Prodicus

and those who follow the school of Prodicus boast that they possess secret books of this man.

Such are the doctrines of the followers of Prodicus also, who falsely proclaim themselves "gnostics," saying that they are by nature sons of the first God;

Having come to this point, I was reminded of the doctrines introduced by certain heterodox men concerning the supposed needlessness of prayer—that is, by those of the school of Prodicus.

Hippias of Elis and Gorgias of Leontini and Polus and Prodicus, the sophists, flourished for a time in Hellas and met with marvellous fame, not only in the other cities but also at Sparta and among the Athenians, and they gathered much money, publicly from the cities and from certain dynasts and kings and private men, according to the means each had.

Nor, then, did he make Gorgias or Polus or Thrasymachus or Prodicus or Meno or Euthyphro or Anytus or Alcibiades or Laches speak in vain, when he might have removed the names;

First of all, as Prodicus says, you have to learn about the correct use of words—the very point that our two visitors are making plain to you, namely, that you were unaware that learning is the name which people apply on the one hand to the case of a man who, having originally no knowledge about some matter, in course of time receives such knowledge;

They are the persons, Crito, whom Prodicus described as the border-ground between philosopher and politician, yet they fancy that they are the wisest of all mankind, and that they not merely are but are thought so by a great many people;

for you have yourself paid a good deal of money for wisdom to Protagoras, Gorgias, Prodicus, and many others, while you see that we are what you might call amateurs in philosophy;

I know that you acted the part between Callias here and the scholar Prodicus, when you saw that Callias was in love with philosophy and that Prodicus wanted money.

thanks to us, even Prodicus will envy you your knowledge.

For we would not hearken to any other of the recent meteorological sophists, except to Prodicus;

and following her it was that Heracles in the end arrived.

these she displayed, and, promising still more than these, tried to draw Heracles to herself.

And moreover the Cean sophist Prodicus too, somewhere in his own writings, philosophized akin to these on virtue and vice;

And Prodicus of Ceos, who said that the things which were of use to the life of men had been reckoned among the gods — what religion, pray, did he leave?

Although this also seems to me to be a fine thing, if one might be able to teach people, as Gorgias of Leontini and Prodicus of Ceos and Hippias of Elis are.

for in fact I have heard Prodicus drawing innumerable distinctions between names.

Now if I had attended Prodicus’s fifty-drachma course of lectures, after which, as he himself says, a man has a complete education on this subject, there would be nothing to hinder your learning the truth about the correctness of names at once;

and Damon constantly associates with Prodicus, who is supposed to be the cleverest of the sophists at distinguishing terms like these.

O Prodicus!

And once when Prodicus heard these inventions, he laughed, and said that he alone had discovered the art of proper speech, that discourses should be neither long nor short, but of reasonable length.

Then surely we must call Prodicus and Hippias and their followers to come and listen to us

Well, Prodicus was still abed, wrapped up in sundry fleeces and rugs, and plenty of them too, it seemed;

we shall find Hippias of Elis and, I believe, Prodicus of Ceos, and numerous other men of wisdom besides.

But are we to believe that while Protagoras of Abdera and Prodicus of Ceos and many others are able by private teaching to impress upon their contemporaries the conviction that they will not be capable of governing their homes or the city unless they put them in charge of their education, and make themselves so beloved for this wisdom that their companions all but carry them about on their shoulde …

But in some cases, Theaetetus, when they do not seem to me to be exactly pregnant, since I see that they have no need of me, I act with perfect goodwill as match-maker and, under God, I guess very successfully with whom they can associate profitably, and I have handed over many of them to Prodicus, and many to other wise and inspired men.

And moreover, if Theages here does despise the instruction of our statesmen, and is looking for some other persons who profess to be able to educate young people, we have here Prodicus of Ceos, Gorgias of Leontini, Polus of Acragas, and many more, who are so wise that they go to our cities and persuade the noblest and wealthiest of our young men—who have the choice of learning from any citizen the …

when another god is set up against the Creator, as with Marcion, and the many gods of the followers of Valentinus and Prodicus — then there is an overthrow of the monarchy, when there is a destruction of the Creator.

But if even then a Prodicus or a Valentinus had stood by, suggesting that confession is not to be made on earth before men — nay, that God does not thirst for human blood, nor Christ demand a return of suffering, as though he too were to obtain salvation out of it — he would at once have heard from the servant of God what the devil heard from the Lord:

And Vice, as Prodicus tells, answered and said:

Such, in outline, is Prodicus’ story of the training of Heracles by Virtue;

Aye, and Prodicus the wise expresses himself to the like effect concerning Virtue in the essay On Heracles that he recites to throngs of listeners.