Poet and actor

Use in the book

Poetic reputation enters before formal examination. Critias calls Charmides philosophical and, in others’ opinion and his own, highly poetic. Socrates answers by invoking the family's kinship with Solon. Later the household's inherited excellence is certified by named poets and their encomia. Poetry helps establish the admired youth's social and educational credentials.

The poet–actor simile changes its function. When Charmides transfers his borrowed definition back to Critias, the older man seems angry like a poet whose actor mistreats his compositions. The analogy distinguishes author from performer while showing the author's investment in “his own” work. That phrase resonates with the definition under dispute, doing one's own things. The apparently impersonal formula has become someone's intellectual property and a source of personal embarrassment.

The simile does not settle whether Critias wrote a particular tragedy. Ancient attributions of dramatic works to him are contested. What is secure locally is the narrator's portrayal of a man who reacts possessively to the performance of an account. Nor does it establish that Charmides is only a mindless reciter: his teasing is purposeful and successful in bringing the author into the discussion.

Quoted poets then become active resources of argument. Cydias supplies an image, Homer an accepted counterexample, Hesiod an interpretive warrant. The dialogue does not treat these uses as equivalent. Poetry can disclose an experience, confer prestige, or furnish material for scrutiny; the distinction between those roles is part of the reader's work.

Places to read

1. 154e–155aCharmides’ reported poetic ability and the connection to Solon
2. 157e–158a2Poetic encomia supply inherited family prestige
3. 162c–dCritias is compared to a poet angered by an actor’s handling of his own compositions
4. 163b–d2Hesiod’s verse is interpreted in a lexical defense

Translation in this edition

The edition renders hypokritēs as “actor” and poiēmata as “the poet's own verses,” preserving both the theatrical situation and the echo of one’s own. Modern “hypocrite” would import the wrong meaning.

διατίθημι

Attested: διατιθέντι (diatithenti). Handling or treating, here badly; Critias’ anger is compared with a poet’s anger at an actor who mishandles his verses. References: 162d. Lexical identification: lemma: διατίθημι. See Poet and actor.

ποιητής

Attested: ποιητῶν / ποιητὴς (poiētōn / poiētēs). A poet; poets celebrate Charmides’ lineage, and Critias’ irritation at the boy is compared with a poet’s anger at an actor who spoils his verses. References: 157e, 162d. Lexical identification: lemma: ποιητής. See Poet and actor.

ποιητικός

Attested: ποιητικός (poiētikos). Poetically gifted or inclined to poetry; Critias reports that Charmides is thought a poet both by others and by himself. References: 155a. Lexical identification: lemma: ποιητικός. See Poet and actor.

ὑποκριτής

Attested: ὑποκριτῇ (hypokritēi). Actor or performer; the simile casts Charmides as a performer of Critias’ poorly defended composition. References: 162d. Lexical identification: lemma: ὑποκριτής. See Poet and actor.

διατιθέντι (diatithenti)

Handling or treating badly; a performer mangles the poet's own work in the simile for Critias' anger. References: 162d. Lemma: διατίθημι. See Poet and actor.