《Alcibiades》世界各国经典文学读本.pdf

Alcibiades

by Plato
ALCIBIADES I...................................................................................... 1
ALCIBIADES II................................................................................. 105
★ Alcibiades ★
ALCIBIADES I
PERSONS OF THE DIALOGUE: Alcibiades,
Socrates.
SOCRATES: I dare say that you may be surprised to
find, O son of Cleinias, that I, who am your first lover, not
having spoken to you for many years, when the rest of the
world were wearying you with their attentions, am the last
of your lovers who still speaks to you. The cause of my
silence has been that I was hindered by a power more than
human, of which I will some day explain to you the nature;
this impediment has now been removed; I therefore here
present myself before you, and I greatly hope that
no similar hindrance will again occur. Meanwhile, I have
observed that your pride has been too much for the pride of
your admirers; they were numerous and high-spirited, but
they have all run away, overpowered by your superior force
of character; not one of them remains. And I want you to
Page 1
★ Alcibiades ★
understand the reason why you have been too much for
them. You think that you have no need of them or of any
other man, for you have great possessions and lack nothing,
beginning with the body, and ending with the soul. In the
first place, you say to yourself that you are the fairest and
tallest of the citizens, and this every one who has eyes may
see to be true; in the second place, that you are among the
noblest of them, highly connected both on the father’s and
the mother’s side, and sprung from one of the
most distinguished families in your own state, which is the
greatest in Hellas, and having many friends and kinsmen of
the best sort, who can assist you when in need; and there is
one potent relative, who is more to you than all the rest,
Pericles the son of Xanthippus, whom your father left