From the book
Alcibiades I
Plato · Diotimos Editions · 2026
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At a Glance
- The wordAlcibiades’ mother, named in a double parental address and in the imaginary comparison between Athenian and Persian wealth.
- In Alcibiades IAt 105d Socrates calls Alcibiades the son of Cleinias and Deinomache as he states that the young man needs him.
- In this editionThe apparatus at 105d reports the alternative Δεινομένης; Burnet prints Δεινομάχης.
- A place to readMaternal relatives contribute to Alcibiades’ confidence.
Meaning
Alcibiades’ mother, named in a double parental address and in the imaginary comparison between Athenian and Persian wealth.
Use in the book
At 105d Socrates calls Alcibiades the son of Cleinias and Deinomache as he states that the young man needs him. The pairing complements the earlier reference to allies and relatives on both sides of the family. At 123c her adornment, valued by Socrates at perhaps fifty minae at most, is placed against the enormous revenues assigned to a Persian royal woman’s ornaments. This is an imagined report to Amestris, not a scene in which Deinomache or Amestris speaks. The maternal name helps cut an apparently magnificent Athenian household down to size when viewed from the Persian court. Any tender or teasing overtone in the first address remains an interpretation, not the lexical meaning of the name.
Places to read
Translation in this edition
The apparatus at 105d reports the alternative Δεινομένης; Burnet prints Δεινομάχης. The edition’s genealogical identification as an Alcmaeonid comes from its external note, not from a statement in the dialogue.
Δεινομάχη
Attested: Δεινομάχης (deinomachēs; 105d). Deinomache, mother of Alcibiades. Lexical identification: lemma: Δεινομάχη. See Deinomache.
Source note
The supplied edition, note 7 on 105d, cites Plutarch, Alcibiades 1 for Deinomache’s family and labels the tender or teasing interpretation of the address as conjectural.