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. P. 172. to Plato. NOTES ON THE GREEK TEXT. гλаνKwv.] Glauco was younger brother 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. Пept σxnμаτov, 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. Βιβλίω ανδρος σοφου.] Mentioned also by Isocrates in Encom. Helena, p. 210, Twv μev yap TOUS βομβυλιους, και τους άλας, και τα τοιαυτα βουληθεντων etaiνeiv, &c. and to this, and such like discourses, he alludes in Panathenaic, p. 260. Eукoμajovσi тa pav 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 Cœlus without a mother, v. 191. Ty & Epos μарτnσe, &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. P. 182. Ev Hλtôi Kai ev BowTois.] 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. KußuTwo.] An action of the tumblers described in Xenophon's Sympos. p. 876. Ρ. 191. Αἱ Εταιρίστριαι.] Αἱ Τριβαδες. See de Ai Legib. L. 1. p. 636. P. 193. Kalaжер Aркades.] 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 En Bovλopai.] 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 copy of his kind of eloquence, full of antitheses, concise, and musical even 1 Χλευάζει τε τα ισοκωλα του Αγαθωνος και αντίθετα. Athenæus, L. 5. p. 187. to affectation, in the manner of Gorgias, whose pupil. he seems to have been. P.198. Topуelov.] Alluding to Hom. Odyss. A. v. 634. P. 199. H уλwτTα ovv.] An allusion to the Hippolytus of Euripides. P. 201. MaνTIKηs.] It is plain from what follows, Μαντικης.] that this is as good.a reading as Mavтivikηs. P. 202. Diotimia of Mantinea, a prophetess. Ib. The middle nature of dæmons, which mediate between gods and men. P. 203. Пopos.] The god, not of riches, but of expedients and of contrivances. P. 207. The following verses are attributed to Plato, in the Anthologia, L. 1. c. 90: Αιων παντα φερει· δολιχος χρονος οιδεν αμείβειν which sentiment is finely explained here. P. 213. Uктηpa.] See Athenæus, L. 11, p. 502, on this kind of vessel. P. 215. The figures of the Sileni in the shops of the sculptors (ev Tois épμoyλveis) made hollow, which opened and discovered within the statues of the gods. Ib. A yap Оλvμπos.] Such as were initiated became possessed, as soon as they heard these airs. P. 216. Ta & Alпvашv πраттw.] Alcibiades was now very powerful in the state, in the thirty-fifth year of his age. P. 219. H σidnpw & Aias.] It should rather seem to be Achilles. Ib. Erрareia.] They went thither with the supplies under the command of Phormio, Ol. 87. 1. Alcibiades being then twenty years of age, and Socrates thirtynine. (See Thucyd. L. 1. s. 64.) The folly of Athenæus, who would prove, against the authority of Plato and of Antisthenes, that Socrates was not in any of these actions, is justly exposed by Casaubon: Annot. ad Athenæum, L. 5. c. 15. We may add, that if the silence of Thucydides could prove anything with regard to Socrates, it would prove, at least as strongly, that Alcibiades was not at Potidæa neither; but the contrary is certain from that very oration of Isocrates, to which Athenæus refers, namely, that IIept Zevyoûs, p. 352, where he is said to have gained the Apurreta (which were a crown and a complete suit of armour) before that city; and if the orator had not totally suppressed the name of Socrates, it would have been highly injudicious in a discourse pronounced by the son of Alcibiades, where he was to exalt the character of his father, and by no means to lessen the merit of any of his actions. He left that to his enemies, who (it is likely) did not forget the generosity of Socrates on this. occasion. It is clear from the many oversights of Athenæus here, that he either trusted to his memory, or only quoted from his own excerpta, and not from the originals. Plato mentions no second Apoteia gained at Delium, and only speaks of the coolness and presence of mind shewn by Socrates in his retreat; as he has done also in the Laches. Athenæus affirms, that Alcibiades was not in the battle of Delium, but he assigns no reasons. If he concludes it from the silence of Thucydides, as before, this is nothing, as |
