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Plato

Symposium

Ancient Greek with an independent English translation.

SymposiumSymposium · 174e–175c

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Symposium · 174e–175c

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ἑπόμενον· εἶπον οὖν ὅτι καὶ αὐτὸς μετὰ Σωκράτους ἥκοιμι, κληθεὶς ὑπ’ ἐκείνου δεῦρ’ ἐπὶ δεῖπνον.

Καλῶς γ’, ἔφη, ποιῶν σύ· ἀλλὰ ποῦ ἔστιν οὗτος;

175aὌπισθεν ἐμοῦ ἄρτι εἰσῄει· ἀλλὰ θαυμάζω καὶ αὐτὸς ποῦ ἂν εἴη.

Οὐ σκέψῃ, ἔφη, παῖ, φάναι τὸν Ἀγάθωνα, καὶ εἰσάξεις Σωκράτη; σὺ δ’, ἦ δ’ ὅς, Ἀριστόδημε, παρ’ Ἐρυξίμαχον κατακλίνου.

Καὶ ἓ μὲν ἔφη ἀπονίζειν τὸν παῖδα ἵνα κατακέοιτο· ἄλλον δέ τινα τῶν παίδων ἥκειν ἀγγέλλοντα ὅτι “Σωκράτης οὗτος ἀναχωρήσας ἐν τῷ τῶν γειτόνων προθύρῳ ἕστηκεν, κἀμοῦ καλοῦντος οὐκ ἐθέλει εἰσιέναι.”

Ἄτοπόν γ’, ἔφη, λέγεις· οὔκουν καλεῖς αὐτὸν καὶ μὴ ἀφήσεις;

175bΚαὶ ὃς ἔφη εἰπεῖν Μηδαμῶς, ἀλλ’ ἐᾶτε αὐτόν. ἔθος γάρ τι τοῦτ’ ἔχει· ἐνίοτε ἀποστὰς ὅποι ἂν τύχῃ ἕστηκεν. ἥξει δ’ αὐτίκα, ὡς ἐγὼ οἶμαι. μὴ οὖν κινεῖτε, ἀλλ’ ἐᾶτε.

Ἀλλ’ οὕτω χρὴ ποιεῖν, εἰ σοὶ δοκεῖ, ἔφη φάναι τὸν Ἀγάθωνα. ἀλλ’ ἡμᾶς, ὦ παῖδες, τοὺς ἄλλους ἑστιᾶτε. πάντως παρατίθετε ὅτι ἂν βούλησθε, ἐπειδάν τις ὑμῖν μὴ ἐφεστήκῃ—ὃ ἐγὼ οὐδεπώποτε ἐποίησα—νῦν οὖν, νομίζοντες καὶ ἐμὲ ὑφ’ ὑμῶν κεκλῆσθαι ἐπὶ δεῖπνον καὶ τούσδε τοὺς 175c ἄλλους, θεραπεύετε, ἵν’ ὑμᾶς ἐπαινῶμεν.

Μετὰ ταῦτα ἔφη σφᾶς μὲν δειπνεῖν, τὸν δὲ Σωκράτη οὐκ εἰσιέναι. τὸν οὖν Ἀγάθωνα πολλάκις κελεύειν μεταπέμψασθαι τὸν Σωκράτη, ἓ δὲ οὐκ ἐᾶν. ἥκειν οὖν αὐτὸν οὐ

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Symposium

p. 11

following; so I said that I had come with Socrates myself, invited by him here to dinner.

“You did well indeed,” he said; “but where is he?”

175a“He was coming in behind me just now; but I too wonder where he can be.”

“Won’t you look, boy,” Agathon said, he said, “and bring Socrates in? And you, Aristodemus,” he said, “lie down beside Eryximachus.”

And he said that the slave washed him so that he could recline; and another of the slaves came reporting: “Socrates there has withdrawn into the neighbours’ porch and is standing there, and when I call him he is not willing to come in.”

“An outlandish thing you are telling me,” he said; “won’t you call him, then, and not let him go?”

175bAnd he said that he himself said, “Not at all; let him be. He has this habit, you see: sometimes he goes off wherever it may be and stands there. He will come presently, as I think. So don’t disturb him, but let him be.”

“Well, that is what we must do, if you think so,” Agathon said, he said. “But the rest of us, boys, you must feast. Serve in any case whatever you want, whenever no one is set over you — which I have never yet done1 — so now, holding that I too have been invited to dinner by you, and these 175c others too, wait on us, so that we may praise you.”

After this, he said, they dined, but Socrates did not come in. Agathon, then, kept telling them to send for Socrates, but he himself would not let them. So he came, not

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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.