SOUND AND THE SOUL IN PLATO

A proper party, we learn, is first and foremost a matter of listening. Let us heed the distinction that Socrates makes for his adversary Protagoras on this very point. There is, first, improper partying, carried out primarily by “common market-folk” (i.e., the rabble). Such people, he says, “because they are incapable of getting together with one another just by themselves over drinks with their own voices and their own speeches (φωνῆς καὶ τῶν λόγων), on account of their lack of education, these people run up the price of aulos-girls, pay a great deal for the foreign voice (ἀλλοτρίαν φωνὴν) of