[534d]
in order that we who hear them may know that it is not they who utter these words of great price, when they are out of their wits, but that it is God himself who speaks and addresses us through them. A convincing proof of what I say is the case of Tynnichus,1 the Chalcidian, who had never composed a single poem in his life that could deserve any mention, and then produced the paean2 which is in everyone's mouth, almost the finest song we have, simply—as he says himself—“an invention of the Muses.” For the god, as it seems to me,
Plato. Plato in Twelve Volumes, Vol. 9 translated by W.R.M. Lamb. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1925.
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