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[538d] “And she passed to the bottom like a plummet which, set on a horn from an ox of the field, goes in haste to bring mischief among the ravenous fishes—
Hom. Il. 24.80-82.1 are we to say it is for the fisherman's or for the rhapsode's art to decide what he means by this, and whether it is rightly or wrongly spoken?

Ion
Clearly, Socrates, for the fisherman's art.

Socrates
Then please observe: suppose you were questioning me and should ask:


1 The nature of this device is still in dispute. Plutarch (De sollertia animal. 977) supports Aristotle's view that the horn acted as a sheath to protect the line from being bitten through by the fish.

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    • Walter Leaf, Commentary on the Iliad (1900), 24.80
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