ION Plato PDF Play Books

Socrates debates with the titular character, a rhapsode who lectures on Homer,

whether the rhapsode, a poet, provides his performance because of his ability and knowledge or because of divine possession, in Plato's Ion. It is one of Plato's shortest conversations. The Greek philosopher Socrates. He raises questions about the nature of art and divine inspiration in this debate. The rhapsode of Ion of Ephesus. He specialised in Homer's works when it came to poetry. Athens had recently lost several of its beloved generals in the Sicilian expedition, and the city of Ephesus was under Athenian authority at the time.

Ion has just returned from an Asclepius festival in Epidaurus, where he took first place in the competition. Socrates starts a conversation with him, and Ion explains how his knowledge and expertise are confined to Homer, whom he claims to comprehend better than anybody living. Socrates is perplexed by this because it appears to him that Homer tackles many of the same issues as other poets such as Hesiod, such as battle or divination, and that anyone who is versed in either of these areas should be able to grasp what both of these poets say. Furthermore, unlike Ion, this individual is most likely an expert, such as a doctor, who is more knowledgeable about nutrition.

Socrates deduces from this observation that Ion has no genuine skill and is divinely possessed, similar to a soothsayer or prophet: "For they utter these things not by art, but by divine influence; for if they had fully learnt by art to speak on one kind of theme, they would know how to speak on all." And it is for this reason that God takes away these men's minds and uses them as his ministers, just as he does soothsayers and godly seers, so that we who hear them understand that it is not they who utter these priceless words when they are out of their minds, but God himself who speaks and addresses us through them.