From the book
Symposium
Plato · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordThe whole expression is an idiom; its meaning is not obtained by assigning “so to speak” to a single constituent.
- In the SymposiumPhaedrus uses it with a sweeping military claim, Eryximachus with his expansion of love across nature, and Aristophanes with inseparable companionship.
- In this editionThe English consistently makes the qualification visible.
- A place to readA military superlative is qualified.
Meaning
The whole expression is an idiom; its meaning is not obtained by assigning “so to speak” to a single constituent.
Use in the book
Phaedrus uses it with a sweeping military claim, Eryximachus with his expansion of love across nature, and Aristophanes with inseparable companionship. It does not withdraw the basic point, but it signals that the speaker is not insisting on the most rigid possible literal reading of the universality or precision.
Places to read
Translation in this edition
The English consistently makes the qualification visible. A paraphrase using “absolutely all” or “never for even one instant” without it would strengthen the source.
ὡς ἔπος εἰπεῖν (hōs epos eipein)
hōs epos eipein — So to speak, an idiom qualifying the exactness or literal sweep of a statement.
- 179a — ὡς ἔπος εἰπεῖν. Qualifies the claim that the lovers’ army could defeat all humans.
- 186a — ὡς ἔπος εἰπεῖν. Qualifies the cosmic extension to all things that are.
- 192c — ὡς ἔπος εἰπεῖν. Qualifies the lovers’ unwillingness to be separated at all.
Read: So to speak.