of great honesty, mild, affable, and soberly cheerful:1 not rich, and a man of few words; 2 was son to Hipponicus and brother to Callias.3 He was present at the death of Socrates.4 CHARMIDES. He had a considerable estate in lands before the Peloponnesian war, which he thence entirely lost, and was reduced to great poverty. He was present at the symposium of Callias, where he discoursed on the advantages and pleasures of being poor. He ran at the stadium, at Nemea, contrary to Socrates's advice.5 He was of extreme beauty when a youth. ESCHYLUS. He was of Phlius, and was introduced by Antisthenes to Socrates. CRITO. 8 He was father to Critobulus; was of Alopecæ, and about the same age with Socrates.7 He made the proposal to contrive the escape of Socrates out of prison, and to send him into Thessaly; he attended him daily in his confinement, and at the time of his death; he received his last orders: he closed his eyes, and took care of his funeral.9 1 Xenoph. Sympos. 3 Plato, Cratylus. 6 Plato, Charmid. 2 Ibid. p. 391 and 408. 4 Plato, Phædo. 7 Plato, Apolog. PLATO. PHEDRUS. Η, ΠΕΡΙ ΚΑΛΟΥ, THIS is supposed to be the first Dialogue which Plato wrote; εχει γαρ (says Laertius 1) μειρακιώδες τι το προβλημα Δικαιαρχος δε και τον τροπον της γραφης ὁλον επιμεμφεται, ὡς φορτικόν. Dionysius Halicarnassensis 2 calls it one of his most celebrated discourses and from it he produces examples both of the beauty and of the blemishes of Plato's style, of the xaрakтηp ισχνος και αφελης, which is all purity, all grace and perspicuity; and of the vλos, wherein he sometimes ; 1 Diog. Laert. L. 3, c. 38. (c. 25 edit. Kraus. Lipsiæ, 1759). 2 Περι της Δημοσθενοῦς δεινότητος. p. 270. V. 2, ed. Hudsoni. He attributes the first to Plato's education in the company of Socrates; the latter to his imitation of Gorgias and Thucydides. Vid. et Epist. ad Cn. Pompeium, p. 202. NOTES ON THE GREEK TEXT. Platonis Opera, Edit. Serrani H. Steph. 1578, Vol. 3. Vol. 3. p. 227. AкOVμEVW.] Acumenus was father to Eryximachus, both of them physicians of note, and friends of Socrates. Ib. Ev тois dрoμois.] Places in the Gymnasia, where people exercised themselves by walking a great pace, or by running. See Plato's Euthydemus, p. 273. Περιεπατειτην εν τω καταστεγω Δρομω, &c. rises to a true sublimity, and sometimes falls into an ungraceful redundancy of words and of ill-suited figures ungraceful and obscure. There is a good analysis of the Phædrus by Mr. Abbé Sallier,1 wherein he shews its true subject and intention. It is upon eloquence and is designed to demonstrate, that no writer, whether legislator, orator, historian, or poet, can do any thing excellent without a 1 Mémoires de l'Académie des Inscriptions, &c. V. 9, p. 49. See also another analysis by Mr. Hardion in his tenth Dissertation on the eloquence of Greece. Ib. V. 16, p. 378, des Mémoires. NOTES. P. 227. Тov ОмνμTIOν.] The vast temple of Jupiter, begun by Pisistratus, but never finished till the time of the emperor Hadrian. Ib. IIроσnkovσа ye σo.] Socrates professed the art of love. See Xenoph. Sympos. Ib. IIpeσßvтepw.] He was then threescore and upwards. Ib. Κατα Ηρόδικον.] Herodicus of Selymbria, ὁ παιδοτρίβης. See Plat. Protagoras, p. 316. There was also Herodicus, the Leontine, a physician, and brother to the famous Gorgias (See Plat. Gorg. 448 and 456.): the first was also a physician, and the first who regulated the exercises of youth by the rules of medicine. See de Republicâ, L. 3, p. 406, fusè. 228. Е0руπTEто.] He played the coquet; he denied, only to be courted to do what he wished. Ib. Αυτου δεηθητι, όπερ ταχα παντως ποιησει.] Read, ποιηση, and make no other correction: i.e. "Be now intreated to do, what you will do presently without any intreaty at all." 229. Της Αγραίας.] The district, or δημοs, was called Αγραι, in which stood the temple of Diana Ayporepa. Pausanias, Attic. L. 1, p. 45. ed. Kuhnii. Ib. Zvv Papuakeq.] Orithyia and Procris were the daughters of Erectheus. Who Pharmacéa was, I do not find. Ib. Aiav de deivov.] Such disquisitions were the common employments of the sophists and grammarians. foundation of philosophy. The title prefixed to it, ПIept Kaλou, cannot be genuine; it has no other relation to it, than that beauty is accidentally the theme of Socrates's second little oration, which is contained in this dialogue; not that it is, directly, even the subject of that, for the tendency of it is to prove, Ως εραστῇ μαλλον, η τω μη ερῶντι δει χαριζεσθαι, as the two preceding orations were to shew the contrary. These are what Laertius calls NOTES. P. 230. Typhon or Typhous, the youngest son of Earth and Tartarus. Hesiod, Theogon. v. 821. has given a fine description of this portentous form. Ib. Axeλwov.] The Achelöus was looked upon in Greece as the principal of all rivers, and his name was used for all fresh water in general: he was usually worshipped in common with Pan and the Nymphs, as here. Ib. Καρπον προσιόντες.] Read προσείοντες, shaking it before them. 231. Nv deoμai.] What he desired, will appear but too plainly in the course of these little orations, and must appear a most strange subject of conversation for Socrates, to all who are unacquainted with the manners of Greece. The President de Montesquieu has observed, but too justly, on the nature of their love and gallantry. Esprit des Loix, V. 1. See also Xenoph. Economic. and Symposium; and the Symposium of Plato; see also de Legib. L. 1. p. 636. Ib. Tov voμov.] There were, indeed, laws of great severity in Athens against this vice; but who should put them in force in such general and shocking depravity? 234. This praise he cannot help bestowing on Lysias's composition, namely, Ότι σαφη, και στρογγυλα, και ακριβως έκαστα των ονοματων αποτετορνευται. 235. Noteρ dɩ evvea.] The Archons took an oath to do this, if they were guilty of corruption, before they took their seats in the roa Baσietos. See Jul. Pollux, L. 8, c. 13. Plutarch in Solon; and Heraclides in Politiis. Προβλήματα μειρακιώδη, though he may mean it of the whole dialogue, which is something juvenile and full of vanity. Dionysius very justly says, Hv yap ev μev TMη Πλατωνος φυσει, πολλας αρετας εχουσῃ, το φιλοτιμον, and before, Πλατων το φορτικωτατον και επαχ θεστατον των εργων προελομενος, αὑτον επαινειν κατα την δυναμιν των λόγων, &c. The Socratick Dialogues are a kind of dramas, wherein the time, the place, and the characters are NOTES. Ρ. 235. Παρα γε εμαυτοῦ οὐδεν.] It is observable, that Socrates, whenever he would discourse affirmatively on any subject, or when he thought proper to raise and adorn his style, does it not in his own person, but assumes the character of another. Thus, for instance, he relates the beautiful fable between Virtue and Pleasure after Prodicus; he treats of the miseries of human life in the words of the same sophist; he describes the state of souls after death from the information of Gobryas, one of the Magi; he makes a panegyrick on wine in the style of Gorgias; and here he does not venture to display his eloquence, till the Nymphs and the Muses have inspired him. This is consistent with that character of simplicity and of humility which he assumed. 236. Kupeλidwv.] See Pausanias, L. 5, p. 378. Ib. 'Ouoias Xaẞas.] A metaphor taken from wrestling: you give me a good hold of you. So in Lib. de Republ. 8, p. 544. Παλιν τοινυν, ώσπερ παλαιστης, την αυτην λαβην παρεχε. Ib. Twv Kwμwdwv.] The repetition of a person's words by way of reproach. Ib. Пonτny.] Used for one who composes any thing, whether prose or verse. So above, p. 234. Ως τα δέοντα ειρηκότος του Ποιητοῦ.—Ομνυμι γαρ σοι: what follows should be written thus, Τινα μεντοι ; τινα θεων ; ει βουλει, την πλατανην ταυτηνι. 237. Ayete dn, w Movσal.] Thus far, says Dionysius, πavra χαριτων μεστα : hence begins a style more turbid and obscure, and disagreeably poetical. |