This quotation from Plato’s depiction of Protagoras provides an excellent introduction to the range of problems involved in discussing the sophists, to whom I have often referred in this book as a major factor in understanding fifth-century thought and drama. In Chapter 6 I discussed the conception of the poet having privileged access to truth and forming the education of the citizens. I argued that one of the reasons for Plato’s extended hostility towards poets and poetry was the sense of philosophy’s rival claims to be a master of truth, a conflict which is still being worked through. One of the commonest adjectives used to describe this special poetic knowledge and the people who demonstrate it is sophos, which is the root of the term ‘sophist’ and ‘philosopher’, and which is often translated ‘wise’, ‘clever’, ‘intelligent’. The possessor of any special skill or knowledge from carpentry to rhetoric could deserve the title ‘sophos’.