上句见：Day97
The Story of Philosophy的第98句：第1章Plato第2节II. Socrates第2段第1句：

They were a motley crowd, these youths who flocked about him and helped him to create European philosophy. There were rich young men like Plato and Alcibiades, who relished his satirical analysis of Athenian democracy; there were socialists like Antisthenes, who liked the master’s careless poverty, and made a religion of it; there was even an anarchist or two among them, like Aristippus, who aspired to a world in which there would be neither master nor slaves, and all would be as worrilessly free as Socrates. All the problems that agitate human society to-day, and provide the material of youth’s endless debate, agitated as well that little band of thinkers and talkers, who felt, with their teacher, that life without discourse would be unworthy of a man. Every school of social thought had there its representative, and perhaps its origin.
浙江大学译本：正是这些各式各样的年轻人簇拥着他，帮他创立了欧洲哲学。

解析

这句话讲述他的学生们与他一起建立了欧洲哲学。欧洲哲学由苏格拉底这里开启。
1、They were a motley crowd,
苏格拉底的学生成分各式各样。他会找不同的人聊天，来引发他们思考。
motley： made up of many different people or things各式各样的
They’re a motley crew, independently evolving similar mouthparts at least four times over the eons. 它们是形形色色的群体，在漫长的岁月中至少四次独立进化出相似的口器。

2、these youths who flocked about him and helped him to create European philosophy.
flock： to gather or move in a crowd聚集；簇拥
Ah, Japan, a truly remarkable place to which tourists are flocking. 日本，一个让游客趋之若鹜的神奇国度。
** help him to create**：“help (to) do sth.”和“help do sth.”在含义上没有本质区别，都表示“帮助做某事”。
细微的差别在于，“help to do sth.”更加强调“去做”这个动作的目的或意图；而“help do sth.”则更侧重于陈述“帮助做”这个事实。
但在实际使用中，这种区别非常细微，大多数情况下可以互换使用，没有严格的语法规则限定必须使用其中的某一种形式。

他们是形形色色的年轻群体，聚集在他周围，并帮忙创立了欧洲哲学。