R. G. Bury, The Symposium of Plato

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Commentary on Plato, Symposium. section 177a.

[177A] Phanai dê ktl. It is tempting to excise (with Hermann, Teuffel and Hug) the first kai and to construe phanai closely with boulesthai, as balancing keleuein eisêgeisthai, pantas being the subject of both the leading infinn., phanai and keleuein: cp. 177 E xunephasan te kai ekeleuon: Euthyd. 274 C ho te oun Ktêsippos sunephê...kai hoi alloi, kai ekeleuon...epideixasthai ktl. If the first kai be retained, it seems most natural to take keleuein as dependent on phanai: Stallb., however, puts a comma after boulesthai, as if making keleuein parallel to phanai: and so too, apparently, Zeller.

kata tên Melanippên. Euripides wrote two plays of this name, M. hê sophê and M. desmôtis. The reference here is to the former (Frag. 488 Nauck), ouk emos ho muthos all' emês mêtros para, ktl. Melanippe, a daughter of Aeolus, bore two sons to Poseidon; they were suckled by a cow, and brought to their grandfather Aeolus as bougenê terata: when he proposed to burn them, Melanippe appeared and tried to dissuade him, arguing hoti ouden teras estin. According to another account, M. was a daughter of Cheiron, seduced by Aeolus, and finally metamorphosed into a mare. Cp. Apol. 20 E ou gar emon erô ton logon, ktl.: Hor. Sat. II. ii. 2 nec meus hic sermo est sed quae praecepit Ofellus.

Ou deinon ktl. With this passage, cp. Isocr. IX. 5--8, and X. 12 with its scornful reference to encomiasts of “humble-bees, salt-diets, and the like” (see Introd. § II. B (e)).

humnous kai paiônas. Properly speaking humnoi are odes set for the lyre, paiônes odes set for the flute and sung esp. in honour of Apollo. “The paean is a hymn (1) of supplication or propitiation during the pain or danger; (2) a thanksgiving after it is past” (see Smith, D. A. II. 307 s.v.). [p. 19]

têlikoutôi. “A god so venerable”: Phaedrus holds Eros to be the most ancient of deities, see 178 B. The complaint was not entirely well-grounded, since before this date (416 B.C.) hymns to Eros of a eulogistic character had already been published by Sophocles (Antig. 781 ff.), and Euripides (Hippol. 525 ff.), and possibly others.

This text is based on the following book(s):
The Symposium of Plato. R. G. Bury. 1909. Cambridge. W. Heffner and Sons.