“Then either show yourselves the stronger or remain here.”
“But there is still an alternative,” I said. “What if we persuade you that you ought to let us go?”
“Do you mean to say,” he said, “that you can persuade those who won’t listen ?”
“No, indeed,” said Glaucon.
“Well, you may make up your minds that we won’t.”
328 “But do you not know,” Adeimantus put in, “that in the evening there is to be a torch race on horseback in honour of the goddess ?”
“On horseback?” I said. “That is certainly a novelty. Will it be a horse-race with the riders carrying torches and handing them to one another, or how will it be done?”
“As you say,” said Polemarchus; “and there will be a night festival besides, which will be worth seeing. We can go out and watch it after dinner, and many of the young men here will join our party, and we shall talk. So, please, stay, and don’t refuse.”
“It seems that we had better,” said Glaucon.
“Well, if you think so,” I said, “let us stay.”
We went home, therefore, with Polemarchus, and found there his brothers Lysias and Euthydemus, and with them also Thrasymachus of Chalcedon, Charmantides of Prione, and Cleitophon, the son of Aristomenes; within was Polemarchus’ father, Cephalus. I thought him looking very old. It was indeed some time since I had seen him. He was sitting upon a cushioned chair, a garland on his head, for he had just been sacrificing inthe court. There were seats round the room, and we sat down beside him. Cephalus, as soon as he saw me, greeted me, and said:
“You don’t very often visit us in the Peirzeus, Socrates. But, you ought to. If I were still able to walk to town easily, there would be no need for you to come here; we could come to you. But, as things are, you ought to come here oftener; for I find that. as I lose my taste for bodily pleasures, I grow more eager than ever. for
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