R. G. Bury, The Symposium of Plato

Φάναι δὴ κτλ. It is tempting to excise (with Hermann, Teuffel and Hug) the first καί and to construe φάναι closely with βούλεσθαι, as balancing κελεύειν εἰσηγεῖσθαι, πάντας being the subject of both the leading infinn., φάναι and κελεύειν: cp. 177 E ξυνέφασάν τε καὶ ἐκέλευον: Euthyd. 274 C ὅ τε οὖν Κτήσιππος συνέφη...καὶ οἱ ἄλλοι, καὶ ἐκέλευον...ἐπιδείξασθαι κτλ. If the first καὶ be retained, it seems most natural to take κελεύειν as dependent on φάναι: Stallb., however, puts a comma after βούλεσθαι, as if making κελεύειν parallel to φάναι: and so too, apparently, Zeller.

κατὰ τὴν Μελανίππην. Euripides wrote two plays of this name, M. ἡ σοφή and M. δεσμῶτις. The reference here is to the former (Frag. 488 Nauck), οὐκ ἐμὸς ὁ μῦθος ἀλλ᾽ ἐμῆς μητρὸς πάρα, κτλ. Melanippe, a daughter of Aeolus, bore two sons to Poseidon; they were suckled by a cow, and brought to their grandfather Aeolus as βουγενῆ τέρατα: when he proposed to burn them, Melanippe appeared and tried to dissuade him, arguing ὅτι οὐδὲν τέρας ἐστίν. According to another account, M. was a daughter of Cheiron, seduced by Aeolus, and finally metamorphosed into a mare. Cp. Apol. 20 E οὐ γὰρ ἐμὸν ἐρῶ τὸν λόγον, κτλ.: Hor. Sat. II. ii. 2 nec meus hic sermo est sed quae praecepit Ofellus.

Οὐ δεινόν κτλ. With this passage, cp. Isocr. IX. 5—8, and X. 12 with its scornful reference to encomiasts of “humble-bees, salt-diets, and the like” (see Introd. § II. B (e)).

ὕμνους καὶ παιῶνας. Properly speaking ὕμνοι are odes set for the lyre, παιῶνες odes set for the flute and sung esp. in honour of Apollo. “The paean is a hymn (1) of supplication or propitiation during the pain or danger; (2) a thanksgiving after it is past” (see Smith, D. A. II. 307 s.v.).

τηλικούτῳ. “A god so venerable”: Phaedrus holds Eros to be the most ancient of deities, see 178 B. The complaint was not entirely well-grounded, since before this date (416 B.C.) hymns to Eros of a eulogistic character had already been published by Sophocles (Antig. 781 ff.), and Euripides (Hippol. 525 ff.), and possibly others.