Greek Texts & Translations

And he wrote thus upon Dion ^note:

Tears from their birth the lot had been

Of Ilium's daughters and their queen.

By thee, O Dion, great deeds done

New hopes and larger promise won.

Now here thou liest gloriously,

How deeply loved, how mourned by me.

This, they say, was actually inscribed upon his tomb at Syracuse.

Again, it is said that being enamoured of Alexis and Phaedrus, as before mentioned, he composed the following lines ^note:

Now, when Alexis is of no account, I have said no more than this. He is fair to see, and everywhere all eyes are turned upon him. Why, my heart, do you show the dogs a bone? And then will you smart for this hereafter? Was it not thus that we lost Phaedrus?

He is also credited with a mistress, Archeanassa, upon whom he wrote as follows ^note:

I have a mistress, fair Archeanassa of Colophon, on whose very wrinkles sits hot love. O hapless ye who met such beauty on its first voyage, what a flame must have been kindled in you!

There is another upon Agathon ^note:

While kissing Agathon, my soul leapt to my lips, as if fain, alas! to pass over to him.

And another ^note:

I throw an apple to you and, if indeed you are willing to love me, then receive it and let me taste your virgin charms. But if you are otherwise minded, which heaven forbid, take this very apple and see how short-lived all beauty is.

And another ^note:

An apple am I, thrown by one who loves you. Nay, Xanthippe, give consent, for you and I are both born to decay.

It is also said that the epigram on the Eretrians, who were swept out of the country, was written by him ^note:

We are Eretrians by race, from Euboea, and lie near Susa. How far, alas, from our native land!

And again ^note:

Thus Venus to the Muses spoke:

Damsels, submit to Venus' yoke,

Or dread my Cupid's arms.

Those threats, the virgins nine replied,

May weigh with Mars, but we deride

Love's wrongs, or darts, or charms.

And again ^note:

A certain person found some gold,

Carried it off and, in its stead,

Left a strong halter, neatly rolled.

The owner found his treasure fled,

And, daunted by his fortune's wreck,

Fitted the halter to his neck.

Further, Molon, being his enemy, said, "It is not wonderful that Dionysius should be in Corinth, but rather that Plato should be in Sicily." And it seems that Xenophon was not on good terms with him. At any rate, they have written similar narratives as if out of rivalry with each other, a Symposium, a Defence of Socrates, and their moral treatises or Memorabilia. ^note Next, the one wrote a Republic, the other a Cyropaedia. And in the Laws ^note Plato declares the story of the education of Cyrus to be a fiction, for that Cyrus did not answer to the description of him. And although both make mention of Socrates, neither of them refers to the other, except that Xenophon mentions Plato in the third book of his Memorabilia. 3.1.35 It is said also that Antisthenes, being about to read publicly something that he had composed, invited Plato to be present. And on his inquiring what he was about to read, Antisthenes replied that it was something about the impossibility of contradiction. "How then," said Plato, "can you write on this subject?" thus showing him that the argument refutes itself. Thereupon he wrote a dialogue against Plato and entitled it Sathon. After this they continued to be estranged from one another. They say that, on hearing Plato read the Lysis, Socrates exclaimed, "By Heracles, what a number of lies this young man is telling about me!" For he has included in the dialogue much that Socrates never said.

Plato was also on bad terms with Aristippus. At least in the dialogue Of the Soul ^note he disparages him by saying that he was not present at the death of Socrates, though he was no farther off than Aegina. Again, they say that he showed a certain jealousy of Aeschines, because of his reputation with Dionysius, and that, when he arrived at the court, he was despised by Plato because of his poverty, but supported by Aristippus. And Idomeneus asserts that the arguments used by Crito, when in the prison he urges Socrates to escape, are really due to Aeschines, and that Plato transferred them to Crito because of his enmity to Aeschines.