From the book
Hipparchus
Plato · Diotimos Editions · 2026
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At a Glance
- The wordΓράμματα, literally letters or written characters, here means inscriptions, especially the famous sayings at Delphi.
- In HipparchusThe inscription narrative contrasts several kinds of writing.
- In this editionThe edition’s “inscriptions” serves both γράμματα and ἐπίγραμμα, while “memorial” preserves the distinct force of μνῆμα.
- A place to readτὰ ἐν Δελφοῖς γράμματα — The Delphic sayings are identified as written inscriptions.
Meaning
Γράμματα, literally letters or written characters, here means inscriptions, especially the famous sayings at Delphi. Ἐπίγραμμα is something written on an object, an inscription; τὠπιγράμματε is the contracted dual expression for the two inscriptions. Μνῆμα means a memorial or remembrance, something that keeps a person or event in mind. Ἐπιγράφειν means to inscribe or write on; its forms describe the placement of Hipparchus’ sayings on the Herms.
Use in the book
The inscription narrative contrasts several kinds of writing. Delphi’s letters already enjoy public esteem. Hipparchus composes and inscribes sayings of his own so that the citizens will consider them wiser. The medium is therefore more than a neutral container: the selection, public setting and attribution affect whose wisdom receives recognition.
The two inscriptions are described by their positions on the Herm. One tells the passer-by that the monument stands halfway between town and deme; the other combines a commemorative formula with an ethical command. The first is reported indirectly, while two versions of the second are quoted as verse. A reader should not count both quoted ethical lines as the two inscriptions simultaneously present on every Herm. They are examples from different monuments, one of them located on the Steirian road.
“Memorial” need not mean a tombstone or a monument erected after death. The story has Hipparchus establish the Herms as part of his living educational activity. The formula announces whose wisdom and initiative the object commemorates. Its repetition works alongside the repeated moral commands: one remembers the rule and the giver together.
The written command eventually enters a spoken examination. Socrates quotes the injunction against deception to guarantee his conduct, but the companion immediately asks whether that guarantee is being honoured. Writing supplies an apparently fixed standard; it does not supply a judgment about its present application. The transition from inscription to argument thus exposes the distance between possessing a maxim and living or conversing in accordance with it.
Places to read
- 228eτὰ ἐν Δελφοῖς γράμματα — The Delphic sayings are identified as written inscriptions.
- 228eἐστὸν δὲ δύο τὠπιγράμματε — The dual expression explicitly counts two inscriptions.
- 229aμνῆμα τόδ’ Ἱππάρχου — The repeated commemorative formula names Hipparchus.
- 229aἐπιγεγραμμένα — The participle describes poems written on other Herms.
Translation in this edition
The edition’s “inscriptions” serves both γράμματα and ἐπίγραμμα, while “memorial” preserves the distinct force of μνῆμα. Its note identifies the quoted moral lines as pentameters, rather than complete couplets. The apparatus reports alternative spellings of the left- and right-hand expressions; these should not be inflated into evidence that the monuments’ arrangement was different.