Note 10 — Chapter XXXVI · REPUBLIC — REMARKS ON ITS MAIN THESIS.
Reading edition
Xenophon, Memorab. ii. 1, 19-20, &c. We read in the ‘Works and Days’ of Hesiod, 287:—
Τὴν μέν τοι κακότητα καὶ ἰλαδὸν ἔστιν ἐλέσθαι Ῥηϊδίως· λείη μὲν ὁδός, μάλα δ’ ἐγγύθι ναίει. Τῆς δ’ ἀρετῆς ἱδρῶτα θεοὶ προπάροιθεν ἔθηκαν Ἀθάνατοι· μακρὸς δὲ καὶ ὄρθιος οἶμος ἐπ’ αὐτήν, Καὶ τρῆχυς τοπρῶτον· ἐπὴν δ’ εἰς ἄκρον ἵκηαι, Ῥηϊδίη δ’ ἠπειτα πέλει, χαλεπή περ ἐοῦσα.
It is remarkable that while the Xenophontic Sokrates cites these verses from Hesiod as illustrating and enforcing the drift of his exhortation, the Platonic Sokrates cites them as misleading, and as a specimen of the hurtful errors instilled by the poets (Republic, ii. p. 364 D).