From the book
Alcibiades I
Plato · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Euripides
Εὐριπίδου (Euripidou)
The tragic poet cited when Socrates insists that Alcibiades has heard the unwelcome conclusion from himself.
Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordThe tragic poet cited when Socrates insists that Alcibiades has heard the unwelcome conclusion from himself.
- In Alcibiades IThe quotation closes a brief argument about responsibility for an answer.
- In this editionAt 113c Burnet prints Proclus’ οὐκ against BT’s ἀλλ’ οὐκ; the apparatus explicitly compares Hippolytus 352.
- A place to readQuestions about who speaks culminate in the Euripidean quotation.
Meaning
The tragic poet cited when Socrates insists that Alcibiades has heard the unwelcome conclusion from himself.
Use in the book
The quotation closes a brief argument about responsibility for an answer. In arithmetic or spelling, the answerer is the person who states the answer; similarly, Alcibiades has himself supplied the admissions exposing his ignorance. Socrates then invokes Euripides to phrase the reversal memorably. The source note locates the words in Hippolytus, where Phaedra makes the nurse utter the name she herself avoids. That dramatic background lends an additional intimacy to a conversation already framed as courtship, but the immediate argumentative work is clear without importing the whole tragedy: eliciting an utterance and making it are distinguished.
Places to read
- 113a–113cQuestions about who speaks culminate in the Euripidean quotation.
Translation in this edition
At 113c Burnet prints Proclus’ οὐκ against BT’s ἀλλ’ οὐκ; the apparatus explicitly compares Hippolytus 352. The named tragic characters belong to the explanatory note, not to the words of Alcibiades I.
Εὐριπίδης
Attested: Εὐριπίδου (euripidou; 113c). Euripides, cited for the line transferring responsibility for an utterance to its speaker. Lexical identification: lemma: Εὐριπίδης. See Euripides.
Source note
Euripides, Hippolytus 352, is cited directly in Burnet’s apparatus at 113c3. The supplied edition’s note 21 supplies the scene involving Phaedra and the nurse.
From the book
Alcibiades II
Plato · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Euripides
Εὐριπίδῃ (Euripidēi); τούτῳ μέρος (toutōi meros); καλλίνικα (kallinika); στέφη (stephē)
Euripides is named at the close as the poet who presents Creon and Teiresias.
Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordEuripides is named at the close as the poet who presents Creon and Teiresias.
- In Alcibiades IIAt 146a the quoted words are absorbed into Socrates’ account of a city made up of experts.
- In this editionNote 23 locates the Antiope lines through Gorgias 484e: commonwealth replaces day, and strongest replaces best.
- A place to readAn Antiope quotation is adapted to the commonwealth of rival experts.
Meaning
Euripides is named at the close as the poet who presents Creon and Teiresias. An earlier quotation from the lost Antiope is identified by the edition’s note, although the speaker does not name its author there. The two uses connect selective expertise with political and personal claims to victory.
Use in the book
At 146a the quoted words are absorbed into Socrates’ account of a city made up of experts. Each gives the largest share to the activity in which he is strongest. The adaptation turns a statement about allocation of a day into one about allocation of a commonwealth, making the tendency of expertise to promote itself politically visible.
At 151b the quotation is overtly dramatic. Creon sees Teiresias’ victorious garlands and takes them as an omen while describing his own condition as a rough sea. Socrates takes Alcibiades’ opinion and its visible wreath as an analogous favourable sign. The tragic line is not used to predict a secure victory; it lets hope and danger coexist in the ending.
The edition also uses Euripides to explain the opening Oedipus story and the vocabulary of auspicious speech. These are editorial parallels, not additional quotations spoken by Socrates in this dialogue. Distinguishing the levels prevents the apparatus of explanation from inflating the apparent number of direct Euripidean interventions.
Places to read
Translation in this edition
Note 23 locates the Antiope lines through Gorgias 484e: commonwealth replaces day, and strongest replaces best. Burnet prints the indicative tynchanei on the evidence noted there. Note 41 identifies Phoenician Women 858–859 and records that Burnet supplies your from Euripides. The earlier Oedipus and religious-language parallels belong to notes 1–22 and the Key Words.