The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from The Symposium by Xenophon: Her. What, would you have me imitate Nicostratus[1] the actor,
reciting his tetrameters[2] to the music of the fife? Must I discourse
to you in answer to the flute?
[1] See Cobet, "Pros. Xen." p. 53; and cf. Diog. Laert. iv. 3, 4;
Polyaen. vi. 10; "Hell." IV. viii. 18.
[2] See Aristoph. "Clouds," where Socrates is giving Strepsiades a
lesson in "measures," 639-646: {poteron to trimetron e to
tetrametron}.
Then Socrates: By all that's holy, I wish you would, Hermogenes. How
delightful it would be. Just as a song sounds sweeter in concert with
the flute, so would your talk be more mellifluous attuned to its soft
The Symposium |