ὅπου . . . λεγομένων: “wherever in the conversation it may chance,” i.e. “at some unexpected point in the conversation.”
ἐνέβαλε: the aor. here expresses the action as occurring suddenly and all at once. Cf.Rep.X. 609 a οὐκοῦν ὅταν τῴ τι τούτων προσγένηται, πονηρόν τε ποιεῖ ᾧ προσεγένετο, καὶ τελευτῶν ὅλον διέλυσε καὶ ἀπώλεσε whenever therefore one of these infects anything, it makes the thing infected evil, and finally wholly destroys it, Symp. 188 b (Ἔρως) διαφθείρει τε πολλὰ καὶ ἠδίκησεν. For the gnomic aor., see G. 205, 2; H. 840.—The comparing of words to darts is not infrequent, cf. Symp. 219 b ἐγὼ ταῦτα εἰπών, καὶ ἀφεὶς ὥσπερ βέλη, τετρῶσθαι αὐτὸν ᾤμην, Hor. Sat. i. 4. 79 unde petitum hoc in me jacis?
συνεστραμμένον: (opp. to λελυμένον) twisted together, like a bowstring, where a slight distension gives great force, concise, pithy. Cf. contorta oratio, compressione rerum brevis (Cic. Brut. 29).
