Alcibiades II

"Alcibiades II" by Plato is a philosophical conversation, supposedly written by someone trying to be like Plato, possibly hundreds of years after Plato lived, that looks closely at what it means to be wise, to know things, and how we should pray. The story is about how people ask the gods for things and the problems that can cause, like asking for something that actually hurts you. Socrates and Alcibiades talk about how silly it is to want power and what happens when you don't know enough, using stories from the past to show this. Alcibiades learns that a lot of things we want can cause bigger problems if we get them, so it's important to really know what's good for us. Alcibiades decides he needs to understand himself better before he asks the gods for anything, and he'll wait for the right way to talk to them.