"protagoras" - читать интересную книгу автора (Plato)

our elders; for we are still young-too young to determine such a
matter. And now let us go, as we were intending, and hear
Protagoras; and when we have heard what he has to say, we may take
counsel of others; for not only is Protagoras at the house of Callias,
but there is Hippias of Elis, and, if I am not mistaken, Prodicus of
Ceos, and several other wise men.

To this we agreed, and proceeded on our way until we reached the
vestibule of the house; and there we stopped in order to conclude a
discussion which had arisen between us as we were going along; and
we stood talking in the vestibule until we had finished and come to an
understanding. And I think that the doorkeeper, who was a eunuch,
and who was probably annoyed at the great inroad of the Sophists, must
have heard us talking. At any rate, when we knocked at the door, and
he opened and saw us, he grumbled: They are Sophists -he is not at
home; and instantly gave the door a hearty bang with both his hands.
Again we knocked, and he answered without opening: Did you not hear me
say that he is not at home, fellows? But, my friend, I said, you
need not be alarmed; for we are not Sophists, and we are not come to
see Callias, but we want to see Protagoras; and I must request you
to announce us. At last, after a good deal of difficulty, the man
was persuaded to open the door.

When we entered, we found Protagoras taking a walk in the
cloister; and next to him, on one side, were walking Callias, the
son of Hipponicus, and Paralus, the son of Pericles, who, by the
mother's side, is his half-brother, and Charmides, the son of Glaucon.
On the other side of him were Xanthippus, the other son of Pericles,
Philippides, the son of Philomelus; also Antimoerus of Mende, who of
all the disciples of Protagoras is the most famous, and intends to
make sophistry his profession. A train of listeners followed him;
the greater part of them appeared to be foreigners, whom Protagoras
had brought with him out of the various cities visited by him in his
journeys, he, like Orpheus, attracting them his voice, and they
following. I should mention also that there were some Athenians in the
company. Nothing delighted me more than the precision of their
movements: they never got into his way at all; but when he and those
who were with him turned back, then the band of listeners parted
regularly on either side; he was always in front, and they wheeled
round and took their places behind him in perfect order.

After him, as Homer says, "I lifted up my eyes and saw" Hippias
the Elean sitting in the opposite cloister on a chair of state, and
around him were seated on benches Eryximachus, the son of Acumenus,
and Phaedrus the Myrrhinusian, and Andron the son of Androtion, and
there were strangers whom he had brought with him from his native city
of Elis, and some others: they were putting to Hippias certain
physical and astronomical questions, and he, ex cathedra, was
determining their several questions to them, and discoursing of them.