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A MISPRINT IN THE OXFORD CLASSICAL TEXT OF PLATO'S PHAEDO

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 September 2021

Roberto Falbo*
Affiliation:
University of L'Aquila
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Abstract

This article reports a notable misprint in J.C.G. Strachan's Oxford Classical Text of Plato's Phaedo (1995).

Type
Shorter Notes
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Classical Association

A passage in the latest edition of Plato's Phaedo Footnote 2 is slightly but significantly different from what we read in other modern editions.Footnote 3 At 113b–c we read ὁ τέταρτος [sc. ποταμὸς] ἐκπίπτει εἰς τόπον πρῶτον δεινόν τε καὶ ἄγριον, ὡς λέγεται, χρῶμα δ’ ἔχοντα ὅλον οἷον ὁ κυανός, ὃ δὴ ἐπονομάζουσι Στύγιον. But the relative ὅ is undoubtedly wrong, since Plato must be referring the adjective Στύγιον, which never denotes a specific colour, not to the neuter noun χρῶμα but to the masculine noun τόπον. Hence the pronoun needed is the masculine ὅν.

Since ὅ is neither attested in the manuscripts nor explained in the apparatus criticus, I contacted the editor, who kindly confirmed that the reading is a misprint. And while not every misprint in an edition deserves an article, the prominence of this passage in Phaedo and the wide circulation of the OCT perhaps make pointing this one out worthwhile.

Footnotes

I would like to thank Dr Christopher Strachan, Charlotte Loveridge at OUP, and the CQ editor for their generous assistance.

References

2 Duke, E.A., Hicken, W.F., Nicoll, W.S.M., Robinson, D.B. and Strachan, J.C.G. (edd.), Platonis Opera. Tomus I (Oxford, 1995)Google Scholar.

3 E.g. Burnet, J. (ed.), Plato's Phaedo (Oxford, 1911)Google Scholar; Vicaire, P. (ed.), Platon: Phaédon (Paris, 1983)Google Scholar.