Plato, Timaeus 21c · 21c
Solon, wisest and freest of poets
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Critias — ἄλλα σοφώτατον γεγονέναι Σόλωνα καὶ κατὰ τὴν ποίησιν αὖ τῶν ποιητῶν πάντων ἐλευθεριώτατον. ὁ δὴ γέρων— σφόδρα γὰρ οὖν μέμνημαι— μάλα τε ἥσθη καὶ διαμειδιάσας εἶπεν· εἴ γε, ὦ Ἀμύνανδρε, μὴ παρέργῳ τῇ ποιήσει κατεχρήσατο, ἀλλʼ ἐσπουδάκει καθάπερ ἄλλοι, τόν τε λόγον ὃν ἀπʼ Αἰγύπτου δεῦρο ἠνέγκατο ἀπετέλεσεν, καὶ μὴ διὰ τὰς στάσεις ὑπὸ κακῶν τε ἄλλων ὅσα ηὗρεν ἐνθάδε ἥκων ἠναγκάσθη
Critias: Solon had been the wisest, and again in poetry the noblest of all poets. The old man, for I remember it very well, was greatly pleased, and smiling said: If only, Amynander, he had not used poetry as a side-work but had been serious about it like others, and had finished the story he brought here from Egypt, and had not been forced by the civil strife and the other evils he found on arriving here,
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The setting
The clansman calls Solon wisest in general and most generous of poets. The old man answers, pleased, that Solon would have been unmatched if only he had finished the story he brought from Egypt.
A note on this passage
The superlative eleutheriōtaton comes from eleutheros, "free," a word that covers a free-born person, a generous one, and a free-spirited one. The clansman uses it of Solon's poetry, kata tēn poiēsin, so it can be read as noble, open-handed, or unrestrained, and an English word has to choose. The old man's pleasure is told in a parenthesis, sphodra gar oun memnēmai, "for I remember it very well indeed," where the grandson steps into his own story to vouch for the scene.
The old man's answer is a wish in the shape of a conditional, ei ge ... mē parergōi tēi poiēsei katechrēsato. The noun parergon means a thing done on the side, and he pairs it with espoudakei, "he had been serious." Two obstacles are named for the unfinished work: staseis, civil strife, and other troubles Solon found on coming home. The account is already described as a logos that Solon ap' Aigyptou deuro ēnenkato, "carried here from Egypt."
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