Fragments of this dialogue exist on a papyrus from the 2nd century. The oldest surviving medieval manuscript was made in 895 by Arethas of Caesarea and copied by Johannes Calligraphus.
This dialogue is notable for containing one of the few surviving fragments of the poet Stasinus, a relative of Homer and author of the lost work Cypria.[8] Socrates quotes him to show his disagreement with the poet's notion that fear and reverence are linked. The quoted excerpt is as follows: Of Zeus, the author and creator of all these things,/ You will not tell: for where there is fear there is also reverence.
