Ἐρυξίμαχός τε—Ἄνδρων ὁ Ἀνδροτίωνος. Eryximachus and his father Acumenus were doctors. The former delivers one of the speeches in the Symposium, defining his art as ἐπιστήμη τῶν τοῦ σώματος ἐρωτικῶν πρὸς πλησμονὴν καὶ κένωσιν (Symp. 186C). Phaedrus, son of Pythocles, of the deme of Μυρρινοῦς in the tribe Πανδιονίς, also appears in the Symposium, and gives his name to the dialogue Phaedrus. Andron, son of Androtion (so T here, and both B and T in Gorg. 487C—the Ἀριστίωνος of B is therefore a mistake), is in the Gorgias described as one of those who shared the view of Callicles, that too much φιλοσοφία ruined men. His son is believed to have been the orator Androtion.
6. περὶ φύσεως. The primary substance which early Greek philosophy sought to discover was called by them φύσις: see Aristotle, Met. IV. 4, p. 1014b. 32 ff. τοῦτον γὰρ τὸν τρόπον καὶ τῶν φύσει ὄντων τὰ στοιχεῖά φασιν εἶναι φύσιν, οἱ μὲν ρῦπ, οἱ δὲ γῆν, οἱ δ᾽ ἀέπα, οἱ δ᾽ ὕδωπ, οἱ δ᾽ ἄλλο τι τοιοῦτον λέγοντες, οἱ δ᾽ ἔνια τούτων, οἱ δὲ πάντα ταῦτα. Thus (among others) Heraclitus, Anaxagoras, and Empedocles called their books περὶ φύσεως, i.e. on the substance which gives birth (φύει) to all else. By Plato's time the word had acquired a wider meaning equivalent to ‘de rerum natura’, our ‘Nature’, and it is in this sense that the word is here used.
7. ἀστρονομικὰ ἄττα. Schanz brackets ἀστρονομικά, but the word is meant to be taken rather with μετεώρων than with φύσεως. On Hippias' skill in astronomy cf. Hipp. Minor, 367Eἦς (sc. ἀστρονομικῆς) αὖ σὺ τέχνης ἔτι μᾶλλον ἐπιστήμων οἴει εἶναι ἢ τῶν ἔμπροσθεν.
10. Τάνταλόν γε. Od. XI. 582 καὶ μὴν Τάνταλον εἰσεῖδον κρατέρ᾽ ἄλγε᾽ ἔχοντα. Prodicus is compared to Tantalus because of his physical wretchedness: see Crat. 395E καὶ ἀτεχνῶς ἔοικεν ὥσρεπ ἂν εἴ τις βουλόμενος ταλάντατον ὀνομάσαι, ἀροκπυρτόμενος ὀνομάσειε καὶ εἴροι ἀντ᾽ ἐκείνου Τάνταλον: τοιοῦτόν τι καὶ τούτῳ τὸ ὄνομα ἔοικεν ἐκπορίσαι ἡ τύχη τῆς φήμης.
