Nearness, sight, and touch

Use in the book

Aristides’ account offers a carefully ascending scale. Being merely in the same house as Socrates, even in a different room, was beneficial. The same room produced more progress. Looking at Socrates while he spoke seemed to produce much more than looking elsewhere. Sitting immediately beside him, holding him and touching him, yielded by far the greatest progress. The sequence increases spatial proximity, visual orientation and bodily contact rather than supplying progressively more difficult lessons.

Two qualifications keep the scale from becoming a demonstrated law. First, Aristides says these were his experiences; “as I seemed to myself” explicitly marks his estimate at a crucial comparative point. Second, the larger account has already denied that all admitted companions benefit or that all benefited companions must continue in uninterrupted proximity. Some keep their advantage after separation. Aristides is the specific case of a non-lasting benefit, not the template for every successful association.

The story is open to interpretation as comic exaggeration, intense personal attachment or an extraordinary dependence on Socrates’ presence. The text does not identify a magnetic field, transfer of a substance, hypnosis or a physiological process. Nor does touching, by itself, establish sexual conduct. The preceding reference to Socrates’ expertise in matters of love gives the scene a suggestive dramatic context, but the actual vocabulary here describes sitting, holding and touching.

The visual contrast also prevents an overly simple reduction to distance. Two people may be in the same room while Aristides looks either towards Socrates speaking or elsewhere. Attention and embodied presence both enter his account, although it remains unexplained how either produces the claimed progress.

Places to read

1. 130dἐν τῇ αὐτῇ … οἰκίᾳ; μὴ ἐν τῷ αὐτῷ … οἰκήματι — shared house is distinguished from shared room
2. 130dμᾶλλον … ἐν τῷ αὐτῷ οἰκήματι — closer shared space increases the reported effect
3. 130d–eλέγοντός σου βλέποιμι πρὸς σέ … ἄλλοσε ὁρῴην — looking towards the speaker is contrasted with looking away
4. 130eπαρ’ αὐτόν σε καθοίμην — Aristides locates the greatest effect immediately beside Socrates
5. 130eἐχόμενός σου καὶ ἁπτόμενος — holding on and touching complete the scale

Translation in this edition

“Same house” and “same room” preserve a distinction essential to the sequence. The comparative expressions and “as I seemed to myself” are also retained. “Keeping hold of you and touching you” gives the bodily detail without substituting an explanatory theory or a euphemism that removes it.

Hold on to — ἔχεσθαι

Hold on to. The middle verb with a genitive denotes bodily holding of Socrates, not mere intellectual adherence. Attested: ἐχόμενός (130e). Nearness, sight, and touch.

House — οἰκία

House. The larger shared dwelling in Aristides’ scale of proximity, expressly distinguished from being in the same room. Attested: οἰκίᾳ (130d). Nearness, sight, and touch.

Look; see — ὁρᾶν

Look; see. To direct sight; here looking elsewhere supplies the comparison with looking at Socrates. Attested: ὁρῴην (130e). Nearness, sight, and touch.

Look towards — βλέπειν

Look towards. To direct the gaze; looking at Socrates while he speaks increases Aristides’ reported benefit. Attested: βλέποιμι (130d). Nearness, sight, and touch.

Room — οἴκημα

Room. The smaller interior space; sharing it is reported to produce more progress than merely sharing a house. Attested: οἰκήματι (130d). Nearness, sight, and touch.

Sit — καθῆσθαι

Sit. To be seated; Aristides places his greatest progress while sitting immediately beside Socrates. Attested: καθοίμην (130e). Nearness, sight, and touch.

Touch — ἅπτεσθαι

Touch. To make contact with someone; Aristides includes touching Socrates in the condition of his greatest reported progress. Attested: ἁπτόμενος (130e). Nearness, sight, and touch.