But those ancient things, in which the song of Homer has still been being powerful, have educated and brought up noble and true and genuine nurslings of philosophy. A nursling of that song was Plato: for even if he would forswear a teacher, I see the tokens and I perceive the seeds:
Of him indeed were feet of such a sort and hands of such a sort,
and glances of the eyes and head and loose flowing hair above
so that I myself would dare stand firm to say that Plato is more similar to Homer rather than to Socrates, even if he should flee Homer and pursue Socrates. ...
(Maximus of Tyre, Dissertation 26, draft translation from Ancient Greek by ESF)
Note: The divine Plato does not actually forswear or flee Homer, or chase Socrates. He just protects the proper interpretation or undermeaning of Homer from profanation (though desecration of Homer's sacred text is almost all that is done now by professor-types who claim to study and teach it!), and uses the literary symbol of Socrates as nous or the divine part of the soul or self to indicate the self-contained-ness and independence of the true contemplative ascetic and renunciant from human concerns and socially constructed reality.
