# Polus — Dialogues character guide

> Polus in Dialogues by Plato.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** the youthful Polus, noble Polus, Socrates Polus, Whereupon Polus

**First appearance:** 0050-gorgias

## Snapshot

The eager young rhetorician who steps in when Gorgias tires, confident that experience and cleverness can outmatch Socrates in any argument.

## Who they are

Polus is the youthful understudy in Callicles' house, quick to volunteer when Gorgias has spoken long enough, certain his own answers will satisfy. He mistakes rhetorical skill for wisdom and treats argument as performance, which is precisely the opening Socrates exploits. His impatience to score points against the older man makes him the first casualty of the dialogue's long examination of what rhetoric actually is.

## In the story

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

A younger interlocutor who argues that rhetoric provides power and that injustice can be advantageous.

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

Challenges Socrates, defending rhetoric as an art, but is refuted by Socrates' analogy of cookery and medicine.

## Links

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