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apparent contradiction within Simonides himself into a hypothetical one between Simonides and Pittacus, and, retrojecting into the past the metaphorical athletic contest between Protagoras and himself, imagines a similar athletic struggle between Simonides and Pittacus.11 In this way the poet becomes one character engaged in animated dialogue with others, and a specific dramatic motivation can be identified for all his utterances. What unifies this fiction of complex dramatic interaction is Socrates' fundamental hypothesis of a central intention on the part of Simonides, underlying all the individual utterances.12 |
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But such an imaginative construct is not likely to command assent unless it can be supported by further argument and persuasive evidence. This first, external context must therefore guide and be tested against the analysis of a second context, this time one which is internal to the text. The transition from the first to the second stage is explicitly asserted in Plato's dialogue,13 while the verbal echoes between the general statement of Simonides' alleged intention, which concludes the discussion of the poem's putative external context, and the last sentence of the analysis of the internal context14 not only formally close the ring-composition of Socrates' lengthy speech but also thematically assert the necessary methodological correlation of its two parts. |
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In its second section, Socrates pursues what he takes to be Simonides' intention step by step through his poem, using as many other phrases as he can identify as relevant internal context in order to confirm, illustrate, and modify his exegesis of the two passages with which Protagoras had challenged him. Notoriously, Socrates seems to leave out very little except for the passage intervening between the two phrases Protagoras quotes. Socrates had already justified his accepting Protagoras' dismissal of his second Prodican diversion by pointing out that the immediately following line proves that Simonides could not have meant "bad" by "hard."15 So too, throughout the rest of his own extended interpretation, Socrates will cite each verse as internal context to cast light on what precedes it and to introduce what follows it.16 |
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11 The athletic terminology:  (339E); (342C). |
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12 See especially 343C:  . |
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14 Cf.  (343C)  and (347A). |
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16 E.g.,  (344B);  (344C);  (345C) . |
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(343C).
(341D-E).