sophist

Though Socrates denied a connection to Sophism, the supposed link stuck among detractors in Athens who saw Sophists as poisoning the minds of disrespectful youth.

Fletcher credits this way of reading to the ancient Greek Sophists, humble students who, “on gentle coves and white-sand islands … dedicated themselves to learning all about poem and myth.”

In this sense, the written word, along with its avid promoters, the Sophists, represented a frightening challenge to the old order.

People who sought out the Sophists were primarily interested in furthering their political careers.

"And hence we learn with reverence to esteem Of these frail houses, though the grave confines: Sophist may urge his cunning tests, and deem That they are earth;—but they are heavenly shrines."