Ion | Page 3

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This etext was prepared by Sue Asscher

ION
by Plato

Translated by Benjamin Jowett

INTRODUCTION.
The Ion is the shortest, or nearly the shortest, of all the writings which

bear the name of Plato, and is not authenticated by any early external
testimony. The grace and beauty of this little work supply the only, and
perhaps a sufficient, proof of its genuineness. The plan is simple; the
dramatic interest consists entirely in the contrast between the irony of
Socrates and the transparent vanity and childlike enthusiasm of the
rhapsode Ion. The theme of the Dialogue may possibly have been
suggested by the passage of Xenophon's Memorabilia in which the
rhapsodists are described by Euthydemus as 'very precise about the
exact words of Homer, but very idiotic themselves.' (Compare Aristotle,
Met.)
Ion the rhapsode has just come to Athens; he has been exhibiting in
Epidaurus at the festival of Asclepius, and is intending to exhibit at the
festival of the Panathenaea. Socrates admires and envies the rhapsode's
art; for he is always well dressed and in good company--in the
company of good poets and of Homer, who is the prince of them. In the
course of conversation the admission is elicited from Ion that his skill is
restricted to Homer, and that he knows nothing of inferior poets, such
as Hesiod and Archilochus;--he brightens up and is wide awake when
Homer is being recited, but is apt to go to sleep at the recitations of any
other poet. 'And yet, surely, he who knows the superior ought to know
the inferior also;--he who can judge of the good speaker is able to judge
of the bad. And poetry is a whole; and he who judges of poetry by rules
of art ought to be able to judge of all poetry.' This is confirmed by the
analogy of sculpture, painting, flute-playing, and the other arts. The
argument is at last brought home to the mind of Ion, who asks how this
contradiction is to be solved. The solution given by Socrates is as
follows:--
The rhapsode is not guided by rules of art, but is an inspired person
who derives a mysterious power from the poet; and the poet, in like
manner, is inspired by the God. The poets and their interpreters may be
compared to a chain of magnetic rings suspended from one another,
and from a magnet. The magnet is the Muse, and the ring which
immediately follows is the poet himself; from him are suspended other
poets; there is also a chain of rhapsodes and actors, who also hang from
the Muses, but are let down at the side; and the last ring of all is the
spectator. The poet is the inspired interpreter of the God, and this is the
reason why some poets, like Homer, are restricted to a single theme, or,

like Tynnichus, are famous for a single poem; and the rhapsode is the
inspired interpreter of the poet, and for a similar reason some rhapsodes,
like Ion, are the interpreters of single poets.
Ion is delighted at the notion of being inspired, and acknowledges that
he is beside himself when he is performing;--his eyes rain tears and his
hair stands on end. Socrates is of opinion that a man must be mad who
behaves in this way at a festival when he is surrounded by his friends
and there is nothing to trouble him. Ion is confident that Socrates would
never think him mad if he could only hear his embellishments of
Homer. Socrates asks whether he can speak well about everything in
Homer. 'Yes, indeed he can.' 'What about things of which he has no
knowledge?' Ion answers that he can interpret anything in Homer. But,
rejoins Socrates, when