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;

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

that when Heracles was quite young, and nearly of this very age which you now are, deliberating which of the two roads he should take—the one that leads through toils to virtue, or the easiest—two women approached him, and these were Virtue and Vice.

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

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.

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 …

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:

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.

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

And Vice, as Prodicus tells, answered and said: