The Syracusan notices this conversation and, upset that they are ignoring his performances, asks Socrates if he is the one called the “Thinker” and accuses him of pondering celestial objects (a reference to the charge of his supposed impiety, for which he is sentenced to death in 399 B.C. with Lykon as one of his accusers) (6.6). Socrates counters him, saying that the gods are celestial and beneficial. In turn, the Syracusan asks Socrates to tell him the distance between the two of them in flea's feet (a reference to Socrates’ caricature in Aristophanes’ Clouds which was performed two years before the dramatic date of the "Symposium".