woo and win me.

Theod. How shall I woo and win you?

Soc. Seek and you will find means, if you truly need me.

Theod. Come then in hither and visit me often.

And Socrates, poking sly fun at his own lack of business occupation,
answered: Nay, Theodote, leisure is not a commodity in which I largely
deal. I have a hundred affairs of my own too, private or public, to
occupy me; and then there are my lady-loves, my dear friends, who will
not suffer me day or night to leave them, for ever studying to learn
love-charms and incantations at my lips.

Theod. Why, are you really versed in those things, Socrates?

Soc. Of course, or else how is it, do you suppose, that Apollodorus (16)
here and Antisthenes never leave me; or why have Cebes and Simmias come
all the way from Thebes to stay with me? Be assured these things cannot
happen without diverse love-charms and incantations and magic wheels.

(16) For Apollodorus see "Apol." 28; Plat. "Symp." 172 A; "Phaed." 59
A, 117 D. For Antisthenes see above. For Cebes and Simmias see
above, I. ii. 48; Plat. "Crit." 45 B; "Phaed." passim.

Theod. I wish you would lend me your magic-wheel, (17) then, and I will
set it spinning first of all for you.

(17) Cf. Theocr. ii. 17; Schneider ad loc.

Soc. Ah! but I do not wish to be drawn to you. I wish you to come to me.

Theod. Then I will come. Only, will you be "at home" to me?

Soc. Yes, I will welcome you, unless some one still dearer holds me
engaged, and I must needs be "not at home."

XII

Seeing one of those who were with him, a young man, but feeble of body,
named Epigenes, (1) he addressed him.

(1) Epigenes, possibly the son of Antiphon. See Plat. "Apol." 33 E;
"Phaed." 59 B.

Soc. You have not the athletic appearance of a youth in training, (2)
Epigenes.

(2) {idiotikos}, lit. of the person untrained in gymnastics. See A. R.
Cluer ad loc. Cf. Plat. "Laws," 839 E; I. ii. 4; III. v. 15;
"Symp." ii. 17.

And he: That may well be, seeing I am an amateur and not in training.

Soc. As little of an amateur, I take it, as any one who ever entered the
lists of Olympia, unless you are prepared to make light of that contest
for life and death against the public foe which the Athenians will
institute when the day comes. (3) And yet they are not a few who, owing
to a bad habit of body, either perish outright in the perils of war, or
are ignobly saved. Many are they who for the self-same cause are