Theages

Editorial Note

The Greek text. The Greek is John Burnet’s, from the third volume of his Oxford Classical Text of Plato (1903), which the Theages opens, as the first dialogue of the fifth of Thrasyllus’ tetralogies. The copy reproduced is the one used for the Charmides of this series: the second impression of January 1909, “corrected in a number of places”, printed at Oxford by Horace Hart. 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. 121” 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 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, ΘΕΑΓΗΣ, and his list of the persons beneath it (ΔΗΜΟΔΟΚΟΣ ΣΩΚΡΑΤΗΣ ΘΕΑΓΗΣ, Demodocus, Socrates and Theages) are kept, with his paragraphing (a new, indented paragraph at each change of speaker), his abbreviations of the speakers’ names (ΔΗ., ΣΩ., ΘΕ.), his capitals at the openings of speeches and of quoted speech, and his quotation marks (123b, 125b–e, and the stories Socrates tells at 128e–130e). Where Socrates turns from his stories to what they show, Burnet begins a new paragraph within the speech (129e1, 130e5), and so does this edition. The line of verse that Socrates quotes, and the lines he makes on its pattern, are set as verse (125b–d). Square brackets [ ] enclose words Burnet believed spurious: διδασκάλου at 125a1, which Schleiermacher deletes, and τι at 128b8, which Ven. 189 (the manuscript Burnet’s list of sigla calls S) leaves out. The obeli † † at 129a3 enclose words Burnet believed corrupt and did not mend. His misprints are kept: at 127a9 his page has εἰ, “if”, for εἶ, “you are” (a reader of this copy has struck it through and written εἶ in the margin), and the English translates the sense, with a note.

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. The section letters begin again with each Stephanus page, so that on a page that runs from one Stephanus page into the next, “a 1” after “d 6” belongs to the new page. 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 followed by a square bracket, no witnesses are listed for the text, and only other readings follow (121a1, 121a2, 125a3). Entries with no colon either report a scholar’s proposal without listing the witnesses for the text, whether a deletion (121d6, 122e8, 125a1), an addition (122a2, 122a8) or a change (122c1, 122d7, 124b1), or record only what a witness has where it differs from the text: an omission (128b8), an erasure (127e1), a change of speaker (128c1) or a spelling (125e1). Inside an entry, angle brackets ⟨ ⟩ mark the words a scholar would add (122a2, 122a8); spaced points . . . stand for words of the text left unchanged between the two ends of a lemma (126b5); a vertical stroke marks the end of a line in the manuscript (χρῷ|ό, τι B, 126e6); asterisks stand for letters erased in the manuscript, one for each letter (129b4); round brackets enclose a remark on the entry (124e9, 125a7, 128b7). Burnet’s references to other dialogues give the Stephanus page, section and line: “Apol. 19 e, 6” is Apology 19e6, and “Prot. 316” is Protagoras page 316 (128a5).

Names and abbreviations. Stephanus is Henri Estienne, whose edition of 1578 supplies the page numbers by which Plato is cited; the Theages fills pages 121–131 of his first volume. A scholar’s name standing alone after a reading marks that scholar’s reading, from his edition or a study. The names are of editors and critics: Stephanus; the editors Ast, Beck, Bekker, Baiter, Hermann, Schanz and Stallbaum, and Fritzsche, who revised Stallbaum’s edition of the Theages; Schleiermacher, Plato’s German translator; Cobet, Hirschig and H. Richards. Ficinus is Marsilio Ficino, whose Latin translation of Plato was printed at Florence in 1484; Burnet cites his words Cali filium, “son of Calus”, which show that he took τοῦ καλοῦ at 129d4 as a father’s name. Priscianus is Priscian, the Latin grammarian of about AD 500, who quotes the words of 127d5–6. ci. (coniecit), “conjectured”, marks a scholar’s conjecture; secl., “set apart”, a scholar’s deletion; dist., “punctuated”, a scholar’s punctuation (121b1); an … ?, “or perhaps …?”, a scholar’s query (Stephanus at 121d1); fort., “perhaps”, Burnet’s own suggestion (125d6), or, before a siglum, that the manuscript perhaps has the reading (126a5), or, before a reading followed by a scholar’s name, that scholar’s tentative proposal (126e2); post, “after” (121b1); fuit qui … legendum putaret, “there was one who thought … should be read”, an unnamed scholar’s view reported by the scholar named (128b5). om. means that a witness leaves the words out; add., that they are added; in marg., that a reading is written in the margin; in ras., that it is written over an erasure (127e1); suprascr. and supra, that letters or a word are written above the line (124e9, 129d5; 129a2); ut videtur, “as it seems”, that the reading is not certain (127b4); alteri tribuit, that a manuscript gives the words to the other speaker, and sqq., “and what follows”, that the entry covers the words after the lemma (128c1); γρ. (graphetai, “it is written”), that a manuscript records a variant beside its own reading; et mox, “and soon after”, that the same reading recurs a little later (123e2), or that the scholar named makes a further change just after (128a6); scr., “written”, that a reading is found in the manuscript or manuscripts named (122c9, 123e2, 125d10, 127c6), or, after a scholar’s name, that he writes it (128a6); corr., “corrected”, that the reading is a correction found in the manuscript named (123b3, 123e10, 124d2, 125a7, 128c1); sed, “but” (124e9, 125d6, 125d7); et, “and”; aut and vel, “or” (128b5, 129a3); cf., “compare” (128a5). schol. is the scholiast, the author of the explanatory notes (scholia) written in the margins of B; et sic legit schol. B, “and so the scholiast in B read” (126b1).

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 the later correctors of B (123a7, 125a6, 125c4) and t for T (124a6), vet. b (vetus, “old”) being an older hand among them (123d13). rec. b is a recent hand of B (127b1). B² is B’s own early corrector; Burnet’s Preface takes him to be Arethas, the scholar for whom B was copied, or Arethas’ scribe, and keeps him apart from b (123a1, 123b2, 123d15, 125a7, 126a5, 127b4, 129a1, 129a3, 129d5, 130c2). Letters written together share a reading, so that “B T” is B and T. recc. (recentiores) are later manuscripts in general, and vulg. (vulgata) the text of the early printed editions (121a2, 124c12). Some later manuscripts are named: Ven. 184 and Ven. 189 (Burnet’s S), manuscripts in the Marcian Library at Venice (122c9; 127c6, 128b8); Par. 1812, a manuscript at Paris, cited for its corrections (123e10, 124d2); Laur. lxxxv. 6, in the Laurentian Library at Florence (126a5); Ang. C. 1. 4, in the Angelica Library at Rome (125d10); and Coisl., the Coislinianus 155 at Paris, whose own readings (130c2, 130c5) and corrections (123b3, 125a7, 128c1) are cited.

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: his irony with the father and the son, his teasing, 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. The speakers are named in small capitals at the head of each speech, as Burnet names them. Words that Burnet prints in square brackets are not translated. The reading Burnet prints is translated, including the conjectures he adopts; where his choice makes a real difference to the sense or the words, a note gives the other reading (as at 123b, 125a, 125d and 126b).

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. Sophia is “wisdom” and sophos “wise”, as in the series. Synousia is “being with” and syneinai “be with” in this dialogue (at 122e, where the noun cannot stand, “some man to be with”), where this series’ Alcibiades I had “company” (119a); syngignesthai is “come to be with”. Epithymein and epithymia are “desire”; archein and archē “rule”; tyrannos “tyrant”, and tyrannein “be a tyrant”. Epistēmē is “knowledge”, epistēmōn “one who has knowledge”, and epistasthai “know how” or “know”. Symbouleuein is “advise”, its middle symbouleuesthai “take advice”, and symboulē “advice”; bouleuesthai is “deliberate” and boulē “counsel”. Technē is “craft” and dēmiourgos “craftsman”; kybernan is “pilot”, also of chariots (123c); amathia is “stupidity”. Daimonion, the word for Socrates’ sign, is “daimonic” (“something daimonic”, “the daimonic”), and is kept apart from theios, “divine”, which stands beside it at 128d and which Theages uses of the sign at 131a. Ōphelein and ōphelia are “benefit”; epididonai is “make progress”; diatribein and syndiatribein are “spend time” and “spend time with”; politikoi are “statesmen” and ta politika “the affairs of the city”.

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 makes a real difference to the sense or the words. Interpretations are labelled as such. They are numbered afresh on each page.