Texte grec :
| [55,5] μιμούμενος τὸν διδάσκαλον καὶ προσέχων ἀναλαμβάνει τὴν τέχνην.
τὸ δὲ ὁρᾶν καὶ ξυνεῖναι οὐδέν ἐστι πρὸς τὸ μανθάνειν· πολλοὶ γὰρ καὶ ὁρῶσι
τοὺς αὐλητὰς καὶ ξύνεισι καὶ ἀκούουσιν ὁσημέραι, καὶ οὐδ´ ἂν ἐμφυσῆσαι
τοῖς αὐλοῖς δύναιντο, οἳ ἂν μὴ ἐπὶ τέχνῃ μηδὲ προσέχοντες ξυνῶσιν.
ἀλλ´ εἴ γε δυσωπῇ μαθητὴν Ὁμήρου τὸν Σωκράτην καλεῖν, ζηλωτὴν
(6) δὲ μόνον, οὐδέν μοι διοίσει. (Interlocuteur) Ἐμοὶ μὲν οὐχ ἧττον παράδοξον
τοῦτο ἐκείνου δοκεῖ. Ὅμηρος μὲν γὰρ ποιητὴς γέγονεν οἷος οὐδεὶς
ἄλλος· Σωκράτης δὲ φιλόσοφος. (Dion) Εἶεν· οὕτως μὲν οὐδὲ Ἀρχίλοχον
εἴποις ἂν Ὁμήρου ζηλωτήν, ὅτι μὴ τῷ αὐτῷ μέτρῳ κέχρηται
εἰς ὅλην τὴν ποίησιν, ἀλλ´ ἑτέροις τὸ πλέον, οὐδὲ Στησίχορον,
(7) ὅτι ἐκεῖνος μὲν ἔπη ἐποίει, Στησίχορος δὲ μελοποιὸς ἦν. (Interlocuteur) Ναί·
τοῦτό γε ἅπαντές φασιν οἱ Ἕλληνες, Στησίχορον Ὁμήρου ζηλωτὴν
γενέσθαι καὶ σφόδρα γε ἐοικέναι κατὰ τὴν ποίησιν. Σωκράτης
δὲ κατὰ τί σοι δοκεῖ Ὁμήρῳ ἐοικέναι; (Dion) Τὸ μὲν πρῶτον καὶ
μέγιστον κατὰ τὸ ἦθος. οὐδέτερος γὰρ αὐτοῖν ἀλαζὼν ἦν οὐδὲ
ἀναιδής, ὥσπερ οἱ ἀμαθέστατοι τῶν σοφιστῶν. Ὅμηρος μὲν γὰρ
οὐδὲ ὁπόθεν ἦν εἰπεῖν ἠξίωσεν οὐδὲ ὧντινων γονέων οὐδὲ ὅστις
αὐτὸς ἐκαλεῖτο. ἀλλὰ ὅσον ἐπ´ ἐκείνῳ καὶ τὸ ὄνομα ἠγνοοῦμεν ἂν
(8) τοῦ γράψαντος τὴν Ἰλιάδα καὶ τὴν Ὀδύσσειαν. Σωκράτης δὲ τὴν μὲν
πατρίδα οὐχ οἷός τ´ ἦν ἀποκρύψασθαι διὰ τὸ μέγεθος καὶ τὸ
σφόδρα ἐνδόξους εἶναι τὰς Ἀθήνας καὶ τῶν Ἑλλήνων ἄρχειν κατ´
ἐκεῖνον τὸν χρόνον· οὐδὲν δὲ πώποτε εἶπεν ὑπὲρ αὑτοῦ μέγα οὐδὲ
προσεποιεῖτο σοφίαν οὐδεμίαν, καίτοι τοῦ Ἀπόλλωνος χρήσαντος
ὡς εἴη σοφώτατος Ἑλλήνων καὶ βαρβάρων. τελευταῖον δὲ οὐδὲ
τοὺς λόγους αὐτὸς κατέλιπε γράψας, καὶ ταύτῃ γε ὑπερέβαλε τὸν
Ὅμηρον. ὥσπερ γὰρ τὸ ὄνομα τὸ ἐκείνου παρ´ ἑτέρων ἀκούοντες
ἴσμεν, οὕτω καὶ τοὺς λόγους τοὺς Σωκράτους ἄλλων καταλιπόντων.
οὕτως ἄγαν κεκολασμένω ἤστην καὶ ἐσωφρονείτην ἄμφω τὼ ἄνδρε.
(9) ἔπειτα ὑπερεῖδον κτήσεως χρημάτων ὁμοίως Σωκράτης τε καὶ
Ὅμηρος. πρὸς δὲ τούτοις ὑπὲρ τῶν αὐτῶν ἐσπουδαζέτην καὶ ἐλεγέτην,
ὁ μὲν διὰ τῆς ποιήσεως, ὁ δὲ καταλογάδην· περὶ ἀρετῆς ἀνθρώπων
καὶ κακίας καὶ περὶ ἁμαρτημάτων καὶ κατορθωμάτων καὶ περὶ
ἀληθείας καὶ ἀπάτης καὶ ὅπως δοξάζουσιν οἱ πολλοὶ καὶ ὅπως
ἐπίστανται οἱ φρόνιμοι. καὶ μὴν εἰκάσαι καὶ παραβαλεῖν ἱκανώτατοι
ἦσαν. (Interlocuteur) Τοῦτο μὲν θαυμαστόν, εἰ ταῖς Ὁμήρου παραβολαῖς
πυρὸς καὶ ἀνέμων καὶ θαλάττης καὶ ἀετῶν καὶ ταύρων καὶ λεόντων
καὶ τῶν ἄλλων, οἷς ἐκόσμησε τὴν ποίησιν Ὅμηρος, σὺ παραβαλεῖν
ἀξιώσεις τοὺς Σωκράτους κεραμέας καὶ {τοὺς} σκυτοτόμους.
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Traduction française :
| [55,5] by imitating his teacher and paying heed to
him he tries to acquire his art. On the other hand,
seeing people and associating with them has nothing
to do with the process of learning. For instance,
many persons not only see pipers but associate with
and hear them every day, and yet they could not
even blow on the pipes unless they associate with
the pipers for professional ends and pay strict heed.
However, if you shrink from calling Socrates a pupil
of Homer, but would prefer to call him just a follower,
it will make no difference to me.
(6) (Interlocuteur) Why, to my way of thinking, the one seems
no less surprising than the other. For Homer has
proved to be a poet without a peer, whereas Socrates
is a philosopher.
(Dion) Very well ; on that principle you would not
call even Archilochus a follower of Homer, because
he has not used the same metre as Homer's for all his
poetry but has used other metres for the most part ;
nor would you call Stesichorus his follower either,
because, while Homer composed epic poetry, Stesichorus
was a melic poet.
(7) (Interlocuteur) Yes I would ; all the Greeks agree on this,
that Stesichorus was a follower of Homer, and indeed
is very like him in his poetic art. But wherein does
Socrates seem to you to resemble Homer ?
(Dion) First and foremost, he resembles him in his
character ; for neither of the two was boastful or
brazen, as the most ignorant of the sophists are. For
instance, Homer did not even deign to tell whence he
came, or who were his parents, or what he himself
was called. On the contrary, so far as he was concerned
we should not even know the name of the man
who wrote the Iliad and the Odyssey. As for Socrates,
while he could not make a secret of hic- fatherland
because of its greatness and because Athens was
exceedingly famous and dominated the Greeks at
that period, yet he never said anything boastful about
himself or laid claim to any wisdom, and yet Apollo
had solemnly declared that he was wisest among all
Greeks and barbarians. And finally, Socrates did
not even put his words into writing and himself
bequeath them to posterity, and in this he outdid
Homer. For jnst as we know the name of Homer by
hearing it from others, so too we know the words of
Socrates because others have left them to us. Thus
both were exceedingly self-restrained and modest.
(9) Again, both Socrates and Homer alike scorned the
acquisition of wealth. Besides, they both were devoted
to the same ends and spoke about the same
things, the one through the medium of his verse, the
other in prose—human virtue and vice, actions wrong
and actions right, truth and deceit, and how the
masses have only opinions, while the wise have true knowledge.
Furthermore, they were most effective at making
similes and comparisons.
(Interlocuteur) This is indeed surprising, if with Homer's
comparisons of fire and winds and sea and eagles and
bulls and lions and so forth, figures with which he
adorned his poetry, you shall see fit to compare the
potters and cobblers of Socrates.
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