R. G. Bury, The Symposium of Plato

τὰς τοιάσδε ξυνόδους. “Haec δεικτικῶς dicta sunt: quale est hoc convivium nostrum” (Stallb.).

ἐν θυσίαις. For θ. Stob. has εὐθυμίαις, which looks like a gloss on some word other than θυσίαις. I am inclined to suspect that θιάσοις should be restored: the word would fit in well between χοροῖς and ἡγεμών, “in festive bands.” The corruption might be due to the loss of the termination, after which θιάς was mistaken for θυσιάς. Cp. Xen. Symp. VIII. 1 πάντες ἐσμεν τοῦ θεοῦ τούτου θιασῶται.

ἀγανός. The ἀγαθός of the MSS. cannot stand, and Stobaeus's ἀγαθοῖς (adopted by most edd. since Wolf) is open to objection both as spoiling the symmetry and because of the occurrence of ἀγαθῶν just below. We want a more exquisite word, and Usener's ἀγανός is more appropriate in sense than such possible alternatives as ἀγαυός or ἀγλαός. For Agathon's antitheses, cp. Clem. Al. Strom. V. 614 D; Athen. V. 11.

τρυφῆς...χλιδῆς. Moeris: χλιδὴ Ἀττικοί, τρυφὴ Ἕλληνες. Hence Hug omits τρυφῆς as a gloss on χλιδῆς, and (to preserve symmetry) omits πόθου also.

ἐν πόνῳ κτλ. These words have given rise to much discussion and many emendations (see crit. n.). Two main lines of interpretation are possible: either (1) we may suppose that maritime allusions are to be sought in these words to match those in κυβερνήτης κτλ.; or (2) we may suppose the latter set of words to be used in a merely metaphorical sense. Badham adopts line (1); so too Schütz regards the whole figure as borrowed “e re nautica. Nautis enim saepe timor naufragii, desiderium terrae, labor in difficultate navigandi, aerumna nauseantibus...accidere solet”; and he takes the following four substt. (κυβερν. κτλ.) as referring in order to these four conditions. And, adopting this line, I myself formerly proposed to read (for ἐν πόθῳ, ἐν λόγῳ) ἐν πόρῳ, ἐν ῥόθῳ. The 2nd line of explanation is adopted a by those who attempt to defend the vulgate, and b by some who have recourse to emendation. Thus a Stallb. commends Ast's view that λόγος can stand here because Agathon's speech is full of “merus verborum lusus”; while Hommel takes the words ἐν πόνῳ etc. as “e re amatoria depromta,” expressing the affections of the lover while seeking the society of his beloved, and connects (in the reverse order) λόγῳ with κυβερν., πόθῳ with ἐπιβ., φόβῳ with παραστ., and πόνῳ with σωτήρ. On the other hand, b Rettig—while altering the second pair to ἐν μόθῳ, ἐν λόχῳ—also disregards the maritime metaphor and understands the passage “überhaupt von Kriegsgefahren und dem in solchen geleisteten Beistand,” comparing the allusions to such matters by Phaedrus (179 A) and Alcibiades (220 D ff.). Here Rettig is, I believe, partly on the right track; since the clue to the sense (and reading) here is to be looked for in Alcibiades' eulogy of Socrates. We find πόνῳ echoed there (219 E τοῖς πόνοις...περιῆν), and φόβῳ also (220 E φυγῇ ἀνεχώρει, 221 A ἐν φόβῳ) and ἐν λόγῳ may be defended by the allusions to Socrates' λόγοι (215 C ff., 221 D ff.). Thus the only doubtful phrase is ἐν πόθῳ, which has no parallel in Alcib.'s speech, and is also objectionable here because of the proximity of πόθου. In place of it I propose ἐν πότῳ (cp. Phileb. 48 A), of which we find an echo (in sense if not in sound) in 220 A ἐν τ᾽ αὖ ταῖς εὐωχίαις...καὶ πίνειν... πάντας ἐκράτει. For maritime terms in connexion with λόγος, cp. Lach. 194 C ἀνδράσι φίλοις χειμαζομένοις ἐν λόγῳ καὶ ἀποροῦσι βοήθησον: Parm. 137 A διανεῦσαι...τοσοῦτον πέλαγος λόγων: Phaedrus 264 A; Phileb. 29 B. So both λόγος and πότος in Dionys. Chalc. 4. 1 ff. ὕμνους οἰνοχοεῖν...τόνδε...εἰρεσίῃ γλώσσης ἀποπέμψομεν...τοῦδ᾽ ἐπὶ συμποσίου: δεξιότης τε λόγου | Φαίακος Μουσῶν ἐρέτας ἐπὶ σέλματα πέμπει: id. 5. 1 ff. καί τινες οἶνον ἄγοντες ἐν εἰρεσίῃ Διονύσου, | συμποσίου ναῦται καὶ κυλίκων ἐρέται | <μάρνανται> περὶ τοῦδε. Cp. also Cic. Tusc. IV. 5. 9 quaerebam utrum panderem vela orationis statim, an eam...dialecticorum remis propellerem. For παραστάτης, of Eros, cp. ὁ παρ᾽ ἑκάστῳ δαίμων in later Stoic literature (Rohde Psyche II. 316): Epict. diss. I. 14. 12; Menander (ap. Mein. Com. IV. 238) ἅπαντι δαίμων ἀνδρὶ συμπαρίσταται | εὐθὺς γενομένῳ μυσταγωγὸς τοῦ βίου. For Socrates as σωτήρ, see 220 D ff.: the term is regularly applied to a ἥρως, e.g. Soph. O. C. 460 (Oedipus); Thuc. V. 11. 2 (Brasidas); Eur. Heracl. 1032 (Eurystheus): Pind. fr. 132 has the same combination, σωτὴρ ἄριστος: cp. Spenser, “(Love) the most kind preserver Of living wights.” ἐν πόνῳ might be a reminiscence of Pind. Nem. X. 78 παῦροι...ἐν πόνῳ πιστοί: or used, Homerically, of “the toil of war” (=ἐν μαχαῖς, cp. 220 D). For κυβερνήτης used metonymously, cp. 197 B (n. on κυβερνᾶν); so Emerson, “Beauty is the pilot of the young soul.” ἐπιβάτης, in the present context, must mean “a marine,” classiarius miles, and hence, by metonymy, “a comrade” in general.—The general sense of the passage is this: “in the contests both of war and peace the best guide and warden, comrade and rescuer is Eros.” Cp. also Procl. in I Alc. p. 40.