Xen. Memor. iv. 4, 9. ἀρκεῖ γὰρ (says Hippias to Sokrates), ὅτι τῶν ἄλλων καταγελᾷς, ἐρωτῶν καὶ ἐλέγχων πάντας, αὐτὸς δὲ οὐδενὶ θέλων ὑπέχειν λόγον, οὐδὲ γνώμην ἀποφαίνεσθαι περὶ οὐδενός. See also Memorab. iii. 5, 24.
Compare a striking passage in Plato’s Menon, p. 80 A; also Theætêt. p. 149; and Plutarch, Quæst. Platonic. p. 1000.
The attribute εἰρωνεία, which Plato here declares as one of the main characteristics of the Sophists, is applied to Sokrates in a very special manner, not merely in the Platonic dialogues, but also by Timon in the fragments of his Silli remaining — Αὐτὴ ἐκείνη ἡ εἰωθυῖα εἰρωνεία Σωκράτους (Plato, Repub. i. p. 337 A); and again — προὔλεγον ὅτι σὺ ἀποκρίνασθαι μὲν οὐκ ἐθελησοις, εἰρωνεύσοιο δὲ καὶ πάντα μᾶλλον ποιήσοις ἢ ἀποκρίνοιο, εἴ τις τί σε ἐρωτᾷ. So also in the Symposion, p. 216 E, Alkibiades says about Sokrates εἰρωνευόμενος δὲ καὶ παίζων πάντα τὸν βίον πρὸς τοὺς ἀνθρώπους διατελεῖ. And Gorgias, p. 489 E. In another part of the Gorgias (p. 481 B), Kallikles says, “Tell me, Chærephon, does Sokrates mean seriously what he says, or is he bantering?” σπουδάζει ταῦτα Σωκράτης ἢ παίζει; Protagoras, Prodikus, Hippias, &c., do not seem to have been εἴρωνες at all, as far as our scanty knowledge goes.
The words εἴρων, εἰρωνικός, εἰρωνεία seem to include more than is implied in our words irony, ironical. Schleiermacher translates the words ἁπλοῦν μιμήτην, εἰρωνικὸν μιμήτην, at the end of the Sophistês, by “den ehrlichen, den Schlauen, Nachahmer”; which seems to me near the truth, — meaning one who either speaks what he does not think, or evades speaking what he does think, in order to serve some special purpose.
The conditions enumerated in the dialogue (except the taking of a fee) fit Sokrates better than any other known person.
Moreover, if we examine not merely the special features assigned to the Sophist in the conclusion of the dialogue, but also those indicated in the earlier part of it, we shall find that many of them fit Sokrates as well as they could have fitted any one else. If the Sophists hunted after rich young men,[90] Sokrates did the same; seeking opportunities for conversation with them by assiduous frequentation of the palæstræ, as well as in other ways. We see this amply attested by Plato and Xenophon:[91] we see farther that Sokrates announces it as a propensity natural to him, and meritorious rather than otherwise. Again, the argumentative dialogue — disputation or eristic reduced to an art, and debating on the general theses of just and unjust, which Plato notes as characterising the Sophists[92] — belonged in still higher perfection to Sokrates. It not only formed the business of his life, but is extolled by Plato elsewhere,[93] as the true walk of virtuous philosophy. But there was undoubtedly this difference between Sokrates and the Sophists, that he conversed and argued gratuitously, delighting in the process itself: while they both asked and received money for it. Upon this point, brought forward by Plato both directly and with his remarkable fertility in multiplying indirect allusions, the peculiarity of the Sophist is made mainly to turn. To ask or receive a fee for communicating knowledge, virtue, aptitude in debate, was in the view of Sokrates and Plato a grave enormity: a kind of simoniacal practice.[94]
[90] Plato, Sophist. p. 223. νέων πλουσίων καὶ ἐνδόξων θήρα.
[91] In the opening words of the Platonic Protagoras, we read as a question from the friend or companion of Sokrates, Πόθεν, ὦ Σώκρατες, φαίνει; ἢ ἀπὸ κυνηγεσίου τοῦ περὶ τὴν Ἀλκιβιάδου ὥραν;
See also the opening of the Charmides, Lysis, Alkibiadês I., and the speech of Alkibiades in the Symposion.
Compare also Xenophon, Memorab. iv. 2, 1-2-6, with the commencement of the Platonic Protagoras; in which the youth Hippokrates, far from being run after by the Sophist Protagoras, is described as an enthusiastic admirer of that Sophist from reputation alone, and as eagerly soliciting Sokrates to present him to Protagoras (Protag. pp. 310-311).