ἢ εἰ μὲν τὸ σῶμα κτλ.
For
ἤ cf.
Crito, 50E
ἢ πρὸς μὲν ἄπα σοι τὸν ρατέπα—ρπὸς δὲ τὴν ρατπίδα ἄπα καὶ τοὺς νόμους ἔσται σοι; and for the general form of the sentence
Apol. 28E
εἰ ὅτε μέν—τότε μέν—τοῦ δὲ θεοῦ τάττοντος—ἐνταῦθα δέ,
Meno, 94C
-D,
Gorg. 512A
: see the Editor's note on
Apol. loc. cit.
πολλὰ ἂν περιεσκέψω
: but
ἔδει in l. 3 and
παρεκάλεις in 6. The effect is to represent the process of reflection by oneself as prior to consultation with friends. Heindorf on
Gorg. 514D
quotes a parallel from the
Theaetetus (144E):
ἀτὰρ εἰ, νῷν ἐχόντοιν ἑκατέπου λύπαν, ἔφη αὐτὰς ἡπμόσθαι ὁμοίως, ρότεπον εὐθὺς ἂν ἐπιστεύομεν ἢ ἐπεσκεψάμεθα ἂν (i.e. should have inquired
first )
εἰ μουσικὸς ὢν λέγοι
;
τὴν ψυχήν
. Cf. (with Heindorf)
Rep. IX. 583E
ὃ μεταξὺ ἄπα νῦν δὴ ἀμφοτέπων ἔφαμεν εἶναι, τὴν ἡσυχίαν, τοῦτό ροτε ἀμφότερα ἔσται. ἐν ᾧpresently is like
ἐν τούτῳ in
310D
where see note: Heindorf cites Eur.
Iph. T. 1057
καὶ τἄμ’ ἐν ὑμῖν ἐστιν ἢ καλῶς ἔχειν ἢ μηδὲν εἶναι . For
καὶ ἐν ᾧ we should at first sight expect
καὶ ἐν αὐτῷ : for the Greek idiom is relative+anaphoric pronoun, not relative+relative, when the two pronouns have the same antecedent and are connected by a conjunction: e.g.
Gorg. 452D
τί ἐστι τοῦτο ὃ φὴ|ς σὺ μέγιστον ἀγαθὸν εἶναι—καὶ σὲ δημιουργὸν εἶναι αὐτοῦ: see the Editor's note on
Apol. 40A
. Here, however, the fact that the relative precedes its antecedent (
ὃ δὲ περὶ πλείονος—περὶ δὲ τούτου ) makes the rule inoperative; and there are other exceptions, e.g.
Rep. II. 374B
καὶ τῶν ἄλλων ἑνὶ ἑκάστῳ ὡσαύτως ἓν ἀρεδίδομεν, ρπὸς ὃ ρεφύκει ἕκαστος καὶ ἐφ’ ᾧ ἔμελλε τῶν ἄλλων σχολὴν ἄγων διὰ βίου αὐτὸ ἐπγαζόμενος—καλῶς ἀπεργάζεσθαι, and
Theaet. 192B
καὶ ὃ οἶδεν καὶ ὃ αἰσθάνεται(where, however, Bonitz rejects the second
ὅ , perhaps rightly).
τῷ ἀφικομένῳ τούτῳ ξένῳ
. Heindorf's suggestion
τῷ ἀφικομένῳ τούτῳ τῷ ξένῳ would convey a somewhat different meaning, viz. ‘this arrival, the foreigner’. The presence of
ἀφικομένῳ renders the article after
τούτῳ unnecessary: cf. below,
337E
τὸ ἀκριβὲς τοῦτο εἶδος . There is some contempt in
τούτῳ =
isti (see note on
Apol. 45A
), and much scorn in
τὴν σὴν ψυχήν , repeated slowly at the end of the clause.
ὄρθριος
: the MSS. have
ὄρθριον by mistake. The adjectival construction of this word is found in
Laws, XII. 961B
δεῖν δὲ ὄρθριον εἶναι τὸν σύλλογον .
γιγνώσκεις
. The present is regularly used of being acquainted with a person, e.g.
Phaedo, 60A
Ξανθίππην, γιγνώσκεις γάρ;
Theaet. 144C
ἀλλὰ σκόπει εἰ γιγνώσκεις αὐτόν. γιγνώσκω. In Plato the perfect is generally used of knowing
things : e.g.
Apol. 23B
ὅστις—ἔγνωκεν ὅτι κτλ.,
Euthyphr. 2C
τοσοῦτον πρᾶγμα ἐγνωκέναι.
οὔτε διείλεξαι οὐδεπώποτε
, sc.
αὐτῷ : cf. on
313A
l. 8 above.
ᾧ μέλλεις σαυτὸν ἐπιτρέπειν
is wrongly rejected by Cobet. The words are to be taken closely with
τὸν δὲ σοφιστὴν ὅ τί ποτ’ ἔστιν φαίνει ἀγνοῶν : that Hippocrates should entrust himself to that of which he knows nothing is the climax of Socrates' rebuke.
ἔοικεν
: sc.
εἶναι , i.e. be true (not
ἐμὲ ἀγνοεῖν , which is doubtful Greek for
ἔοικα ἀγνοεῖν ). The subject is simply ‘it’, as in
Rep. I. 333C
, where
ἔοικεν is similarly for
ἔοικεν εἶναι .
τυγχάνει ὢν—ψυχὴ τρέφεται.
τυγχάνει ὤνis virtually equivalent to ‘really is’: cf.
Gorg. 468D
οἰόμενος ἄμεινον εἶναι αὐτῷ, τυγχάνει δὲ ὂν κάκιον, and note on
Euthyphr. 4E
. The
ἔμπορος is a travelling merchant who trades on a larger scale than the retail dealer or
κάπηλος : see
Rep. II. 371D
ἢ οὐ καπήλους καλοῦμεν τοὺς ρπὸς ὠνήν τε καὶ ρπᾶσιν διακονοῦντας ἱδπυμένους ἐν ἀγορᾷ, τοὺς δὲ πλανήτας ἐπὶ τὰς πόλεις ἐμπόρους
;The same account of the Sophist as
ἔμπορός τις περὶ τὰ τῆς ψυχῆς μαθήματα (
Soph. 231E
) is given in
Soph. 223C
-224E.
φαίνεται γὰρ ἔμοιγε τοιοῦτός τις
. We follow Schleiermacher in giving these words to Socrates. Turner judiciously points out that
γε in
ἔμοιγε is only appropriate if Socrates speaks the words, and that Hippocrates could hardly assent till he knew what
τροφὴ ψυχῆς meant.
ὅπως γε μὴ—ἐπαινῶν ἃ πωλεῖ ἐξαπατήσει.
πωλεῖνis ‘to have on sale’: ‘to sell’ is
ἀποδίδοσθαι . Cobet,
Novae Lectiones, p. 159. For
ἐξαπατήσει the MSS. have
ἐξαπατήσῃ , but the 1st aor. conj. is very doubtful in Plato after
ὅπως μή (see on the whole question Kühner's
Griechische Grammatik, II, 899), and final
‐ῃ and
‐ει are frequently confused in the MSS.
ὁ ἔμπορός τε καὶ κάπηλος.
ἔμπορός τε καὶ κάπηλοςtogether make a plural, and according to strict logic would require a plural article; but
ὁ is written by attraction instead of the grammatically impossible
οἱ . Cf.
Symp. 186C
ὁ διαγιγνώσκων —τὸν καλόν τε καὶ αἰσχρὸν ἔρωτα; below,
355E
τά ὀνόματα—τὸ ἡδύ τε καὶ ἀνιαρόν .
τυγχάνεις ἐπιστήμων.
τυγχάνειςhas sunk to a mere copula. It is not necessary to insert
ὤν after
ἐπιστήμων , although it is only in a few cases that
τυγχάνω (in this sense) occurs in Plato's MSS. without the participle expressed, viz.
Phaedr. 263C
μέγιστον τῶν ἀγαθῶν τυγχάνει ;
Gorg. 502B
εἰ δέ τι τυγχάνει ἀηδὲς καὶ ὠφέλιμον;
Rep. II. 369B
τυγχάνει ἡμῶν ἕκαστος οὐκ αὐτάρκης ἀλλὰ πολλῶν ἐνδεής;
Alc. I, 129A
ῥᾴδιον τυγχάνει τὸ γνῶναι ἑαυτόν ;
ibid. 133A
ἐκεῖνο ᾧ τοῦτο τυγχάνει ὅμοιον . In these cases (as here in the
Protagoras ) it is easy to suppose that the participle has fallen out from ‘lipography’: but in
Hipp. Maior (perhaps pseudo-Platonic),
300A
and in
Laws, XI. 918C
, and
Timaeus, 61C, the participle cannot be so easily supplied: and that the construction without the participle was used in everyday speech appears from
Ar.
Eccl. 1141
καὶ τῶν θεατῶν εἴ τις εὔνους τυγχάνει. See Rutherford's
New Phrynichus, p. 342.
περὶ τοῖς φιλτάτοις.
τὰ φίλταταis used here of the soul's health as in
Gorg. 513A
σὺν τοῖς φιλτάτοις ἡ αἵρεσις ἡμῖν ἔσται ταύτης τῆς δυνάμεως τῆς ἐν τῇ πόλει.
κυβεύῃς τε καὶ κινδυνεύῃς
. Cobet rejects
τε καὶ κινδυνεύῃς , but Plato often puts metaphor and interpretation side by side. Cf. below
314B
ἐν αὐτῇ τῇ ψυχῇ λαβόντα καὶ μαθόντα (where Deuschle wrongly rejected
καὶ μαθόντα );
334D
σύντεμνέ μοι τὰς ἀποκρίσεις καὶ βραχυτέρας ποίει ;
Euthyd. 297C
πολὺ γάρ πού εἰμι φαυλότερος τοῦ Ἡρακλέους, ὃς οὐχ οἶός τε ἦν τῇ τε ὕδπᾳ διαμάχεσθαι, σοφιστπίᾳ οὔσῃ καὶ διὰ τὴν σοφίαν ἀνιείσῃ, εἰ μίαν κεφαλὴν ἀροτμηθείη τοῦ λόγου, ρολλὰς ἀντὶ τῆς μιᾶς, καὶ καπκίνῳ τινὶ ἑτέπῳ σοφιστῇ . . . ὃς ἐρειδὴ αὐτὸν ἐλύρει οὕτως ἐκ τοῦ ἐπ’ ἀριστερὰ λέγων καὶ δάκνων κτλ.;
Lach. 194C
χειμαζομένοις ὲν λόγῳ καὶ ἀποροῦσιν;
Theaet. 174C
εἰς φρέατά τε καὶ πᾶσαν ἀπορίαν ἐμπίπτων. See also note on
τοὺς τῶν νέων τὰς βλάστας διαφθείροντας in
Euthyphr. 3A
.
παρὰ τοῦ καπήλου καὶ ἐμπόρου
: so B. The
κάπηλος is put in the foreground as the most usual seller of
σιτία and
ποτά : the article is expressed only once, because the
κάπηλος and
ἔμπορος both belong to the same genus ‘merchants’: cf.
Hdt. IV. 71
τὸν οἰνοχόον καὶ μάγειρον καὶ ἱπποκόμον καὶ διήκονον καὶ ἀγγελιηφόρον κτλ. There is no sufficient ground for bracketing the words
παρὰ τοῦ καπήλου καὶ ἐμπόρου as is done by Schanz, nor for reading
παρά του (with T) and omitting
καπήλου καὶ ἐμπόρου , as Hermann did.
ἐν ἄλλοις ἀγγείοις
: i.e. other than our own bodies. Cf.
311E
τί ὄνομα ἄλλο γε λεγόμενον περὶ Πρωταγόρου ἀκούομεν
; It need not be implied that the body is itself an
ἀγγεῖον (viz. of soul), though the notion is not unplatonic, and kindred expressions are found in later philosophy, e.g. Marcus Aurel. X. 38
τὸ περικείμενον ἀγγειῶδες καὶ τὰ ὀργάνια ταῦτα τὰ περιπεπλασμένα (said of the body).
ἐν αὐτῇ τῇ ψυχῇ λαβόντα καὶ μαθόντα.
λαμβάνειν ἐν(not
εἰς ) as in
Rep. VII. 517A
εἴ πως ἐν ταῖς χερσὶ δύναιντο λαβεῖν;
Soph. 243C
ταὐτὸν τοῦτο πάθος εἰληφότες ἐν τῇ ψυχῇ. For
καὶ μαθόντα , which is explanatory of
ἐν αὐτῇ τῇ ψυχῇ λαβόντα , see note on
κυβεύῃς τε καὶ κινδυνεύῃς .
νέοι ὥστε τοσοῦτον
. Heindorf quotes Eur.
Andr. 80
γέρων ἐκεῖνος ὥστε σ’ ὠφελεῖν παρών , and points out that whereas
νεώτεροι ἢ ὥστε would deny altogether
ἡ τοῦ διελέσθαι δύναμις , the words
νέοι ὥστε are less strong;
nobis nonnisi iuvenilis quaedam facultas suppetit ad tantam rem diiudicandam . The best MSS. of Plato read
ταὐτόν, τοιοῦτον, τοσοῦτον , etc., in the great majority of cases rather than
ταὐτό , etc. Schanz (Preface to
Laws, p. vi) thinks it probable that Plato always used the forms in
‐ν . In inscriptions of Plato's time
τὸ αὐτό and
τὸ αὐτόν occur side by side, but apparently only
τοιοῦτον, τοσοῦτον . See Meisterhans,
Grammatik der Griechischen Inschriften
2 , p. 122.
Ἱππίας
. Hippias of Elis was one of the most accomplished and—if we may trust the Platonic writings—ostentatious of the Sophists. According to the
Hippias Maior (285B ff.) he claimed to be at home in all the learning of the day—in Astronomy, Geometry, Arithmetic, Philology, Music, Mythology, History and Archaeology. See Zeller's
Philosophie der Griechen, I
4 , 956 ff.
οἶμαι δὲ καὶ Πρόδικον τὸν Κεῖον
. Contrast
Crat. 402B
οἶμαι δὲ καὶ Ἡσίοδος. Either construction is admissible. Prodicus of Ceos is repeatedly mentioned in the Platonic writings. A fellow-citizen of the poet Simonides (below,
339E
, he professed like Gorgias and Hippias to educate young men (
Apol. 19E
,
Theages, 127E,
Rep. X. 600C
) and received very large sums in return for his instruction together with the gratitude of his pupils. On one occasion, when in charge of a political mission from Ceos, he is said to have won great reputation in the
βουλή at Athens for his conduct of public business, and to have given at the same time private lectures, which were popular and well paid (
Hipp. Maior, 282C). He laid great stress on the importance of using words in their correct sense (
ὀρθότης ὀνομάτων ): see below,
337A
358A
and
Euthyd. 277E
,
Charm. 163D,
Lach. 197D; cf. also
Phaedr. 267B
; but this was only taught (we are told) in his 50-drachma lecture; the impecunious Socrates had only paid one drachma and was not quite master of this subject (
Crat. 384B
). Socrates is fond of professing himself a pupil of Prodicus, e.g. below,
341A
Meno, 96D
,
Charm. 163D. Prodicus wrote eulogies of Heracles and others (
Symp. 177B
): the substance, if not the actual words, of his Apologue of Heracles at the cross-roads is given by Xenophon,
Mem. II. 1. 21. A scholiast on
Rep. X. 600C
says the Athenians put him to death by hemlock for corrupting the youth, but there is no other authority for this unlikely story. Cf. Zeller, I
4 , 952 ff.
κινδυνεύει—ἄχθεσθαι
. Present, because the dialogue is narrated just after it took place (see
309B
, and as Protagoras is still with Callias, the stream of visitors probably continues. It is not quite clear why the number of the
sophists should have made the porter annoyed
with the visitors, unless the visitors themselves were sophists. Probably therefore
τοῖς φοιτῶσιν means
τοῖς φοιτῶσιν σοφισταῖς : in the porter's judgement the house was already too full of sophists.
φοιτᾶν implies frequent visitation: cf.
Lach. 181C
χρῆν μὲν οὖν καὶ πρότερόν σε φοιτᾶν αὐτὸν παρ’ ἡμᾶς καὶ οἰκείους ἡγεῖσθαι.
ἐκρούσαμεν τὴν θύραν
. There was a metal knocker (
ῥόπτρον, κόραξ, ἐπίσπαστρον ) on the
αὔλειος θύρα . Blümner,
Gr. Privatalt. p. 149.
οὐ σχολὴ αὐτῷ
. For
αὐτῷ ‘the master’ cf. below,
315B
Rep. I. 327B
ἠρόμην ὅπου αὐτὸς εἴη, and the Pythagorean
αὐτὸς ἔφα
ipse dixit .
ἀμφοῖν τοῖν χεροῖν
. So B: T has
ταῖν for
τοῖν . Cobet has shown that the dual feminine of the article is the same as the dual masculine:
Variae Lectiones, p. 70.
ἐκρούομεν
, but
ἐκρούσαμεν in l. 9. Socrates pretends to be somewhat staggered by the rebuff.
ἐγκεκλῃμένης
. So Bekker for
ἐγκεκλειμένης of B: the Attic form is
κλῄω not
κλείω : Cobet,
Var. Lect. p. 159.
ἅνθρωπος
. According to Ast, the Greeks sometimes used
ἀνήρ and
ἄνθρωπος without the article of a definite person
sed ita ut vel contemptionem vel reprehensionem aliquam simul indicarent . But in the cases quoted in support of this usage where the word is in an oblique case, the meaning is quite general like the English ‘a man’, e.g.
Rep. X. 596C
δεινόν τινα λέγεις καὶ θαυμαστὸν ἄνδρα;
Phaedo, 98B
ὁρῶ ἄνδρα τῷ μὲν νῷ οὐδὲν χρώμενον; Soph.
Phil. 1228
ἀπάταισιν αἰσχραῖς ἄνδρα καὶ δόλοις ἑλών ;
Theaet. 155D
ἐάν σοι ἀνδρός, μᾶλλον δὲ ἀνδρῶν ὀνομαστῶντῆς διανοίας τὴν ἀλήθειαν—συνεξερευνήσωμαι: it is therefore safer to suppose (with Schanz and most Platonic scholars) that where
ἀνήρ and
ἄνθρωπος of the MSS. can only be translated by ‘the man’, the rough breathing should be restored: e.g. below,
315E
and
Phaedr. 267A
, 268C;
Rep. I. 331E
.
προστῴῳ
. The
αὐλή was surrounded by cloisters. This
προστῷον is doubtless that on which the passage from the
πρόθυρον opened.