l. {ekhthroi}, "an enemy."

(8) Or, "Hate rather than friendship is the outcome of these methods."

Cri. But how convert them into friends?

Soc. There are certain incantations, we are told, which those who know
them have only to utter, and they can make friends of whom they list;
and there are certain philtres also which those who have the secret of
them may administer to whom they like and win their love.

Cri. From what source shall we learn them?

Soc. You need not go farther than Homer to learn that which the Sirens
sang to Odysseus, (9) the first words of which run, I think, as follows:

Hither, come hither, thou famous man, Odysseus, great glory of the
Achaeans!

(9) "Od." xii. 184.

Cri. And did the magic words of this spell serve for all men alike? Had
the Sirens only to utter this one incantation, and was every listener
constrained to stay?

Soc. No; this was the incantation reserved for souls athirst for fame,
of virtue emulous.

Cri. Which is as much as to say, we must suit the incantation to the
listener, so that when he hears the words he shall not think that the
enchanter is laughing at him in his sleeve. I cannot certainly conceive
a method better calculated to excite hatred and repulsion than to go
to some one who knows that he is small and ugly and a weakling, and to
breathe in his ears the flattering tale that he is beautiful and tall
and stalwart. But do you know any other love-charms, Socrates?

Soc. I cannot say that I do; but I have heard that Pericles (10) was
skilled in not a few, which he poured into the ear of our city and won
her love.

(10) See above, I. ii. 40; "Symp." viii. 39.

Cri. And how did Themistocles (11) win our city's love?

(11) See below, III. vi. 2; IV. ii. 2.

Soc. Ah, that was not by incantation at all. What he did was to encircle
our city with an amulet of saving virtue. (12)

(12) See Herod. vii. 143, "the wooden wall"; Thuc. i. 93, "'the walls'
of Athens."

Cri. You would imply, Socrates, would you not, that if we want to win
the love of any good man we need to be good ourselves in speech and
action?

And did you imagine (replied Socrates) that it was possible for a bad
man to make good friends?

Cri. Why, I could fancy I had seen some sorry speech-monger who was fast
friends with a great and noble statesman; or again, some born commander
and general who was boon companion with fellows quite incapable of
generalship. (13)

(13)