苏格拉底同欧里庇德斯的倾向有密切关系，当时古代人也曾注意及此。
The fact that the aims of Socrates and Euripides were closely allied did not escape the attention of their contemporaries.
雅典有个流行传说，最动人地说明了这种可喜的锐感。据说苏格拉底常常帮助欧里庇德斯作诗。
We have an eloquent illustration of this in the rumotr, current at the time in Athens, that Socrates was helping Euripides with his writing.
每逢有机会列举当时的人民鼓动者时，“古风旧德”的拥护者们往往把这两人双提并论，
The two names were bracketed by the partisans of the "good old days' whenever it was a question of castigating the upstart demagogues of the present.
认为当时一种颇有问题的教化使得体力和智力渐趋退化，昔日有益身心的马拉松精神因此被牺牲，这都归咎于这两个人的影响。
It was they who were blamed for the disappearance of the Marathonian soundness of body and mind in favor of a dubious enlightenment tending toward a progressive atrophy of the traditional virtues.
阿里斯托芬的喜剧谈及这两人时，就往往带着半愤怒半轻蔑的调子：——这会使现代人大为诧异的，今人宁可牺牲了欧里庇德斯，但是看到苏格拉底在阿里斯托芬喜剧中被说成是第一个主要的诡辩者，是一切诡辩倾向的镜子和总结，必定为之惊讶无已。
In the comedy of Aristophanes both men are treated in this vein--half indignant, half contemptuous--to the dismay of the rising generation, who, while they were willing enough to sacrifice Euripides, could not forgive the picture of Socrates as the arch Sophist.
因此，今人唯有宣布阿里斯托芬的罪状，称之为诗坛上放荡荒唐的亚尔西巴德，聊以自慰而已。
Their only recourse was to pillory Aristophanes in his turn as a dissolute, Lying Alcibiades of poetry.
这里，我并不想替阿里斯托芬的深识灼见辩护，以反驳这种诽谤，我将继续从古人的观感方面来证明苏格拉底和欧里庇德斯的密切关系。
I won't pause here to defend the pro found instincts of Aristophanes against such attacks but shall proceed to demonstrate the close affinity between Socrates and Euripides, as their contemporaries saw them.
在这一意义上，尤须回忆一下：苏格拉底因为反对悲剧艺术，所以不看悲剧，只有当欧里庇德斯的新剧上演时，他才到场观看。
It is certainly significant in this connection that Socrates, being a sworn enemy of the tragic art, is said never to have attended the theater except when a new play of Euripides was mounted.
然而，狄尔斐的神谕却把这两人双提并论，这种密切关系是有口皆碑的：这神谕就称苏格拉底为最聪明的人，但同时断定欧里庇德斯在斗智的比赛中应得第二名奖。
The most famous instance of the conjunction of the two names, however, is found in the Delphic oracle which pronounced Socrates the wisest of men yet allowed that Euripides merited the second place.