Homer

Use in the book

Socrates asks Charmides whether he trusts Homer's statement that modesty is not good when present with a man in need. Charmides accepts the line, and the concession supplies a counterexample to the equation of modesty with temperance: temperance is agreed to be good, whereas modesty can fail to be so. The argument's immediate force is the interlocutor's acceptance of the poet's judgment, not an independently demonstrated general theory of shame.

The source is Odyssey 17.347, in the episode in which the disguised Odysseus is to beg from the suitors. That context makes the inhibition at issue practical: a needy beggar cannot let reticence prevent him from seeking food. Whether this particular inhibition exhausts the aidōs intended by Charmides is a question for evaluating the refutation. The verse as Plato gives it differs from the familiar Homeric text: the ending “to be present” supports the repeated language of a quality being present in someone. An edition should report the difference rather than silently standardize Plato's quotation to Homer.

A later Homeric image works differently. Socrates asks whether his dream has come through horn or ivory, echoing Penelope's distinction between truthful and deceptive dreams. The quotation about modesty is recruited as an accepted premise; the dream allusion marks uncertainty about a hypothesis. Together they show that the dialogue's poetic borrowings do not all have one evidential status.

Places to read

1. 161a–bA Homeric line is accepted as a counterexample to modesty’s unconditional goodness
2. 173aSocrates alludes to the Homeric gates of dreams without naming the poet

Translation in this edition

The edition retains “to be present,” corresponding to παρεῖναι in Plato's quoted line, and explains the difference from the usual Odyssey text. The named occurrence of Homer is 161a; 173a is an allusion, not a second attestation of the name.

Ὅμηρος

Attested: Ὁμήρῳ (homērōi). Homer, the poetic authority invoked against the claim that shame is always good. References: 161a. Lexical identification: lemma: Ὅμηρος. See Homer.

πιστεύεις (pisteueis)

Trust or believe; Socrates asks whether Charmides accepts Homer's saying as well spoken. References: 161a. Lemma: πιστεύω. See Homer.

Use in the book

At 112b Socrates appeals to what Alcibiades has heard, particularly the Iliad and Odyssey. The Achaeans and Trojans, and Penelope’s suitors and Odysseus, are paired examples of opposing parties whose battles and deaths arise from disagreement over justice. The assertion is Socrates’ characterization of the poems for a specific argument, accepted by Alcibiades; it is not a claim that every episode has only that subject. Penelope appears as the woman whose suitors are named, without further characterization. At 132a the quotation “the people of great-hearted Erechtheus” changes register. The supplied note identifies its epic dēmos as land, whereas Socrates exploits the Athenian political sense, people, to give the populace a handsome face that a prospective lover should inspect stripped. Erechtheus is thus a quoted ancestral name in the civic-erotic image, not a new participant.

Places to read

1. 112bThe two epics and their opposing sides supply familiar lethal disagreements.
2. 132aThe quoted name of Erechtheus accompanies the personified people.

Translation in this edition

Burnet letterspaces the Homeric words at 132a; the supplied note identifies Iliad 2.547. The difference between the quoted epic meaning of dēmos and Socrates’ current use is essential and must not be flattened into a claim that Homer already meant the democratic assembly.

Ἀχαιός

Attested: Ἀχαιοῖς (achaiois; 112b). Achaean, one side in the epic war example. Lexical identification: lemma: Ἀχαιός. See Homer and epic conflict.

Ἐρεχθεύς

Attested: Ἐρεχθέως (erechtheōs; 132a). Erechtheus, the named ancestral figure in the Homeric phrase used of the Athenian people. Lexical identification: lemma: Ἐρεχθεύς. See Homer and epic conflict.

Ἰλιάς

Attested: Ἰλιάδος (iliados; 112b). The Iliad, one of the named poems heard by Alcibiades. Lexical identification: lemma: Ἰλιάς. See Homer and epic conflict.

Ὀδύσσεια

Attested: Ὀδυσσείας (odysseias; 112b). The Odyssey, one of the named poems heard by Alcibiades. Lexical identification: lemma: Ὀδύσσεια. See Homer and epic conflict.

Ὀδυσσεύς

Attested: Ὀδυσσεῖ (odyssei; 112b). Odysseus, opposed to Penelope’s suitors in the example. Lexical identification: lemma: Ὀδυσσεύς. See Homer and epic conflict.

Ὅμηρος

Attested: Ὁμήρου (homērou; 112b). Homer, whose epics are invoked as familiar examples of lethal disagreement. Lexical identification: lemma: Ὅμηρος. See Homer and epic conflict.

Πηνελόπη

Attested: Πηνελόπης (pēnelopēs; 112b). Penelope, whose suitors are one side in the Odyssey example. Lexical identification: lemma: Πηνελόπη. See Homer and epic conflict.

Τρώς

Attested: Τρωσὶν (trōsin; 112b). Trojan, the other side named with the Achaeans. Lexical identification: lemma: Τρώς. See Homer and epic conflict.

Use in the book

Poetic language appears at several levels. The joint-search invitation at 140a echoes an Iliadic tag, and yesterday and the day before at 141d borrows another. These small adaptations furnish ordinary argumentative speech rather than stopping it for a separate recital. At 142d–142e the Odyssey’s account of human responsibility becomes an explicit explanatory authority, with unintelligence inserted as Socrates’ alternative to recklessness.

The Margites quotation is more contentious. Alcibiades sees no relevance in the fool’s badly knowing many works, and Socrates insists that the poet is riddling. His appeal to Homer’s supreme wisdom supplies a reason to search for a meaning compatible with the argument. That rhetorical move is itself part of the scene; it does not establish that the reconstruction is the poem’s historically certain sense.

The Trojan sacrifice and Athena’s treatment of Diomedes serve different final functions. The first undermines the claim that costly ritual compels divine favour; the second pictures the preliminary work of education. The inherited material is repeatedly selected and adapted to the immediate philosophical question, rather than reproduced as an unaltered catalogue of Homeric doctrines.

The variety of uses advises discrimination about evidence. A tag, an attributed comic poem, a textually unusual quotation and an altered line of epic speech are not equivalent witnesses. The lexicon should show both what Socrates makes them do and the source edition’s limits on their textual or historical status.

Places to read

1. 140aAn Iliadic companionship tag is adapted to joint inquiry.
2. 141dThe recent-news formula is borrowed from Iliad 2.303.
3. 142d–142eOdyssey 1.32–34 supplies the rebuke to misplaced blame of gods.
4. 147b–147d2The Margites is attributed to Homer and reconstructed as a riddle.
5. 149d–149eThe Trojans’ rejected sacrifice provides religious evidence.
6. 150d–150eAthena and Diomedes supply the educational analogy.

Translation in this edition

Notes 6, 10, 13, 27, 36 and 40 identify the relevant Homeric sources. Most importantly, only one of the five lines quoted as Iliad 8.548–552 stands at that location in the Homeric manuscripts; the final line recurs elsewhere. Burnet’s spacing marks exact retained words where poetry is absorbed into prose.

Use in the book

Socrates makes Hipparchus the first to bring Homer’s epics into the country and credits him with compelling rhapsodes at the Panathenaea to proceed consecutively, each taking over from the previous performer. The report includes both access to poetry and regulation of its public performance. “As even now they do” connects the attributed initiative with a practice familiar at the conversation’s dramatic present.

Neither claim should be expanded into a full history of the Homeric text. The dialogue does not describe an editor collating manuscripts, composing the Iliad and Odyssey, or establishing a definitive written recension. The ordering of performance presupposes some understanding of sequence, but the passage does not explain the material form in which that order was transmitted. Likewise, “first brought” is Socrates’ commemorative claim about Hipparchus, not an independently established account of Homer’s earliest circulation in Attica.

The placement of the episode gives public poetry an educational role. Hipparchus’ later stated wish to educate citizens gathers the Homeric performance together with his patronage of lyric poets and his own maxims. Yet the text quotes no Homeric passage and does not explain what moral content the rhapsodes teach. Their contribution is presented institutionally, through making a major poetic tradition publicly available and ordered.

The verb of compulsion is conspicuous. It can describe enforcing a performance rule without implying that the poems’ audience is intellectually convinced. Later the companion says that the argument has compelled rather than persuaded him. The verbal connection invites comparison between ordered performance and ordered assent, but it does not prove that Hipparchus’ regulation was either educationally defective or a coded portrait of Socrates.

An alternative ancient attribution survives: Diogenes Laertius assigns a consecutive-recitation rule to Solon. The discrepancy limits any easy inference from the story to historical priority. Aelian’s later repetition explicitly names the dialogue as his source, so it is not an independent confirmation.

Places to read

1. 228bτὰ Ὁμήρου ἔπη — The objects brought to Athens are Homer’s epics.
2. 228bἠνάγκασε τοὺς ῥαψῳδοὺς — The narrative stresses enforced regulation of performers.
3. 228bἐξ ὑπολήψεως ἐφεξῆς — Taking turns and consecutive order are both expressed.
4. 228bὥσπερ νῦν ἔτι — The practice is said to continue in the dramatic present.

Translation in this edition

The edition uses “epics” for ἔπη and “poems” for Hipparchus’ own compositions, preserving the local distinction. At 228b7 its apparatus reports that B has ἔπη while TW omit it; Burnet retains the noun. This is the supplied apparatus’s evidence, not a new examination of the manuscripts.

Use in the book

After all three adults fail to name the right adviser for education, Socrates teasingly suggests asking the lads. He then asks whether they are ashamed, like Homer’s suitors, who did not think it fitting that anyone else should string the bow. The argument has become a test of who is willing to let another person succeed where he has failed.

The image gives the boys an unrealized possibility of authority. They began as earnest disputants and became an audience for adult rivalry; now Socrates imagines them as potential contributors to a question their elders cannot answer. He never actually gives them the bow-equivalent by eliciting a response. The force is diagnostic: would the adults refuse the attempt because of status rather than because they have tested the boys’ competence?

It is tempting to equate Socrates with the disguised hero, but the local proposal points to the lads as the people who might be asked. Socrates also includes himself in “we” who are perplexed and possibly ashamed. The comparison is more flexible than a cast list assigning every figure a Homeric counterpart.

The passage joins the earlier Solon citation as a use of poetry within philosophical inquiry. Solon provides a plausible first account that requires testing; Homer supplies an image of resistance to unexpected competence. Neither literary reference simply settles the substantive question of what philosophy is or who can judge its appropriate learning.

Places to read

1. 135aὥσπερ ἔφη τοὺς μνηστῆρας Ὅμηρος — Socrates invokes Homer’s suitors as a comparison for threatened prestige.
2. 135aὅστις ἐντενεῖ τὸ τόξον — Stringing the bow represents a competence the established competitors might deny another person the chance to display.

Translation in this edition

The note identifies Odyssey 21.285–329: after the suitors fail to string Odysseus’ bow, the disguised Odysseus asks to try and they protest, ashamed at the prospect that a beggar could succeed. Those details explain the allusion; they are not all stated in The Lovers. Burnet prints axiountōn in the comparison, with alternative forms reported in the apparatus. The edition translates the sense as a relative description of the suitors and marks Socrates’ manner as teasing. An article should therefore preserve the scene’s exploratory joke rather than present the Homeric episode as a formal proof.

Use in the book

Homer’s appearances resist a single function. In the discussion of education, reading the Iliad should involve the natural world beneath the Greek sky and the reciprocal illumination of poet, philosopher, and sculptor. A later day’s reading allows Achilles, Diomedes, and Odysseus to meet Robert Guiscard and Roger, placing epic and Norman exploits in an imaginative encounter rather than arguing a historical identity between them. The brief Greek quotation from the Odyssey stands almost alone in its entry. It concerns mourning, whose surviving honours are cutting the hair and shedding tears. Its compactness allows inherited language to carry an emotion that the journal does not explain autobiographically. Later still, the pleasure of combining ancient and modern art evokes an engraving of Homer led by a beautiful child. The venerable poet is not made redundant by the young guide: their joined movement figures mutual enrichment. Together these uses show an ancient author entering lived reading through context, comparison, quotation, and visual memory.

Places to read

1. 6 February 1833 · ¶1The Iliad should be read with nature and the wider relations of ancient civilization.
2. 9 March 1833 · ¶1Greek heroes meet Norman ones within the imaginative space of a day’s reading.
3. 10 March 1833 · ¶1Two Greek lines from Odyssey IV make mourning’s gestures the entire dated entry.
4. 27 March 1833 · ¶2Homer led by a child supplies the image for conjoint ancient and modern study.

Translation in this edition

Translator note 7 identifies Odyssey 4.197–198 and explains that cutting the hair and shedding tears are the mourner’s acts. The supplied English newly translates the Greek rather than reproducing a historical English version.