[598d]
and
that there is nothing that he does not know1 more exactly
than anybody else, our tacit rejoinder must be that he is a simple fellow,
who apparently has met some magician or sleight-of-hand man and imitator and
has been deceived by him into the belief that he is all-wise,2 because of his own inability to
put to the proof and distinguish knowledge, ignorance3 and imitation.”
“Most true,” he said.“Then,” said I, “have we not next to
scrutinize tragedy and its leader Homer,4 since some
people tell us that these poets know all the arts
1 Cf.οὐδενὸς ὅτου οὐχίCharm. 175 C,οὐδὲν ὅτι οὐAla. I 105 E, Phil. 54 B, Phaedo 110 E, Euthyph. 3 C, Euthydem. 294 D, Isoc.Panegyr. 14, Herod. v. 97.
2 πάσσοφος is generally ironical in Plato. Cf. What Plato Said, p. 489, on Lysis 216 A.
3 For ἀνεπιστημοσύνην Cf. Theaet. 199 E f.
4 For Homer as tragedian cf. on 595 B-C, p. 420, note a.
Plato. Plato in Twelve Volumes, Vols. 5 & 6 translated by Paul Shorey. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1969.
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