CRATYLUS. ΠΕΡΙ ΟΝΟΜΑΤΩΝ ΟΡΘΟΤΗΤΟΣ. THIS long dialogue on the origin of words was probably a performance of Plato when he was very young, and is the least considerable of all his works. Cratylus, a disciple of Heraclitus, is said to have 1 Diog. Laert. in Platone, and Aristot. Metaphys. L. 1. p. 338. Εκ νέου τε γαρ συγγενομενος πρωτον Κρατύλω, και ταις Ηρακλειτειοις δοξαις, κτλ. NOTES ON THE GREEK TEXT. Platon. Op. Serrani, Vol. 1. p. 383. P. 398. Ancient Attick words, danμwv, epei: and p. 401, εσια ; 410, Οραι ; 418, Ιμερα, vel Εμερα. He remarks that the ancient Attick abounded in the I and A, which in his time had been often changed to the H or E and the Z, and that the women preserved much of the old language among them. 399. Accents used in Plato's time, as now, Ai piλos, changed into Δι φιλος. 401. Προ παντων Θεων τη Εστια.] See Aristophan. Aves, v. 865, and Vespæ, v. 840. 405. The Thessalians in their dialect called Apollo, 'Aπλos. 407. Οίσι Ευθύφρονος ἱπποι.] An allusion to Homer. 409. Much of the Greek language derived from the Barbarians: 'Twp, IIup, Kvwv, borrowed from the Phrygians. 425. The Barbarians acknowledged to be more ancient than the Greeks. been the master of Plato after Socrates's death; but the latter part of the dialogue is plainly written against the opinions of that sect, and of Cratylus in particular. NOTES. P. 427. The powers of the several Greek letters, and the manner of their formation: viz. the P expressive of motion, being formed by a tremulous motion of the tongue; the I of smallness and tenuity; the P. V. Z. Z. of all noises made by the air; the ▲ and T of a cessation of motion; the A of slipperiness and gliding, the same with a T prefixed, of the adherence and tenacity of fluids; the N of any thing internal ; the A of largeness; the O of roundness; and the H expressive of length. 428. Ev Airais.] The ancients called the ninth book of the Iliad, Λιται. See v. 640. 429. Cratylus seems to have been the son of Smicrio. 434. The Eretrians for σκληροτης used σκληροτηρ. SYMPOSIUM. Platon. Op. Serrani. Vol. 3. p. 172. As to the time of this dialogue, Athenæus (L. 5. p. 217.) tells us, that Agatho first gained the prize when Euphemus was Archon, which was Ol. 90. 4. What he adds, namely, that Plato was then only 14 years old, and consequently could not be at this entertainment, is very true, but nothing to the purpose; for it is not Plato who uses those words which he cites, but Apollodorus, who recounts the particulars of this banquet, as he had them from Aristodemus, who was present at it ten or twelve years before. Among the ancients, Cicero, Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Hermogenes, Athenæus, Gellius, and Ausonius, and among the moderns, Jos. Scaliger, Petavius, Ger. Vossius, Fraguier, Freret, and La Mothe le Vayer, believed the Cyropædia of Xenophon to be a romance: on the other side, are Usher, Marsham, Le Clerc, Prideaux, Bossuet, Tournemine, Banier, Lenglet, Rollin, Guyon. NOTES ON THE GREEK TEXT. Ρ. 172. Ω Γλαυκων.] Glauco was younger brother to Plato. See Xenoph. Memorabil. L. 3. c. 6. Ρ. 172. Πολλων ετῶν Αγαθων.] He was in Mace donia at the court of Archelaus. P. 173. Aristodemus, of Cydathenæ, called the Little, mentioned by Xenophon as inclined to atheism. (Memorabil. L. 1. c. 4.) P. 175. The audience in the Athenian theatre consisted of above 30,000 persons. P. 177. Ουκ εμος ὁ μυθος, αλλ' εμης μητρος παρα.] Euripid. ap Dion. Halicarnass. IIeрi σxnμатwv, L. 2. Ib. Αλλοις μεν τισι των θεων.] No hymns, nor temples, nor religious rites were offered to Love in Greece. (See Sympos. p. 189.) Ib. Karaλoyadηv.] The discourse by Prodicus in honour of Hercules, of which the beautiful fable in Xenophon's Memorabil. L. 2. c. 1. made a part. Ib. Βιβλιω ανδρος σοφου.] Mentioned also by Isocrates in Encom. Helena, p. 210, Twv μev yap TOUS βομβυλιους, και τους άλας, και τα τοιαυτα βουληθεντων Eπaιvei, &c. and to this, and such like discourses, he alludes in Panathenaic, p. 260. Εγκωμιάζουσι τα φαυ λοτατα των οντων, η τους παρανομωτάτους των όντων. Ρ. 178. Στρατοπεδον εραστων.] It is plain, that Socrates, in Xenophon's Symposium, p. 898, is employed in refuting this very sentiment, which he attributes to Pausanias, the lover of Agatho, and not to Phædrus, in whose mouth it is here put it seems to me a stroke of Xenophon's enmity to Plato, and a remarkable one, though it has not been taken notice of.1 : 1 See Athenæus, L. 5. p. 216., who conjectures that Xenophon might have seen some copy of Plato's Symposium, where these words were spoken by Pausanias. Casaubon tries to confute him, but with weak arguments. Parmenides and Acusilaus quoted in the genealogy of the gods and again in p. 195. P. 180. So Hesiod describes the birth of Venus, daughter of Coelus without a mother, v. 191. Ty & Epos &μартnσe, &c. but he mentions nothing of the second Venus, daughter of Jove and Dione, which is the Venus of Homer. See also Tully de Naturâ Deorum, L. 3. Ρ. 182. Εν Ηλιδι και εν Βοιωτοις.] This (which is really spoken by Pausanias) convinces me that Xenophon wrote his Symposium after that of Plato, and meant to throw some reflections on this part of it. P. 187. To yap év.] An expression of Heraclitus cited and censured. P. 190. KvẞTwo.] An action of the tumblers described in Xenophon's Sympos. p. 876. Ρ. 191. Αἱ Εταιρίστριαι.] Αἱ Τριβαδες. See de Legib. L. 1. p. 636. P. 193. Kа@αжεр Aркаdes.] See an instance of this Lacedæmonian policy on the taking of Mantinea, Ol. 98. 3, in Xenoph. Græc. Hist. L. 5. 552 and 553. P. 194. Eyw de dn Bovλoμai.] As the comick invention and expression of Aristophanes are perfectly well supported throughout his discourse, and the character of the man well painted in several little peculiarities, which Plato (who had himself undoubtedly a genius for dramatick poetry) is never at a loss to choose; so the speech of Agatho is a just copy1 of his kind of eloquence, full of antitheses, concise, and musical even 1 Χλευάζει τε τα ισοκωλα του Αγαθωνος και αντιθετα. Athenæus, L. 5. p. 187. |