The Works of Plato

ready dawning, so that he became clearly visible to me—
If one follows what was said before, it is clear that
the goal here is to become a sophist.
— And, by the gods, would you not be ashamed, I said, to present yourself to the Hellenes as a sophist?
— By God, I would be ashamed, Socrates, if I must say what I think.
B.

— But perhaps, Hippocrates, you assume that the instruc-
tion from Protagoras will not be like that, but rather like that which you received from a kitharist lyre-teacher, or a teacher of grammar, or a teacher of wrestling? You studied each of those subjects not as a profession to become a craftsman, but as an exercise, as befits a self-sufficient inhabitant and a free man.
— Of course, it seems to me, he said, that Protagoras's teaching is rather of that kind.

IV — So do you know what you are about to do now, or is this not clear to you? I said.
— Regarding what?
C.

— That you intend to entrust the cultivation of your soul to a sophist, as you say, yet you hardly know what a sophist is original: "Θαυμάζοιμ’ ἂν εἰ οἶσθα—literally: I would be surprised if you know.". And if you do not know this, then you do not know to whom you are entrusting your soul, nor whether you are entrusting it to a good or a bad thing.
— I think I know, he said.
— Well then, tell me, what is a sophist, in your opinion?
— I believe, he said, just as the name implies, that it is one who is an expert in wise things original: "τὸν τῶν σοφῶν ἐπιστήμονα.".
— But, I say, one could say the same of painters and carpenters, that they are experts in wise D.

things; but if someone asked us in what original: "τῶν τί σοφῶν;" wise things painters are experts, we would tell him that it is in the making of images, and so on. But if someone asked: "In what wise things is the sophist expert?" original: "ὁ δὲ σοφίστης τῶν τί σοφῶν ἐστίν;"—what would we answer? What kind of production is he in charge of? original: "ποίας ἐργασίας ἐπιστάτης;"