At this point Hermogenes protested: I find it most unlike you, Socrates, to treat thus negligently one so passion-crazed as Critobulus.
Socrates replied: Do you suppose the sad condition of the patient dates from the moment only of our intimacy?
Herm. Since when, then?
Soc. Since when? Why, look at him: the down begins to mantle on his cheeks, (36) and on the nape (37) of Cleinias' neck already mounts. The fact is, when they fared to the same school together, he caught the fever. This his father was aware of, and consigned him to me, hoping I might be able to do something for him. Ay, and his plight is not so sorry now. Once he would stand agape at him like one whose gaze is fixed upon the Gorgons, (38) his eyes one stony stare, and like a stone himself turn heavily away. But nowadays I have seen the statue actually blink. (39) And yet, may Heaven help me! my good sirs, I think, between ourselves, the culprit must have bestowed a kiss on Cleinias, than which love's flame asks no fiercer fuel. (40) So insatiable a thing it is and so suggestive of mad fantasy. (And for this reason held perhaps in higher honour, because of all external acts the close of lip with lip bears the same name as that of soul with soul in love.) (41) Wherefore, say I, let every one who wishes to be master of himself and sound of soul abstain from kisses imprinted on fair lips. (42)
(36) Lit. "creeping down beside his ears." Cf. "Od." xi. 319:
{prin sphoin upo krotaphoisin ioulous anthesai pukasai te genus euanthei lakhne.}
"(Zeus destroyed the twain) ere the curls had bloomed beneath
their temples, and darked their chins with the blossom of youth."
—Butcher and Lang. Cf. Theocr. xv. 85: {praton ioulon apo
krotaphon kataballon}, "with the first down upon his cheeks"
(Lang); Aesch. "Theb." 534.
(37) {pros to opisthen}, perhaps = "ad posteriorem capitis partem,"
which would be more applicable to Critobulus, whose whiskers were
just beginning to grow, than to Callias. Possibly we should read
(after Pollux, ii. 10) {peri ten upenen}, "on the upper lip." See
Plat. "Protag." 309 B; "Il." xxiv. 348; "Od." x. 279.
(38) Cf. Pind. "Pyth." x. 75.
(39) See "Cyrop." I. iv. 28; Shakesp. "Ven. and Ad." 89: "But when her
lips were ready for his pay, he winks, and turns his lips another
way."
(40) Or, "a kiss which is to passion as dry combustious matter is to
fire," Shakesp. ib. 1162.
(41) Or, "is namesake of the love within the soul of lovers." The
whole passage, involving a play on the words {philein
phileisthai}, "where kisses rain without, love reigns within," is
probably to be regarded as a gloss. Cf. "Mem." I. iii. 13.
(42) Cf. "Mem." I. iii. 8-14.
Then Charmides: Oh! Socrates, why will you scare your friends with these hobgoblin terrors, (43) bidding us all beware of handsome faces, whilst you yourself—yes, by Apollo, I will swear I saw you at the schoolmaster's (44) that time when both of you were poring over one book, in which you searched for something, you and Critobulus, head to head, shoulder to shoulder bare, as if incorporate? (45)
(43) Cf. Plat. "Crit." 46 D; "Hell." IV. iv. 17; Arist. "Birds," 1245.
(44) "Grammarian's." Plat. "Protag." 312 B; 326 D; Dem. 315. 8.
(45) Like Hermia and Helena, "Mids. N. D." iii. 2. 208.
As yes, alack the day! (he answered); and that is why, no doubt, my shoulder ached for more than five days afterwards, as if I had been bitten by some fell beast, and methought I felt a sort of scraping at the heart. (46) Now therefore, in the presence of these witnesses, I warn you, Critobulus, never again to touch me till you wear as thick a crop of hair (47) upon your chin as on your head.