1. This charge is brought against Socrates in person at Gorgias 491a and Symposium 221e. Throughout the dialogue, the question arises whether Hippias recognizes that the unnamed speaker is in fact Socrates. It adds a marvellous extra dimension to the humour of the dialogue if we suppose that Hippias is aware of what is going on, and maintains the fiction out of mock politeness (p. 240 n. 1), with his tongue just as firmly in his cheek on this point as Socrates’. See Woodruff (1982), pp. 107–8.

2. A chous was a liquid measure of about six pints.

3. Heraclitus of Ephesus, the philosopher of the sixth/fifth century, fragment 82 in H. Diels and W. Kranz, Die Fragmente der Vorsoknasiker, I (6th ed., Berlin 1951–2); fragment 83 is about to be quoted. Probably neither is a verbatim citation of Heraclitus, and they should be taken together to yield a single fragment with the sense: ‘The wisest man is but an ape compared to God, just as the most beautiful ape is ugly compared to man.’