Glaucon - Elsewhere in Greek Literature

Elsewhere in Greek Literature

Glaucon appears in Xenophon's Memorabilia. In the Memorabilia, Socrates seeks to save Glaucon, who was not yet twenty, from making a fool of himself before the ecclesia: he set out to make a speech and try and "preside" over the city, but Socrates reveals to Glaucon his utter ignorance of the actual affairs of state and convinces him not to speak. Glaucon, like many figures in the Memorabilia, is portrayed as rather dim-witted. The passage relating this tale is also notable because it includes the only direct reference in Xenophon's corpus to Plato, for whose sake Xenophon says Socrates intervened.

Glaucon appears in Aristotle's Poetics where Aristotle states: "The true mode of interpretation is the precise opposite of what Glaucon mentions. Critics, he says, jump at certain groundless conclusions; they pass adverse judgement and then proceed to reason on it; and, assuming that the poet has said whatever they happen to think, find fault if a thing is inconsistent with their own fancy."