The Scroll Under the Cloak
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Socrates — δείξας γε πρῶτον, ὦ φιλότης, τί ἄρα ἐν τῇ ἀριστερᾷ ἔχεις ὑπὸ τῷ ἱματίῳ· τοπάζω γάρ σε ἔχειν τὸν λόγον αὐτόν
A perfect little comedy of desire. Phaedrus has been pretending he'll recount Lysias' speech from memory — but Socrates sees the scroll bulging under his cloak and calls the bluff. The written text is a hidden treasure, smuggled and hoarded, and Socrates wants it laid bare.
Socrates, certain that Phaedrus is not merely reporting Lysias' speech from memory, teases out the truth: Phaedrus has the actual written scroll hidden in his left hand, under his cloak.
The physical scroll matters more than it seems. The whole dialogue will end by arraigning writing itself — the silent, portable text that can't defend or explain itself. Here that text makes its first appearance as an object of desire: hidden against the body, under the cloak, in the unlucky left hand. Plato stages the coming argument as a striptease — Socrates coaxing the written <em>lógos</em> out into the open air, where it can finally be questioned. Notice too <em>échō</em>, 'to hold': the same root gives <em>skholḗ</em>, leisure — a 'holding-back' from business — so even this teasing verb quietly belongs to the dialogue's web of words.
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