Lysis

Note on this Edition

How the volume was made

The Greek was taken from the Perseus Digital Library’s digital transcription of Burnet and cut into Burnet’s lines by reading every line-end from the photographs of his page, in the impression described in the Editorial Note. Accents, breathings and iota subscripts were read on the sharpest photograph of each page, and a doubtful mark was settled by setting it beside sure examples of each form on the same line or page. Two faults of the transcription were corrected throughout: it gives the forms of ᾄδω, “sing”, that begin ᾄδ- a rough breathing and no accent (ᾁδει for ᾄδει, from 204d6 on), and it has a stray Latin letter in νεωστὶ at 204a2. The section letters and line numbers in the margin were worked out from the Stephanus divisions rather than copied, and were then compared with Burnet’s margin, page by page.

The dialogue was made in three blocks (Burnet pages 1–9, 10–18 and 19–27), 774 lines in all. Each block was checked by four independent reviewers: two, dividing its pages between them, compared the Greek and the apparatus with the page images letter by letter, one compared the English with the Greek clause by clause, and one checked every fact and reference in the notes and in the Editorial Note. Each finding was examined again against the evidence before it was adopted, and not all were adopted. What those checks caught is recorded at the end of this Note.

The volume was then read through again as one text, since a check made block by block cannot see some kinds of error: a word rendered one way in one block and another way in the next, a recapitulation that states a step in other words than the step itself, a reading that Burnet rejects carried into the English by a small word. The translator read the whole, and four further reviewers read it independently: one for the consistency of terms across the whole book, two for sense, omissions and continuity in its two halves, each reading every entry of the apparatus against the English, and one for the Editorial Note against the scan of Burnet’s volume. The Introduction, the Key Words of the Dialogue, the Outline and the Glossary were then written from the finished English, and three more reviewers checked them, claim by claim and citation by citation, together with the corrections made in the final reading.

What the final reading caught

It found some seventy points in the English and its notes, most of them small, that the block checks had passed, and a number in the Editorial Note. They fall into a few classes.

The most serious were readings that Burnet rejects. In seven places the English still followed one, each through a small word, although every block had been checked for them. “And you do well” was B and T’s δέ at 204a4, where Burnet prints W’s γε, “You do well to”; “no paltry man” was the manuscripts’ ἀνήρ at 204a6, where Burnet prints Schanz’s ἁνήρ, “the man is no paltry one”; “neither does your father love you” was Richards’ οὔτε … οὔτε at 210c7, where Burnet’s οὐδὲ … οὐδέ is “not even your father”; “I don’t think I am” at 210d8 was Richards’ δοκῶ, where Burnet prints οὔ μοι δοκεῖ, “I think not”; at 214e7 a relative that took up harm alone followed Richards’ ἥν, where Burnet’s ὅ takes up both benefit and harm; at 219b7 the English made “like, indeed, becomes a friend of like” depend on “I let pass”, as Madvig’s γ’ ὅτι would, where Burnet’s γε makes it a statement of its own; and “the first friend” at 219d1 had the article that Heindorf adds and Burnet does not print. Two new notes give Burnet’s πω at 209a4, “not yet”, from a correction in the Coislinianus, where B, T and W have που, and the shift at 220e to “for the sake of an enemy”, where the argument had said “because of”.

The largest class was renderings that had drifted from one English word for one Greek word, most often between the first block and the others. Πάνυ γε is “Very much so” at 205b and 207d, as everywhere else; ἦ γάρ is “Isn’t that so?” at 206b and 207c, Δοκεῖ μοι “It seems so to me” at 206b, Ναί “Yes” at 207e, οἶμαι “I think” at 208b, που “I take it” at 208d, τί δέ “What then?” at 209c, and Οὐκ ἔμοιγε δοκεῖ “It doesn’t seem so to me” at 212e. ἀκούειν is “hear” at 204d and in “fond of hearing talk” at 206c, where the draft had “listen”, which the edition keeps for ἀκροᾶσθαι; διαλέγεσθαι is “talk … about” at 206c, so that Socrates’ lesson at 210e is given in the words of his promise at 206c; τῷ ὄντι is “really” at 205e; ἐᾶν is “let” at 216e; ἐθέλειν is “be willing” at 217a and 217c, as at 206b–c; and Τί μάλιστα is “Why, exactly?” at 218d. The beautiful persons of 204b and 206a are “the beautiful one” and “the beautiful ones”, kept apart from the neuter, “the beautiful”, of 216c; and ἔοικε at 216c is “resembles”, kept apart from ὅμοιος, “like”. Three idioms had brought back words that the edition keeps for other Greek: “Oh dear” at 218c, the only “dear” in the English, is now “Bless me”; the “guest-friend” of Solon’s couplet (212e) is a “guest”, since ξένος is not φίλος; and the “kinship” of Lysis’ family with Heracles (205c) is a “relationship”, since “akin” is οἰκεῖος.

Some renderings changed the sense or missed the Greek. At 207e the stress falls where Lysis puts it, on himself: “me they do stop, and from a great many things”. At 212e ἀλλά is “but”, not “and”: the things loved are “not friends, but is the poet lying”. At 214d the bad man never comes into true friendship “with either a good man or a bad one”, persons, not things; at 221a it is the one who is hungry who may be harmed or benefited; at 222c the good is akin “to everything”, since the other terms of the same question are neuter; and at 223a the tutors bring “the boys’ brothers”. The ridicule of 205e–206a now stands in one clause, as in the Greek. Small words that Burnet prints had gone untranslated (204a, 205b, 205c, 215c, 216a, 216c), words with no Greek behind them were removed (210c), and phrases that followed a published translation more closely than the Greek requires were reworded (204b, 205b, 205c, 205e, 206c, 206d, 207d, 207e, 208e, 211c, 211e, 212e, 214d, 222c). In the notes, the persons are now introduced where they are first named (203a, 206d); the note on the natural philosophers of 214b offers Empedocles and Democritus as an interpretation, with Aristotle and Sextus Empiricus as the sources for their view that like is drawn to like; the reference to the Alcibiades I for the Persian king’s wealth is corrected (123b–c); and the note at 216a calls the one to whom Socrates turns there his “listener”, not his “friend”.

In the Editorial Note, the examples of a lemma followed by a bracket were corrected (206e1, 206e8, 203b3); the spaced points are explained as words left out of a quotation (209c1, 210c7), and Burnet’s “(et mox b 1)” at 203a1 is explained; T² and t are described as hands correcting T; the Coislinianus is placed in the Coislin collection at Paris; Stephanus’ edition is placed at Geneva, not Paris; Goldbacher is named as Burnet names him, by surname only; and γρ. is “it is written”. The key terms now give “beautiful” for the beautiful that the proverb calls a friend, the full range in which heneka and dia are kept apart (218d–221d), and Lysis’ philosophia, “philosophy”.

What remains undone

Four of the scholars in the apparatus are named as Burnet names them, by surname or initial only: Goldbacher, Salvini, C. Schmidt and H. Müller. For three of them a likely name was found. For Goldbacher and Salvini no source was found that ties the scholar to Plato’s text; H. Müller is probably Hieronymus Müller, whose German translation of Plato includes the Lysis (1850), but the note behind his proposal at 212c6 has not been seen. C. Schmidt is not identified.

Three readings of this copy lie at the limit of what its photographs show: the marks over οἷοι at 212a2, which are an ink blot in this copy, so that the transcription’s rough breathing and circumflex are printed; the point after οὖν at 221d2, printed as an apparent misprint on the measurements described in the record of Block III; and the breathing and accent of ἦ, the reading Burnet reports for B and T at 219c6. A second copy of the 1909 impression would settle all three.

The apparatus is Burnet’s alone. It has not been collated against the manuscripts, and readings proposed since his edition are not reported. The translation follows Burnet’s text even where later scholars would print something else.

The notes are a reader’s aid, not a commentary. They were chosen to explain what the English cannot carry, and they label the more doubtful interpretations as such. What the dialogue finally holds about friendship is set out in the Introduction as a question, not argued; a reader who wants the scholarly debate will need a commentary.

The checks described above were made by independent reviewers working from the same page images. The volume has not been read by a specialist outside the project, and a reader who finds an error is asked to report it.

The record of the blocks

The notes that follow are written when each block is finished, and are kept as a record of what its check found.

Block I: 203a–209d (Burnet pages 1–9)

How it was made. Burnet pages 1–9 (scan pp. 111–119), 253 lines, from Socrates’ walk outside the city wall, through Hippothales’ poems and Socrates’ advice on how to talk to a darling, to his questioning of Lysis: whether the parents who love him let him do as he likes, and what the boy is entrusted with because he knows it. The block ends at 209d8 with the first syllable of ἐμβαλεῖν, which the next page completes. The Greek was set line for line from the photographs of Burnet’s page, with his apparatus, and the English written and annotated; independent reviewers then checked the Greek and the apparatus against the photographs letter by letter, the English against the Greek clause by clause, and every note and the Editorial Note against their sources.

What the reviewers caught. The Greek text was confirmed letter by letter, including the breathings of ἁθρόοις, ἁνήρ and the αὑτ- forms of 209a–d, the ᾄδ- forms that the transcription had wrong, and the closed-up dashes and capitals of the quick exchanges. In the margin, a black square that the sharpest photograph shows at 207e1 was found to be a fault of that photograph: the page prints e. In the apparatus, five readings were corrected: the smooth breathing of οὖν, the particle, at 204e7 (twice); the acute of ἀνήρ at 204a6; the iota subscript of εἰδῇς at 204a8; and at 207b6, where the draft gave both manuscripts the same form, Burnet’s ἧ T: ἢ B. Burnet’s Stephanus numbers before the first entries on the first page (203 a 1, 204 a 2) had been left out, and are now printed. In the English, a construction was misread at 204d (it is thinking they hear the name, even when they wake, that comes easily), and Lysis is “worthy to hear himself called” beautiful and good (207a), the sense of ἀκούειν with a predicate. Small words that carry sense had gone untranslated (γάρ four times, καί as “even” and “too”, γε, αὖ, ἄρα). Renderings were made consistent within the block and with the series: γιγνώσκειν as “know”, not “recognize”; φαῦλος as “paltry” all three times, so that Socrates calls Miccus what he then calls himself; ἐγκώμιον always “song of praise”; ἔξεστι always “allowed”; τὰ ἑαυτῶν “what is theirs”; and the tutor who “leads” Lysis to school, the verb in paidagōgos. “Endear oneself”, which brought “dear” into the family of philos, is now “become a friend to” (206c). Six Stephanus letters were moved to the first word of their section, the dashes between run-on speeches are now closed up throughout, as Burnet sets them, and phrases that followed a published translation more closely than the Greek requires were reworded. In the notes, the evidence for Socrates’ haunts now supports only the Lyceum; the law on the Hermaea quoted in Aeschines’ speech is described as a later insertion; the identity of the Menexenus of the Phaedo and of Plato’s Menexenus with this son of Demophon is stated as likely, not assumed; and the proverb of 207c is credited to Pythagoras on the authority Diogenes Laertius gives, Timaeus. In the Editorial Note, al. is “other manuscripts”, not “elsewhere”; the vertical stroke in the apparatus (208d4) marks the end of a line in the manuscript; and Lysidi tribuit, mox, rasura and the angle brackets are explained.

Not applied. The spelling of the sigla, spaced in this volume as in the Epinomis, is not closed up as in the Charmides. Burnet’s “(et mox b 1)” at 203a1 refers to the second Ἀκαδημείας, which stands in line b 2; it is printed as Burnet prints it.

Block II: 209e–216d (Burnet pages 10–18)

How it was made. Burnet pages 10–18 (scan pp. 120–128), 268 lines, from the end of Socrates’ lesson to Lysis, that no one is a friend to anyone in what he is useless for (209e–210d), through his questioning of Menexenus on who becomes a friend of whom (211d–213c), to his turn back to Lysis: the poets and the natural philosophers, who say that like is a friend to like (213e–215c), the opposite view, that the most opposite is most a friend (215c–216b), and his first suggestion that what is neither good nor bad may be a friend of the good (216c–d). The block ends at 216d2 in the middle of a question, which the next page completes. The three verse quotations (Solon 212e, Homer 214a, Hesiod 215c–d) are set on lines of their own. The Greek, the English and the notes were made as in Block I, and four independent reviewers checked them in the same way.

What the reviewers caught. The Greek text and the margins were confirmed letter by letter, including the dashes at the heads and ends of lines and across the page turn at 210c, and three specks on the photographs (210a4, 212b6, 212c2) were judged blemishes, not points. In the apparatus six forms were corrected: W’s ὠδήν with the smooth breathing (214a5); B’s προσείη without the iota subscript (214c1); at 214d2, the manuscripts’ σχολή with the acute and no subscript, and ἄν with the acute in Bekker’s reading and in Burnet’s own; and T²’s αὑτό with the rough breathing (214e7). The Homer and Hesiod lines are now indented as far as Burnet indents them, measured as a share of his line, as the Solon couplet already was; the Hesiod lines had stood less far in than a paragraph’s first line. In the English, the question at 212e had been misread: it is the things loved, horses, quails and wisdom, that are not friends, and the poet “is lying”. The dative at 213a is “friends to their parents”; at 214e and 215a Socrates speaks of persons, “one who is like”, before he widens the question to “anything whatever that is like”, and the English now shows the change. Two speeches had not been closed, after the Solon couplet and at 216a, where “And indeed, my companion” is Socrates turning to the listener to whom he tells the story, as a note now says. Eleven Stephanus letters were moved to the first word of their section. Ctesippus asks one question, “Why are you two … feasting all by yourselves”, as Burnet punctuates it; Menexenus is “formidable”, not “dreadful”, for δεινός here means skill in argument; μέγα φρονεῖν is “think highly of oneself” and μεγαλόφρων “proud”, not “think big” and “high-minded”. Four phrases had followed readings Burnet rejects: “if only” (Richards’ μόνον, 212b), “these same things” (Heindorf’s ταὐτά, 214b), “we must go” (Schleiermacher’s plural, 213e) and “the matter according to the poets” (the article Burnet brackets, 213e). The reported speech of 215e now carries “he said”, so that the theory is not heard in Socrates’ own voice. Particles had gone untranslated (γάρ three times, ἀλλά, οὖν, μάλιστα), and renderings were made one: ἀκούειν “hear”, που “I take it”, ὡς ἐγᾦμαι “I imagine”, Πάνυ γε “Very much so”, Πῶς λέγεις “What do you mean?”, τί δέ “What then?” (also at 208b), λανθάνειν “escape notice”, and φιλέταιρος “a friend of companions”, like the compounds of 212d; the dogs of Solon’s couplet are “dogs”, as everywhere in the block. Thirteen passages whose wording followed Lamb’s Loeb translation were reworded. In the notes, the proverb of 216c is set at the wedding of Cadmus by Theognis alone; the chorus of Euripides’ Bacchae sings only its first half, in other words. New notes give the readings that change the sense at 213a (Burnet’s μισῶν from later manuscripts, against B, T and W) and 216b (Cornarius’ τῳ). The note on Darius’ gold rests on a cited place instead of calling it proverbial; Theognis’ version of Solon’s couplet is described as a different version; the quails and cocks, the Homeric line (now 17.217–218) and the natural philosophers are given their ancient sources. “On reading this edition” now gives the pages to 216 and the brackets of this block, the Editorial Note names the scholars behind each deletion, dates Priscian, explains coll. and scr., and names C. Schmidt and H. Müller as Burnet names them, by initial only.

Not applied. The English sets the pentameter of Solon’s couplet level with the hexameter, as English verse is usually set, not further in as Burnet sets it. νοῦς is “sense” at 210b and ἀλογία “want of sense” at 213b, as ruled in Block I (206b); the two words share an English word, and the Glossary will say so. πάνυ σφόδρα at 211b3 is “most earnestly”, not “most certainly”, which the series keeps for παντὸς μᾶλλον.

Block III: 216d–223b (Burnet pages 19–27)

How it was made. Burnet pages 19–27 (scan pp. 129–137), 253 lines, from Socrates’ suggestion that what is neither good nor bad is a friend of the good because of the presence of bad (216d–218c), with the hair whitened by white lead and by old age and the lovers of wisdom, through his doubt and the “first friend”, for whose sake every other friend is a friend (218d–220b), the question whether the good would still be loved if the bad perished (220b–221d), and desire and what is akin (221d–222b), to the failure to tell akin from like and the arrival of the tutors (222b–223b), where the dialogue ends. The block was made as Blocks I and II were, and four independent reviewers checked it in the same way.

What the reviewers caught. The Greek text and the margins were confirmed letter by letter, including the dashes at the ends and heads of lines and the margin numbers that the sharpest photographs show as solid blocks (218a5, 220a1, 222a1). Two doubtful dots were measured against every printed point on their pages: the mark over the comma after Πάνυ γε at 218b6 has a third of the ink of a printed point and sits too low, and is a blemish; but the dot after οὖν at 221d2 lies within the range of the raised points on its pages in size, weight and height, and is printed as Burnet’s page has it, an apparent misprint like Τι without its accent at 222d5. In the apparatus six forms were corrected: Heindorf’s δ’ ἡ, the article, with its rough breathing and no accent (219a3); ἦ in B and T and ἢ in W at 219c6; ἄν with the acute in Goldbacher’s proposal (221c4); B’s ὂν with the smooth breathing (222a2); and B’s ἦ with the circumflex (222d6). In the English, two places had followed readings Burnet rejects: “as long as” (Richards’ ἕωσπερ ἄν, 221a2) is now “if indeed”, and “and seemed” (Heindorf’s καί, 223b1) is “but seemed”. Three readings that change the sense now have notes: Heindorf’s ἀγαθῷ κακόν at 218a1, where B has “good … to bad”; Hermann’s ἑτέρου at 220b1, without which the sentence says “in another word”; and Burnet’s own ⟨τοῦ φίλου⟩ at 219b3. The persons of the summing-up at 222e are “those who are like” and “those who are akin”, as at 214e; χρήσιμος is “useful” beside ἄχρηστος “useless” at 220c; τῷ ὄντι goes with “friend” at 220b (“what is really a friend”), as the next question takes it up; the imperfect ἀπηλαύνομεν is “set about driving them off”, since the tutors were not driven off; and the starting point of 219c no longer “refers us” but “leads back”. Renderings were made one: δέομαι “be in need” (217a, answering 220c–d), ἐθέλειν “be willing” (217a, 217c, as at 206b–c), συγχωρεῖν “grant”, Συνεφάτην “They both agreed” (also at 207c), νυνδή “a moment ago”, ὡς ἀληθῶς “in truth”, ἀπέρχεσθαι “go away” (220c, recalled at 220e), εἶδος “figure” (as at 204e), χρήματα “wealth” (as at 209a), ἔοικε “resembles”, kept apart from ὅμοιος “like”, κατὰ τὴν ὁμοιότητα “by way of likeness” (as κατὰ τὴν ἐναντιότητα at 216b), and ἀγνώμων “without judgment”, kept apart from the “sense” of νοῦς. Small words were restored (καί four times, γάρ, δή γε, ἀλλά, ἄττα), with the articles of 216d–e and the run-on dash at the turn from page 19 to page 20; two Stephanus letters were moved, and four phrases that followed Lamb’s Loeb translation were reworded. In the notes, the readings at 217c1 and 220c2 are described more fully. In the Editorial Note, the examples of ci. are now conjectures (210a6, 221c2), not proposed deletions; add. ci. and Stephanus’ conjecture are explained; Salvini is named as Burnet names him, by surname only; and the key terms add heneka and dia, and allotrios “alien”.

Not applied. At 220e5 Οὔ μοι δοκεῖ stays “I think not” and is not made “It doesn’t seem so to me”: after a statement the second would read as disagreement, the fault corrected at 213d2. ἀκολουθεῖν is “keep up” of a listener (218e) and “keep to” of an agreement (219c).