SOCRATES: And if a different knowledge, then a knowledge of different
matters?

ION: True.

SOCRATES: You know the passage in which Hecamede, the concubine of Nestor,
is described as giving to the wounded Machaon a posset, as he says,

'Made with Pramnian wine; and she grated cheese of goat's milk with a
grater of bronze, and at his side placed an onion which gives a relish to
drink (Il.).'

Now would you say that the art of the rhapsode or the art of medicine was
better able to judge of the propriety of these lines?

ION: The art of medicine.

SOCRATES: And when Homer says,

'And she descended into the deep like a leaden plummet, which, set in the
horn of ox that ranges in the fields, rushes along carrying death among the
ravenous fishes (Il.),'--

will the art of the fisherman or of the rhapsode be better able to judge
whether these lines are rightly expressed or not?

ION: Clearly, Socrates, the art of the fisherman.

SOCRATES: Come now, suppose that you were to say to me: 'Since you,