The cultivated and the many · Lexicon

From the book

Hipparchus

Plato · Diotimos Editions · 2026

Orientation

At a Glance

The wordΧαρίεις means graceful, refined or cultivated; the comparative χαριέστερος gives “more cultivated.”
In HipparchusSocrates introduces the alternative account of Hipparchus’ death by assigning it to the more cultivated.
In this editionThe edition’s “more cultivated” preserves the comparative form without silently turning it into “the historians” or “the better informed.”
A place to readτῶν χαριεστέρων ἀνθρώπων — The preferred report is assigned to more cultivated people.

Meaning

Χαρίεις means graceful, refined or cultivated; the comparative χαριέστερος gives “more cultivated.” Οἱ πολλοί means the many, the ordinary majority or people generally in the contrast at hand. Εὐήθης can carry the sense simple-minded or naïve; here it disparages an explanation. These are evaluative descriptions of tellers and stories, not documented memberships of named schools or political parties.

Use in the book

Socrates introduces the alternative account of Hipparchus’ death by assigning it to the more cultivated. The many, he says, attributed the murder to the sister’s dishonour over basket-bearing; the refined account explains it through rivalry for intellectual admiration. This is a hierarchy of storytellers before it is an argument about evidence. The audience is invited to prefer one version partly because of the cultural standing of the people who tell it.

The dismissal “that, at any rate, is simple-minded” intensifies the invitation. No independent testimony is produced to refute the ceremonial insult. Instead the supposedly better account is told in detail, with relations of love, education, pride and contempt. Its greater psychological sophistication may make it attractive, but attractiveness and historical reliability remain separate. The narrator even says that others give the young man’s name while he himself cannot remember it.

The contrast belongs to a narrative already preoccupied with ranking wisdom. Citizens are meant to admire Hipparchus rather than Delphi; the young man comes to despise former teachers; now an audience is offered a cultivated rather than popular history. In each case someone determines what counts as the superior authority. The dialogue does not openly reject such distinctions, but its companion subsequently refuses to let the cultural performance settle his objection about deception.

It would be equally reductive to assume that the many must be right because the narrator praises refinement, or that cultivated people must be truthful because their account concerns education. The edition’s historical parallels show that ancient accounts genuinely differ. The lexical task is to make the social weighting of the speech audible while leaving its truth to be assessed by evidence. The contrast also explains why this episode is more than a neutral historical excursus: it tries to affect what kind of hearer the companion will wish to be.

Places to read

229bτῶν χαριεστέρων ἀνθρώπων — The preferred report is assigned to more cultivated people.
229cοἱ πολλοὶ ᾠήθησαν — The alternative is characterised as what the many believed.
229cτοῦτό γε εὔηθες — The familiar explanation is dismissed as simple-minded.
229dἐγὼ δὲ οὐ μέμνημαι — Socrates’ lapse of memory qualifies his command of the preferred report.

Translation in this edition

The edition’s “more cultivated” preserves the comparative form without silently turning it into “the historians” or “the better informed.” “The many” likewise avoids specifying the democratic assembly or an identifiable faction. “Simple-minded” makes the disparagement clear but leaves the reader free to question its justification.