The Tongue Swore, the Mind Did Not
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Socrates — φαίνηται ὡς κάλλιστος καὶ ἄριστος, δῆλον ὅτι τοῖς μὴ γιγνώσκουσιν— οὐ γὰρ δήπου τοῖς γε εἰδόσιν— καὶ καλῶς γʼ ἔχει καὶ σεμνῶς ὁ ἔπαινος. ἀλλὰ γὰρ ἐγὼ οὐκ ᾔδη ἄρα τὸν τρόπον τοῦ ἐπαίνου, οὐ δʼ εἰδὼς ὑμῖν ὡμολόγησα καὶ αὐτὸς ἐν τῷ μέρει ἐπαινέσεσθαι. ἡ γλῶσσα οὖν ὑπέσχετο, ἡ δὲ φρὴν οὔ· χαιρέτω δή. οὐ γὰρ ἔτι ἐγκωμιάζω τοῦτον τὸν τρόπον— οὐ γὰρ ἂν δυναίμην— οὐ μέντοι ἀλλὰ τά γε ἀληθῆ,
that he may appear as beautiful and good as possible — clearly, to those who don't know, not, surely, to those who do — and the praise is fine and impressive. But the fact is, I did not know, after all, the manner of praise, and not knowing I agreed with you to take my turn and praise as well. My tongue, then, promised, but my mind did not; so good riddance to it. For I no longer praise in this way — I could not — but the truth, at least,
Socrates finishes the thought: a false but glittering encomium looks fine to those who don't know the subject, though not to those who do. He admits he simply didn't understand this kind of praise, and agreed to speak without knowing what he was agreeing to. Then the famous line, borrowed from Euripides: his tongue made the promise, but not his mind — so let the promise go. He will no longer praise in that way; he will tell the truth instead. Continues into 199b.
That opposition is the whole method of the speech to come. Everyone else has let the tongue run; Socrates now speaks from the phrēn, and it commits him to the truth even when the truth is unflattering. Chairetō, "let it say farewell," dismisses the whole game of ornamental praise. The audience would have caught the Euripides at once, and caught the joke of hearing a line about a broken oath turned into a pledge of honesty — Plato letting Socrates borrow the theatre's own words to leave the theatre of praise behind.
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