Plato : HIPPIAS (major) Persons of the dialogue: Socrates - Hippias Translated by Benjamin Jowett - 37 Pages - Greek fonts Search Plato's works / Plato Anthology / The Greek Word Library = Note by Elpenor

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Page 20

Soc.: I will tell you. "Oh, my dear Socrates," he says, "stop making replies of this sort and in this way — for they are too silly and easy to refute ; but see if something like this does not seem to you to be beautiful, which we got hold of just now in our reply, when we said that gold was beautiful for those things for which it was appropriate, but not for those for which it was not, and that all the other things were beautiful to which this quality pertains ; so examine this very thing, the appropriate, and see if it is perchance the beautiful." Now I am accustomed to agree to such things every time for I don't know what to say ; but now does it seem to you that the appropriate is the beautiful?

Hip.: Yes, certainly, Socrates.

Soc.: Let us consider, lest we make a mistake somehow.

Hip.: Yes, we must consider.

Soc.: See, then ; do we say that the appropriate is that which, when it is added, makes each of those things to which it is added appear beautiful, or which makes them be beautiful, or neither of these?

Hip.: I think so.

Soc.: Which?

Hip.: That which makes them appear beautiful ; as when a man takes clothes or shoes that fit, even if he be ridiculous, he appears more beautiful.

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