A source-book of ancient history - The Search For Mecca

Education of Alcibiades 225
speaking.
"Let the children of the Thebans," he used to
say, "learn to play the flute, for they know not how to
speak; but we Athenians according to tradition have the
goddess Athena for our patroness, and Apollo for our
tutelary divinity; and of these the first threw away her
flute in disgust, and the other actually flayed the fluteplayer
Marsyas." With such talk as this, between jest
and earnest, Alcibiades gave up flute-playing himself, and
induced his friends to do so, for all the youth of Athens
soon heard and approved of Alcibiades' derision of the
flute and of those who learned it. . . .
For no one was ever so enclosed and enveloped in the A pupil of
good things of this life as Alcibiades, so that no breath of
criticism or free speech could ever reach him. Yet with lb. 4-
all
these flatterers about him, trying to prevent his ever
hearing a word of wholesome advice or reproof, he was led
by his own goodness of heart to pay especial attention to
Socrates, to whom he attached himself in preference to all
his rich and fashionable admirers.
He soon became intimate with Socrates, and when he
discovered that this man did not wish to caress and admire
him, but to expose his ignorance, search out his faults,
and bring down his vain unreasoning conceit, he then
"Let fall his feathers like a craven cock."
He considered that the conversation of Socrates was
really a divine instrument for the discipline and education
of youth; and thus learning to despise himself, and
to admire his friend, charmed with his good nature, and
full of reverence for his virtues, he became insensibly in
love with him, though not as the world loveth; so that all
men were astonished to see him dining with Socrates,
wrestling with him, and sharing his tent, while he treated