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Rebecca Susan LeMoine
After a long discussion in which the foreign sophist Hippias proves unable to define the beautiful, Plato's Hippias Major ends with Socrates proclaiming he has benefited from their conversation for he now understands the proverb 'beautiful things are difficult'. To make sense of this puzzling conclusion, I argue that we must connect Socrates' claim to have 'benefited' from conversing with Hippias to the dialogue's opening discussion on why it would be 'more beneficial' for the Spartans to allow Hippias to educate them. Investigating this link, it becomes clear that the dialogue aims to critique the Spartan ban on foreign education.
