all your singularities is not a task which is easy to a man in my
condition.

And now, my boys, I shall praise Socrates in a figure which will appear to
him to be a caricature, and yet I speak, not to make fun of him, but only
for the truth's sake. I say, that he is exactly like the busts of Silenus,
which are set up in the statuaries' shops, holding pipes and flutes in
their mouths; and they are made to open in the middle, and have images of
gods inside them. I say also that he is like Marsyas the satyr. You
yourself will not deny, Socrates, that your face is like that of a satyr.
Aye, and there is a resemblance in other points too. For example, you are
a bully, as I can prove by witnesses, if you will not confess. And are you
not a flute-player? That you are, and a performer far more wonderful than
Marsyas. He indeed with instruments used to charm the souls of men by the
power of his breath, and the players of his music do so still: for the
melodies of Olympus (compare Arist. Pol.) are derived from Marsyas who
taught them, and these, whether they are played by a great master or by a
miserable flute-girl, have a power which no others have; they alone possess
the soul and reveal the wants of those who have need of gods and mysteries,
because they are divine. But you produce the same effect with your words
only, and do not require the flute: that is the difference between you and
him. When we hear any other speaker, even a very good one, he produces
absolutely no effect upon us, or not much, whereas the mere fragments of
you and your words, even at second-hand, and however imperfectly repeated,
amaze and possess the souls of every man, woman, and child who comes within
hearing of them. And if I were not afraid that you would think me
hopelessly drunk, I would have sworn as well as spoken to the influence
which they have always had and still have over me. For my heart leaps
within me more than that of any Corybantian reveller, and my eyes rain
tears when I hear them. And I observe that many others are affected in the