ABSTRACT
These roughly drafted and heavily revised lines, in ink in Nbk 17 p. 146 rev., are a translation of two separate amatory epigrams, attributed to Plato, of four and two lines in length in the Greek Anthology v 79 and v 78. There is another, equally rough draft, untitled, in Nbk 15 p. 318 (see BSM xiv 234–5). V&P and Notopoulos print the Nbk 15 draft as ‘another version’ of the Nbk 17 draft, the latter identifying it as a ‘second version’ (569) of the second epigram. But Adamson seems right to suppose, instead, that it ‘seems merely an early, rough draft’ of what is re-worked in Nbk 17 (BSM vi 56). Their formidably chaotic state, not fully reflected in the notes below for reasons of space, no doubt explains Mary's omitting to publish them in 1839 (they are not transcribed in Mary Copybk 2). S.’s translation derives from Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers iii 32: τ̑ω̨ μήλω̨; βάλλω σεσὺ δ’ εἰ μὲν έκον̑σα ϕιλει̑;ς με;, δεξαμένη τη̑ς ση̑ς παρθενίης μετάδος, εἰ δ̓ ἂῤ ὁ̖ μη γίγνοιτο νοει̑ς, του̑τ̓ αυτò λαβου̑σα σκέψαι τὴν ώ́ρην ὡς όλιγοχρόνιος. μη̑λονἐγώ. β άλλει με φι λω̑ν σέ τιςἀλλ̓ ἐπίνευσον Ξανθίππη κἀγὼ καὶ συ μαραινόμεθα
