Diotimos Library · Plato Collection · Bilingual Edition

Plato

Symposium

Name: Symposium
Author: Plato

Ancient Greek with an independent English translation.

SymposiumSymposium · 174b–174e

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Symposium · 174b–174e

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Ancient Greek

p. 8

αὐτόματοι ἀγαθοί. Ὅμηρος μὲν γὰρ κινδυνεύει οὐ μόνον διαφθεῖραι ἀλλὰ καὶ ὑβρίσαι εἰς ταύτην τὴν παροιμίαν· ποιήσας γὰρ τὸν Ἀγαμέμνονα διαφερόντως ἀγαθὸν ἄνδρα 174c τὰ πολεμικά, τὸν δὲ Μενέλεων “μαλθακὸν αἰχμητήν,” θυσίαν ποιουμένου καὶ ἑστιῶντος τοῦ Ἀγαμέμνονος ἄκλητον ἐποίησεν ἐλθόντα τὸν Μενέλεων ἐπὶ τὴν θοίνην, χείρω ὄντα ἐπὶ τὴν τοῦ ἀμείνονος.

Ταῦτ’ ἀκούσας εἰπεῖν ἔφη Ἴσως μέντοι κινδυνεύσω καὶ ἐγὼ οὐχ ὡς σὺ λέγεις, ὦ Σώκρατες, ἀλλὰ καθ’ Ὅμηρον φαῦλος ὢν ἐπὶ σοφοῦ ἀνδρὸς ἰέναι θοίνην ἄκλητος. ὅρα οὖν ἄγων με τί ἀπολογήσῃ, ὡς ἐγὼ μὲν οὐχ ὁμολογήσω ἄκλητος 174d ἥκειν, ἀλλ’ ὑπὸ σοῦ κεκλημένος.

“Σύν τε δύ’,” ἔφη, “ἐρχομένω πρὸ ὁδοῦ” βουλευσόμεθα ὅτι ἐροῦμεν. ἀλλ’ ἴωμεν.

Τοιαῦτ’ ἄττα σφᾶς ἔφη διαλεχθέντας ἰέναι. τὸν οὖν Σωκράτη ἑαυτῷ πως προσέχοντα τὸν νοῦν κατὰ τὴν ὁδὸν πορεύεσθαι ὑπολειπόμενον, καὶ περιμένοντος οὗ κελεύειν προϊέναι εἰς τὸ πρόσθεν. ἐπειδὴ δὲ γενέσθαι ἐπὶ τῇ οἰκίᾳ 174e τῇ Ἀγάθωνος, ἀνεῳγμένην καταλαμβάνειν τὴν θύραν, καί τι ἔφη αὐτόθι γελοῖον παθεῖν. οἷ μὲν γὰρ εὐθὺς παῖδά τινα τῶν ἔνδοθεν ἀπαντήσαντα ἄγειν οὗ κατέκειντο οἱ ἄλλοι, καὶ καταλαμβάνειν ἤδη μέλλοντας δειπνεῖν· εὐθὺς δ’ οὖν ὡς ἰδεῖν τὸν Ἀγάθωνα, Ὦ, φάναι, Ἀριστόδημε, εἰς καλὸν ἥκεις ὅπως συνδειπνήσῃς· εἰ δ’ ἄλλου τινὸς ἕνεκα ἦλθες, εἰς αὖθις ἀναβαλοῦ, ὡς καὶ χθὲς ζητῶν σε ἵνα καλέσαιμι, οὐχ οἷός τ’ ἦ ἰδεῖν. ἀλλὰ Σωκράτη ἡμῖν πῶς οὐκ ἄγεις;

Καὶ ἐγώ, ἔφη, μεταστρεφόμενος οὐδαμοῦ ὁρῶ Σωκράτη

174c 7, 8.Source editor’s annotationὅρα . . . τί Badham (vide Ficinus): ἄρα . . . τι B: ἆρα . . . τι T: ἆρ’ . . . τί W

174d 2.Source editor’s annotationπρὸ ὁδοῦ B T W: πρὸ ὁ τοῦ Homerus K 224

174d 3.Source editor’s annotationἀλλὰ ἴωμεν T W: ἀλλ ἐῶμεν B

174d 6.Source editor’s annotationπορευόμενον ὑπολείπεσθαι Rohde

174d 7.Source editor’s annotationδὲ] δὲ ἓ Cobet: δ’ ἓ Baiter

174e 2.Source editor’s annotationοἷ Photius b: οἱ B T: τὸν W

174e 3.Source editor’s annotationτῶν ἔνδοθεν Porson: τῶν ἔνδον Photius: ἔνδοθεν B T W

174e 5.Source editor’s annotationὦ T W: ᾧ B

174e 6.Source editor’s annotationσυνδειπνήσῃς B T W: συνδειπνήσεις Laur. xiv. 85

174e 7.Source editor’s annotationτ’ ῆ· T W: τε B

174e 9.Source editor’s annotationἔφη B: ἔφην T W

174e 9.Source editor’s annotationοὐδαμοῦ B: οὐδαμῇ T W

Symposium

p. 9

of their own accord the good.’¹ For Homer, it looks like, has not only ruined this proverb but even treated it with insolence; for having made Agamemnon an exceptionally good man 174c in war, and Menelaus ‘a soft spearman,’ when Agamemnon was making a sacrifice and giving a feast he made Menelaus come to the banquet uninvited, the worse man to the banquet of the better.”²

Hearing this, he said that he said, “Perhaps, though, I too, it looks like, shall go, not as you say, Socrates, but as Homer says, a paltry man, uninvited, to the banquet of a wise one. So since you are bringing me, see what defence you will make;³ for I shall not agree that I 174d have come uninvited, but invited by you.”

“‘Two going together,’” he said, “‘on the way ahead’ we shall deliberate what we are to say.⁴ But let us go.”

After conversing in some such way, he said, they set off. Then Socrates, paying attention somehow to himself, went along the road falling behind, and when he waited for him, he told him to go on ahead. And when he came to 174e Agathon’s house, he found the door open, and there, he said, something laughable happened to him. For a slave from inside met him at once and led him to where the others were reclining, and he found them already about to dine; but anyway, as soon as Agathon saw him, “Ah, Aristodemus,” he said, “you have come at a beautiful moment,⁵ to dine with us; if you came for some other reason, put it off till another time; for yesterday, too, I was looking for you to invite you, and could not see you. But Socrates: how is it you are not bringing him to us?”

And I, he said, turning round, nowhere see Socrates

1.The proverb is recorded in two forms, “the good go of their own accord to the feasts of the good” (agathōn) and “… to the feasts of the base” (deilōn) (Athenaeus 5.178b, just after quoting this passage). Burnet prints Lachmann’s Agathōn’, for Agathōni, “to Agathon’s,” where the manuscripts have agathōn, “of the good”; either way the joke is on the host’s name (apparatus, b4).

2.Menelaus comes “of his own accord” to Agamemnon’s sacrifice at Iliad 2.408; he is called “a soft spearman” at 17.587–588.

3.See what defence: Burnet prints Badham’s hora … ti, as Ficinus’ Latin implies; B has ara … ti, “so you will make some defence,” T and W āra, which makes it a question (apparatus, c7–8).

4.Socrates turns Diomedes’ words at Iliad 10.224, “when two go together, one sees before the other” (pro ho tou), into “on the way ahead” (pro hodou) (apparatus, d2).

5.At a beautiful moment: eis kalon, an idiom for “in good time,” which keeps the word Socrates has just played on (174a) (interpretation).

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.