_Socrates._ How! do you think that a rhapsodist knows better than a pilot what the captain of a ship in a tempest ought to say? _Ion._ In such a circumstance I allow that the pilot would know best. _Socrates._ Has the rhapsodist or the physician the clearest knowledge of what ought to be said to a sick man? _Ion._ In that case the physician. _Socrates._ But you assert that he knows what a slave ought to say? _Ion._ Certainly. _Socrates._ To take for example, in the driving of cattle; a rhapsodist would know much better than the herdsman what ought to be said to a slave engaged in bringing back a herd of oxen run wild? _Ion._ No, indeed. _Socrates._ But what a woman should say concerning spinning wool? _Ion._ Of course not. _Socrates._ He would know, however, what a man, who is a general, should say when exhorting his troops? _Ion._ Yes; a rhapsodist would know that. _Socrates._ How! is rhapsody and strategy the same art? _Ion._ I know what it is fitting for a general to say. _Socrates._ Probably because you are learned in war, O Ion. For if you are equally expert in horsemanship and playing on the harp, you would know whether a man rode well or ill. But if I should ask you which understands riding best, a horseman or a harper, what would you answer? _Ion._ A horseman, of course. _Socrates._ And if you knew a good player on the harp, you would in the same way say that he understood harp-playing and not riding? _Ion._ Certainly. _Socrates._ Since you understand strategy, you can tell me which is the most excellent, the art of war or rhapsody? _Ion._ One does not appear to me to excel the other. _Socrates._ One is not better than the other, say you? Do you say that tactics and rhapsody are two arts or one? _Ion._ They appear to me to be the same. _Socrates._ Then a good rhapsodist is also a good general. _Ion._ Of course. _Socrates._ And a good general is a good rhapsodist? _Ion._ I do not say that. _Socrates._ You said that a good rhapsodist was also a good general. _Ion._ I did. _Socrates._ Are you not the best rhapsodist in Greece? _Ion._ By far, O Socrates. _Socrates._ And you are also the most excellent general among the Greeks? _Ion._ I am. I learned the art from Homer. _Socrates._ How is it then, by Jupiter, that being both the best general and the best rhapsodist among us, you continually go about Greece rhapsodising, and never lead our armies? Does it seem to you that the Greeks greatly need golden-crowned rhapsodists, and have no want of generals? _Ion._ My native town, O Socrates, is ruled by yours, and requires no general for her wars;--and neither will your city nor the Lacedemonians elect me to lead their armies--you think your own generals sufficient. _Socrates._ My good Ion, are you acquainted with Apollodorus the Cyzicenian? _Ion._ Who do you mean?