The character of Cratylus in the Cratylus is puzzling. Initially he is portrayed as a teasingly mysterious figure, and he is silent for most of it. But he adopts a quite different demeanour when he joins the conversation towards its end. Now he functions as a mostly reasonable and altogether cooperative respondent, even if he takes rigid and extreme positions. I argue that Plato uses Cratylus first to sketch linguistic naturalism in the dogmatic and dialectically unelaborated form in which it was presented by its original author. Then after Socrates has made of it a full scale philosophical theory on his own account, he puts Cratylus to another use: as a proponent of a version of that original naturalist position which is now developed as the germ of a rival full-scale theory in miniature, incorporating semantic, epistemological, and ontological components, and constructed from paradoxical stances generated by a range of previous and contemporary philosophers, including notably Antisthenes: a construction of Plato’s own. Hence for Plato Cratylus’ fascination: in the end his strange doctrine forces engagement with an interconnected set of deeply serious philosophical issues.

This chapter argues that notwithstanding the Symposium’s debt to its more famous Platonic predecessor, Xenophon exploits the symposiastic setting to serve his own purposes and interests, as Socrates, assisted by Antisthenes, seeks to educate Callias, a super-rich Athenian, concerning proper elite values and behavior in the democracy. Callias’ naive assumptions concerning his wealth and its capacities are challenged and laid bare, and ultimately Socrates instructs him on how he can live up to the high expectations of a man of wealth and high birth by seeking political knowledge, pursuing leadership positions within the city, and fostering the same ambitions in the boy Autolycus, whom he loves, within the context of a mutually supportive friendship (philia). As such, the Symposium constitutes a case study in the education of a conspicuous member of the Athenian elite concerning the political role to which he should aspire within the city. Although Xenophon portrays Callias as a challenging student to educate, he shows his Socrates doing his best to recruit a prominent elite Athenian to serve the democratic city.