[Footnote 56: Plato, Hippias Minor, 366 E. [Greek: Po/teron su\ a)\n ma/lista pseu/doio kai\ a)ei\ kata\ tau)ta\ pseudê= le/gois peri\ tou/tôn, boulo/menos pseu/desthai kai\ mêde/pote a)lêthê= a)pokri/nesthai? ê)/ o( a)mathê\s ei)s logismou\s du/nait' a)\n sou= ma=llon pseu/desthai boulome/nou? ê)\ o( me\n a)mathê\s polla/kis a)\n boulo/menos pseudê= le/gein ta)lêthê= a)\n ei)/poi a)/kôn, ei) tu/choi, dia\ to\ mê\ ei)de/nai--su\ de\ o( sopho/s, ei)/per bou/loio pseu/desthai, a)ei\ a)\n kata\ ta\ au)ta\ pseu/doio?]]
[Side-note: Analogy of special arts--it is only the arithmetician who can speak falsely on a question of arithmetic when he chooses.]
What is true about arithmetic, is true in other departments also. The only man who can speak falsely whenever he chooses is the man who can speak truly whenever he chooses. Now, the mendacious man, as we agreed, is the man who can speak falsely whenever he chooses. Accordingly, the mendacious man, and the veracious man, are the same. They are not different, still less opposite: nay, the two epithets belong only to one and the same person. The veracious man is not better than the mendacious--seeing that he is one and the same.[57]
[Footnote 57: Plato, Hipp. Minor, 367 C, 368 E, 369 A-B.]
You see, therefore, Hippias, that the distinction, which you drew and which you said that Homer drew, between Achilles and Odysseus, will not hold. You called Achilles veracious, and Odysseus, mendacious: but if one of the two epithets belongs to either of them, the other must belong to him also.[58]
[Side-note: View of Sokrates respecting Achilles in the Iliad. He thinks that Achilles speaks falsehood cleverly. Hippias maintains that if Achilles ever speaks falsehood, it is with an innocent purpose, whereas Odysseus does the like with fraudulent purpose.]
Sokrates then tries to make out that Achilles speaks falsehood in the Iliad, and speaks it very cleverly, because he does so in a way to escape detection from Odysseus himself. To this Hippias replies, that if Achilles ever speaks falsehood, he does it innocently, without any purpose of cheating or injuring any one; whereas the falsehoods of Odysseus are delivered with fraudulent and wicked intent.[59] It is impossible (he contends) that men who deceive and do wrong wilfully and intentionally, should be better than those who do so unwillingly and without design. The laws deal much more severely with the former than with the latter.[60]