1. See also The Dinner-party, 8 (pp. 257–65) for Socrates on sex. For the famous story of Socrates’ resistance to Alcibiades’ attractions, see Plato, Symposium, 216c-219d.

2. Dithyrambic poetry was a form of choral lyric connected with the worship of Dionysus and very popular in the fifth and early fourth centuries. Melanippides of Melos, Sophocles, Polyclitus of Argos and Zeuxis of Heraclea in south Italy were all active in the fifth century.