Section 5, Line 337-344 Summary and Analysis

There is an attempt to set up a mediator. This is so that answers are not to be forced to be too brief or allowed to go too long. Finally, as a compromise, Protagoras agrees to question Socrates first and then Socrates will show the manner to answer properly, and then after this, Socrates can ask questions again, if he has any more questions to ask.

Protagoras leads the conversation and changes the method of inquiry. He takes up a poem by Simonides that first says it is hard to become a good man. Then later in the poem, the poet criticizes Pittacus for saying that it is hard to be a good or noble man. The question then is, that is the poem still beautiful and is this a contradiction?

Socrates asks another man present, Prodicus...