Plato · c. 428/427-348/347 BC
Gorgias
ΓοργίαςIn the Gorgias Socrates, with Chaerephon, comes to the house of Callicles to question the orator Gorgias about the nature of rhetoric, and then Polus and Callicles take up the argument. Socrates argues that rhetoric is a form of flattery and not an art, that it is worse to do wrong than to suffer it, and that the unpunished wrongdoer is the most wretched of men, against Callicles' praise of natural right and of unrestrained pleasure. He judges Pericles, Cimon, Miltiades and Themistocles by what they made of the Athenians, and ends with a myth in which Zeus, Poseidon and Pluto divided the empire of Cronos, and Minos, Rhadamanthus and Aeacus judge the dead and send them to the Islands of the Blessed or to Tartarus.
Contents · 21 passages
- 447a–449eSocrates and Chaerephon come late to the feast; Gorgias offers to answer any question1219 words
- 450a–452eWhat is rhetoric about? Gorgias on the greatest of goods1328 words
- 453a–457eRhetoric as the artificer of persuasion; its power and responsibility2142 words
- 458a–462eRefutation as a benefit; Gorgias' contradiction about teaching justice; Polus takes over2166 words
- 463a–466eRhetoric as flattery: the four arts and their counterfeits1659 words
- 467a–470eAre orators and tyrants powerful? Doing what seems best and what one wishes1850 words
- 471a–474eArchelaus of Macedonia; Polus' witnesses and Socrates' one witness1906 words
- 475a–479eDoing wrong is worse than suffering it; punishment as the cure of the soul2239 words
- 480a–482eThe use of rhetoric against oneself; Callicles asks whether Socrates is serious1332 words
- 483a–486eCallicles: nature against convention, the stronger and the uselessness of philosophy1681 words
- 487a–489eSocrates' touchstone; natural justice as the rule of the stronger1261 words
- 490a–492eWho is better? The ruler of himself and the life of unrestrained desire1358 words
- 493a–495eThe leaky jars; the life of the full and the empty; pleasure and the good1345 words
- 496a–499ePleasure is not the same as the good; the brave and the cowardly1851 words
- 500a–503eArts of care and arts of flattery: cookery, music, poetry and orators1784 words
- 504a–507eOrder in the soul: temperance, justice and the good life; Socrates continues alone1854 words
- 508a–511eThe order of the universe; power to avoid wrongdoing and the way to protect oneself1791 words
- 512b–514eThe pilot's art and the statesman's; how to serve the state1334 words
- 515a–518eThe Athenian statesmen: Pericles, Cimon, Miltiades and Themistocles1774 words
- 519a–522eStatesmen as flatterers; Socrates the only true statesman; the danger of a trial1852 words
- 523a–527eThe myth of the judgment of the dead: Zeus, Rhadamanthus, Minos and Aeacus2218 words
More by Plato
English translation by Benjamin Jowett (1892). Original text: Greek text: John Burnet, Platonis Opera, Oxford Classical Texts (as digitised by Perseus); English: Benjamin Jowett (trans.), The Dialogues of Plato, 3rd edition, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1892.
Greek text and translation from the Perseus Digital Library, Tufts University, CC BY-SA 4.0 (Perseus Digital Library, Greek text); translation public domain. Introductions, summaries and notes © GreekMythology.com.
Cite This Text