Plato, Timaeus 20c · 20c
Socrates is ready to receive
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Socrates — αὐτοὺς εἰς νῦν ἀνταποδώσειν μοι τὰ τῶν λόγων ξένια, πάρειμί τε οὖν δὴ κεκοσμημένος ἐπʼ αὐτὰ καὶ πάντων ἑτοιμότατος ὢν δέχεσθαι.
Hermocrates — καὶ μὲν δή, καθάπερ εἶπεν Τίμαιος ὅδε, ὦ Σώκρατες, οὔτε ἐλλείψομεν προθυμίας οὐδὲν οὔτε ἔστιν οὐδεμία πρόφασις ἡμῖν τοῦ μὴ δρᾶν ταῦτα· ὥστε καὶ χθές, εὐθὺς ἐνθένδε ἐπειδὴ παρὰ Κριτίαν πρὸς τὸν ξενῶνα οὗ καὶ καταλύομεν ἀφικόμεθα, καὶ ἔτι πρότερον καθʼ ὁδὸν αὐτὰ ταῦτʼ ἐσκοποῦμεν.
Socrates: ...that you yourselves would repay me now with the hospitality of speeches. So here I am, dressed up for them and readiest of all to receive them. Hermocrates: Indeed, Socrates, just as Timaeus here said, we shall fall short in no eagerness, and we have no excuse for not doing this. So even yesterday, as soon as we came from here to the guest-house of Critias, where we are staying, and even earlier on the road, we were considering these very things.
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The setting
Socrates finishes explaining the bargain: they agreed to repay his feast of words today. Hermocrates answers that they have no excuse, and that they were already preparing yesterday.
A note on this passage
Socrates is finishing the sentence from 20b, in which he says what the three men agreed to do. The verb antapodōsein is the future of "give back in return," and the thing given back is ta tōn logōn xenia, "the guest-gifts of speeches." It continues the dinner image from the opening. Socrates then calls himself kekosmēmenos, "arranged" or "dressed up," like a guest got ready for the table, and hetoimotatos, readiest of all, to take it in.
Hermocrates answers with two negatives joined by oute and oute: they will fall short in no eagerness, and there is no prophasis, no pretext, for failing to do it. The phrase tou mē drān is an article with a negated infinitive, "for the not doing." He adds a detail of the previous evening: they reached the xenōn, the guest-house where Critias lodges them, and had already been going over the matter on the road.
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