Plato's Use of Extended Oratio Obliqua

Extract

There are in Plato's dialogues several examples of long-continued oblique narration, which may repay study in relation both to his syntactical usages and to the development of his literary style. Two dialogues are based upon this construction. In the Symposium the whole framework, after a brief dramatic introduction (172 a–174 a), is in reported form; the Parmenides, after a shorter narrative introduction (126 a–127 a), sustains 0.0. up to 137 c, continuing as a dramatic interchange of speeches without covering construction.