Plato, Timaeus 21b · 21b
The boys recite at the Apatouria
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Critias — ἤδη τῶν ἐνενήκοντα ἐτῶν, ἐγὼ δέ πῃ μάλιστα δεκέτης· ἡ δὲ Κουρεῶτις ἡμῖν οὖσα ἐτύγχανεν Ἀπατουρίων. τὸ δὴ τῆς ἑορτῆς σύνηθες ἑκάστοτε καὶ τότε συνέβη τοῖς παισίν· ἆθλα γὰρ ἡμῖν οἱ πατέρες ἔθεσαν ῥαψῳδίας. πολλῶν μὲν οὖν δὴ καὶ πολλὰ ἐλέχθη ποιητῶν ποιήματα, ἅτε δὲ νέα κατʼ ἐκεῖνον τὸν χρόνον ὄντα τὰ Σόλωνος πολλοὶ τῶν παίδων ᾔσαμεν. εἶπεν οὖν τις τῶν φρατέρων, εἴτε δὴ δοκοῦν αὐτῷ τότε εἴτε καὶ χάριν τινὰ τῷ Κριτίᾳ φέρων, δοκεῖν οἱ τά τε
Critias: ninety years old already, and I was about ten. It happened to be the Koureotis day of the Apatouria for us. What is customary at the festival every year happened then too for the boys, for our fathers set out prizes for recitation. Many poems by many poets were recited, and since Solon's poems were new at that time, many of us boys sang them. So one of the clansmen said, whether it really seemed so to him then or whether he was doing Critias a favour, that it seemed to him both in other ways
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The setting
The old Critias was nearly ninety and young Critias about ten, on the Koureotis day of the Apatouria festival, when boys recited poetry for prizes. A clansman remarks on Solon.
A note on this passage
The two ages are given loosely. The old Critias is ēdē tōn enenēkonta etōn, "already of the ninety years," and young Critias is pēi malista deketēs, "ten, give or take," with the little word pēi softening the claim about his own age. The festival is the Apatouria, a neuter plural name, and Koureōtis is the name of the day in it. The Greek connects that day with the boys through paisin and athla rhapsōidias, "prizes for recitation," so what the boys do is sing the poems of a recent poet, ta Solōnos, "Solon's things."
The clansman's remark comes with two motives offered, eite dē dokoun autōi tote eite kai charin tina tōi Kritiāi pherōn: either it truly seemed so to him then, or he was bringing the old man a favour. Critias reports the doubt along with the compliment. The sentence about what the clansman said is not finished here, because dokein hoi ta te alla opens a statement that runs on into the next section.
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