[Footnote 16: Plato, Ion. 534 E. [Greek: tau=ta e)ndeiknu/menos o( theo\s e)xepi/têdes dia\ tou= phaulota/tou poiêtou= to\ ka/lliston me/los ê)=|sen.]] [Side-note: Analogy of the Magnet, which holds up by attraction successive stages of iron rings. The Gods first inspire Homer, then act through him and through Ion upon the auditors.] Homer is thus (continues Sokrates) not a man of art or reason, but the interpreter of the Gods; deprived of his reason, but possessed, inspired, by them. You, Ion, are the interpreter of Homer: and the divine inspiration, carrying away your reason, is exercised over you through him. It is in this way that the influence of the Magnet is shown, attracting and holding up successive stages of iron rings.[17] The first ring is in contact with the Magnet itself: the second is suspended to the first, the third to the second, and so on. The attractive influence of the Magnet is thus transmitted through a succession of different rings, so as to keep suspended several which are a good way removed from itself. So the influence of the Gods is exerted directly and immediately upon Homer: through him, it passes by a second stage to you: through him and you, it passes by a third stage to those auditors whom you so powerfully affect and delight, becoming however comparatively enfeebled at each stage of transition. [Footnote 17: Plato, Ion, 533 D-E.] [Side-note: This comparison forms the central point of the dialogue. It is an expansion of a judgment delivered by Sokrates in the Apology.] The passage and comparison here given by Sokrates--remarkable as an early description of the working of the Magnet--forms the central point or kernel of the dialogue called Ion. It is an expansion of a judgment delivered by Sokrates himself in his Apology to the Dikasts, and it is repeated in more than one place by Plato.[18] Sokrates declares in his Apology that he had applied his testing cross-examination to several excellent poets; and that finding them unable to give any rational account of their own compositions, he concluded that they composed without any wisdom of their own, under the same inspiration as prophets and declarers of oracles. In the dialogue before us, this thought is strikingly illustrated and amplified. [Footnote 18: Plato, Apol. Sokr. p. 22 D; Plato, Menon, p. 99 D.] [Side-note: Platonic Antithesis: systematic procedure distinguished from unsystematic: which latter was either blind routine, or madness inspired by the Gods. Varieties of madness, good and bad.]