PROBLEMS WITH THE TRANSLATION OF PAGE 176B6‑7 OF PLATO´S CHARMIDES: ἢν παρέχῃς ἐπᾴδειν Σωκράτει

Abstract

One of the highlights of Plato´s Charmides can be found on page 176b6‑7, when Critias tells the young man, whom the dialogue is named after, that he should surrender to Socrates’ enchantment. However, this is not done in order to actually enchant him, but for his own psyche to reach, in a philosophical sense, the temperance that will lead him to the healing process for the infirmity in his head. This page in the Charmides, in turn, has undergone translations in several modern languages, which distort the deep sense of the philosophical enchantment that Plato establishes and maintains in the dialogue. Thus, this paper is not supposed to be a true philological analysis of the page in question, but a comparative analysis of translations in Portuguese, Spanish, Italian and English, in order to draw attention to the impediments and the accuracies of the current understanding of the page regarding the dialogue.