Ion. I imagine that the rhapsodist has a perfect knowledge of what it is becoming for a man to speak—what for a woman; what for a slave, what for a free man; what for the ruler, what for him who is governed.
Socrates. How! do you think that a rhapsodist knows better than a pilot what the captain of a ship in a tempest ought to say?
Ion. In such a circumstance I allow that the pilot would know best.
Socrates. Has the rhapsodist or the physician the clearest knowledge of what ought to be said to a sick man?
Ion. In that case the physician.
Socrates. But you assert that he knows what a slave ought to say?
Ion. Certainly.
Socrates. To take for example, in the driving of cattle; a rhapsodist would know much better than the herdsman what ought to be said to a slave engaged in bringing back a herd of oxen run wild?
Ion. No, indeed.
Socrates. But what a woman should say concerning spinning wool?