The Symposium
Apollodorus tells his Companions how he heard about the Banquet
172aAp.
I believe I have got the story you inquire of pretty well by heart. The day before yesterday I chanced to be going up to town from my house in Phalerum, when one of my acquaintance caught sight of me from behind, some way off, and called in a bantering tone Hullo, Phalerian! I say, Apollodorus, wait a moment. So I stopped and waited. Then, Apollodorus, he said, do you know, I have just been looking for you, as I want to hear all about the banquet that brought together Agathon 172b and Socrates and Alcibiades and the rest of that party, and what were the speeches they delivered upon love. For somebody else was relating to me the account he had from Phoenix, 1 son of Philip, and he mentioned that you knew it too. But he could not tell it at all clearly so you must give me the whole story, for you are the most proper reporter of your dear friend’s discourses. But first tell me this, he went on; were you at that party yourself, or not? To which my answer was: You have had anything but 172c a clear account from your informant, if you suppose the party you are asking about to have been such a recent affair that I could be included. So I did suppose, he said. How so, Glaucon 2 ? said I. You must know it is many a year that Agathon has been away from home and country, and not yet three years that I have been consorting with Socrates and making it my daily care to know whatever he says or does.Symposium. Plato. Walter Rangeley Maitland Lamb (Translator). Cambridge, MA. 1925.
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