Damon
（
Δάμων).
1. Of Athens, a celebrated musician and sophist.
He was a pupil of Lamprus and Agathocles, and the teacher of Pericles, with whom he lived on the most intimate terms. Socrates also, who esteemed him very highly, is said to have profited by his instructions. (
Cic. de Orat. 2.33;
Plut. Per. 4;
D. L. 2.19.) Damon was no ordinary man. His penetration and acumen are particularly extolled by Plato in his work on the Republic, and he had cultivated his intellectual powers by constant intercourse with the most distinguished men of his time, such as Prodicus and others. His influence in political affairs was very great.
In his old age he was banished from Athens, probably on account of the part he had taken in plitics. Damon maintained, that simplicity was the highest law of music, and that it had a very intimate connexion with morality and the development of man's nature. (Plat.
Laches, p. 197d.,
Alcibiad. p. 118,
de Rep. iv. p. 424c., iii. p. 400;
Plut. Arist. 1; compare Groen van Prinsteres,
Prosopographia Platonica, pp. 186-188.)
