Plato's Ion is a short Socratic dialogue between Socrates and the rhapsode Ion, who boasts of his skill in reciting Homer. Their conversation asks whether poets and rhapsodes perform by knowledge or by divine inspiration. It is a graceful, witty piece, worth hearing for Socrates' irony and Ion's childlike enthusiasm.
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Text source: gutenberg.org · The work is in the public domain.
Opening of the book
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
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