And what again?

 

Socrates: And what again if someone came up to Sophocles or Euripides (Ti/ d’ ei0 Sofoklei= au] proselqw_n kai\ Eu0ripi/dh| tij) and said (le/goi) that he knew how to compose very long passages about a small subject (o3ti e0pi/statai peri\ smikrou= pra/gmatoj r9h/seij pammh/keij poiei=n) and very short ones about a large subject (kai\ peri\ mega/lou pa/nu smikra/j), and piteous speeches, when he wished (o3tan te bou/lhtai oi0ktra/j), or conversely (kai\ tou0nanti/on au]), frightening (fobera/j) and threatening ones (kai\ a0peilhtika/j), and everything else like that (o3sa t’ a1lla toiau=ta), and that he thought that by teaching these things he was passing on the making of tragedy (kai\ dida/skwn au0ta\ tragw|di/aj poi/hsin oi1etai paradido/nai;)?

Phaedrus: They too, I think, Socrates (Kai\ ou[toi a1n, w} Sw&kratej, oi]mai), would laugh (katagelw|~en) if someone thought (ei1 tij oi1etai) that tragedy was anything other than (tragw|di/an a1llo ti ei]nai h1) the arrangement of these things – their being put together so as to fit both each other and the whole (th\n tou/twn su/stasin pre/pousan a0llh/loij te kai\ tw~| o3lw| sunistame/nhn).

Socrates: But I don’t think they would abuse him coarsely (A0ll’ ou0k a2n a0groi/kwj ge oi]mai loidorh/seian); just as  a musical expert (a0ll’ w#sper a2n mousiko/j), if he met someone who thought he knew all about harmony (e0ntuxw_n a0ndri\ oi0ome/nw| a9rmonikw|~ ei]nai) just because he happened to know how to produce the highest and the lowest notes on a string (o3ti dh\ tugxa/nei e0pista/menoj w(j oi[o/n te o0cuta/thn kai\ baruta/thn xordh\n poiei=n), would not say fiercely (ou0k a0gri/wj ei1poi a1n) ‘You’re off your head, you wretch’ (W] moxqhre/, melagxola=|j), but, being a musician (a0ll/ a3te mousiko\j w!n), more gently (pra|o/teron o3ti), ‘My dear fellow (W} a1riste), the person who is going to be an expert in harmony must certainly know that (a0na/gkh me\n kai\ tau=ta e0pi/stasqai to\n me/llonta a9rmoniko\n e1sesqai), but there is nothing to prevent someone in your condition from having not the slightest understanding of harmony (ou0de\n mh\n kwlu/ei mhde\ smikro\n a9rmoni/aj e0pai+/ein to\n th\n sh\n e3cin e1xonta); for what you know is what has to be learned before harmony itself (ta\ ga\r pro\ a9rmoni/aj a0nagkai=a maqh/mata e0pi/stasai), not the elements of harmony as such (a0ll’ ou0 ta\ a9rmonika/).’

Phaedrus: Quite right (O)qo/tata/ ge).

Socrates: Then Sophocles too (Ou0kou=n kai\ o9 Sofoklh=j) would say that the man displaying himself to him and to Euripides (to/n sfisin e0pideiknu/menon) knew the preliminaries to tragedy (ta\ pro\ tragw|di/aj a2n fai/h) and not its elements (a0ll’ ou0 ta\ tragika/), and Acumenus (kai\ o9 A0koumeno/j) that the individual in his case knew the preliminaries to medicine but not the elements of medicine (ta\ pro\ i0atrikh=j a0ll’ ou0 ta\ i0atrika/).

Phaedrus: Absolutely (Panta/pasi me\n ou]n).