Statue

Use in the book

Socrates singles out the boys' reaction to Charmides: not even the smallest looks elsewhere, and all gaze at him as at an agalma. The comparison elevates the beautiful youth into an absorbing public spectacle. Its possible religious coloring belongs naturally beside the shrine opposite the palaestra, but the text neither calls Charmides a god nor reports an act of worship.

The stillness of a beautiful image also differs from the person who will shortly speak, laugh, hesitate, and manipulate his guardian's involvement. Socrates' proposal to inspect the soul asks what admiration of the visible figure leaves unexamined. The image therefore makes the initial dominance of looking especially vivid without itself condemning beauty or images.

A comparative reader may recall the divine agalmata said to be inside Socrates in the Symposium. That is an illuminating reversal of outer appearance and inward value, but no hidden statue within Charmides is described here. The present simile remains a local account of how the watching boys behold him.

Places to read

1. 154cAll the boys gaze at Charmides as at a statue

Translation in this edition

“Statue” is the edition's rendering. Its note explains the frequent sacred application of agalma; the additional formulation “as worshippers gaze” is interpretive explanation, not another phrase in the Greek.

ἄγαλμα

Attested: ἄγαλμα (agalma). A statue or image admired as a spectacle; the crowd gazes at Charmides as if he were one. References: 154c. Lexical identification: lemma: ἄγαλμα. See Statue.

θεάομαι

Attested: ἐθεῶντο (etheōnto). They gazed at or contemplated; the boys look continuously at Charmides as though he were a statue. References: 154c. Lexical identification: lemma: θεάομαι. See Statue.

ἐθεῶντο (etheōnto)

They gazed at him; the verb emphasizes sustained spectatorship in the statue comparison. References: 154c. Lemma: θεάομαι. See Statue.

Use in the book

The cave narrative describes a statue with male features on its right side and female features on its left, its arms extended crosswise. The word names the crafted figure whose extraordinary form prompts wonder. It does not name the deity or identify the statue’s cultural setting more precisely than the report does.

Places to read

1. I.3.56cThe statue combines male and female sides in one body.
2. I.3.56fSweating and fanning belong to the reported behavior of the statue.

Translation in this edition

“Statue” is clearer than a narrowly male image in this context.

Sweat in a reported marvel

Hidrōs is sweat. At I.3.56f, the statue is said to sweat in heat and to stop when fanned by the Brahmans. The words identify the moisture through a bodily analogy within a marvelous report. They should not turn the reported behavior into an independently verified observation.