Bloom, Allan, "An Interpretation of Plato's Ion," The Roots of Political Philosophy: Ten Forgotten Socratic Dialogues, ed. Thomas L. Pangle, Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1987, 371-96.

Excerpt:

In Xenophon’s Banquet Antisthenes asks, “Do you know any tribe more stupid [or simple] than the rhapsodes?” This question, obviously rhetorical, leads the reader of the Ion to the further question, “Why in the world does Socrates choose to speak to a man like Ion, a typical member of the tribe of rhapsodes?” Even though Socrates claims that he investigates men with respect to their knowledge and ignorance, it is hard to see why he should think it important to test Ion. Moreover, their conversation is private, so that it cannot be Socrates’ intention to show Ion off, or up, to others. Socrates in the dialogues exposes the important kinds of human souls and their characteristic errors. To make this particular discussion a worthwhile enterprise for him, the empty reciter of Homer’s poetry must represent something beyond himself.

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