person
Cephalus
also: Cephalum
The wealthy, genial old man at whose Piraeus house Plato's Republic opens; after a brief, graceful exchange with Socrates he withdraws to a sacred rite and never returns. Cicero invokes him as the model for how he eased Scaevola out of his own De Republica.
Reading notes
- Ad Atticum 4.16 §3 When Socrates had come down to Cephalus
The Republic opens with Socrates visiting the elderly, wealthy Cephalus at his house in the Piraeus; after a short exchange Cephalus leaves for a sacrifice and is not heard from again.