125
Socrates
Soc. You scoundrel! So you were desiring to govern us, all the time that you were blaming your father for not sending you to some seminary of despots! And you, Demodocus, are you not ashamed of having known all the time what he is desiring, and though you could have sent him where you would have made him an expert in the wisdom which he desires, actually grudging it to him and refusing to send him? But now, look here, as he has declared against you in my presence, shall you and I consult together on the question of whose school we shall send him to, and whose classes will help him to become a wise despot?
Demodocus
Dem. Yes, in faith, Socrates, let us certainly consult, as I feel this is a matter on which no slight counsel is needed.
Socrates
Soc. By and by, my good sir. Let us first cross-examine him thoroughly.
Demodocus
Dem. Examine him then.
Socrates
Soc. Well now, what if we called in Euripides to our aid, Theages? For you know Euripides says:Despots are wise by converse with the wise. Soph. Fr. 14.1 This line, also quoted and attributed to Euripides in Plat. Rep. 568a, appears to belong really to Sophocles’ lost tragedy The Locrian Ajax. Now, if someone should ask Euripides: Euripides, in what are these men wise, by whose converse you say that despots are wise? I mean, suppose he had said:Farmers are wise by converse with the wise,and we had asked him,—Wise in what?—what answer would he have given us? Surely none other than,—In farming.
5
Theages
The. That, and none other.
