On the God of Socrates

55 XIX 163 ...more attentively, but everyone listens in silence either to the unwelcome auguries of Helenus A son of Priam with the gift of prophecy or the uncredited prophecies of Cassandra A Trojan princess cursed to speak true prophecies that no one believed. In the same way, for Socrates too, whenever a consultation arose in any place that was beyond the duties of human wisdom, the power of his daemon would govern his premonitions; indeed, he obeyed its warnings diligently and was thus far more pleasing to his god. Moreover, the reason has been stated in a way why that daemon 5 usually went to prohibit Socrates' undertakings but never to encourage them. For indeed Socrates, as a man of primary perfection, ready of his own accord for all duties suitable to him, never needed anyone to encourage him; but he did sometimes need someone to forbid him, if some danger happened to lurk beneath his attempts, so that, having been warned, he might take precautions and abandon for the moment what he had begun, which he might take up more safely later or attempt by another path.

56 In matters of this kind, he used to say that he heard a certain voice original: "vocem quampiam" arising from the divine 10 [as it is in Plato]. This is so that no one should think he caught at omens in the manner of the common people. 164 For indeed, even when witnesses were removed, alone with Phaedrus outside the city walls original: "extra pomorium" under the shady canopy of a certain tree, he felt that announcing sign, warning him not to cross the modest stream of the river Ilissus until he had appeased the indignant Love The god Eros by singing a recantation; whereas otherwise, if he were observing omens, 15 he would sometimes have some of them as encouragements—as we see happen in practice to most people, who, through excessive superstition regarding omens, are ruled not by their own hearts but by the words of others, 165 57 XX and creeping through alleyways original: "angiporta", they gather counsel from the voices of strangers and, so to speak, think not with their minds but with their ears. But indeed, however those things may be, the catchers of omens and soothsayers original: "arioli" certainly often hear a voice perceived with their own ears, about which they have no doubt, which they know has proceeded from a human mouth. But Socrates did not say a voice 20 was brought to him, but a certain voice original: "vocem quampiam": by which addition you may surely understand that neither a common nor a human voice is signified; for if it were so, the word "certain" would be useless; rather, it would be called either "a voice" or "someone's voice" [as that courtesan in Terence says: "I seemed just now to hear the voice of the soldier"]; 166 but he who says he has heard a certain voice, either does not know...

1 Helenus [reading by] Colvius; "helene" in the manuscripts (O)    s Cassandra ("s" added above the line by the second scribe) in manuscript M    2 Socrates in M    beyond [sapientiae] Casanubon; "good" [bonus] or "alien" in O    3 Power [vis] written by me; "vi" in O    The power of the daemon governed the premonition [emended by] Elmenhorst    obeyed in F    4 To his god Stewechius; "of his" in O    someone in M    daemon; common people read "demonu" in O    5 For indeed written by me; "for" in O    7 encourager in M    9 that safer or rather in M    10 "said" was removed by Goldbacher    he used to say in O    "as it is in Plato" removed [from the main text]    11 in (d corrected from t) in M    omens Casaubon; "all things" [omnia] in O    from the common people Wilamowitz    12 alone in F    shady (first "o" erased by second scribe) in M    13 Ilisi Casaubon; "of that" [illius] in O. See Wachsmuth's book on the city of Athens, p. 116, note 1.    of the river in F and the second scribe of M; "souls" [animis] in M    14 of the stream in M    Love indignant at the rebuke by singing Casaubon    at the rebuke inclined by love for retaining in O    had appeased in M    omens Wowerius; "all things" [omnia] in O    15 encouragements in M; ornaments in F    he would have (as in the Roman edition); "to have and" in O    16 of omens Wowerius; "of all things" in O    through superstition in the first hand of M    by his own [suopte] in O; "by her own" [suapte] in the first hand of M    18 however [utut] Stewechius; "as" [ut] in O    indeed Wilamowitz; "what" [quid] in O (d corrected from t)    of omens written by me; "of all things" in O    19 catchers omitted in O, added [by me]    which Scaliger; "by which" in O    nothing in O    20 [from] which Scaliger; "from which" in O    21 but a voice (Roman edition)    but a leader in O    addition in F    23 from "as she says" to "soldier" removed [from main text]    24 a certain omitted in O, added in the Roman edition