ABSTRACT
This chapter considers what Plato has to say about the traditional craft of divination. It argues that, initial appearances and recent interpretations to the contrary, Plato is consistent throughout the dialogues in portraying the diviner as possessing a genuine - though relatively paltry craft, and thus as possessing a certain - though relatively paltry - form of knowledge. At Statesman 260c6 and following, Plato's Eleatic Stranger distinguishes two sorts of technai concerned with the giving of commands. The chapter discusses the topic anachronistically - beginning with what Plato's Stranger has to say in the Statesman about the diviner's craft, and then comparing that to the pronouncements of Plato's Socrates in the earlier dialogues. It concludes that the Stranger thinks that the mediumistic craftsman possesses knowledge of some sort, but that their knowledge is as uninteresting and common as the craft it makes possible.
