Symposium

Name: Symposium
Author: Plato

Ancient Greek with an independent English translation.

SymposiumSymposium · 218c–219b

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Ancient Greek Page · Branch 68 of 88

Symposium · 218c–219b

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Ancient Greek

p. 130

Οἶσθα οὖν ἅ μοι δέδοκται;

Τί μάλιστα, ἔφη.

Σὺ ἐμοὶ δοκεῖς, ἦν δ’ ἐγώ, ἐμοῦ ἐραστὴς ἄξιος γεγονέναι μόνος, καί μοι φαίνῃ ὀκνεῖν μνησθῆναι πρός με. ἐγὼ δὲ οὑτωσὶ ἔχω· πάνυ ἀνόητον ἡγοῦμαι εἶναι σοὶ μὴ οὐ καὶ τοῦτο χαρίζεσθαι καὶ εἴ τι ἄλλο ἢ τῆς οὐσίας τῆς ἐμῆς 218d δέοιο ἢ τῶν φίλων τῶν ἐμῶν. ἐμοὶ μὲν γὰρ οὐδέν ἐστι πρεσβύτερον τοῦ ὡς ὅτι βέλτιστον ἐμὲ γενέσθαι, τούτου δὲ οἶμαί μοι συλλήπτορα οὐδένα κυριώτερον εἶναι σοῦ. ἐγὼ δὴ τοιούτῳ ἀνδρὶ πολὺ μᾶλλον ἂν μὴ χαριζόμενος αἰσχυνοίμην τοὺς φρονίμους, ἢ χαριζόμενος τούς τε πολλοὺς καὶ ἄφρονας.

Καὶ οὗτος ἀκούσας μάλα εἰρωνικῶς καὶ σφόδρα ἑαυτοῦ τε καὶ εἰωθότως ἔλεξεν Ὦ φίλε Ἀλκιβιάδη, κινδυνεύεις τῷ ὄντι οὐ φαῦλος εἶναι, εἴπερ ἀληθῆ τυγχάνει ὄντα ἃ λέγεις 218e περὶ ἐμοῦ, καί τις ἔστ’ ἐν ἐμοὶ δύναμις δι’ ἧς ἂν σὺ γένοιο ἀμείνων· ἀμήχανόν τοι κάλλος ὁρῴης ἂν ἐν ἐμοὶ καὶ τῆς παρὰ σοὶ εὐμορφίας πάμπολυ διαφέρον. εἰ δὴ καθορῶν αὐτὸ κοινώσασθαί τέ μοι ἐπιχειρεῖς καὶ ἀλλάξασθαι κάλλος ἀντὶ κάλλους, οὐκ ὀλίγῳ μου πλεονεκτεῖν διανοῇ, ἀλλ’ ἀντὶ δόξης ἀλήθειαν καλῶν κτᾶσθαι ἐπιχειρεῖς καὶ τῷ 219a ὄντι “χρύσεα χαλκείων” διαμείβεσθαι νοεῖς. ἀλλ’, ὦ μακάριε, ἄμεινον σκόπει, μή σε λανθάνω οὐδὲν ὤν. ἥ τοι τῆς διανοίας ὄψις ἄρχεται ὀξὺ βλέπειν ὅταν ἡ τῶν ὀμμάτων τῆς ἀκμῆς λήγειν ἐπιχειρῇ· σὺ δὲ τούτων ἔτι πόρρω.

Κἀγὼ ἀκούσας, Τὰ μὲν παρ’ ἐμοῦ, ἔφην, ταῦτά ἐστιν, ὧν οὐδὲν ἄλλως εἴρηται ἢ ὡς διανοοῦμαι· σὺ δὲ αὐτὸς οὕτω βουλεύου ὅτι σοί τε ἄριστον καὶ ἐμοὶ ἡγῇ.

Ἀλλ’, ἔφη, τοῦτό γ’ εὖ λέγεις· ἐν γὰρ τῷ ἐπιόντι χρόνῳ 219b βουλευόμενοι πράξομεν ὃ ἂν φαίνηται νῷν περί τε τούτων καὶ περὶ τῶν ἄλλων ἄριστον.

Symposium

p. 131

“‘Do you know, then, what I have resolved?’

“‘What, exactly?’ he said.

“‘You seem to me,’ I said, ‘to have become the only lover worthy of me, and you seem to me to hesitate to mention it to me. As for me, this is how I stand: I believe it very senseless not to gratify you in this too, and in anything else you 218d might need either of my property or of my friends. For to me nothing ranks before my becoming as good as possible, and for this I think I have no helper more competent than you. So I would be far more ashamed before the intelligent at not gratifying such a man than I would be before the many and foolish at gratifying him.’

“And he, having heard this, said very ironically, and very much like himself and as he used to, ‘My friend Alcibiades, it looks like you are really no paltry fellow, if what you say 218e about me is in fact true, and there is in me some power through which you might become better; you would see in me, you know, an extraordinary beauty, far different from the fine form that is in you. If, then, catching sight of it, you are undertaking to share it with me and exchange beauty for beauty, you mean to get the better of me by no small amount; rather, you are undertaking to acquire the truth of beautiful things in place of the opinion of them, and you 219a really intend to exchange “gold for bronze”.¹ But, you blessed man, look into it better, lest you fail to notice that I am nothing. The sight of the mind, you know, begins to look keenly when that of the eyes undertakes to leave off its prime; and you are still far from these.’

“And I, having heard this: ‘What comes from me,’ I said, ‘is this, and none of it has been said otherwise than as I mean it; you yourself deliberate, then, on what you believe best for you and for me.’

“‘Well,’ he said, ‘this at least you say well; for in time to come we 219b shall deliberate and do whatever appears best to the two of us, both about these things and about the rest.’

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.