Plato's ION, my translation 533D - 534C

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For, as I was just saying, this is not art, with which you are speaking well about Homer; but rather divine power which moves you like that in the stone Euripides called a magnet but most people call Heracleian.

For this stone not only attracts iron rings but also charges them with a power by which they to do the same as the stone and draw other rings. So that sometimes a long chain of pieces of iron and rings, suspended from one another, is formed: all depending for this power on that stone. And so also the Muse inspires men herself, and by means of these inspired men the inspiration spreads to others and keeps them connected like a chain.

For all the great epic poets sing all their beautiful songs not from art, but because they are enthused with inspiration and possessed by a divine power, and in like manner the lyric poets, just like the priests of the Great Mother don't dance in their right minds, so also the lyric poets composing these lovely lyrics are not in their right minds. But when they get into the harmony and rhythm, they are dancing in Bacchic frenzy and possessed by a divine power, just as bacchantes are out of their minds and possessed when drawing honey and milk from the rivers, so also the soul of lyric poets performs this work, which is the same thing, so they say.

For the poets tell us, it seems, that the lyrics they bring us from the honey-dripping fountains in certain gardens and groves of the Muses, just as the bees, and winging the same as these [with their winged words]; and they are speaking the truth. For a poet is a light and winged and sacred being, and not able to create unless entered into a different state of consciousness and outside his normal senses, and his own mind is no longer in him, for as long as he holds onto that possession, every man is unable to create poetry or sing an ode.

So as it is not by art they are composing and saying so many things about the deeds of heroes, just like you do about the poems of homer, but rather by divine muses, each is able to compose only that to which the Muse motivated him: one man, dithyrambs; another, another, encomiums; a third, musical productions; a fourth, epodes; a fifth, iambics; but each is useless about the others' specialties.

Odyssey 20:180 & 183 wi' my reading

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180 πάντως οὐκέτι νῶϊ διακρινέεσθαι ὀΐω πρὶν χειρῶν γεύσασθαι πρὶν χειρῶν γεύσασθαι

No way are we two going to part from one another without a tasting of each other's fists.


Twitter Remix: methinks we'll nae part w/o tasting fists

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183,4 τὸν δ᾽ οὔ τι προσέφη πολύμητις Ὀδυσσεύς, ἀλλ᾽ ἀκέων κίνησε κάρη, κακὰ βυσσοδομεύων.

...but wily Odysseus gave him no reply, but bobbled his head while pondering evils in his heart.

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ODYSSEY Book 20 Lines 166-171 with my translation

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"ξεῖν᾽, ἦ ἄρ τί σε μᾶλλον Ἀχαιοὶ εἰσορόωσιν,
ἦέ σ᾽ ἀτιμάζουσι κατὰ μέγαρ᾽, ὡς τὸ πάρος περ;"

"Guest, do the Achaeans regard you more favorably
or are they dissing you in the feasting hall just like before?"

τὸν δ᾽ ἀπαμειβόμενος προσέφη πολυμήτις Ὀδυσσεύς·
"αἲ γὰρ δή, Εὔμαιε, θεοὶ τισαίατο λώβην,

And replying, Odysseus of the many wiles said,
"Ah, Eumaeus... would that the gods exact vengeance

ἣν οἵδ᾽ ὑβρίζοντες ἀτάσθαλα μηχανόωνται
οἴκῳ ἐν ἀλλοτρίῳ, οὐδ᾽ αἰδοῦς μοῖραν ἔχουσιν."

on these agressors wantonly making whoopee in
another's house, and having not a bit of shame."
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Platonic Syntax in the ION Dialogue, 532-D,E Pt.2

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Σωκράτης: βουλοίμην ἄν σε ἀληθῆ λέγειν, ὦ Ἴων: ἀλλὰ σοφοὶ μέν πού ἐστε
ὑμεῖς οἱ ῥαψῳδοὶ καὶ ὑποκριταὶ καὶ ὧν ὑμεῖς ᾁδετε τὰ ποιήματα, ἐγὼ δὲ οὐδὲν
ἄλλο ἢ τἀληθῆ λέγω, [532e] οἷον εἰκὸς ἰδιώτην ἄνθρωπον. ἐπεὶ καὶ περὶ τούτου
οὗ νῦν ἠρόμην σε, θέασαι ὡς φαῦλον καὶ ἰδιωτικόν ἐστι καὶ παντὸς ἀνδρὸς
γνῶναι ὃ ἔλεγον, τὴν αὐτὴν εἶναι σκέψιν, ἐπειδάν τις ὅλην τέχνην λάβῃ.
λάβωμεν γὰρ τῷ λόγῳ: γραφικὴ γάρ τίς ἐστι τέχνη τὸ ὅλον;

My Englishment Soc: Oh, how I wish that you would tell the truth, Ion! But surely it
is you rhapsodes and expounders and the men, whose poems you keep singing,
that are wise. I however speak nothing other than naked truth such as seems
right to a common man. And then about this thing regarding which I asked you
just now, notice how simple and commonplace is what I just uttered: even
everyman knows the consideration is the same whenever anyone has mastered an
art: he has the whole of it.

Paul Baronoweki SOC: I would wish that you were telling the truth, Ion: but, in
reality, it is you rhapsodes and interpreters and they who sing [chant] the
poems who are wise, but I say nothing but the truth, the same as a common
man. Seeing also that I asked you about this (question) just now, observe
how paltry and amateurish it is and (in the power of) every man to know what
I mean, the inquiry is the same,whenever anyone comprehends an art as a
whole. Let us assume by analogy: Is (the art of) painting some art as a
whole?

Hilde Munro Socrates: I wish your words were true, Ion: but I suppose it's you
rhapsodes and actors who are wise, and they whose poems you sing, but I just
tell the truth, like a simple layman. And as for what I asked you just now,
see how ordinary and commonplace my theory is – something that any man might
discover – that when one has acquired an art as a whole it is the same
method of examination. Let's take an example for this assertion: Painting is
an art as a whole?

Michael F Pajack Socrates: If only you were right, Ion, but it is perhaps you rhapsodes and actors and the men whose poems you sing who are wise; I merely speak the truth as it befits an unskilled man. For concerning these matters which I
asked you just now, look how simple and unskilled it is, and what I said is
within the capacity of every man to know, that the mode of inquiry is the
same when anyone has grasped a whole art. For let us take one art for the
benefit of our discussion. For example, there is an art of painting as a
whole?

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Platonic Syntax in the ION Dialogue, 532-D

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Σωκράτης: οὐκοῦν ἐπειδὰν λάβῃ τις καὶ ἄλλην τέχνην ἡντινοῦν ὅλην, ὁ
αὐτὸς τρόπος τῆς σκέψεως ἔσται περὶ ἁπασῶν τῶν τεχνῶν; πῶς τοῦτο λέγω, δέῃ
τί μου ἀκοῦσαι, ὦ Ἴων;

My Englishment: SOC: And whenever anyone has acquired any other art whatsoever as a
whole, will the same way of considering hold true through all the arts? What
do you need to hear from me, as to how I am saying/meaning this, Ion?

Paul Baronowski SOC: Accordingly, whenever someone comprehends also any other art
whatsoever as a complete entity, will the method of inquiry about all the
arts be the same? Do you need to hear from me, Ion, how I mean this?

Hilde Munro Socrates: Well then, if someone acquires any other art at all as a
whole, will there be the same sort of examination for all the skills? Would
you like to hear me explain this, Ion?

Michael F. Pajak MFP Socrates: Therefore when someone takes any other art whatever as a whole, the same method of inquiry will be in all the arts? Do you need to
hear what I mean by this, Ion?

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Thoughts about Friendship from Diogenes Laertius bio of Aristotle

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ἐρωτηθεὶς τί ἐστι φίλος, ἔφη, Μία ψυχὴ δύο σώμασιν ἐνοικοῦσα.

[my translation; Upon being asked what a friend is, he said, "One soul in two bodies."]

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ᾧ φίλοι, οὐδεὶς φίλος.


["My friends, but there is not one (real) friend (among you all)".]

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ἐρωτηθεὶς πῶς ἂν τοῖς φίλοις προσφεροίμεθα, ἔφη, Ὡς ἂν εὐξαίμεθα αὐτοὺς ἡμῖν προσφέρεσθαι.

[ Upon being asked how we ought to behave toward friends, he said, "As we would pray that they continue to behave toward us." ]

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