ταινίας. Cp. Thuc. IV. 121 δημοσίᾳ μὲν χρυσῷ στεφάνῳ ἀνέδησαν...ἰδίᾳ δὲ ἐταινίουν κτλ.: Pind. Pyth. IV. 240; Hor. Carm. IV. 11. 2. See Holden on Plut. Timol. p. 266: “ταινία, taenia, lemniscus, a sort of fillet or riband, given as a reward of honour, either by itself, or more commonly as a decoration to be fastened upon other prizes, such as crowns, wreaths, which were considered more honourable when accompanied with a lemniscus than when they were simply given by themselves. Originally it was made of linden-bark or of wool, but afterwards of gold and silver tinsel (Plin. N. H. 21. 4).”
μεθύοντα...πάνυ σφόδρα. The peculiar order—“a drunken fellow right royally (drunk)”—seems intended to indicate that the speaker is, or feigns to be, considerably mixed.
χθὲς. I.e. at the main celebration of Agathon's victory, cp. 174 A.
ἐὰν εἴπω οὑτωσὶ. Since Wolf most edd. agree in obelizing these words as a (misplaced) gloss on the following clause. Hommel's conj. is ingenious, though far-fetched—ἐᾶν εἶπον (addressed to his attendants) “dixi iam saepius, mitti me velle liberum a vestris manibus.” I have proposed ἐὰν ἔτι οἷός τ᾽ ὦ, οὑτωσὶ ἀναδήσω, “if I am still capable of doing so,” in jesting allusion to his own incapable condition: or perhaps the original had νεανίσκου. The scenic effectiveness of οὑτωσὶ, used δεικτικῶς, I should be loth to use. Jowett's “as I may be allowed to call him” cannot be got out of the Greek.
