# Critias — Dialogues character guide

> Critias in Dialogues by Plato.

**Role:** supporting

**First appearance:** 0005-charmides

## Snapshot

Plato's own uncle and an ambitious Athenian who matches wits with Socrates over self-knowledge, later becoming one of the Thirty Tyrants.

## Who they are

Critias moves through the early dialogues as a polished aristocrat with a taste for poetry, politics, and definitions, and in the Charmides he presses Socrates to say what temperance really is. His confidence in his own wisdom sits uneasily beside his willingness to let Socrates lead, hinting at a man who wants mastery without submitting to the discipline of philosophy. He matters because his presence shadows the whole Socratic circle: the relative who heard the arguments and, in the end, helped destroy the city that produced them.

## In the story

### [Charmides](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dialogues_se/chapters/charmides)

Charmides' guardian and cousin; takes over the argument, proposing that temperance is self-knowledge.

### [Charmides](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dialogues_se/chapters/charmides)

Charmides' guardian and cousin; he asserts Charmides' temperance and commands him to follow Socrates.

### [Timaeus](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dialogues_se/chapters/timaeus)

Present; introduces the Atlantis story as a prelude to Timaeus's cosmology.

### [Timaeus I](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dialogues_se/chapters/i)

Relays the story of Solon and the Egyptian priests about Atlantis, as told by his grandfather.

### [Timaeus](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dialogues_se/chapters/timaeus)

Tells the ancient tradition of Solon and the story of Atlantis, as heard from his grandfather.

### [Critias](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dialogues_se/chapters/critias)

The primary narrator, recounting the story of Atlantis and ancient Athens as told by Solon.

### [Introduction and Analysis](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dialogues_se/chapters/introduction-and-analysis)

Critias is the narrator of the Atlantis story, claiming to repeat what Solon was told by Egyptian priests.

### [Critias](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dialogues_se/chapters/critias)

Critias accepts the argument from Timaeus and begins his discourse on Atlantis, requesting indulgence for the difficulty of speaking about human affairs.

### [Appendix II](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dialogues_se/chapters/appendix-ii)

Discusses with Socrates the utility of wealth, hearing, and medicine for virtue, and reluctantly considers whether bad means can serve good ends.

### [Eryxias](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dialogues_se/chapters/eryxias)

Argues that wealth can be bad for some men, and engages in a dialectical exchange with Eryxias and Socrates.

### [Eryxias](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dialogues_se/chapters/eryxias)

Engages in the discussion with Socrates, reluctantly accepting arguments about the uselessness of certain antecedents and the condition of the wealthy.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dialogues_se/characters/critias_charmides
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dialogues_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dialogues_se/characters