The Lovers

Editorial Note

The Greek text. The Greek is John Burnet’s, from the second volume of his Oxford Classical Text of Plato (1901; second edition, 1910), in which the Lovers follows the Hipparchus and closes the volume. The copy reproduced is the one used for the Alcibiades I, the Alcibiades II and the Hipparchus of this series: an undated later impression of the second edition, printed at Oxford by John Johnson as Printer to the University and published by Humphrey Milford, and so printed between 1925 and 1945. The title page does not name the edition, but a list of the Oxford Classical Texts dated January 1935, bound in after the last page of the text, offers this volume as “Ed. 2”, and the copy was therefore issued no earlier than January 1935. It carries Burnet’s preface of March 1901 and the short addendum of April 1910 that marks the second edition, in which he records that he has added the readings of the Oxyrhynchus papyri in the Symposium and Phaedrus and used Hermann Schoene’s collation of W in the Symposium; it names no change in the other dialogues. The text is reproduced page for page and line for line: each left-hand page of this edition is one page of Burnet, with his line-ends, his marginal section letters and line numbers, and his apparatus criticus at the foot. In the margin, “St. I p. 132” at the head of the dialogue gives the volume and page of Stephanus’ edition at which it begins; where each later page of Stephanus begins, its number (133 to 139) stands in place of the letter a; and within each section every fifth line is numbered. Burnet sets these in the outer margin of his page, this edition in the right-hand margin; his running heads are not reproduced. The words were taken from the Perseus Digital Library’s digital transcription of Burnet, and every line was then checked against the photographs of this copy; where the two differ, this edition prints what Burnet printed. Burnet’s title, ΕΡΑΣΤΑΙ, “The Lovers”, his paragraphing, and his capitals at the openings of paragraphs and of speeches are kept. The dialogue is narrated by Socrates and has no list of persons and no names of speakers. Burnet marks the speeches only by their capitals and most changes of speaker by a new, indented paragraph, but within a paragraph the narrative sometimes passes from one speaker to another: at 135c4 the wise lover’s assent to Socrates’ question is reported under a capital (Καὶ ὃς ἀκούσας), at 135c6–7 his answer follows in his own words (ὁ δέ, Μὴ οὕτως μου, ἔφη), and at 133c9 and 134b3 Socrates’ narrative runs on after another’s speech. The verse of Solon quoted at 133c6 is set as verse. The δ of διοικῇ at 138c1, whose upper stroke did not print in this copy, is read as the type intended, as at 138b12 and in the Perseus text. Square brackets [ ] enclose words Burnet believed spurious: τὸν φιλόσοφον at 136c10, which Cobet deletes. Angle brackets ⟨ ⟩ enclose a word that the manuscripts lack and that Burnet supplies by a scholar’s conjecture: Bekker’s βοῦς at 137e12.

Reading the apparatus. The notes at the foot of each Greek page are Burnet’s, unaltered. Entries are keyed by section letter and line as numbered in the margin, so that “a 4” is the fourth line of section a; “c 3, 6, 9” at 137c is one entry for three lines. The section letters begin again with each Stephanus page, so that on page 2, which runs from 132c to 133b, “a 4” after “d 8” belongs to 133a. A further entry on the same line follows after a wider space without repeating the key. Usually the reading printed in the text comes first, followed by the witnesses that have it; a colon separates it from the alternatives, each followed by its witnesses. Where the text’s reading is that of no witness listed, the entry gives only theirs: at 135a7 the text’s μάλιστα ἄττα τοπάζομεν has T’s ἄττα in B’s order (μάλιστα αὐτὰ τοπάζομεν B: μάλιστα τοπάζομεν ἄττα T); at 137e2 its καὶ μοχθηρούς has B’s word without B’s article (τοὺς μοχθηρούς B: πονηρούς T); and at 137e11 its ἀγνοοῖ is the shorter form of the optative that the later manuscripts give as ἀγνοοίη, beside the ἀγνοεῖ of B and T. Where the text’s reading is followed by a square bracket, no witnesses are listed for the text, and only the other readings follow (137c9, 137c13, 138c7). Other entries with no colon report a scholar’s proposal without listing the witnesses for the text: a deletion (137a2, 137a5, 137a10, 137b3, 138e2, 139a5) or an addition (137e12). Burnet adopts the addition, printing ⟨βοῦς⟩, but none of these deletions, whose words stand unbracketed in his text; of Cobet’s two deletions at 136c10–11, entered after the witnesses, he adopts the first ([τὸν φιλόσοφον]) and not the second (λάβοις). An entry may also give only a reading of some manuscripts, without the text’s words: ὁμολογοῦμεν pr. BT at 134e5, the first hands of B and T, where the text prints ὡμολογοῦμεν. Three spaced points stand for the words between the first and last of a passage: at 133e1 “ἡγοῦμαι . . . e 2 ἐγώ” runs from ἡγοῦμαι in e1 to ἐγώ in e2, and at 137d5 “ἥτις . . . ἥτις” gives the two places of ἥτις in the line. An asterisk marks an erasure in a manuscript (B’s ἐγὼ * at 136d2). The apparatus reports each witness’s own spelling, which may differ from the text’s: B’s αἰεὶ at 135d5, where the text prints ἀεὶ; ἡγεῖ at 133d7 and φαίνει at 136a5, where it prints ἡγῇ and φαίνῃ. Two entries are printed as they stand in this copy though they look like printer’s faults: T’s καγαθὸν at 133e1 lacks the mark of crasis, and at 138a2 the reading ἀγνοοῖ is assigned to T, which in the same entry has ἀγνοεῖ.

Names and abbreviations. Stephanus is Henri Estienne, whose edition of 1578 supplies the page numbers by which Plato is cited; the Lovers fills pages 132–139 of his first volume. A scholar’s name standing alone after a reading marks that scholar’s reading, from his edition or a study: at 134d4 ὠφελεῖ is the reading of Stephanus’ edition. The names are of editors and critics: Stephanus; the editors Bekker, Baiter, Hermann and Schanz; Schleiermacher, Plato’s German translator; Forster, on whose suggestion (auctore) Schanz deletes at 137a2; and Cobet, Heusde and Mudge. Ficinus is the Latin form of the name of Marsilio Ficino, whose Latin translation of Plato (Florence, 1484) Burnet cites at 132d3 by its words quem prius interrogaveram, “whom I had questioned before”, as support for Schleiermacher’s correction. Solo at 133c6 is Solon: δ’ αἰεὶ is the reading of the line as Solon’s own verse, against B’s αἰεὶ and T’s δ’ ἀεὶ. Stobaeus is the anthologist of the fifth century AD, whose Anthology quotes 138a–b in its chapter on “Know thyself” (3.21 Wachsmuth–Hense). add., “added”, marks a scholar’s addition; del., “deleted”, and secl., “set apart”, a scholar’s deletion; ci., “conjectured”, a conjecture Burnet does not print (134e5); om. means that a witness leaves the words out. corr. Coisl. (135e2, 137a10) is a corrector of the Coislinianus. γρ. (graphetai, “it is written”) marks a variant that a manuscript records beside its own reading: at 136e3 ἀχρήστους is in B and is recorded as a variant in T, whose own text has ἀχρείους; in marg. is “in the margin” and s. v. (supra versum) “above the line”. ex emend. (135c6) and ex (132b1) mark a reading made by correcting an earlier one. et is “and”, joining two witnesses (137c8, 137c11), and sed “but” (134e3). ut videtur, “as it seems”, marks a reading that is hard to make out (138d2).

The witnesses. Burnet’s apparatus to this dialogue rests chiefly on three manuscripts: B, the Bodleian Plato (MS. E. D. Clarke 39, written in 895); T, the Venice manuscript (Marcianus, Append. Class. 4, cod. 1); and W, the Vienna manuscript (Vindobonensis 54, suppl. phil. Gr. 7). Where W is not named, the apparatus does not report its reading. Later hands are marked by the small letter: b for B (the marginal title, 132d3, 132d8, 133c1, 133c4, 135a5, 136c10, 139a7, and in “Tb” at 138d2, T together with a later hand in B), and t for T (133c4). pr. B is B’s first hand, before correction (138d2), and pr. BT the first hands of B and T (134e5). Letters written together share a reading, so that “BT” is B and T. recc. (recentiores) are later manuscripts in general, al. (alii) other manuscripts, and vulg. (vulgata) the text of the early printed editions (137a10). Laur. lxxxv. 14 (132d8) is a manuscript in the Laurentian Library at Florence. Coisl. is the Coislinianus 155 in Paris, a later manuscript whose correctors’ readings Burnet’s preface regards as the conjectures of learned readers, not tradition.

The English. The translation is new. It aims to be exact, with every clause answering to a clause of the Greek, and to keep Socrates’ manner as narrator: his asides, his teasing of the two lovers, and the timing of the short exchanges. Nothing is added to make it livelier; where a joke depends on the Greek, a note explains it. Burnet’s Greek has no quotation marks; the English sets the speeches in quotation marks, as English narrative does. Words that Burnet prints in angle brackets are translated, without the brackets; the words he prints in square brackets (τὸν φιλόσοφον at 136c10) are not translated. The reading Burnet prints is translated, including his conjectures; where his choice changes the sense, a note says so.

Each right-hand page translates the Greek page opposite. When a sentence runs over the turn of Burnet’s page, the English breaks at the nearest point English word order allows. The Stephanus section letters in the margin of the English mark where each section begins.

Key terms. The words on which the argument turns have one rendering each throughout. Philosophia, philosophein and philosophos are “philosophy”, “philosophize” and “philosopher”, as in the Charmides; erastēs is “lover” and anterastēs “rival lover” (“his rival in love” at 132c, where it is predicative). Polymathia is “much learning” and polyponia “much labor”, with ponoi, “labors”; metrios is “moderate”. Chrēsimos is “useful” and achrēstos “useless”. Agathos is “good”; chrēstos is “decent” and ponēros “base”, as in the Hipparchus, and mochthēros “worthless”, as in the Alcibiades II. Kolazein is “punish”; sōphrosynē is “temperance” and dikaiosynē “justice”, as throughout the series; technē is “craft” and dēmiourgos “craftsman”. Socrates’ skopein is “look into”.

The notes. The notes identify persons, places and quotations, explain what the English cannot carry, and mark the places where Burnet’s choice of reading changes the sense or the words. Interpretations are labelled as such. They are numbered afresh on each page.