Chapter 16

ὀμνύω γέ σοι τὸν κύνα καὶ τὴν πλάτανον: "I swear indeed to you by the dog and by the plane tree “ (verbs of swearing govern an accusative: S. 1596). The plane tree is a reference to the location where much of the discussion in Plato's Phaedrus takes place (see Phaedrus 229b-230b). The choice of tree may reflect a pun on Plato's own name (Πλάτων, -ῶνος). Apuleius creates a very different sort of Socrates who nonetheless is invited at a certain point to sit down under a plane tree: iuxta platanum istam residamus (Meta. 1.18) . For another use of the plane tree as a way to allude to the Phaedrus, see the 5th century CE writer Aristaenetus whose third letter takes place in a lush bucolic setting with a narrator named Philoplatanos.

οὕτω ταῦτα ἔχειν: "that these things are so." For ἔχω + adv. as a periphrasis for an adj. and a form of εἰμί, see S. 1438.

Ἡράκλεις: voc. of Ἡρακλέης, Ἡρακλέους, ὁ, Heracles, here used as an exclamation.

τῆς ἀτοπίας τῶν θεῶν:  "for the strangeness of gods!"  For the gen. of cause used in exclamations, see S. 1407).

οὐ δοκεῖ σοι ὁ κύων: "does the dog not seem to you...?" For οὐ introducing questions with an expected answer of “yes," see S. 2651.

οὐχ ὁρᾷς τὸν Ἄνουβιν ἐν Αἰγύπτῳ ὅσος;: "do you not see how great Anubis is in Egypt?" (lit. "do you not see Anubis in Egypt, how great he is?") Here τὸν Ἄνουβιν is proleptic, meaning that the subject of the dependent clause appears earlier in the sentence as an object in the main clause (for added emphasis). For more on prolepsis, see S. 2182. 

παρὰ τοῖς κάτω: "beside the ones below.” For the substantival power of the article, see S. 1153e.