Soc. Welcome, Ion. Where have you come from now, to pay us this visit? From your home in Ephesus ? Ion. No, no, Socrates; from Epidaurus and the festival there of Asclepius. Soc. Do you mean to say that the Epidaurians honor the god with a contest of rhapsodes also? Ion. Certainly, and of music Music with the Greeks included poetry. in general. Soc. Why then, you were competing in some contest, were you? And how went your competition? Ion. We carried off the first prize, Socrates. Soc. Well done: so now, mind that we win too at the Panathenaea. The Athenian festival of the Great Panathenaea was held every fourth year, and the Small Panathenaea probably every year, about July. 
 Ion. Why, so we shall, God willing. Soc. I must say I have often envied you rhapsodes, Ion, for your art: for besides that it is fitting to your art that your person should be adorned and that you should look as handsome as possible, the necessity of being conversant with a number of good poets, and especially with Homer, the best and divinest poet of all, and of apprehending his thought and not merely learning off his words, is a matter for envy; since a man can never be a good rhapsode without understanding what the poet says. For the rhapsode ought to make himself an interpreter of the poet’s thought to his audience; and to do this properly without knowing what the poet means is impossible. So one cannot but envy all this. Ion. What you say is true, Socrates: I at any rate have found this the most laborious part of my art; and I consider I speak about Homer better than anybody, for neither Metrodorus A friend of the philosopher Anaxagoras who wrote allegorical interpretations of Homer in the first part of the fifth century B.C. of Lampsacus , nor Stesimbrotus A rhapsode, interpreter of Homer, and historian who lived in the time of Cimon and Pericles. of Thasos , nor Glaucon, Perhaps the Homeric commentator mentioned by Aristotle, Poet. 25. 16. nor any one that the world has ever seen, had so many and such fine comments to offer on Homer as I have. Soc. That is good news, Ion; for obviously you will not grudge me an exhibition of them. Ion. And indeed it is worth hearing, Socrates, how well I have embellished Homer; so that I think I deserve to be crowned with a golden crown by the Homeridae. There was a society or clan in Chios called Homeridae ( sons of Homer ), but the name seems to be used here and elsewhere in Plato for any persons specially devoted to Homer’s poetry. See Jebb, Homer , p. 78.