R. G. Bury, The Symposium of Plato

Μοῖρα...Εἰλείθυια. Cp. Pind. Ol. VI. 41 τᾷ μὲν ὁ Χρυσοκόμας πραύμητίν τ᾽ Ἐλείθυιαν παρέστασέν τε Μοίρας: id. Nem. VII. 1 Ἐλείθυια πάρεδρε Μοιρᾶν βαθυφρόνων. Μοῖρα (“the Dispenser”) is a birth-goddess also in Hom. Il. XXIV. 209 τῷδ᾽ ὥς ποθι Μοῖρα κραταίη | γιγνομένῳ ἐπένησε λίνῳ. For Eileithyia, see also Il. XII. 270, Hes. Theog. 922; and it is noteworthy that Olen made out Eros to be the son of Eileithyia (see Paus. IX. 27). Libanius (or. V. t. I. p. 231 R.) identifies Eil. with Artemis.

ἡ Καλλονή. Usener was no doubt right in taking καλλονή here as a proper name, in spite of Rettig's objection that “deren Existenz nachzuweisen ihm aber nicht gelungen ist”; for such a personification, in this context, requires no precedent. “Beauty acts the part of our Lady of Travail at the birth.” Possibly we ought to insert ἐπὶ after ἐστι（ν) or read ἔπι in place of ἐστι.

προσπελάζῃ. For this poetical word, cp. Hom. Od. IX. 285, and (of sexual converse) O. T. 1101 “Πανὸς προσπελασθεῖσα” .

ἵλεών. Cp. 197 D.

διαχεῖται. This word may signify both physical and emotional effects: for the former cp. Laws 775 C τῶν σωμάτων διακεχυμένων ὑπὸ μέθης: for the latter, Suidas (Hesych.) διαχεῖται: χαίρει, διαχέεται, and the Psalmist's “I am poured out like water.”

συσπειρᾶται κτλ. Schol. συσπειρᾶται: συστρέφεται. Suid. κυρίως δὲ ἀνίλλεσθαι τὸ ἀπαξιοῦν. They are realistic terms to express aversion, derived perhaps from the action of a snail in drawing in its horns and rolling itself into a ball. Cp. Plotin. Enn. I. VI. 2. 51 ἡ ψυχὴ...πρὸς τὸ αἰσχρὸν προσβαλοῦσα ἀνίλλεται καὶ ἀρνεῖται καὶ ἀνανεύει ἐπ᾽ αὐτοῦ οὐ συμφωνοῦσα καὶ ἀλλοτριουμένη. Usener and Hug may be right in bracketing καὶ ἀποτρέπεται, on which Hug comments “Zwischen dem der Gleichnissprache angehörenden συσπειρᾶται und ἀνίλλεται ist das matte, prosaische ἀποτρέπεται unpassend”; but the extra word helps to add emphasis, if nothing more, and Plotinus too uses three verbs. In ἀνείλλεται Rettig sees an “Anspielung auf ἀνειλείθυια” (cp. Eur. Ion 453). Cp. Plut. de s. n. v. p. 562 A.

σπαργῶντι. For σπαργᾶν, lacte turgere, cp. Rep. 460 C: in Phaedrus 256 A (σπαργῶν δὲ καὶ ἀπορῶν περιβάλλει τὸν ἐραστὴν καὶ φιλεῖ） σπαργῶν=Venere tumens. The Scholiast here has σπαργῶντι: ὁρμῶντι, ὀργῶντι, ταραττομένῳ, ἢ ἀνθοῦντι. λαμβάνεται δὲ καὶ ἐπὶ τῶν μαστῶν πεπληρωμένων γάλακτος. Here the realism of the language and the juxtaposition of κυοῦντι compels us to construe “great with child” (as L. and S.) or “with swelling bosom”—not merely “bursting with desire” or excitement. Cp. σφριγῶ as used in Ar. Lysistr. 80.

ἡ πτοίησις. “Sic feliciter emendavit Abresch”—his conj. turning out to have some MS. support. The subst. occurs also in Prot. 310 D γιγνώσκων αὐτοῦ τὴν ἀνδρείαν καὶ τὴν πτοίησιν: Crat. 404 A τὴν τοῦ σώματος πτοίησιν καὶ μανίαν: and the verb (ἐπτοῆσθαι) in Rep. 439 D, Phaedo 68 C, 108 A. Cp. Mimnermus 5. 2 πτοιῶμαι δ᾽ ἐσορῶν ἄνθος ὁμηλικίης. It seems a vox propria for the condition of the lover “sighing like a furnace”: cp. Plotin. de pulcr. p. 26 (with Creuzer's note).