Phaedrus
Socrates: (cont.) that it has grown (phuein) in gently to the steep slope, sufficient to hold, for one who has laid down their head, altogether beautifully
// 230ξ
ὅτι ἐν ἠρέμα προσάντει ἱκανὴ πέφυκε κατακλινέντι τὴν κεφαλὴν παγκάλως ἔχειν
//
of all
the most subtle
that of the grass
that in gently
to the steep
sufficient has grown
for one who laid down their head
altogether beautifully
to hold
//
Socrates: (cont.) and again, if you wish, the good breath (eupnous) of the place, how sufficiently amicable (agapeton) and violently pleasurable (sphodros hedu) it is
// 230ξ
εἰ δ᾽ αὖ βούλει, τὸ εὔπνουν τοῦ τόπου ὡς ἀγαπητὸν καὶ σφόδρα ἡδύ
//
This resists translation and contains a noetic pleasure puzzle.
Eu + pnous, literally good breath, figuratively good breeze, seems to be a pun or wordplay on eu + nous, which would mean good intellect. The other two predicates — agapeton and sphodros hedu — are a pair of nearly conflicting pleasures. Agapeton describes a moderate and measured affection, whereas sphodros hedu describes a kind of pleasure (intense, vehement, violent) that lacks measure and is infinite; see Philebus 52c.
The hint is that the place itself (tou topou) possesses something akin to intelligence, or something akin to a soul, which can provide both finite and infinite pleasures, and perhaps inspires both finite and infinite love or desire. But only, he specifies, if you wish.
//
Socrates: (cont.) and by the girls and the statues it seems to be the temple (hieron) for some kind of Nymphs and of Achelous
// 230β
Νυμφῶν τέ τινων καὶ Ἀχελῴου ἱερὸν ἀπὸ τῶν κορῶν τε καὶ ἀγαλμάτων ἔοικεν εἶναι
//
Hieron can be read as temple/holy place and as victim/sacrifical offering. Achelous was a shape-shifting river god.
//
Socrates: (cont.) and of the chaste tree, the height and the dense shade are entirely beautiful
// 230β
τοῦ τε ἄγνου τὸ ὕψος καὶ τὸ σύσκιον πάγκαλον
//
Vitex Agnus-castus or chaste tree was associated with rituals for Hera and Demeter and medicinally, since ancient times, with women’s reproductive health. The name of the tree (he agnos/agnos) means sacred, holy, pure, chaste.
//
Socrates: (cont.) this platanos tree is hugely wide-spreading (amphilaphes) and high (hupselos)
// 230β
ἥ τε γὰρ πλάτανος αὕτη μάλ᾽ ἀμφιλαφής τε καὶ ὑψηλή
//
hark
to hear the tonic of their nightly play
as love is changing eyes in light of day
and who the lover, who beloved, held
as shade made young again, the poet shade
sweet length possessed translucency of leaves
and valley shelters longing’s grave delight
how sheer the veil betwixt the true is made
and barefoot is their tender-stepping sight
inscript resounding hollow as a tomb
body beholding spring again and bright
green heart grows whole again, the tree un-felled
for midnight girls around a golden wound
//
🌔
//
stable horses
night rising
wave
//
Socrates: well if i distrusted, as do the wise (hoi sophoi), then i wouldn’t be placeless (atopos); then i would wisely (sophein) declare that it was the wind itself of Boreas that thrust her down from the nearby rocks as she was playing with Pharmakeia, and in this way it ended up (teleutein) said that she came to be (gignomai) carried away by Boreas — or else from the hill of Ares; for this story (logos) is also told, that she was carried away from that place and not from here
as for me, O Phaedrus, while otherwise i suppose such as these to be graceful, yet they belong to an exceedingly terrible (deinos) and laborious (epiponos) and not altogether (panu) fortunate (eutuches) man; for no other reason than that for him it’s necessary after this to re-stand up (epanorthousthai) the form (eidos) of the Hippocentaurs, and then again that of the Chimaera, and then out flows a throng of things such as Gorgons and Pegasuses and multitudes of additional impossibilities (a-mechanos) and of such things giving birth (phuein) to placeless (a-topia) storytellings of monsters (teratologos) . . .
if someone, distrusting these, will make each come nearer to a likening (eikos), as if consulting (chraein) some kind of rustic (agroikos) wisdom, he will lack much leisure (schole) for himself; but for me, there is no leisure at all (schole) for these things; and the cause, O beloved, of this, is this —
i am not yet able, according to the Delphic inscription (gramma), to know myself; it appears to me really laughable, not yet knowing this, to examine (skopein) alien things (allotria); from which, saying farewell and letting these be, and being persuaded by the customary belief, which i was just now saying, i examine not these but myself; whether my fortune is to be some beast even more many-twisted (polu + plekein) and inflamed (epituphomai) than Typhon, or to be a gentler (hemeros) and simpler (aploos) animal, by nature sharing in some part of what is divine and not feverish (a-tuphos)
but, O sistere (etaire), in the midst of words — wasn’t this the tree to which you were leading us?
Phaedrus: this indeed is really itself
τοῦτο μὲν οὖν αὐτό
//
Socrates: (cont.) by nature partaking in some part of what is divine and not feverish (a-tuphos)
// 230α
θείας τινὸς καὶ ἀτύφου μοίρας φύσει μετέχον
//
Wordplay in recent clauses turns (twists?) around τύφω (tuphein — to smoke, fill with smoke), the related τῦφος (tuphos — smoke, vapor, delusion, vanity, nonsense, fever), and the monster Typhon; as well as a slanted alternative between polu-plekein and a-ploos, to be either a many-twisted (e.g. complex) or an un-folded (i.e. simple) thing.
//
Socrates: (cont.) whether my fortune is to be some beast (therion) even more many-twisted (polu + plekein) and inflamed (epituphomai) than Typhon
// 230α
εἴτε τι θηρίον ὂν τυγχάνω Τυφῶνος πολυπλοκώτερον καὶ μᾶλλον ἐπιτεθυμμένον
//