Symposium

Name: Symposium
Author: Plato

Ancient Greek with an independent English translation.

SymposiumSymposium · 176b–176e

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Symposium · 176b–176e

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Ancient Greek

p. 14

Τὸν οὖν Ἀριστοφάνη εἰπεῖν, Τοῦτο μέντοι εὖ λέγεις, ὦ Παυσανία, τὸ παντὶ τρόπῳ παρασκευάσασθαι ῥᾳστώνην τινὰ τῆς πόσεως· καὶ γὰρ αὐτός εἰμι τῶν χθὲς βεβαπτισμένων.

Ἀκούσαντα οὖν αὐτῶν ἔφη Ἐρυξίμαχον τὸν Ἀκουμενοῦ Ἦ καλῶς, φάναι, λέγετε. καὶ ἔτι ἑνὸς δέομαι ὑμῶν ἀκοῦσαι πῶς ἔχει πρὸς τὸ ἐρρῶσθαι πίνειν, Ἀγάθων⟨ος⟩.

Οὐδαμῶς, φάναι, οὐδ’ αὐτὸς ἔρρωμαι.

176cἝρμαιον ἂν εἴη ἡμῖν, ἦ δ’ ὅς, ὡς ἔοικεν, ἐμοί τε καὶ Ἀριστοδήμῳ καὶ Φαίδρῳ καὶ τοῖσδε, εἰ ὑμεῖς οἱ δυνατώτατοι πίνειν νῦν ἀπειρήκατε· ἡμεῖς μὲν γὰρ ἀεὶ ἀδύνατοι. Σωκράτη δ’ ἐξαιρῶ λόγου· ἱκανὸς γὰρ καὶ ἀμφότερα, ὥστ’ ἐξαρκέσει αὐτῷ ὁπότερ’ ἂν ποιῶμεν. ἐπειδὴ οὖν μοι δοκεῖ οὐδεὶς τῶν παρόντων προθύμως ἔχειν πρὸς τὸ πολὺν πίνειν οἶνον, ἴσως ἂν ἐγὼ περὶ τοῦ μεθύσκεσθαι οἷόν ἐστι τἀληθῆ λέγων ἧττον ἂν εἴην ἀηδής. ἐμοὶ γὰρ δὴ τοῦτό γε οἶμαι 176d κατάδηλον γεγονέναι ἐκ τῆς ἰατρικῆς, ὅτι χαλεπὸν τοῖς ἀνθρώποις ἡ μέθη ἐστίν· καὶ οὔτε αὐτὸς ἑκὼν εἶναι πόρρω ἐθελήσαιμι ἂν πιεῖν οὔτε ἄλλῳ συμβουλεύσαιμι, ἄλλως τε καὶ κραιπαλῶντα ἔτι ἐκ τῆς προτεραίας.

Ἀλλὰ μήν, ἔφη φάναι ὑπολαβόντα Φαῖδρον τὸν Μυρρινούσιον, ἔγωγέ σοι εἴωθα πείθεσθαι ἄλλως τε καὶ ἅττ’ ἂν περὶ ἰατρικῆς λέγῃς· νῦν δ’, ἂν εὖ βουλεύωνται, καὶ οἱ λοιποί. 176e ταῦτα δὴ ἀκούσαντας συγχωρεῖν πάντας μὴ διὰ μέθης ποιήσασθαι τὴν ἐν τῷ παρόντι συνουσίαν, ἀλλ’ οὕτω πίνοντας πρὸς ἡδονήν.

Ἐπειδὴ τοίνυν, φάναι τὸν Ἐρυξίμαχον, τοῦτο μὲν δέδοκται, πίνειν ὅσον ἂν ἕκαστος βούληται, ἐπάναγκες δὲ μηδὲν

176b 3.Source editor’s annotationπαρασκευάσασθαι T W: παρασκευάζεσθαι B

176b 5.Source editor’s annotationαὐτῶν T W: αὐτὸν B

176b 5.Source editor’s annotationἘρυξίμαχον T: Εὐρυξίμαχον W: τὸν Ἐρυξιμαχον B

176b 5.Source editor’s annotationἀκουμένου B T W

176b 7.Source editor’s annotationἈγάθωνος Vahlen: ἀγάθων B T W

176c 4.Source editor’s annotationἐξαιρῶ Heindorf: ἐξαίρω B T W

176c 8.Source editor’s annotationἀηδής T W: ἀηλης B

176d 4.Source editor’s annotationκραιπαλῶντα T W: κραιπαλοῦντα B

176d 5.Source editor’s annotationφαῖδρον T W: φαιδρων B

176d 5.Source editor’s annotationμυρρινούσιον B: μυρινούσιον T W

176d 7.Source editor’s annotationλέγῃς B W: λέγεις T

176d 7.Source editor’s annotationδ’ ἂν εὖ T W: δ’ αὖ εὖ B

176d 7.Source editor’s annotationβουλεύωνται corr. Coisl.: βούλωνται B T W

Symposium

p. 15

Then Aristophanes said, “This indeed you say well, Pausanias, that we should provide in every way for some ease in the drinking; for I myself am one of those who were soaked yesterday.”¹

Hearing them, he said, Eryximachus the son of Acumenus² said, “Truly you speak well. And there is still one of you I need to hear from, how he stands as to his strength for drinking: Agathon.”³

“Not at all,” he said; “I have no strength either.”

176c“It would be a godsend for us,⁴ it seems,” he said, “for me and Aristodemus and Phaedrus and these here, if you, the ablest drinkers, have now given up; for we are always unable. Socrates I leave out of the reckoning; for he is capable of both, so that whichever we do will be enough for him. Since, then, none of those present seems to me eager to drink much wine, perhaps if I were to tell the truth about getting drunk, what it is, I should be less disagreeable. For this at least, I think, 176d has become quite plain to me from medicine: that drunkenness is a harsh thing for human beings; and neither would I myself, so far as it rests with me, be willing to drink deep, nor would I advise another to, especially one still heavy-headed from the day before.”

“Why,” said Phaedrus of Myrrhinus,⁵ taking him up, he said, “I for my part am in the habit of obeying you, especially in whatever you say about medicine; and now the rest will too, if they deliberate well.”⁶ 176e When they heard this, they all granted that they would not make the present gathering a drunken one, but would drink simply for pleasure.

“Since, then,” said Eryximachus, “this has been resolved, that each should drink as much as he wants, and that nothing

About This Reading Edition

The complete Symposium, 172a–223d: at Agathon’s banquet the guests praise Love, Socrates recounts Diotima’s teaching, and Alcibiades praises Socrates. Burnet’s Greek faces a new Diotimos Editions English translation, with an introduction, key words, outline, glossary, critical apparatus, and linked translator notes.

Historical Text and Translation

Greek: Plato, Symposium, in John Burnet, Platonis Opera, volume II (Oxford, 1901; second edition, 1910), in a later impression printed by John Johnson and issued by Humphrey Milford no earlier than January 1935, as described by the supplied edition. Its Greek was taken from the Perseus Digital Library transcription and checked against photographs of that impression; Burnet’s readings and critical apparatus are retained. The digital Greek transcription and its modifications are attributed to the Perseus Digital Library, Tufts University, under CC BY-SA 4.0. English translation and editorial matter: Diotimos Editions, 2026.

About Diotimos Editions

This historical edition credits Diotimos Editions as its English translator.

Rights

The ancient Greek work and Burnet’s printed edition are in the public domain. The Perseus digital Greek transcription and its modifications are reused under CC BY-SA 4.0, as verified from the official Perseus repository license. The supplied edition reports checking its transcription against Burnet’s printed pages. The new English translation and editorial matter are credited to Diotimos Editions, 2026; no open license for those new contributions is stated in the supplied files.