R. G. Bury, The Symposium of Plato

τοῦ αὐτοῦ ἀνδρὸς κτλ. Cp. Ion 534 B τέχνῃ ποιοῦντες. Here both τέχνῃ and ἐπίστασθαι are emphatic, with no distinction between them implied. The point of Socrates' argument is that the scientific poet must be master of the art of poetry in its universal, generic aspect, and therefore of both its included species, tragedy and comedy. This thought, if developed, might be shown to mean that full knowledge both of λόγοι and of ψυχαί, and of the effects of the one on the other, is requisite to form a master-poet. Which is equivalent to saying that, just as the ideal State requires the philosopherking, so ideal Art is impossible without the φιλόσοφοσ-ποιητής. The thesis here maintained by Socrates finds in the supreme instance of Shakspere both illustration and confirmation: “The Merry Wives” came from the same hand as “Othello” and “Lear.”

The statement in Schol. ad Ar. Ran. 214 and Philostr. (vit. soph. I. 9, p. 439) that Agathon wrote comedies as well as tragedies is probably due to a blunder: see Bentley, opusc. phil. p. 613.

οὐ σφόδρα ἑπομένους. “Erant enim vino languidi. Ad ἑπομένους intelligi potest τοῖς λεγομένοις Euthyphr. p. 12 A οὐχ ἕπομαι τοῖς λεγομένοις” (Stallb.).

κατακοιμίσαντα. An allusion, perhaps, to Agathon's κοίτην ὕπνον τ᾽ ἐνὶ κήδει, 197 C. Cp. Laws 790 D κατακοιμίζειν τὰ δυσυπνοῦντα τῶν παιδίων.

<ἓ>. I.e. Aristodemus, the narrator: for his practice (εἰώθει） of dogging the footsteps of the Master, cp. 173 B, 174 B (ἕπου).

Λύκειον. This was a gymnasium, sacred to Apollo Lyceus, situated in the eastern suburbs of Athens, though the exact site—whether S.E. or N. of the Cynosarges—is uncertain. The Lyceum is mentioned also in the beginning of the Lysis and of the Euthyphro; cp. Xen. Mem. I. 1. 10, Paus. I. 19. 4. “Ibi Socr. versabatur propterea quod sophistae in eo scholas habebant, quorum inscitiam solebat convincere, et quod plurimos illic adolescentes nanciscebatur, quibus cum sermones instituere posset” (Stallb.).