Reading the text and apparatus

Use in the book

Some of the dialogue's most important claims reach the reader through an editorial decision. At 975b the dismissive account of the earliest food providers contains a word Burnet marks as corrupt. A fluent paraphrase can make the argument seem more secure than the transmitted wording warrants. At 980e the priority of soul is coupled to another daggered word, νέου, “young.” The primary argument is intelligible, but the exact contrast around that word is not thereby repaired. The English keeps the dagger in each case.

Other differences can change the subject or relation under discussion. At 978a the printed ἄν τις, supported by correcting hands, yields the edition's indefinite reference to anyone, whereas μάντις in the manuscripts would make a prophet the subject. The latter cannot be added to a list of the Athenian's spoken references to prophecy as if Burnet printed it. At 980a the supplied text reads παιδιᾷ, “play,” from marginal readings, against παιδείᾳ, “education,” in the manuscripts. Both are intelligible in a dialogue about education and honoring gods; only one is the reading translated here. The difference matters when following the work's several uses of play.

Brackets also carry an editorial judgment. The supplied English omits the bracketed words at 977c, 978d, 979c, 986b, and 988e. Of these, [πλανητῶν] at 986b is especially significant. Burnet deletes the word “wandering” which the manuscripts have; Ast had proposed “fixed.” The English “stars” follows Burnet's deletion. To identify that third power as the fixed stars is a contextual interpretation, not a translation of a surviving ἀπλανῶν in the printed text. A commentary should distinguish the cosmological reconstruction from the actual wording on the page.

The mechanics of the eight motions are likewise affected by editorial work. At 986e Burnet prints δεῖ, “must,” for the manuscripts' ἀεί, “always.” The edition takes the following infinitive with its genitive complement to say that the one with adequate sense must lead the three; its note acknowledges another construal involving thinking or judging. At 987b Burnet prints ἄν in place of ἄνω and adds ⟨οὐκ⟩. The resulting description says that the eighth does not lead the others. Without the addition, the transmitted wording gives the opposite relation. A diagram silently based on one version can look like neutral astronomical fact while hiding precisely the textual choice that makes it possible.

The divine title of the slowest planet is another instructive case. At 987c Burnet's Κρόνου, “Cronus',” follows L and a corrector of O. The apparatus reports the Sun's name in A and O and a different title in early printed editions. The lexicon uses the edition's Cronus and the modern identification Saturn for explanation, but does not collapse those different textual forms into a single uncontested proper name.

Not every difficult clause receives a dagger or an editorial remedy. At 988c the edition preserves wording translated “and the one” and says in its note that the words make no clear sense. The existence of an English phrase therefore does not certify a secure construction. An interpretation of the sequence of earlier theological accounts should leave that local uncertainty visible.

The curriculum includes still more consequential readings. At 990c Burnet changes δεῖ to ἀεί, the reverse of his 986e correction: the pupil is to labor at the learning “always.” At 990d τρίς, “three times,” is Bekker's correction of τρεῖς, “three,” and στερεομετρία, “stereometry,” is the reading of Theon of Smyrna and a corrector of L against γεωμετρία in A and O. The familiar progression from geometry to stereometry fits the edition, but its ease of recognition must not erase the textual history reported below the Greek.

Some supplied words concern translation rather than the Greek text itself. At 984b the English adds “the one” before “immortal” so that the contrast with the earthly kind can be read. Burnet does not print the corresponding τὸ μέν, although his apparatus reports it. The distinction is small but important: an English grammatical supplement is not an ancient phrase quoted from the printed line. The same principle governs explanatory modern numerals in the mathematical notes and modern planetary identifications.

Places to read

1. 975bThe daggered wording in the treatment of the earliest food providers remains corrupt in Burnet's text
2. 978aἄν τις is the printed reading; μάντις belongs to the apparatus alternative
3. 980aπαιδιᾷ is the reading behind “play”; παιδείᾳ is the reported alternative
4. 980e†νέου† marks a corrupt word rather than a settled explanation of soul and body
5. 984b“The one” is an English supplement before “immortal,” not a phrase printed there by Burnet
6. 986b[πλανητῶν] is bracketed for deletion, making the identification of fixed stars interpretive
7. 986eδεῖ is Burnet's correction, affecting the claim about the leadership of three motions
8. 987bἄν and ⟨οὐκ⟩ are Burnet's interventions in the eighth motion's description
9. 987cΚρόνου stands among reported rival readings for the slowest planet's title
10. 988cκαὶ ὁ μὲν is preserved although its local sense remains unclear in the edition
11. 990c–dἀεί, τρίς, and στερεομετρία involve correction or choice among readings

Translation in this edition

The supplied Editorial Note explains the sigla and signs and describes the printing history of its source. Its report that the Greek reproduces Burnet should not be turned into a claim that this lexicon independently re-collated either the manuscripts or the photographs. The lexicon's Greek evidence is checked against the supplied electronic edition. Its illustrative quotations normally join words split by a printed line ending; that typographic joining is not an emendation. Where a substantive reading is doubtful, the discussion identifies the doubt instead of smoothing it away.

The dagger † marks words judged corrupt; square brackets identify deletion; angle brackets identify addition. An apparatus lemma before ] is the reading under discussion, not another deletion mark. Scripsi, seclusi, and addidi identify Burnet's own writing, deletion, and addition. Ci. marks a conjecture; om. omission; in marg. a marginal reading; s. v. a reading above the line. A correcting hand is not interchangeable with the original hand of a manuscript. These distinctions are sufficient to keep the chief philosophical consequences in view without asking the reader to mistake this companion for a manuscript catalogue.