The Anonymous Prolegomena to Platonic Philosophy

Plato himself, too, shortly before his death, had a dream of himself as a swan, darting from tree to tree and causing great trouble to the fowlers, who were unable to catch him. When Simmias the Socratic heard this dream, he explained that all men would endeavor to grasp Plato's meaning, none, however, would succeed, but would interpret him according to his own view, whether theologically or naturally or in any other sense. This is the quality that Homer and Plato have in common: owing to the harmony of their expression they are accessible to everybody, no matter how one wishes to approach them. Anon., Proleg. 1.29-38 (cf. Olymp., in Alc. 2.156-60).