The Works of Plato

We approached Protagoras, and I said: "To you, Protagoras, we have come, I and this man here, Hippocrates."

"Do you wish," he said, "to speak with me privately or in the presence of others?"

"For us," I said, "there is no difference, and it will be clear to you yourself when you hear for what purpose we have come."

"Well, what is it, then," he said, "for what purpose have you come?"

"This is Hippocrates, a local, son of Apollodorus, from a large and prosperous house; and he himself, by nature, seems not to yield to his peers. And I think he desires to become significant in our city, and this, he believes, will happen most quickly if he associates with you; so do you consider whether you should speak about this with us privately or in the presence of others?"

"Rightly," he said, "you are cautious, Socrates, regarding me. For a stranger, and one who goes into great cities and in them persuades the best of the youths that they, having left the company of others, and relatives, and fellow citizens, and elders and juniors, should associate with him to become better through his company—he must be very careful in such a matter; because from this arises no little envy and all manner of ill-will and accusations. I maintain that although the sophistic art is ancient, the ancient men who possessed it, fearing what in it aroused hatred, concealed it, giving it a personal mask: some as poetry, like Homer and Hesiod and Simonides; others again as mysteries and oracles, like the followers of Orpheus and Musaeus; others, I know, as gymnastics, for example Iccus the Tarentine, and the still-existing sophist, inferior to none in this, Herodicus the Selymbrian, but by origin a Megarian; and music was made a personal mask by your Agathocles, as there is a great sophist, and Pythocleides of Ceos, and many others. All of them, I say, out of fear of hatred, used these arts as covers. I, however, do not agree with them in this; for I think that they did not achieve at all what they wanted: they did not deceive those who hold power in the cities—and it is precisely for their sake that these masks exist. For the crowd understands nothing, and whatever those people shout, the crowd sings along."