Alcibiades Praises Socrates
ἄλλο ἄλλοθεν. “In a wrong
order,” or “in promiscuous fashion”: cp.
Il. II. 75, Aesch.
Ag. 92, etc. Alcib. forestalls
criticism by this apology for the “mixed” style of his
reminiscences, on the ground of what he calls his “present
condition” (
ὧδ᾽ ἔχοντι=
μεθύοντι,
crapula laboranti).
οὐ γάρ τι ῥᾴδιον. For
οὔτι,
handquaquam, cp.
189 B.
ἀτοπίαν. Cp.
Gorg. 494 D;
221 C
infra. That Socrates is an “out-of-theway”
character, a walking conundrum, is, in fact, the main theme of Alc.'s speech: it is a
mistake to limit this
ἀτοπία to the contradiction
between his outer and inner man, as Susemihl does.
οὕτως...δἰ εἰκόνων. For
οὕτως with an epexegetic phrase, cp.
193 C,
Laws 633
D,
Rep. 551 C
οὕτω...ἀπὸ τιμημάτων. For
εἰκόνες, “similes,” see Ar.
Rhet.
III. 4, where they are described as a kind of
μεταφοραί (“A simile is a metaphor
writ
large, with the details filled in,” Cope
ad
loc.).
εἰκασίαι
(“conundrums”) were also “a fashionable amusement at
Greek social gatherings” (Thompson on
Meno 80 C), see for exx. Ar.
Vesp. 1308 ff.,
Av. 804 ff.: cp.
Rep. 487
E,
Phaedo 87 B; Xen.
Symp. VI. 8 ff.
ἐπὶ τὰ γελοιότερα.
Sc.
οὕτως ποιήσειν, or the like: cp.
214 E.
τοῖς σιληνοῖς
κτλ. These were statuettes representing a Silenus
playing a flute or pipe; the interiors were hollow and served as caskets to hold
little figures of gods wrought in gold or other precious materials. But the precise
fashion of their construction and how they opened (
διχάδε
διοιχθέντες) is by no means clear. (1) Hug thinks they were made with a
double door (
δικλίδες): similarly Stallb. and Hommel
(“in contrariis Silenorum lateribus duobus duo foramina erant, quae
epistomio quodam claudi poterant”). (2) Schulthess supposes that one section
telescoped into the other (“Schiebt man sie auseinander, so erblickt man
inwendig Götterbilder”). (3) Panofka, with Schleiermacher, supposes
that the top came off like a lid. (4) Lastly, Rettig “denkt an ein
Auseinandernehmen in zwei Hälfte,” though exactly how this differs
from (3) he does not clearly explain. But—as Rettig himself
observes—“mag es verschiedene Arten solche Gehäuse
gegeben haben,” and in the absence of further evidence it would be rash to
decide which of the possible patterns is here intended: the language (
διχάδε διοιχθέντες) rather favours the idea that the
figures split into two, either horizontally or vertically—possibly, also,
with a hinge. Cp. Synes.
Ep. 153, p.
292 B
ὥσπερ ἐποίουν Ἀθήνησιν οἱ δημιουργοὶ Ἀφροδίτην καὶ
Χάριτας καὶ τοιαῦτα κάλλη θεῶν ἀγάλμασι σιληνῶν καὶ σατύρων
ἀμπίσχοντες: Maximus
comm. in Dion. Areop. de div.
nom. c. ix. t. II. p. 201 f. (ed. Cord.)
ἐκεῖνοι γὰρ
οἷά τινας ἀνδριάντας
ἐποίουν μήτε χεῖρας μήτε πόδας ἔχοντας, οὓς ἑρμᾶς
ἐκάλουν: ἐποίουν δὲ αὐτοὺς διακένους, θύρας ἔχοντας, καθάπερ
τοιχοπυργίσκους: ἔσωθεν οὖν αὐτῶν ἐτίθεσαν ἀγάλματα ὧν ἔσεβον θεῶν
κτλ. (cp. Etym. Magn.
s.v.
ἀρμάριον): Xen.
Symp. IV. 19; Julian
Or. VI. p.
187 A.
τοῖς ἑρμογλυφείοις. “The
statuaries' shops,” apparently a
ἅπαξ
εἰρ.: cp. Luc.
Somn. 2. 7.
