428
Cratylus. Yes, Socrates, I have, as you say, paid attention to these matters, and perhaps I might make you my pupil. However, I am afraid the opposite is the case, and I am impelled to say to you what Achilles says in the Prayers to Ajax. He says:Ajax, descendant of Zeus, son of Telamon, chief of thy people,All thou hast uttered is good in my sight and pleases my spirit.Hom. Il. 9.644 f And so, Socrates, your oracular utterances seem to me to be much to my mind, whether you are inspired by Euthyphro or some other Muse has dwelt within you all along without our knowing it.
428
Socrates. My excellent Cratylus, I myself have been marvelling at my own wisdom all along, and I cannot believe in it. So I think we ought to reexamine my utterances. For the worst of all deceptions is self-deception. How can it help being terrible, when the deceiver is always present and never stirs from the spot? So I think we must turn back repeatedly to what we have said and must try, as the poet says, to look both forwards and backwards.Hom. Il. 1.343; 3.109 Then let us now see what we have said. Correctness of a name, we say, is the quality of showing the nature of the thing named. Shall we call that a satisfactory statement?
428
Cratylus. I am perfectly satisfied with it, Socrates.
428
Socrates. Names, then, are given with a view to instruction?
428
Cratylus. Certainly.
428
Socrates. Shall we, then; say that this instruction is an art and has its artisans?
428
Cratylus. Certainly.
428
Socrates. Who are they?
429
Cratylus. The lawgivers, as you said in the beginning.
429
Socrates. Shall we declare that this art arises in men like the other arts, or not? What I mean is this: Some painters are better, and others worse, are they not?
429
Cratylus. Certainly.
429
Socrates. And the better produce better works—that is, their paintings—and the others worse works? And likewise some builders build better houses and others worse?
429
Cratylus. Yes.
429
Socrates. Then do some lawgivers produce better, and others worse works?
