ed to give my very best
attention to them; for if I make them cry I myself shall laugh, and if I
make them laugh I myself shall cry when the time of payment arrives.

SOCRATES: Do you know that the spectator is the last of the rings
which, as I am saying, receive the power of the original magnet from
one another? The rhapsode like yourself and the actor are intermediate
links, and the poet himself is the first of them. Through all these the
God sways the souls of men in any direction which he pleases, and makes
one man hang down from another. Thus there is a vast chain of dancers
and masters and under-masters of choruses, who are suspended, as if from
the stone, at the side of the rings which hang down from the Muse. And
every poet has some Muse from whom he is suspended, and by whom he is
said to be possessed, which is nearly the same thing; for he is taken
hold of. And from these first rings, which are the poets, depend others,
some deriving their inspiration from Orpheus, others from Musaeus; but
the greater number are possessed and held by Homer. Of whom, Ion, you
are one, and are possessed by Homer; and when any one repeats the words
of another poet you go to sleep, and know not what to say; but when any
one recites a strain of Homer you wake up in a moment, and your
soul leaps within you, and you have plenty to say; for not by art or
knowledge about Homer do you say what you say, but by divine inspiration
and by possession; just as the Corybantian revellers too have a quick
perception of that strain only which is appropriated to the God by whom
they are possessed, and have plenty of dances and words for that, but
take no heed of any other. And you, Ion, when the name of Homer is
mentioned have plenty to say, and have nothing to say of others. You
ask, 'Why is this?' The answer is that you praise Homer not by art but
by divine inspiration.

ION: That is good, Socrates; and yet I doubt whether you will ever have
eloquence enough to persuade me that I praise Homer only when I am mad
and possessed; and if you could hear me speak of him I am sure you would
never think this to be the case.

SOCRATES: I should like very much to hear you, but not until you have
answered a question which I have to ask. On what part of Homer do you
speak well?--not surely about every part.

ION: There is no part, Socrates, about which I do not speak well: of
that I can assure you.

SOCRATES: Surely not about things in Homer of which yo