Mastery, safety, and whatever chance brings

Use in the book

At 130e Socrates sums up the stories: if their association is dear to the god, Theages will progress greatly and quickly; otherwise he will not. He then asks whether it may be safer to be educated by someone who is himself master of the benefit he gives. The contrast concerns reliable agency over the educational result. The printed adjective enkrateis describes the proposed teachers’ control of their benefit. It is not a declaration that they possess the virtue “self-control”, nor does the abstract noun enkrateia occur here.

The recommendation returns the decision to Theages. Socrates has neither guaranteed failure nor sold a prospect of reliable success. He has stated possibilities that include no benefit and benefit later lost. In that setting, “safer” makes the uncertainty relevant to the original parental concern about the consequences of education. It does not mean that every alternative teacher is harmless or that Socrates has certified a particular sophist’s promises.

The final clause contrasts controlled benefit with coming away from Socrates with whatever chance may bring. This is a practical description of exposure to an outcome beyond his command. It need not contradict his attribution of successful progress to the god: the same result may be divinely conditioned and unpredictable or uncontrollable from the human participant’s standpoint. The passage does not offer a theory resolving the relation between chance and providence.

Theages chooses to try. That choice acknowledges enough uncertainty to allow a fallback plan, though it does not explicitly address every distinction Socrates has drawn. The ending is therefore a decision under incomplete assurance, not a proof that divine influence can be converted into a dependable craft on demand.

Places to read

1. 128eἐτύγχανε … ἀνακοινούμενος — the participial construction presents Charmides as in fact consulting Socrates
2. 130eἐὰν μὲν τῷ θεῷ φίλον ᾖ — progress depends on divine favour
3. 130eἀσφαλέστερον — Socrates asks about comparative safety, not absolute certainty
4. 130eπαιδεύεσθαι — the decision concerns where Theages should be educated
5. 130eοἳ ἐγκρατεῖς αὐτοί εἰσιν τῆς ὠφελίας — other educators are represented as controlling their benefit
6. 130eὅτι ἂν τύχῃ τοῦτο πρᾶξαι — association with Socrates may yield whatever happens
7. 131aεἴτε ἄλλῳ συνεσόμεθα — Theages keeps another association available as an alternative

Translation in this edition

“Themselves masters of the benefit” retains the adjective’s stated object and avoids mistranslation as a moral virtue. “Whatever chance may bring” conveys the uncertainty of the final clause without inserting the noun tychē into the Greek. The apparatus records Bekker’s conjecture tychēis, but the main text prints tychēi.

Dear; pleasing — φίλος

Dear; pleasing. In ‘dear to the god’, the adjective expresses the divine favour on which successful progress depends. Attested: φίλον (130e). Mastery, safety, and whatever chance brings.

Happen; chance — τυγχάνειν

Happen; chance. To turn out in a certain way; the clause warns that the result of Socratic association lies beyond guaranteed control. Attested: τύχῃ (130e). Mastery, safety, and whatever chance brings.

Have the luck; chance — τυγχάνειν

Have the luck; chance. In Timarchus’ conditional promise to return, the verb makes his return uncertain rather than guaranteed. Attested: τύχω (129b). Mastery, safety, and whatever chance brings.

Happen to; be in fact — τυγχάνειν

Happen to; be in fact. With the participle for consulting, the verb presents what Charmides was doing; this idiom does not independently assert luck or fate. Attested: ἐτύγχανε (128e). Mastery, safety, and whatever chance brings.

Master of; in control of — ἐγκρατής

Master of; in control of. Having control over a specified object, here the benefit teachers confer; not the abstract virtue of self-control. Attested: ἐγκρατεῖς (130e). Mastery, safety, and whatever chance brings.

Safer; more secure — ἀσφαλής

Safer; more secure. The comparative asks whether education elsewhere would give Theages a more dependable prospect of benefit. Attested: ἀσφαλέστερον (130e). Mastery, safety, and whatever chance brings.

Masters of the benefit (contextual phrase)

130e: ἐγκρατεῖς αὐτοί εἰσιν τῆς ὠφελίας. The genitive identifies what the teachers control: the benefit they impart. Enkrateis is relational here. Replacing it with the abstract virtue “self-control” would change both the grammatical object and the point of the comparison, which concerns predictability for a prospective pupil. See Mastery and chance.

Whatever may happen (contextual phrase)

130e: ὅτι ἂν τύχῃ τοῦτο πρᾶξαι. The construction characterizes the uncertain result of choosing Socrates' company. It is not a pronouncement that chance is the ultimate cause of all things. Earlier tynchanein constructions, such as τυγχάνω σχολάζων at 121a, simply present what happens to be the case or is in fact so. Their local functions should not be merged into a metaphysical doctrine. See Mastery and chance.