Symposium

Block VII: 208d–213e (Burnet pages 52–58)

How it was made. Burnet pages 52–58 (scan pp. 216–222), 199 lines, the end of what Diotima taught Socrates and the coming of Alcibiades: the love of honour concluded; those pregnant in body and those pregnant in soul, the poets and lawgivers whose children are immortal, and the lover who educates; the perfect rites and those of the beholding, the ascent from one beautiful body to all bodies, to souls, to ways of life and laws, to kinds of knowledge, and to the sudden sight of the beautiful itself; the close of Socrates’ speech; and, in Aristodemus’ reported narration again, the knock at the door, Alcibiades’ drunken arrival, his discovery of Socrates beside Agathon, Socrates’ plea for protection, and Alcibiades’ choice of himself as ruler of the drinking. The block ends inside his call for a cup, at 213e10. The Greek was set line for line from the photographs of Burnet’s page, with his apparatus, and the English written and annotated in the approved voice; 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 extended Editorial Note against their sources.

What the reviewers caught. In the apparatus, three marks had been misread: B’s form at 209b3 is περὶ ὧν, with a circumflex and a rough breathing; B and T’s form at 211d3 is εἰδῇς, the subjunctive of “know”, with no acute on ι; and the letter written over an erasure in W at 211c7 is ῃ, with its iota subscript. The three asterisks of 213d2 had been lost in typesetting and are restored. In the text, ζώῳ at 211a8 has no iota subscript under its first ω on this page and is kept as printed, and the ο of τοῦ at 211c8, which a flaw makes look like σ, was measured against both letters and printed whole. The rest of the text, the margins, the blank line at 212c4 and the apparatus were confirmed letter by letter on all seven pages; the Stephanus numbers 210 and 212, solid on the masks, were read on full renderings. In the English, ἐρᾶν is again “be in love (with)” in three places where it had become “love” (208e1, 210a7, 210c1); a dropped “then” was restored twice (209a3, 213e8); διά with the accusative is “because of”, not “for the sake of” (209e3–4); Alcibiades’ “the day before yesterday” now matches Block I (213e4, as 175e); four Stephanus markers were moved to the first word of their section; the decent man of 210b8 is “fine”, since “decent” belongs to chrēstos; the followers of 212d7 are “followers”, as at 203c; diaita at 196a is now “living”, since “way of life” is kept for epitēdeuma; and ten phrases that followed Lamb’s Loeb translation were reworded, among them “on stated terms” (213a2) and Alcibiades’ “I choose as ruler of the drinking …, myself”, which keeps Burnet’s comma and order. In the notes, the symposiarch is described as Plutarch describes him, as the one who set each guest’s measure; Agathon’s festival is given its source in Athenaeus; Parmentier is named by surname only, as Burnet names him; the textual notes now name their witnesses; and two notes were added for readings the English depends on: the papyrus’ “to give birth to” against the manuscripts’ “to be pregnant with” (209a3), and Alcibiades’ question “Will you receive …?” against T and W’s command (212e4). In the Editorial Note, the entries printed under the key e 4 at 212e, the papyrus’ two forms printed with marks, and the forms of this block kept as printed or printed whole are described.