1. Since this is the point of view Socrates himself adopts in Section E of the dialogue, commentators have praised Hippias’ intelligence here, and found it at odds with the portrait of much of the rest of the dialogue. But all Hippias is doing is understanding Socrates’ argument, not thinking creatively in his own right.

2. At Hippias Minor 368c we are told that Hippias made his own clothes and shoes; the point of the joke, then, is that Hippias’ activities are no less banausic than cooking.