[1]: Socrates refers to the spiritual sign which occasionally warned him against an intended action: cf. Plat. Apol. 31c-d, Plat. Apol. 40a-b.
[2]: Socrates means by better or the better way the general method of attaining excellence in any art.
[3]: Socrates here repeats καλῶς (which means handsomely as well as correctly) in allusion to Alcibiades’ good looks. Cf. Plat. Alc.1 113b
[4]: Music with the Greeks included poetry and dancing as well as our music.
[5]: Cf. above, Plat. Alc.1 106e.
[6]: i.e., at the recitations of rhapsodes; cf. the Ion of Plato.
[7]: 457 B.C.
[8]: 447 B.C.
[9]: Eur. Hipp. 352—σοῦ τάδ’, οὐκ ἐμοῦ κλύεις.
[10]: Eur. Hipp. 352
[11]: Peparethus is a small island off the coast of Thessaly.
[12]: The tiller was the handle of an oar at the side of the stern, and was moved towards or away from the center of the ship.
[13]: A musician of Ceos (who was perhaps also a Pythagorean philosopher) who taught in Athens.
[14]: An Ionian philosopher who lived in Athens c. 480-430 B.C.
[15]: An Athenian musician and sophist.
[16]: A friend of Zeno: cf. Plat. Parm. 126.
[17]: An Athenian general.
[18]: Of Elea, in S. Italy; a disciple of Parmenides who criticized the Pythagorean teaching.
[19]: About 600-800 pounds, or the total expenses of two or three years at an English University.
[20]: Meidias is mentioned by Aristophanes (Aristoph. Birds 1297) for his skill in the game of filliping quails which were specially trained not to flinch.
[21]: Slaves in Athens were largely natives of western Asia. and had thick, close hair, very different from the wavy locks of the Greeks.
[22]: i.e. about the Spartan generals and the Persian king, Plat. Alc.1 120c.
[23]: Socrates’ father, Sophroniscus, was a sculptor, and Daedalus was the legendary inventor of sculpture.
[24]: i.e., the kings of Sparta and Persia.
[25]: The saying, which became proverbial, is thought to have occurred in one of the (now lost) plays of Plato, the Athenian comic poet, who lived c. 460-389 B.C.
[26]: Plato Comicus?
[27]: Zoroaster was the reputed founder of the Persian religion, of which the ministers were the Magi or hereditary priests.
[28]: The mother of Alcibiades.
[29]: In Attica, about fifteen miles east of Athens.
[30]: Cf. above, Plat. Alc. 1.119b.
[31]: Cf. Plat. Charm. 161e, Plat. Rep. 1.332 ff.
[32]: This seems to be a sudden adumbration of the Platonic idea or form which remains constant, and so the same, behind the shifting objects of sense related to it through its influences or impress. Cf. below, Plat. Alc. 1.130d.
[33]: Cf. Plat. Alc. 1.129b.
[34]: Hom. Il. 2.547
[35]: The Greek κόρη and the Latin pupilla both mean little girl or doll, and were used to indicate the dark center of the eye in which a tiny image can be seen reflected.
[36]: i.e. it must look at the pupil of a man’s eye, or at what is comparable to that perfect part in other things.
[37]: Above, Plat. Alc. 1.131b.
[38]: παιδαγωγεῖν is used here simply in the sense of following about as personal attendant.
[39]: It was commonly believed that aged storks were fed by younger storks which they had previously hatched and reared.