From the book
Charmides
Plato · Diotimos Editions · 2026
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At a Glance
- The wordThe adjective manikos characterizes someone as mad, frenzied or wildly excitable.
- In the CharmidesChaerephon is introduced through a rapid sequence of actions: he leaps up, runs to Socrates and grasps his hand, urgently asking how he survived the battle.
- In this editionThe supplied “madman that he is” is colloquial and habitual in tone.
- A place to readSocrates calls Chaerephon manikos while reporting his excited welcome and concern about the battle.
Meaning
The adjective manikos characterizes someone as mad, frenzied or wildly excitable. Its force has to be judged from the action it accompanies. Here it is a description in Socrates’ narration, not a diagnosis or the name of a kind of inspired knowledge.
Use in the book
Chaerephon is introduced through a rapid sequence of actions: he leaps up, runs to Socrates and grasps his hand, urgently asking how he survived the battle. Calling him manikos gives the greeting its familiar, exuberant tone. The reader learns something about the relationship before receiving any formal description of Chaerephon. The adjective also makes the dialogue begin with conspicuous animation, well before quiet behaviour is proposed as the mark of temperance. That juxtaposition may sharpen a reader’s attention, but the dialogue does not argue that Chaerephon’s excitement either proves or disproves his virtue. Later Platonic discussions of divine madness should not be imported into this single familiar epithet.
Places to read
- 153bSocrates calls Chaerephon manikos while reporting his excited welcome and concern about the battle.
Translation in this edition
The supplied “madman that he is” is colloquial and habitual in tone. Reading it as a claim about mental illness, or as an instance of a later doctrine of inspired madness, would add something the passage does not establish.
μανικός
Attested: μανικὸς (manikos). Madcap or excitable; the affectionate characterization of Chaerephon fits his jumping up, running toward Socrates and seizing his hand. References: 153b. Lexical identification: lemma: μανικός. See Madcap and madness.