38–40
PHILO
I shall remember, of course.
LYCINUS
Well, Ion said: “Then I will begin first, if you like”; and after a little pause: “Perhaps with men of such distinction here we ought to talk of ‘ideas’ and incorporeal entities and the immortality of the soul; but in order that I may not be contradicted by all those who are not of the same belief in philosophy, I shall take the topic of marriage and say what is fitting. It were best not to need marriage, but to follow Plato and Socrates and be content with friendship: at all events only such as they can attain perfection in virtue. But if we must marry, we should have our wives in common, as Plato held, so as to be devoid of envy.”
These remarks gave rise to laughter, because they were made out of season. But Dionysodorus said: “Stop your outlandish jabbering! Where can the word envy be found in that sense, and in what author?”The rhetorician ζῆλος at Ion for using ¢jAos in the sense of ζηλοτυπία, ‘ jealousy in love.’ “What, do you dare open your mouth, you scum of the earth?” said Ion, and Dionysodorus began to give him back his abuse in due form. But the grammarian Histiaeus (simple soul!) said: “Stop, and I will read you a wedding-song,””
