Dialogue
Phaedrus: (as Lysias, cont.)
as they
have deliberated best
about their own things (oikeios)
// 231α
ὡς ἂν ἄριστα περὶ τῶν οἰκείων βουλεύσαιντο
//
Phaedrus: (as Lysias, cont.)
for not by force but willingly
// 231α
οὐ γὰρ ὑπ᾽ ἀνάγκης ἀλλ᾽ ἑκόντες
//
upon reflection this poem was influenced by a question received via email, “how did you come to learn Ancient Greek?”
Phaedrus: (as Lysias, cont.)
but for these
there is no time
in which it is fitting
to change their mind (meta-gignoskein)
// 231α
τοῖς δὲ οὐκ ἔστι χρόνος ἐν ᾧ μεταγνῶναι προσήκει
//
Phaedrus: (as Lysias, cont.)
for those (erastes/lovers?)
then regret (meta-melomai)
what they may have well made (eu poiein)
whenever they cease from desire (epithumia)
// 231α
ὡς ἐκείνοις μὲν τότε μεταμέλει ὧν ἂν εὖ ποιήσωσιν ἐπειδὰν τῆς ἐπιθυμίας παύσωνται
//
poiein can mean to make or to do; so eu poiein (“well made”) may refer to good poetry or to “benefactions” (implicitly, favors or gifts from a lover).
Phaedrus: (as Lysias, so far)
around (peri)
my circumstances (pragmata)
you know (epistomai)
and what i believe (nomizein)
to be bringing together (sumpherein)
for us
these (pragmata)
having come to be (gignomai)
you have heard (akouein)
and i deem it (axioein)
un(-fitting)
to lack these (pragmata?)
by way of this miss-
happening (a-tuchein)
that i do not happen (ouk tugchanein)
to be being (on)
your lover (erastes)
//
//
banded sea krait or
the great cartographer
general administer of
these
//
Phaedrus: (cont.) and what i believe to be bringing together (sumpherein) for us, these having come to be, you have heard
// 230ε
καὶ ὡς νομίζω συμφέρειν ἡμῖν γενομένων τούτων ἀκήκοας
//
sumpherein means literally to bring together; used impersonally as here, it means to be useful or advantageous
//
Phaedrus: (cont., as Lysias) about my circumstances (pragmata), you know
// 230ε
περὶ μὲν τῶν ἐμῶν πραγμάτων ἐπίστασαι
//
Socrates: (cont.) and you, in whatever pose (schema) you suppose is easiest to read
// 230δ
σὺ δ᾽ ἐν ὁποίῳ σχήματι οἴει ῥᾷστα ἀναγνώσεσθαι
//
schema means form, shape, figure (in dance, geometry, etc.), appearance, manner, posture (athletic, military), character, role, dress.
the word for “to read” is anagignoskein, which shares a root with suggignoskein; it means literally to know again or to recognize, i.e., to recognize the written words.
& reading is done outloud
//
Socrates: (cont.) i seem to me about to lie down
// 230δ
ἐγὼ μέν μοι δοκῶ κατακείσεσθαι
//
dokein has a range of meanings (to seem, to expect, to imagine, to opine, including colloquial use with senses of seeming fitness, seemly-ness, or decided-upon-ness), permitting many translations. Here, re-iterated first-person pronouns, in the nominative (ego, which is extra performative in AG) and dative (moi) cases, fold an active-voice verb (conjugated for indicative or subjunctive mood) into a dramatized and hypothetical middle voice. The verb is doing three-ish things at once —
expressing internal seeming
gesturing approval
conditioning commitment
At the same time, the infinitive katakeisesthai (middle voice, to lie down) is in future tense, which is impossible to translate neatly into English. Here, the meaning seems less about abstract futurity and more about intention-in-formation. So the subject is watching itself decide to be on the brink of lying down. Lying down is (in turn) an embodied passivity. The speech isn’t a demonstration of self-as-self-knowledge, but something strangely analogous: a demonstration of self-as-self-seeming in its self-conditioned intention to release embodied intention.
Leaving an aphoristic original and inherently unstable translation —
i seem to me about to lie down
i pretend to me (i) will lie down
i seem seemly for me to lie down
i seem (good) to me to lie down
i opine it (fit) for me to lie down
i resolve for myself to lie down
i feel to me like lying down
methinks i shall lie down
i expect for me to lie down
i imagine myself about to lie down
i dream myself about to lie down
oopsie, i’m about to lie down
etc.
//
Socrates: (cont.) so you, stretching out speeches (logos) before me in scrolls (biblion), appear ready to lead me around (periagein) all of Attica and wherever else you wish
// 230δ
σὺ ἐμοὶ λόγους οὕτω προτείνων ἐν βιβλίοις τήν τε Ἀττικὴν φαίνῃ περιάξειν ἅπασαν καὶ ὅποι ἂν ἄλλοσε βούλῃ
//
treating emoi (to/for/by me) as a dative of agent makes possible an alternate translation -
so you, stretching out speeches by me in scrolls, appear ready to bring me around all of Attica and wherever else you wish
//
yesterday i translated thremmata as goats; but it could mean any kind of kept animal, including human slaves
Socrates: (cont.) you however seem to me to have found the drug (pharmakon) of my exodus
// 230δ
σὺ μέντοι δοκεῖς μοι τῆς ἐμῆς ἐξόδου τὸ φάρμακον ηὑρηκέναι
//