Alcibiades Crowns Socrates and Appoints Himself Symposiarch
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Alcibiades — δέ μοι, Ἀγάθων,
Aristodemus — φάναι,
Alcibiades — μετάδος τῶν ταινιῶν, ἵνα ἀναδήσω καὶ τὴν τούτου ταυτηνὶ τὴν θαυμαστὴν κεφαλήν, καὶ μή μοι μέμφηται ὅτι σὲ μὲν ἀνέδησα, αὐτὸν δὲ νικῶντα ἐν λόγοις πάντας ἀνθρώπους, οὐ μόνον πρῴην ὥσπερ σύ, ἀλλʼ ἀεί, ἔπειτα οὐκ ἀνέδησα.
Aristodemus — καὶ ἅμʼ αὐτὸν λαβόντα τῶν ταινιῶν ἀναδεῖν τὸν Σωκράτη καὶ κατακλίνεσθαι. ἐπειδὴ δὲ κατεκλίνη, εἰπεῖν·
Alcibiades — εἶεν δή, ἄνδρες· δοκεῖτε γάρ μοι νήφειν. οὐκ ἐπιτρεπτέον οὖν ὑμῖν, ἀλλὰ ποτέον· ὡμολόγηται γὰρ ταῦθʼ ἡμῖν. ἄρχοντα οὖν αἱροῦμαι τῆς πόσεως, ἕως ἂν ὑμεῖς ἱκανῶς πίητε, ἐμαυτόν. ἀλλὰ φερέτω, Ἀγάθων, εἴ τι ἔστιν ἔκπωμα μέγα. μᾶλλον δὲ οὐδὲν δεῖ, ἀλλὰ φέρε, παῖ,
Aristodemus — φάναι,
Alcibiades — τὸν ψυκτῆρα ἐκεῖνον,
Aristodemus — ἰδόντα αὐτὸν
But, to me, Agathon, he said, share some ribbons, so I can also crown of his, this amazing head, so he won't blame me because I crowned you, but him, who conquers everyone alive in argument, not only the other day, like you, but always, and yet never crowned him. And at once he took some ribbons, crowned Socrates, and lay down. Once he had reclined, he said: Well now, gentlemen — you seem to me sober. That won't do; you must drink, since this was agreed by us. So I appoint myself master of the drinking, until you've all had enough. But bring, Agathon, a large cup if there is one. Actually, never mind — but bring, boy, he said, that wine-cooler, catching sight of it himself…
Alcibiades' sentence trails from 213d's unfinished 'νῦν δέ...' straight into this one: he asks Agathon for some of the festival ribbons so he can crown Socrates too, reasoning that Socrates wins at argument not just recently, the way Agathon just won with his tragedy, but always. He binds Socrates' head, reclines, then notices the company is still sober and, declaring the agreement was to drink, appoints himself master of the wine — calling first for a large cup, then, seeing something better nearby, for the great wine-cooler instead.
Alcibiades crowns Agathon in 212e for winning the tragic competition and now wants to crown Socrates too, on the grounds that Socrates wins every contest of speech, always, not just prōēn (πρῴην, “the other day”) like Agathon did. The word choice draws the comparison Alcibiades wants: Agathon's victory was a single dated event, dramatized and voted on by judges at a festival; Socrates' is standing and undated, which is exactly the kind of claim a drama critic could never certify and Alcibiades makes anyway, garland in hand. Then, having just declared himself the arbiter of who deserves crowning, he appoints himself archōn tēs poseōs — master of the drinking — by nothing more than his own say-so, an office symposia normally filled by lot or agreement among the guests.
The self-appointment is not incidental; it is the same gesture twice. Alcibiades has spent 212e–213e deciding, unasked, who gets which honor: Agathon gets ribbons, Socrates gets more ribbons, and now the whole party gets a drinking-master, and it happens to be him. Plato lets the comedy carry real information about Alcibiades' character — the appetite for command that will govern his political career outside this dialogue — in the same stroke that sets up the joke the rest of the scene depends on: Alcibiades intends to get everyone drunk except the one man immune to it. His plan already has a flaw built into its object.
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