Audiobook · read by volunteers
Ion
Plato
Read by Simon-Peter Zak · 2 chapters · 53 min
About the book
Ion is a professional reciter of Homer, fresh from a prize at a festival and full of pride in his art. When Socrates meets him, he asks a simple, disarming question: does Ion really know what he is talking about, or is something else at work? What follows is one of the shortest and liveliest of Plato’s dialogues, a gentle cross-examination in which a confident performer is led to wonder where his gift really comes from. Socrates suggests that poets, and those who sing their words, are moved by a force beyond skill, like iron rings drawn along by a magnet. It is a conversation about inspiration, knowledge, craft and the difference between performing a text and mastering a subject. Simon-Peter Zak reads Benjamin Jowett’s translation in two parts, with an introduction. A compact classic for anyone curious about the roots of literary thought, short enough to enjoy in a single sitting.
Introduction
Plato lived from about 428 to 347 BC. He was a pupil of Socrates in Athens, the founder of the Academy, and the author of dialogues that continue to shape philosophy, politics and the study of literature. Because Socrates appears as the principal speaker in most of them, the dialogues give the reader the feeling of overhearing a lively conversation.
Ion is among the shorter dialogues. It concerns a rhapsode, a performer who recites and explains the poems of Homer, and it raises questions that remain alive today: what is the source of artistic ability, whether skill in performance requires real knowledge of the subjects described, and what we mean by inspiration. Scholars have debated how seriously Socrates intends his argument, and whether the dialogue is a tribute to the poets, a gentle mockery, or something between the two. It is also sometimes noted that its authorship has been questioned, though the work is generally attributed to Plato.
The translation read here is by Benjamin Jowett, who lived from 1817 to 1893 and was a celebrated Oxford classicist. His English versions of Plato were widely read in the late nineteenth century, and the edition used for this recording is dated 1892. Jowett’s language is formal and polished, and has a certain Victorian dignity.
The recording has two parts, an introduction and the dialogue itself, and lasts less than an hour. It is read by LibriVox volunteer Simon-Peter Zak. If you have never tried Plato, this brief dialogue makes a delightfully approachable first step.
Public domain
The LibriVox volunteers dedicated this recording to the public domain.
Sources : LibriVox page · Files at the Internet Archive · Original text