1. Gorgias of Leontini in Sicily was famous for his metaphors and poetic diction. In talking of ‘force’ and ‘persuasion’, Socrates continues his parody of Gorgias, who in his famous Helen talked of speech being a ‘persuasive force’, though elsewhere he seems to have distinguished the gentle persuasion of speech from brute force (see Plato, Phillebus, 58a-b).

2. Socrates is taking on the role of president of the drinking: see p. 219.