# Gorgias — Dialogues character guide

> Gorgias in Dialogues by Plato.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Compare Gorgias, the Gorgias

**First appearance:** 0050-gorgias

## Snapshot

The renowned rhetorician from Leontini whose art of persuasion promises power over crowds, courts, and cities, and whose answers force Socrates to ask what that power is for.

## Who they are

Gorgias is the honored guest at Callicles' house, fresh from a public display of his rhetorical skill, and he agrees to answer any question put to him. His confidence rests on long experience and the claim that rhetoric is the master art of persuasion, yet he cannot say what rhetoric is about or whether its practitioners know the good they praise. His exchange with Socrates opens the central quarrel over whether persuasive speech is a genuine craft or a flattering knack.

## In the story

### [Meno](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dialogues_se/chapters/meno)

Referenced as Meno's teacher, whose rhetorical style and definitions of virtue are contrasted with Socrates' method.

### [Gorgias](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dialogues_se/chapters/gorgias)

A famed rhetorician who initially defends rhetoric as an art of persuasion.

### [Gorgias](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dialogues_se/chapters/gorgias)

Engages with Socrates, initially claiming rhetoric deals with justice, but is led into contradictions about its use.

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

Listed among the Sophists who are not the direct target of Plato's critique.

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

Mentioned in the context of rhetoric and its comparison to dialectic.

## Links

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