Ion (B)

(Originally written November 24, 2016 in Book 26)

Ion (Continued)
Plato

Socrates claims Ion has not mastered Homer, but is guided by a divine power. He is like a stone moved by a magnet.

Socrates compares the good poets to the Corybantes - priests of Cybele whom they worshipped with wild music and dancers.

A poet "is not able to make poetry until he becomes inspired and goes out of his mind and his intellect is no longer in him" (Plato, 26). Those operating from the intellect cannot write poetry.

Ion is a rahsode. Homer is a poet. Homer is used by a god to speak poetry. Thus, Homer is a representative. Ion is a representative of a representative.

Ion - "You see I must keep my wits and pay close attention to them: if I start them crying I will laugh as I take their money, bit if they laugh, I shall cry at having lost money" (Plato, 27).

The god is the magnet. He moves the first stone Homer. In doing so, Homer becomes like the magnet and moves the second stone, Ion. Ion then becomes like Homer and moves the audience. "The god pulls people's souls through all those wherever he wants" (Plato, 28).

Socrates ends the dialogue by forcing Ion to admit that it is preferable to to be thought of as someone having something to do with the divine than someone who does wrong. Because Ion would be one of the two in teaching Homer and not being a master of the profession called poetry.