[328c]
for it was a long time since I had seen him. He was
sitting on a sort of couch with cushions and he had a chaplet1 on his head, for he had just finished sacrificing in
the court. So we went and sat down beside him, for there were seats there
disposed in a circle.2 As soon as he saw
me Cephalus greeted me and said, “You are not a very frequent3 visitor, Socrates. You
don't often come down to the Peiraeus to see us. That is not right. For if I
were still able to make the journey up to town easily there would be no need
of your resorting hither,
1 A companion picture to the fair vision of the youthful Lysis (Lysis, 207 A). The wreath was worn at the sacrifice.
2 For the seats compare Protagoras 317 D-E, Cicero Laelius 1. 2 “in hemicyclio sedentem.”
3 The language recalls the Homeric formula,πάρος γε μὲν οὔτι θαμίζεις, Iliad xviii. 386, Odyssey v. 88, Jebb on O.C. 672. Cephalus' friendly urgency to Socrates is in the tone of Laches 181 C.
Plato. Plato in Twelve Volumes, Vols. 5 & 6 translated by Paul Shorey. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1969.
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