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Charmides

Name: Charmides
Author: Plato

Work of Plato

Written workwritten work Platonic dialogueQ781206

Also known as Plat. Charm.

Author: Plato
Language: Ancient Greek
Genre: Socratic dialogue

Overview

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia · Read full article · Text CC BY-SA 4.0

The Charmides is a dialogue of Plato, in which Socrates engages a handsome and popular boy named Charmides in a conversation about the meaning of sophrosyne, a Greek word usually translated into English as "temperance," "self-control," or "restraint." When the boy is unable to satisfy him with an answer, he next turns to the boy's mentor Critias. In the dialogue, Charmides and then later Critias champion that Temperance is "doing one's own work" but Socrates derides this as vague. The definition given next of "knowing oneself" seems promising but the question is then raised if something can even have the knowledge of itself as a base. As is typical with Platonic early dialogues, the two never arrive at a completely satisfactory definition, but the discussion nevertheless raises many important points. The Charmides is one of Plato's most homoerotic dialogues. Socrates admires Charmides' beauty at the beginning of the dialogue, saying "I saw inside his cloak and caught on fire and was quite beside myself."

Overview

All data

50 statements · 28% with external sources · numbers in brackets are citations

Title: Χαρμίδης
Has version, edition or translation: Q28137290 language: Russian
Q19138143 language: French
Q19138146
Q19143646
Q112065062 language: Spanish · released: 1871
Càrmides
Charmides language: Ancient Greek, Latin · released: 1816
Part of: Platonic dialogue
Characters: Socrates
Copyright status: public domain applies to jurisdiction: countries with 100 years pma or shorter
Part of the series: Platonic dialogue
Different from: Charmides
Entry in abbreviations table: Plat. Charm. used by: Perseus Digital Library
1
Sources
1.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/abbrevhelp
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On other databases

26 identifiers linking Charmides across the web's reference databases

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statements

28%

externally sourced

Source last edited October 11, 2026. AIDb refreshes this page daily.

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AIDb. (2026). Charmides (Q781206). Retrieved from https://aidb.si/e/charmides-Q781206