From the book
Alcibiades II
Plato · Diotimos Editions · 2026
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At a Glance
- The wordAchlys is mist, first located in the Homeric eyes of Diomedes and then transferred to Alcibiades’ soul.
- In Alcibiades IIThe dialogue begins with Alcibiades looking at the ground, but that visible posture does not itself diagnose what the final mist is.
- In this editionNote 40 identifies Iliad 5.127–128 and explains the change from Athena’s first-person speech to third-person report.
- A place to readThe downward gaze begins the encounter without yet explaining its significance.
Meaning
Achlys is mist, first located in the Homeric eyes of Diomedes and then transferred to Alcibiades’ soul. The image distinguishes removal of an obstruction from the subsequent capacity to know bad and good. It is a metaphor of preparation and discrimination, not an anatomical account of thought.
Use in the book
The dialogue begins with Alcibiades looking at the ground, but that visible posture does not itself diagnose what the final mist is. Socrates says he looks like someone pondering; the following conversation establishes the uncertainty of his judgements. The final image gives that epistemic condition a perceptual form after it has been displayed in argument.
Athena removes Diomedes’ mist so that he can distinguish god from man. Socrates adapts the structure rather than equating its objects: the educator will remove mist from Alcibiades’ soul and then bring what enables knowledge of bad and good. The analogy transforms seeing into the capacity to discriminate the values needed for action and prayer.
The order first and then is important. More information or skill, supplied while the mist remains, would not necessarily give the learner the governing understanding the dialogue demands. The image therefore summarizes why much learning and much craft were insufficient. It also prevents treating the refusal to pray as a permanent conclusion: the obstruction is pictured as removable.
Alcibiades consents enthusiastically, even to removal of something other than the mist if the teacher wishes. His assent shows readiness for a process, not proof that the obstruction has disappeared. The ending remains a promise of clearer vision whose success the dialogue does not narrate.
Places to read
Translation in this edition
Note 40 identifies Iliad 5.127–128 and explains the change from Athena’s first-person speech to third-person report. The soul’s mist is not explicitly identified with a named metaphysical substance or a later religious doctrine of sin. The connection to the opening gaze is a literary observation, not a gloss supplied by the dialogue.
Source note
The edition's note 40 identifies Iliad 5.127–128. Athena there removes mist from Diomedes' eyes so that he can distinguish god and man. Socrates changes the report to the third person and adapts the formula to bad and good. The educational application is expressed through that change, not by equating the two discriminations without explanation.