Sophist – Plato
STRANGER: And therefore this first kind of cap-STRANGER: And the fishing by day is called by ture may be called by us capture with enclosures, the general name of barbing, because the spears, or something of that sort?
too, are barbed at the point.
THEAETETUS: Yes.
THEAETETUS: Yes, that is the term.
STRANGER: The other kind, which is practised STRANGER: Of this barb-fishing, that which by a blow with hooks and three-pronged spears, strikes the fish who is below from above is called when summed up under one name, may be called spearing, because this is the way in which the striking, unless you, Theaetetus, can find some three-pronged spears are mostly used.
better name?
THEAETETUS: Yes, it is often called so.
THEAETETUS: Never mind the name—what you suggest will do very well.
STRANGER: Then now there is only one kind remaining.
STRANGER: There is one mode of striking, which is done at night, and by the light of a fire, and is THEAETETUS: What is that?
by the hunters themselves called firing, or spearing by firelight.
STRANGER: When a hook is used, and the fish is not struck in any chance part of his body, as he THEAETETUS: True.
is with the spear, but only about the head and 79
Sophist – Plato
mouth, and is then drawn out from below up-gling or drawing up (aspalieutike, anaspasthai).
wards with reeds and rods:—What is the right name of that mode of fishing, Theaetetus?
THEAETETUS: The result has been quite satisfactorily brought out.
THEAETETUS: I suspect that we have now discovered the object of our search.
STRANGER: And now, following this pattern, let us endeavour to find out what a Sophist is.
STRANGER: Then now you and I have come to an understanding not only about the name of the THEAETETUS: By all means.
angler’s art, but about the definition of the thing itself. One half of all art was acquisitive—half of STRANGER: The first question about the angler the acquisitive art was conquest or taking by was, whether he was a skilled artist or unskilled?
force, half of this was hunting, and half of hunting was hunting animals, half of this was hunt-THEAETETUS: True.
ing water animals—of this again, the under half was fishing, half of fishing was striking; a part of STRANGER: And shall we call our new friend striking was fishing with a barb, and one half of unskilled, or a thorough master of his craft?
this again, being the kind which strikes with a hook and draws the fish from below upwards, is THEAETETUS: Certainly not unskilled, for his the art which we have been seeking, and which name, as, indeed, you imply, must surely express from the nature of the operation is denoted an-his nature.