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| 5845 | Niceratus learnt the whole of Homer by heart, as a guide to goodness |
| Full Idea: Niceratus said that his father, because he was concerned to make him a good man, made him learn the whole works of Homer, and he could still repeat by heart the entire 'Iliad' and 'Odyssey'. | |||
| From: Xenophon (Symposium [c.391 BCE], 3.5) | |||
| A reaction: This clearly shows the status which Homer had in the teaching of morality in the time of Socrates, and it is precisely this acceptance of authority which he was challenging, in his attempts to analyse the true basis of virtue |