ИСТИНА

We question the widespread opinion that ‘protreptic’ was a traditional element of sophistic display. We analyze various form of sophistic displays mentioned in the Corpus Platonicum, and underline that the term 'protreptic' never occurs in connection with any of these forms. The first 'protreptic' which offers a set of positive arguments in favor of philosophizing seems to be Socrates' two protreptic speeches in the Euthydemus. We further argue that both parts of Socrates’ protreptic in the Euthydemus are ‘idiomatically’ Platonic, and claim that the need for such protreptic was conditioned by the new situation of inter-school competition within which Plato found himself: his rivals are, on the one hand, the Megarians, and, on the other, Isocrates. The pattern set in the Euthydemus made it possible to ‘detect’ protreptic character in other Platonic dialogues and to criticize their ‘protreptic attitude’ en masse in the Clitophon.