Missive #31: A Dialogue of Socrates

The following has recently been unearthed and decoded by the Archiving Division and may be of interest to those who study our enemy.

“My children.  My students.  You ask me where and whence did I gain the desire for knowledge.  It is not an easy answer.  For while the universe beckons, the powers ebb and flow in a constant dance.  Draw too much and you risk eternal fire.  Peek in the doors of knowledge and even that may burn you, but once you have tasted the power, it is impossible to ignore.

My first teacher was the beautiful and wise Pythia, the oracle of Delphi.  She presented a Pandora’s Box to me.  A puzzle I am still seeking the answers to.  I was guided to her by my friend and early student, Chaerephon, who had asked her, “Is anyone wiser than Socrates?  She answered “No one.”  This started my education as I knew that I knew nothing!  I set out to understand what the Oracle meant or to prove her wrong.  The truth is that I thought I was wise, but really I knew nothing.

I quested for the knowledge and once Pythia revealed the taste of it to me, it was sweet, honeyed and addicting to my very soul.

It was Asphasia of Miletus who taught me rhetoric, the ancient languages, the words of power, and the doors of the mind.  It was Diotima of Mantinela who taught me of prophecy and the worlds within worlds.

So my children, always seek the answers to the questions of this life.  Seek the knowledge of what lies beyond our grasp.  Open the box, discover what is, was, and will be.  Let he who has understanding of these things, follow me.”