4.6
Then Niceratus remarked: You may now hear me tell wherein you will be improved by associating with me. You know, doubtless, that the sage Homer has written about practically everything pertaining to man. Any one of you, therefore, who wishes to acquire the art of the householder, the political leader, or the general, or to become like Achilles or Ajax or Nestor or Odysseus, should seek my favour, for I understand all these things. Ha! said Antisthenes; do you understand how to play the king, too, knowing, as you do, that Homer praised AgamemnonIliad, iii. 179. for being both goodly king and spearman strong? Yes, indeed! said he; and I know also that in driving a chariot one must run close to the goalpost at the turnCf. Iliad, xxiii. 323, 334. and Himself lean lightly to the left within The polished car, the right-hand trace-horse goad, Urge him with shouts, and let him have the reins.Hom. Il. 23.335-337 Hom. Il. 23.335-337
4.7
And beside this I know something else, which you may test immediately. For Homer says somewhere: An onion, too, a relish for the drink.Iliad, xi. 630. Now if some one will bring an onion, you will receive this benefit, at any rate, without delay; for you will get more pleasure out of your drinking.
4.8
Gentlemen, said Charmides, Niceratus is intent on going home smelling of onions to make his wife believe that no one would even have conceived the thought of kissing him. Undoubtedly, said Socrates. But we run the risk of getting a different sort of reputation, one that will bring us ridicule. For though the onion seems to be in the truest sense a relish, since it adds to our enjoyment not only of food, but also of drink, yet if we eat it not only with our dinner but after it as well, take care that some one does not say of us that on our visit to Callias we were merely indulging our appetites.
