10 Facts About Hippias Minor

Hippias Minor's case rests largely on the analogy with athletic skills, such as running and wrestling.

Hippias Minor says that a runner or wrestler who deliberately sandbags is better than the one who plods along because he can do no better.

In Hippias Minor, Socrates argues with Hippias about which kind of liar is the best, the man who deliberately contrives a lie, or the man who lies unwittingly, from not paying attention to what he is saying, or changing his mind.

Sophist Hippias Minor is visiting Athens from his home city of Elis on the occasion of the Olympic festival.

Hippias Minor has been favoring the crowds with displays of his literary opinions.

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Hippias Minor tells Hippias that because he agrees with Homer that a simple and true man is better than a wily and cunning one, he will let him speak for Homer.

Socrates gets Hippias Minor to agree that the more a man knows about a subject, the better position he will be in to lie about it.

Hippias Minor argues that the man who knows the subjects about which he tells lies, whether arithmetic, geometry, or astronomy, is twice as powerful as the man who does not know his subjects.

Hippias Minor objects, saying that the laws punish people who harm others deliberately with purposeful lies, and are more apt to excuse those who do harm by making mistakes.

Hippias Minor argues that a runner or wrestler who throws the contest by doing worse than he is capable of doing is a more skillful combatant than the one who does his best and loses.