Read more from Benjamin Jowett
The Allegory of the Cave Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPlato's Laws Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Parmenides Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Phaedrus Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Gorgias Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Protagoras Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Critias Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Last Days of Socrates (Annotated): Euthyphro, Apology, Crito and Phaedo Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMenexenus Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Theaetetus Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lysis Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Eryxias Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLesser Hippias Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMeno Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Apology Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Laches Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Republic by Plato Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Republic Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Symposium Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Phaedo Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Laws Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTimaeus Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCharmides Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Cratylus Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Plato: The Complete Works (Book Center) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPhilebus Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Ion Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5
Related to Ion
Related ebooks
Ion Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Essential Dialogues of Plato Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ion: "The direction in which education starts a man will determine his future in life" Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLectures on the English Poets; Delivered at the Surrey Institution Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPlato's Ion Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFive Dialogues Of Plato Bearing On Poetic Inspiration Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Republic (Translated by Benjamin Jowett with an Introduction by Alexander Kerr) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Plato Collection 10+ Works: Early: Apology, Crito, Charmides, Middle: Republic, Symposium, Meno, Late: Critias and others Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsApology Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Socrates Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Sophist Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Republic Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEssays And Poems Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Apology of Socrates Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMenexenus Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Essays Second Series Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAlcibiades I Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsApology (The Apology of Socrates) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Murders in the Rue Morgue Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLesser Hippias Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEssays of Ralph Waldo Emerson - Plato, or the philosopher Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Apology Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Collection of Old English Plays, Volume 1 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBlack Antigone: Sophocles’ Tragedy Meets the Heartbeat of Africa Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Greek Romances of Heliodorus, Longus and Achilles Tatius Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLaocoon: An Essay upon the Limits of Painting and Poetry Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cratylus [Halls of Wisdom] Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Complete Plato Collection Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Reviews for Ion
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
Ion - Benjamin Jowett
The Project Gutenberg EBook of Ion, by Plato
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
Title: Ion
Author: Plato
Translator: Benjamin Jowett
Release Date: October 10, 2008 [EBook #1635]
Last Updated: January 15, 2013
Language: English
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ION ***
Produced by Sue Asscher, and David Widger
ION
By Plato
Translated by Benjamin Jowett
Contents
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,