Note 4.41 — APPENDIX.

32. This passage was evidently in the view of Cicero, when he wrote as follows:—Quum ex eo quidam jam affecto ætate quæreret, utereturne rebus venereis:—Dii meliora, inquit, s. lubenter verò istinc tanquam à domino agresti ac furioso profugi.—Cato Maj. ch. 47.

33. This seems to allude to the very common Greek adage—τοῖς πλουσίοις πόλλ’ ἔστι τὰ παραμύθια.

34. From Seriphus, one of the Cyclades.

35. Aristotle expresses nearly the same sentiments in the Nicom. Eth. iv. 1, and ix. 4.

36. This passage will be found in Boeckh’s Fragm. Pind. 243, vol. ii. p. 2, p. 682.

37. Comp. Cicero de Off. iii. 25.

38. Cicero very elegantly refers to this passage in his Epistles to Atticus, iv. 16.

39. .sp 1

Μητρὸς ἑῆς πατέρ’ ἐσθλὸν, ὃς ἀνθρώπους ἐκέκαστο

Κλεπτοσύνῃ θ’, ὅρκῳὅρκῳτε.—Odyss. xix. 395.

His mother’s noble sire, who all mankind

In furtive arts and fraudful oaths excelled.—Cowper.

40. For this sense of ἀντιλαμβάνεσθαι, comp. book vi. p. 497 d, and p. 504; also Gorgias, 506 a.

41. This alludes to the popular belief that men were rendered speechless by the fixed look of a wolf; but this, they thought, was not the case, if they saw the wolf first.

42. ὑφ’ ὑμῶν τῶν δεινῶν, alluding of course to the Sophists, who deemed themselves emphatically δεινοί. Comp. Protagor. p. 341 a.

43. Thrasymachus here alleges with a sneer, that the example adduced by Socrates had no connection with the subject treated in the last chapter.

44. The Sophists were used to recommend that the laws of a state should be made by the most powerful and influential, and that in making them it was quite right that they should consult their own advantage, there being no fixed standard for virtue and justice, but only that of expediency. Comp. Gorgias, p. 483, b, c, d; and Protagor. p. 337.

45. A celebrated wrestler of Scotussa in Thessaly, who won the prize in the Pancratium, at the Olympic games, B.C. 408. He was of immense size; and it is related of him, that he killed without arms a huge and fierce lion on Mount Olympus, and could stop a chariot at full gallop.

46. There was a prevalent corruption in the law-courts of Athens, which at length gave rise to a separate class,—the infamous sycophants, who lived by extortion and making criminal charges against the opulent citizens of timid natures and quiet habits, who were ordinarily led to purchase the silence of these informers, who hence rose to wealth and importance.

47. A proverb, meaning—To undertake any thing above one’s power. There is a similar one in Latin.

48. Gr. κορυζῶντα, having a cold or rheum in the nose.

49. Lucian must have had this passage in view, when writing Encom. Demosth. § 16:—ἦ πού γε, ἔφην, διανοεῖ καταχεῖν μου τῶνδιανοεῖ καταχεῖν μου τῶν ὤτων, ὥσπερ βαλανεὺς καταντλήσας τὸν λοιπὸν λόγον.

50. Analogous phrases are common among the Greek Classics. Comp. Gorg. p. 506 c., and Thucyd. i. c. 129:—Κείσεταί σοι εὐεργεσία ἐν πῷ ἡμετέρῳ οἴκῳ εἰσαεὶ ἀνάγραπτος.

51. A sly hit at the Sophists, of which dogmatic set Thrasymachus is throughout a very apt representative.

52. The term γραῶν ὕθλοςὕθλος or μῦθος was quite proverbial among the Greeks. Comp. Gorg. p. 527 a. Τάχα δ’ οὖν ταῦτα μῦθος σοι δοκεῖ λέγεσθαι ὥσπερ γραός.

53. A clever way of extricating himself from the dilemma in which his general scepticism has involved him!

54. ἀβλαβεῖς means not only harmless pleasures, but those which are pure and unalloyed with pain. We may remark here, that he divides goods (τὰ ἀγαθά) into three classes,—one, to be pursued for its own sake only, without reference to advantage.—another, which is to be loved both for its own sake, and for the advantages thence accruing,—and a third, which of itself perhaps is not worthy to be pursued, but only on account of the advantages thence accruing. In the second or mixed class Socrates places justice.

55. Thrasymachus is here, on account of his passionate violence and uncouth manners, aptly compared to a snake, which, as the ancients believed, could be softened and subdued by music:—and we note particularly the elegant use of the verb κηλεῖν, which primarily signifies to charm, sooth, subdue, and then generally, to soften by persuasion or argument.

56. Respecting this use of the verb κατατείνειν, comp. ch. ix. p. 367 b. p. 47 of this translation:—ὡς δύναμαι μάλιστα κατατείνας λέγω. See also, Xen. Anab. ii. 5, s. 30, and Eurip. Hec. v. 132.

57. ἐπ’ αὐτοφώρῳ λαβεῖν, lit. to catch in the factfact.

58. Euripides in his Phœn. v. 545, &c., elegantly expresses a similar notion:—

——κεῖνο κάλλιον, τέκνον,

ἰσότητα τιμᾷν, ἣ φίλους ἀεὶ φίλοις

πόλεις τε πόλεσι, συμμάχους τε συμμάχοις

ξυνδεῖ· τὸ γὰρ ἴσον νόμιμον ἀνθρώποις ἔφυ.

τῷ πλέονι δ’ ἀεὶ πολέμιον καθίσταται

τοὔλασσον.

To honour justice, and to love the right,

Which friends to friends and state to state unite,

Be ours. We honour equal aims and ends;

But still the greater with the less contends,

And evil times begin.

59. The words between brackets are considered spurious by Stallbaum, but admitted as genuine by Bekker and Schneider. The pretty generally received opinion now is, that ὁ Λυδός alludes to Crœsus, who was highly celebrated throughout Greece, and hence was emphatically termed “The Lydian.” Comp., however, Herod. i. 8 (pp. 4, 5. Cary’s Transl.), who tells a somewhat different story.

60. Gyges slew Candaules in the second year of the sixteenth Olympiad, B.C. 614. See Cic. de Offic. iii. 9, where the story is given in nearly the same form.

61. Comp. here Cicero de Off. i. c. 13. Totius autem injustitiæ nulla capitalior est, quàm eorum, qui, quum maximè fallunt, id agunt, ut viri boni esse videantur.

62. The entire passage here alluded to is from the Septem cont. Thebas, v. 577:—

Οὐ γὰρ δοκεῖν δίκαιος, ἀλλ’ εἶναι θέλων,

Βαθεῖαν ἄλοκα διὰ φρενὸς καρπούμενος,

Ἐξ ἧς τὰ κεδνὰ βλαστάνει βουλεύματα.

63. A similar passage occurs in Cicero de Republ. iii. 17:—Proque hac opinione bonus ille vir vexetur, rapiatur, manus ei denique offerantur, effodiantur oculi, damnetur, vinciatur, uratur, exterminetur, exeat, postremo jure etiam optimo omnibus miserrimus esse videatur.

64. Hesiod. Op. et Di. v. 231v. 231. Comp. Virg. Eclog. iv. 30, and Hor. Epod. xvi. 47.

65. Hom. Odyss. xix. 109-113.

66. Eumolpus, the son of Musæus, was a Thracian, who emigrated into Attica, and founded the Eleusinian mysteries,—from whom also the Athenians in charge of the rites were called Eumolpidæ. See Smith’s Dict. of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology,—articles Musæus and Eumolpus;—also Kreuzer’s Symbolik. vol. iv. p. 342, &c.

67. Comp. Hesiod. Op. et D. v. 287, &c., and Epicharmus, cited by Xenophon, Mem. II. 1. § 20.

68. The ἀγύρταιἀγύρται were a species of itinerant sacrificers, who went about collecting money for the expense of sacrifices to certain gods or goddesses, and contrived to eke out a subsistence by imposing on the vulgar, whom they supplied also with nostrums, and cheated with lying prophecies.

69. Hes. Op. et D. v. 285-288;—and they are cited also in the Laws, iv. p. 718, e.

70. Il. ix. 493.

71. Gr. τελετάς.

72. See Boeckh, Pindari Fragm. ccxxxii. p. 671.

73. Simonidis Fragm. cxxiii. ed. Gaisford, i. p. 394.

74. That is, apparently, virtue; but, in reality, mere cunning. Archilochus has written more than one piece, in which the fox plays the part of a cunning and deceitful personage. See Archil. Fragm. ed. Gaisf. i. pp. 307, 308.

75. That the gods exercise no care over human affairs was a favourite doctrine of the sophists, and especially of Protagoras. Comp. Theæt. p. 162, d. with Cicero de Nat. Deor. i. ch. 23. See also De Legg. p. 885, d. e.—ἡμῶν μὲν γὰρ οἱ μὲν τὸ παράπαν θεοὺς οὐδαμῶςοὐδαμῶς νομίζουσιν, οἱ δὲ μηδὲν ἡμῶν φροντίζειν, οἱ δὲ εὐχαῖς παράγεσθαι ... νῦν μὲν γὰρ ταῦτα ἀκούοντές τε καὶ τοιαῦθ’ ἕτερα τῶν λεγομένων ἀρίστων εἶναιεἶναι ποιητῶν τε καὶ ῥητόρων καὶ μαντέων καὶ ἱερέων καὶ ἄλλωνἄλλων πολλακισμυρίων, οὐκ ἐπὶ τὸ μὴ δρᾷν τὰ ἄδικα τρεπόμεθα οἱ πλεῖστοι, δράσαντες δὲ ἐξακεῖσθαι πειρώμεθα.πειρώμεθα.

76. φορτικῶς, ὥς γ’ ἐμοὶγ’ ἐμοὶ δοκεῖ.

77. The phrase ἐκείνου τοῦ ἀνδρός does not refer to their father Cephalus, but to some sophist of whom they were the disciples, and whose dogmas they defended. The words are similarly used in the Philebus. Comp. also παῖδες ζωγράφων in Legg. vi. p. 769, b.

78. A battle fought near Megara between the Athenians and Corinthians, in which the former were victors; Ol. 80, 4 (B.C. 453). Comp. Thuc. i. 105; Diod. Sic. xi. 79.

79. Aristotle has made some unnecessarily severe strictures on this notion in his Polit. iv. ch. 4, which are ingeniously refuted by Morgenstern, Comment. de Plat. Rep. on this passage.

80. Comp. here the strictures in Aristotle’s Polit. iv. 3 and 4.

81. The Greek ὄψον is not to be translated, except by a periphrasis. It strictly means boiled meat, as opposed to bread,—but more generally, as here, anything eaten with bread or other food to give it flavour and relish.

82. Gr. ἐργολάβοι, i. e. persons undertaking for a certain sum to complete a house or any other given task.

83. Gr. ἐθελήσει, in the sense of μέλλει or δύναται.

84. Gr. λόγῳ παιδεύωμεν. Comp. ch. iv. 361 b, and De Legg. iv. p. 712 a:—πλάττειν τῷ λόγῳ νόμους.

85. Comp. Hesiod. Theogon. v. 154-6, and 178-80.

86. Allusion is here made to the mysteries of Eleusis, in which all about to be initiated sacrificed a hog,—a circumstance referred to by Aristophanes, Pax, v. 373-5; Acharn. vv. 747 and 764. The verb ἀκοῦσαι refers to the cabalistic oaths and secrets that were listened to during the process of initiation.

87. Suidas tells us, under the word Ἥρα, that the myth here alluded to was mentioned in a passage of Pindar, and that it was to be found also in a comedy of Epicharmus, both now lost.

88. Comp. Hom. Il. i. v. 588.

89. Hom. Il. xxiv. v. 527-31.

90. Odyss. xvii. v. 485, 6.

91. Gr. τοῦτον δεύτερον τύπον εἶναι ἐν ᾧᾧ δεῖ περὶ θεῶν καὶ λέγειν καὶ ποιεῖν.

92. Odyss. xi. v. 488-91.

93. Il. xxiii. v. 103.

94. Il. xxii. v. 265.

95. Il. xvi. v. 856.

96. Il. xxii. v. 100.

97. Odyss. xxiv. v. 6.

98. Il. xxiv. v. 10.

99. Il. xviii. v. 23, 24.

100. Il. xxii. v. 414.

101. Il. xviii. v. 54.

102. Il. xxii. v. 168.

103. Namely as cupbearer to the gods.—Il. i. v. 599.

104. Comp. B. ii. ch. 21.

105. Hom. Od. xvii. v. 383.

106. Gr. ἐάνπερ ἐπί γε λόγῳ ἔργα τελῆται.

107. Il. iv. v. 412.

108. Il. iv. v. 431.

109. Il. i. v. 225.

110. Od. ix. v. 8.

111. Od. xi. v. 342.

112. Il. xiv. v. 291.

113. Od. viii. v. 266.

114. θεατέον τε καὶ ἀκουστέον, which we have somewhat paraphrastically rendered, in order to give the full meaning of the words.

115. Od. xx. v. 17.

116. This verse is not to be found in any of Homer’s writings; and Suidas ascribes it to Hesiod. Euripides has a similar sentiment, Med. v. 934.

117. Comp. Il. xix. v. 278, &c. with Il. xxiv. v. 175, &c.

118. Il. xxii. v. 15, 16.

119. Il. xxiii. v. 151.

120. This threefold distinction of poetry is mentioned likewise by Aristotle; Poet. ch. iii. § 2.

121. The Greek form—τὰ ἃ δάκρυα is unquestionably archaic; but, as Stallbaum well observes, was still extant among the Athenians in colloquial language.

122. Gr. ὥστ’ εἶναι ἐλλόγιμος.

123. Gr. εἰς ἀμικρότερα κατακεκερματίσθαι.

124. Gr. ἵνα μὴ ἐκ τῆς μιμήσεως τοῦ εἶναι ἀπολαύσωσιν.

125. Gr. καὶ δὴ ἐν ῥυθμῷ ὡσαύτως παραπλησίῳ τινί.

126. Gr. καὶ οἵ τι λέγοντες.

127. Gr. ἀποπέμποιμέν τε ἂν εἰς ἄλλην πόλιν μύρον κατὰ τῆς κεφαλῆς καταχέαντες καὶ ἐρίῳ στέψαντες. This passage with all its beauty is somewhat obscure. It plainly refers to that kind of poet, who was used to treat all kinds of characters and subjects;—and yet the ancient writers evidently understood it, as referring to Homer. Comp. Dion. Halic. Epist. de Plat. vol. vi. d. 756:—ἦν τῇ Πλάτωνος φύσει πολλὰς ἀρετὰς ἐχούσῃ τὸ φιλότιμον· ἐδήλωσε δὲ τοῦτο μάλιστα διὰ τῆς πρὸς Ὅμηρον ζηλοτυπίας, ὃν ἐκ τῆς κατασκευαζομένης ὑπ’ αὐτοῦ πολιτείας ἐκβάλλει, στεφανώσας καὶ μύρῳ χρίσας. So also Aristides, Orat. Plat. 111; vol. ii. p. 326:—Ὅμηρον μύρῳ χρίσας ἐκπέμπει χελιδόνος τιμὴν καταθείς. Josephus, Minucius Felix, Theodoret, and Chrysostom bear similar testimony to its meaning.

128. It has been rightly stated by Ger. Voss. in his Institut. Poet. ii. ch. ix. § 2, that the word μέλος is equivalent to λόγος ᾀδόμενος. Comp. also Plato de Legg. ii. p. 655 a.

129. The distinction between harmony and rhythm is well explained in the Laws, ii. p. 655 a:—τῇ δὲ τῆς κινήσεως τάξει ῥυθμὸς ὄνομα· τῇ δ’ αὖ τῆς φωνῆς, τοῦ τε ὀξέος ἅμα καὶ βαρέος συκεραννυμένων, ἁρμονίας ὄνομα προσαγορεύοιτο.

130. On the power and character of the several kinds of melody, comp. Heraclides Ponticus in Athenæus, xiv. p. 624 d, and Aristotle’s Polit. viii. ch. 5-7. Boeckh also in his work on the metres of Pindar (vol. i. pt. 2), has learnedly discussed the variety of ancient Greek melodies.

131. Aristoxenus quoted by Plutarch (de Musicâ, p. 1136 d), thus explains the word μιξολυδιστί:—καὶ ἡ μιξολύδιος δὲ παθητική τίς ἐστι, τραγῳδίαις ἁρμόζουσα. Ἀριστόξενος δέ φησι Σαπφὼ πρώτην εὕρασθαι τὴν μιξολυδιστί, παρ’ ἧς τοὺς τραγῳδοποιοὺς μαθεῖν.

132. A harmony is here termed βίαιος, which (to use the words in the Laws, viii. 814 e):—ἐν βιαίῳ ἐργασίᾳ πρεπόντως ἂν μιμήσαιτο φθόγγους τε καὶ προσῳδίαςπροσῳδίας, &c.;—and that is called ἑκούσιος, which becomes a man who is engaged ἐν ἑκουσίῳ πράξει.

133. All musical instruments are here rejected, which, from having many chords, have the power of soothing the ear with a variety of harmonies, and yet do not improve the mind, but rather render it effeminate and fill it with sensual desires. Among these is classed the lyre,—which is rejected also by Pythagoras, who (according to Iamblichus) τοὺς αὐλοὺς ὑπελάμβανεν ὑβριστικόν τε καὶ πανηγυρικὸν καὶ οὐδαμῶς ἐλευθέριον τὸν ἦχον ἔχειν. See also Plato’s Gorgias, p. 501 e, where he conceives the art of flute-playing—τὴν ἡδονὴν ἡμῶν μόνον διώκειν, ἄλλο δ’ οὐδὲν φροντίζειν.

134. On the contest of Marsyas with Apollo, comp. Herodot. vii. 26, and Diodor. Sic. iii. p. 192.

135. A celebrated musician who instructed Pericles in that art. Comp. Rep. iv. ch. 3, p. 424 c. See also Plutarch, Life of Pericles, ch. 4.

136. Viz. Machaon and Podalirius.

137. Hom. Il. iv. 218, though somewhat modified by Plato.

138. Plato is here alluding to Tyrtæus, Eleg. iii. v. 6:—

Οὐδ’ εἰ Τιθωνοῖο φύην χαριέστερος εἴη

Πλουτοίη δὲδὲ Μίδεω καὶ κινύρῳ βάθιον.

139. Respecting this power of Æsculapius to raise the dead, comp. Pind. Pyth. iii. v. 96, &c. Euripides, also, in the opening lines of the Alcestis, remarks, that Æsculapius was struck with lightning, but without assigning any reason.

140. Τὸ θυμοειδές. This refers to Plato’s division of the mental faculties into τὸ λογιστικόν and τὸ ἄλογον, the latter of which is again divided into τὸ θυμικόν and τὸ ἐπιθυμητικόν. The art of gymnastics, he conceives then, has for its object—not so much the promotion of the bodily strength as the excitement of the spirited part of our nature,—τὸ θυμοειδές.

141. Gr. ὅταν μέν τις μουσικῇ παρεχῇ καταυλεῖν καὶ καταχεῖν διὰ τῶν ὤτων, ὥσπερ διὰ χώνης, ἃς νῦν δὴ ἡμεῖς ἐλέγομεν τὰς γλυκείας τε καὶ μαλακὰς καὶ θρηνώδεις ἁρμονίας καὶ μινυρίζων τε καὶ γεγανωμένος ὑπὸ τῆς ᾠδῆς διατελῇ τὸν βίον ὅλον, &c. The verb μινυρίζειν signifies to sing in a high and plaintive key,—sometimes, also, to whine; γανοῦν is derived from γάνος, splendour, joy, and hence means to be radiant with pleasure, to be of joyful countenance.

142. Allusion is here made to Hom. Il. xvii. v. 586:—

Ἕκτορ, τίς κέ σ’ ἔτ’ ἄλλος Ἀχαιῶν ταρβήσειεν;

Οἷον δὴ Μενέλαον ὑπέτρεσας, ὃς τὸ πάρος περ

Μαλθακὸς αἰχμητής·

What chiefs of all the Grecians shall henceforth

Fear Hector, who from Menelaus shrinks

Once deemed effeminate. Cowper.

143. Plato here alludes to the obscure style sometimes adopted by them to mystify the hearers. Comp. viii. ch. 3, where they are spoken of as πρὸς παῖδας ἡμᾶς παιζούσας καὶ ἐρεσχελούσας ὑψηλολογουμένας. Aristophanes all through “the Frogs” caricatures this mystifying, bombastic tendency.

144. Gr. ὡς ἐν τύπῳ, μὴ δι’ ἀκριβείας, εἰρῆσθαι. Comp. vi. ch. 6—ἔχεις γὰρ τὸν τύπον ὧν λέγω, where τύπον, as here means a general notion or sketch, like ὑπογραφὴν in ch. 16 of the same book.

145. The scholiast tells us that the Phœnician fable had reference to the myths related about the dragon and the sown men that arose at the bidding of Cadmus, the son of Agenor, and grandson of Poseidon and Libya, whose native country was Phœnicia.

146. Aristotle makes some rather strong remarks on these views in his Polit. ch. 2, § 15, ed. Schneid.

147. The scholiast tells us, that “to play at cities” (πόλεις παίζειν) is a kind of game at dice, in which the players cried,—“One city,” or “Many cities;” and he informs us, moreover, that the expression was proverbial.

148. These notions are severely commented on by Aristotle in his Pol. ii. 4.

149. From the previous discussion respecting the unity and harmony of a state, Socrates conceives that it may be inferred also what decision should be formed respecting its size and boundaries; and he wishes it to be increased only in such way as may be consistent with moderate bulk, and not endanger its unity and the harmony of its several parts.

150. Allusion is here made to the well-known Pythagorean adage,—τὰ τῶν φίλων κοινά, all the property of friends should be held in common.

151. Hom. Odyss. i. v. 353; but with slight variation,—the original having ἀκουόντεσσι, not ἀειδόντεσσι. Great stress is here laid on the necessity of keeping up the severe old style of music, inasmuch as the introduction of a new and more luxurious style would infallibly produce a general corruption of national morals. The importance attached to this point will be more truly seen from considering the close relation which, in the opinion of the Greeks, subsisted between all the liberal arts. Plato alludes to the subject at length in the Laws, ii. pp. 656 c, 659 e, and iii. pp. 700 a, &c., and vii. throughout.

152. Comp. here Aristot. Eth. ix. ch. 2:—παντὶ δὲ τῷ πρεσβυτέρῳ τιμὴν καθ’ ἡλικίαν ἀποδοτέον ὑπαναστάσεσι καὶ κατακλίσεσι.

153. The original is γελοῖα—a word not very easy to render.

154. The word χαλαστραῖον, lit. nitre (nitrate of potash), is derived from Χαλάστρα, a town and lake of Macedonia, where this mineral was found in great abundance.—Comp. Plin. Nat. Hist. xxxi. 10, 5, 46. The rendering, alkali, may perhaps be thought an anachronism; but it expresses the author’s meaning better than any one word in our language.

155. The original is very elliptical:—Ἀλλὰ μέντοι, ἦν δ’ ἐγὼ, βούλομαί γε, εἰ μὴ ἀδικῶ. The form εἰ μὴ ἀδικῶ occurs again, x. ch. 9, p. 608 d, and ch. 12, p. 612 d.

156. Stallbaum reads—εἰς φαῦλόν γε σκέμμα, which is the reading of the best MSS., though the old editions read—οὐκ εἰς φαῦλόν γε. The words are spoken ironically.

157. Gr. παρὰ τῷ δημείῳ, which admits of no concise rendering.

158. Hom. Odyss. lib. xx. v. 17.

159. The argument here interrupted respecting the four kinds of depravity, individually or in states, is resumed at the commencement of the eighth book.

160. The verb χρυσοχοεῖν is used proverbially to indicate the entertaining of great hopes that are afterwards unfulfilled.

161. Adrasteia or Nemesis was a daughter of Zeus, and regarded as the punisher of murderers and homicides,—even those involuntarily so. See Blomfield’s note to Æschyl. Prom. v. 972.

162. Allusion is here made to the fable of Arion,—or if not to that, to the vulgar notion that the dolphin was particularly friendly to man. See Plin. Hist. Nat. ix. 8.

163. The expression of Herodotus, Clio, ch. 8, is not dissimilar:—ἅμα δὲ χιτῶνι ἐκδυομένῳ συνεκδύεται καὶ τὴν αἰδω γυνή.

164. The cited words—ἀτελῆ σοφίας δρέπων καρπόν are from Pindar. See. Stobæus, Serm. ccxi. p. 711, and Boeck’s Pindar, vol. ii. part 2, p. 669.

165. The figure here used bears some resemblance to that used in ch. iv. of this book, p. 453 d:—ἄντε τις εἰς κολυμβήθραν μικρὰν ἐμπέσῃ, ἄντε εἰς τὸ μέγιστον πέλαγος μέσον, &c.

166. This peculiar notion on the community of wives and children is severely handled by Aristotle, Polit. ii. ch. 2, and Hist. Anim. ix. 1. It seems probable, however, that Plato did not intend here entirely to destroy all domestic ties whatever, but to inculcate a general community of goods as far as possible,—as most conducive to civil concord and national prosperity. Compare, however, the opening of the ninth chapter of this book. The fact is, that the question is here viewed simply in its physical, not in its moral relations.

167. The Greek (τὰ ποῖα αὐτῶν) is very elliptical; but we agree with Cousin in considering this to be its real meaning.

168. Gr. τῶν αὐτῶν γιγνομένων τε καὶ ἀπολλυμένων, &c.

169. Gr. ὅταν που ἡμῶν δάκτυλός που πληγῇ, πᾶσα ἡ κοινωνία ἡ κατὰ τὸ σῶμα πρὸς τὴν ψυχὴν τεταμένη εἰς μίαν σύνταξιν τὴν τοῦ ἄρχοντος ἐν αὐτῇ, &c.

170. Comp. Hes. Op. et Di. v. 40—νήπιοι οὐδ’ ἴσασιν ὅσῳ πλέον ἥμισυ παντός.

171. Comp. here Aristot. Pol. ii. 2.

172. Hesiod. Op. et Di. v. 121, 2.

173. Gr. στραγγευομένῳ, which is Bekker’s emendation, the old reading being στρατευομένῳ. The verb means—to be wearied, to delay, trifle, play the coward.

174. Plato’s object here is to show, that painters in the high departments of art copy ideal, not actual nature,—nature in its perfection,—not in its imperfect and actual nature.

175. The Scholiast states by way of explanation, that the Athenian people were divided into ten φυλαί or wards, which were again subdivided into τριττύες, ἔθνη and φρατρίαι. The commander of a τρίττυς then was called a τριττύαρχος,—whence the verb τριττυαρχεῖν.

176. There were three festivals at Athens, commonly termed Bacchic,—the great or city festival (the most important of all, at which the dramatic poets contended with their new plays), celebrated in the month Elaphebolion,—the Lenæa, in the month Maimacterion,—and the rural Dionysia, in the month Poseideon.

177. The portrait of the true philosopher, whom Plato conceives to be the only true president and ruler of his state, is described from this chapter onwards to the end of the third chapter of the sixth book, with farther illustration in the thirteenth chapter of that book. Should the reader conceive, that too little regard is paid to worldly affairs and too little stress laid on the doctrine of ideas, he must recollect that this philosopher conceived that all knowledge of truth (—without which not even civil business could be conducted, according to his notions—) is to be gained only from the contemplation of things considered per se,—and that there can be no real human felicity unconnected with wisdom and virtue, which can only be attained by true philosophers engaged in inquiring into the eternal nature of things around or in themselves.

178. Plato makes use of two terms in his system,—τὸ εἶδος and ἡ ἰδέα;—and some commentators are disposed to think, that the former corresponds with the dialectical term, species,—the higher intellectual, abstract notion being expressed only by the latter. It must be confessed, however, that they are often used with scarcely any distinction of meaning.

179. The words ἐκεῖνος ὁ φιλοθεάμων (which Ast. considers superfluous) convey a sly hit at those sophists who set up for admiration various different objects of beauty, sensual and physical, instead of the eternal and immutable beauty of truth and virtue.

180. The Scholiast cites the following lines, which he ascribes to Clearchus:—

αἶνος τίς ἐστιν ὡς ἀνήρ τε κοὐκ ἀνὴρ

ὄρνιθα κοὐκ ὄρνιθ’ ἰδών τε κοὐκ ἰδών

ἐπὶ ξύλου τε κοὐ ξύλου καθημένην

λίθῳ τε κοὐ λίθῳ βάλοι τε κοὐ βάλοι——ἄλλως

——ἄνθρωπος οὐκ ἄνθρωπος ἄνθρωπος δ’ ὅμως,

ὄρνιθα, κοὐκ ὄρνιθα, ὄρνιθα δ’ ὅμως

ἐπὶ ξύλου τε κοὐ ξύλου καθημένην

λίθῳ βάλων με κοὐ λίθῳ διώλεσεν——

νυκτερίδανυκτερίδα ὁ εὐνοῦχος νάρθηκι κισήρει.

181. This is rather an obscure passage, which, however, receives some illustration from the Parmenides (pp. 137 c—155 e), in which the philosopher teaches, among other things, that τὸ ἕν (i.e. the one by itself and infinite) is nothing, destitute of all reason and form, void of truth and in no way falling within the cognizance of the mental faculties;—whereas τὸ ἓν ὄν (the one finite—inasmuch as it has form, mode, and reason of existence,)existence,)—is everything, that is, receives within itself a variety of certain forms, and is capable therefore of being perceived and recognised by opinion, perception, and real knowledge.

182. Gr. ἐν πολλοῖς καὶ παντοίως ἴσχουσι πλανώμενοιπλανώμενοι, &c.

183. Gr. κἀκεῖνα καὶ ταῦτα ἔχειν,—that is, both a practical acquaintance and experience of things, and a more subtle scientific knowledge of truth.

184. ἄρ’ ἂν οἷόςοἷός τ’ εἴη ἐπιστήμης μὴ κενὸς εἶναι;—lit. can he be otherwise than void of science?

185. This proverbial expression is well illustrated by Erasmus, Chiliad. i. 5, § 75.