Book 6
4
This is Solon, the son of Execestides, and that is Thales, and past them is Pittacus, and the others; they are seven in all, as you see.
4
These are the only happy and cheerful ones, Aeacus. But who is this covered with cinders, like a loaf baked in the ashes, and with such a crop of blisters on his skin?
4
Empedocles; he came half-boiled from Etna.
4
O brazen-foot Empedocles was said to have died by leaping into the crater of Etna, which later threw out one of his bronze-shod sandals. Cf. Strabo, VI, 274; Diogenes Laertius, VIII, 69. most excellent, what came over you that you jumped into the crater?
4
A fit of mad depression, Menippus.
4
No, but a fit of vanity and pride and a dose of drivelling folly; that was what burnt you to ashes, boots and all—and well you deserved it! But the trick didn’t do you any good; they found out that you were dead. But wherever, Aeacus, is Socrates?
4
Usually he’s talking nonsense with Nestor and Palamedes.
4
However, I should like to see him, if he’s around.
4
Do you see the bald one?
4
They’re all bald; that distinguishing feature would apply to them all.
4
I mean the one with the snub nose.
4
This too they have in common; they’re all snub-nosed.
5
Looking for me, Menippus?
5
Yes, I am, Socrates.
5
What’s the news in Athens?
5
Many of the young men call themselves Philosophers, and, to judge at least from their garb and gait, are tiptop Philosophers.
5
I’ve seen lots of them.
5
But you’ve seen, I imagine, what Aristippus was like when he came to join you, or Plato himself—the one reeking of scent, the other accomplished in flattering Sicilian tyrants.
5
And what do they think of me?
5
In these respects at least, you’re a lucky fellow, Socrates. At any rate they all think you were a wonderful man, and knew everything, though—I think I’m right in saying so—you knew nothing.
5
That’s what I myself kept telling them, but they thought it was all pretence on my part.
6
But who are these round you?
6
Charmides, my good fellow, and Phaedrus and Clinias’ son. Alcibiades.
