From the book
Alcibiades II
Plato · Diotimos Editions · 2026
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At a Glance
- The wordIatros is a doctor and kybernētēs a ship’s pilot or steersman.
- In Alcibiades IIAt 146e a city and a soul must hold fast to knowledge of the best as the sick hold to a doctor and someone wanting to sail safely holds to a pilot.
- In this editionNotes 24–2623 expose the textual work behind 147a–147b: the fair-wind wording and fortune are corrected readings; much learning and much craft are selected across the two main witnesses; of life and running are Stephanus’ readings, with Schanz proposing sailing.
- A place to readDoctors are cited for differences among diseases in the earlier analogy.
Meaning
Iatros is a doctor and kybernētēs a ship’s pilot or steersman. Cheimōn is the storm awaiting the person whose many skills lack direction; klydōn is the rough sea of the closing Euripidean comparison. The images make dependence on guiding judgement concrete without defining that knowledge exhaustively.
Use in the book
At 146e a city and a soul must hold fast to knowledge of the best as the sick hold to a doctor and someone wanting to sail safely holds to a pilot. The analogies make the need structural. Having an illness or a destination does not supply the expertise required to reach health or safety, just as having resources and skills does not determine their beneficial use.
The pilot image is then expanded. A favourable wind supplies more power, but without the relevant knowledge the resulting mistakes grow with it. The person of much learning and craft is an orphan of the governing knowledge and is led by each lesser capacity. Going on at sea without a pilot ends in a storm and a short course of life. The danger is fragmentation of direction, not merely a shortage of technical accomplishments.
The earlier physicians at 140b support a different point: diseases have distinct effects while remaining species of disease. That taxonomic use should not be conflated with the later doctor as guide. Together the examples display how ordinary expertise can clarify an argument even while expertise itself is denied sufficiency for living well.
The final rough sea returns through Creon’s words and Socrates’ hoped-for victory. It is no longer simply the ignorant individual’s unpiloted life; it expresses the uncertainty of the educational and erotic contest. The repeated maritime language joins the need for direction with the fact that Socrates’ success is still prospective.
Places to read
- 140bDoctors are cited for differences among diseases in the earlier analogy.
- 146e–147a2Doctor and pilot model the dependence of city and soul on knowledge of the best.
- 147a–147bFair wind, multiple skills and absence of a pilot culminate in storm.
- 151b–151cThe Euripidean rough sea describes Socrates’ uncertain prospect of victory.
Translation in this edition
Notes 24–2623 expose the textual work behind 147a–147b: the fair-wind wording and fortune are corrected readings; much learning and much craft are selected across the two main witnesses; of life and running are Stephanus’ readings, with Schanz proposing sailing. The printed running need not be silently changed to keep the nautical metaphor uniform.
Source note
At 147b the edition follows Stephanus' biou, ‘of life’, and the participle theōn, ‘running’. Note 26 records the manuscripts' accusative bion and their differing accentuation of the following form, as well as Schanz's pleōn, ‘sailing’. The nautical context can motivate the last proposal without making it the edition's printed word.