ABSTRACT
In important respects the educational movement which the sophists initiated was a democratic one: their teaching was available to anyone who could pay, regardless of inherited social class, and it is no coincidence that they came to be connected most closely with Athens. Plato’s dialogue Protagoras is set in the house of the wealthy Athenian Callias, perhaps in the late 420s bc. It depicts a meeting between Socrates and Protagoras, the most famous and important of the fifth-century sophists; also in attendance are other prominent sophists, including Prodicus and Hippias. Hippocrates has completed the regular curriculum, which is said to be suited to a “freeborn layman” and therefore comprises a “liberal education”. By taking it upon themselves to teach the analysis of poetry, the sophists were incorporating an activity into their curriculum which held a traditional place.
