κεφαλὴν δ᾽ ἐπ̓
κτλ. “Quis non Iani meminerit?”
(Hommel). The notion of a similar double-fronted, androgynous being is found in the
Talmud, and Euseb. pr. Evang. XII. 12 quotes our passage as a
plagiarism from Moses.
οἱ κυβιστῶντες. Schol. κυβιστὴρ ὁ ὀρχηστής, καὶ κυβιστᾶν τὸ ὀρχεῖσθαι. Cp.
Il. XVI. 750, and the evolutions of the “tumbler”
Hippoclides described in Hdt. VI. 129: also Xen. Symp. II. 11, VII. 3.
The καί before εἰς
ὀρθόν reads awkwardly; if retained, we must render it
“actually” (adeo, Wolf), but possibly
ἴσα or ἴσα καὶ
may have been the original. Rettig quotes Cic. de Fin. V. 35 si
aut manibus ingrediatur quis aut non ante sed retro fugere, plane se ipse et hominem
exuens ex homine naturam odisse (videtur).
This text is part of:
The Symposium of Plato. R. G. Bury. 1909. Cambridge. W. Heffer and Sons.
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