Plato, Protagoras, ed. John Burnet, 346

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[346]

ΣΩ.

ἡγεῖτο γὰρ ἄνδρα καλὸν κἀγαθὸν πολλάκις αὑτὸν ἐπαναγκάζειν φίλον τινὶ γίγνεσθαι καὶ ἐπαινέτην 346 346a φιλεῖν καὶ ἐπαινεῖν, οἷον ἀνδρὶ πολλάκις συμβῆναι μητέρα ἢ πατέρα ἀλλόκοτον ἢ πατρίδα ἢ ἄλλο τι τῶν τοιούτων. τοὺς μὲν οὖν πονηρούς, ὅταν τοιοῦτόν τι αὐτοῖς συμβῇ, ὥσπερ ἁσμένους ὁρᾶν καὶ ψέγοντας ἐπιδεικνύναι καὶ κατηγορεῖν τὴν πονηρίαν τῶν γονέων ἢ πατρίδος, ἵνα αὐτοῖς ἀμελοῦσιν αὐτῶν μὴ ἐγκαλῶσιν οἱ ἄνθρωποι μηδʼ ὀνειδίζωσιν ὅτι ἀμελοῦσιν, ὥστε ἔτι μᾶλλον ψέγειν τε αὐτοὺς καὶ ἔχθρας 346b ἑκουσίους πρὸς ταῖς ἀναγκαίαις προστίθεσθαι· τοὺς δʼ ἀγαθοὺς ἐπικρύπτεσθαί τε καὶ ἐπαινεῖν ἀναγκάζεσθαι, καὶ ἄν τι ὀργισθῶσιν τοῖς γονεῦσιν ἢ πατρίδι ἀδικηθέντες, αὐτοὺς ἑαυτοὺς παραμυθεῖσθαι καὶ διαλλάττεσθαι προσαναγκάζοντας ἑαυτοὺς φιλεῖν τοὺς ἑαυτῶν καὶ ἐπαινεῖν. πολλάκις δὲ οἶμαι καὶ Σιμωνίδης ἡγήσατο καὶ αὐτὸς ἢ τύραννον ἢ ἄλλον τινὰ τῶν τοιούτων ἐπαινέσαι καὶ ἐγκωμιάσαι οὐχ ἑκών, ἀλλʼ ἀναγκαζόμενος. ταῦτα δὴ καὶ τῷ Πιττακῷ λέγει ὅτι ἐγώ, 346c ὦ Πιττακέ, οὐ διὰ ταῦτά σε ψέγω, ὅτι εἰμὶ φιλόψογος, ἐπεὶ—

ἔμοιγʼ ἐξαρκεῖ

ὃς ἂν μὴ κακὸς ᾖ μηδʼ ἄγαν ἀπάλαμνος, εἰ-

δώς τʼ ὀνησίπολιν δίκαν

ὑγιὴς ἀνήρ· οὔ μιν ἐγὼ

μωμήσομαι—

Simonides Fr. 37.1.33ff. οὐ γάρ εἰμι φιλόμωμος—

τῶν γὰρ ἠλιθίων ἀπείρων γενέθλα,

πάντα τοι καλά, τοῖσί τʼ αἰσχρὰ μὴ μέμεικται.

346d οὐ τοῦτο λέγει, ὥσπερ ἂν εἰ ἔλεγε πάντα τοι λευκά, οἷς μέλανα μὴ μέμεικται—γελοῖον γὰρ ἂν εἴη πολλαχῇ—ἀλλʼ ὅτι αὐτὸς καὶ τὰ μέσα ἀποδέχεται ὥστε μὴ ψέγειν. καὶ οὐ ζητῶ, ἔφη,

πανάμωμον ἄνθρωπον, εὐρυεδοῦς ὅσοι καρπὸν αἰνύμεθα χθονός, ἐπί θʼ ὑμῖν εὑρὼν ἀπαγγελέω

· ὥστε τούτου γʼ ἕνεκα οὐδένα ἐπαινέσομαι, ἀλλά μοι ἐξαρκεῖ ἂν ᾖ μέσος καὶ μηδὲν κακὸν ποιῇ, ὡς ἐγὼ πάντας

φιλέω καὶ ἐπαίνημι

—καὶ τῇ φωνῇ ἐνταῦθα κέχρηται τῇ 346e τῶν Μυτιληναίων, ὡς πρὸς Πιττακὸν λέγων τὸ

πάντας δὲ ἐπαίνημι καὶ φιλέω ἑκών

—ἐνταῦθα δεῖ ἐν τῷ ἑκών διαλαβεῖν λέγοντα—

ὅστις ἕρδῃ μηδὲν αἰσχρόν

, ἄκων δʼ ἔστιν οὓς ἐγὼ ἐπαινῶ καὶ φιλῶ.

Protagoras. Plato. ed. John Burnet. Oxford. 1903.

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Funding provided by The Annenberg CPB/Project.

Current edition Perseus

Πρωταγόρας (Greek) (Platonis Opera, Tomus III: Tetralogia V-VII. Burnet, John, editor. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1903.)

Translations (1)

Protagoras Perseus (Plato in Twelve Volumes, Vol. 2. Lamb, W.R.M., translator. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1924 (printing).) — 346 focus

Soc.

For he considered that a man of sense and honor often constrains himself 346a to become a friend and approver of some person, as when a man chances to have an uncongenial mother or father or country or other such connexion. Now when this sort of thing befalls the wicked, they seem glad to see their parents’ or country’s faults, and complainingly point them out and inveigh against them, in order that their own neglect of them may not be denounced by their neighbors, who might otherwise reproach them for being so neglectful; and hence they multiply 346b their complaints and add voluntary to unavoidable feuds. But good men, he knew, conceal the trouble and constrain themselves to praise, and if they have any reason to be angered against their parents or country for some wrong done to them they pacify and conciliate their feelings, compelling themselves to love and praise their own people. And many a time, I think, Simonides was conscious that he had praised and eulogized some tyrant or other such person, not willingly, 346c but under compulsion. So he proceeds to tell Pittacus—I, Pittacus, do not reproach you merely because I am apt to reproach, since—

For my part I am content with whosoever is not evil or too intractable. He who knows Right, the support of a city, is a healthy man; him I shall never blame, for to blame I am not apt. Infinite is the race of fools.

Simonides Fr. 37.1.33ff. So that whoever delights in reproaching would have his fill of blaming them:

Verily, all things are fair that have in them no admixture of base.

By this he does not mean to say, as it were, that all things are white 346d that have no admixture of black; that would be ridiculous in many ways; but that he himself accepts the average sort without reproaching them.

I do not seek,

said he,

a man wholly blameless amongst us who partake of the fruit of the broad-based earth: if I light upon him, be sure I will report it

—meaning, If I wait for that, I shall never find anyone to praise. No, I am content if a man be average and do nothing evil, since I love and praise all—and there he has used a Mytilenaean word,¹ for his 346e I praise and love all willingly is addressed to Pittacus (here at willingly one should make a pause);— all who commit nothing base, but some there are whom I praise and love unwillingly.

Commentary

Commentary on Plato, Protagoras (Plato. Platonis Protagoras. Adam, James; Adam, Adela Marion, editors. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1921.) focus

μητέρα ἢ πατέρα ἀλλόκοτον . Sauppe remarks that from Homer onwards μήτηρ generally comes first in such enumerations—an interesting survival, perhaps, of the greater importance assigned to the mother in primitive Greece. ἀλλόκοτον (‘eccentric’ as in Rep. VI. 487D ) from ἄλλος (in its sinister sense) and κότος (i.q. τρόπος, ἦθος, ὀργή ) according to Phrynichus (quoted by Kroschel).

ἢ πατρίδα : see Crito , 50E-51C.

ἔτι μᾶλλον : not = μᾶλλον ἢ κατ’ ἀξίαν , but—as is presently explained—because they ‘add voluntary feuds to those which they cannot avoid’.

ἀναγκαίαις : Heusde's correction for ἀνάγκαις of MSS.

ἐπικρύπτεσθαι—ἀναγκάζεσθαι . Plato is probably thinking of Socrates after his trial as he depicts him in the Crito. ἀναγκάζεσθαι ‘are constrained’ is of course passive.

παραμυθεῖσθαι , like mulcere , as often. Sauppe quotes Hor. Epod. XIII. 18 ‘deformis aegrimoniae dulcibus alloquiis ’.

ἡγήσατο—ἀναγκαζόμενος : ‘believed—that he had praised, etc.’ Plato deals a sly thrust at Simonides' notorious avarice, as Pindar (quoted by Sauppe) does in Isthm. 11. 6 ἁ Μοῖσα γὰρ οὐ φιλοκερδής πω τότ’ ἦν οὐδ’ ἐργάτις . The words ἀλλ’ ἀναγκαζόμενος contain the sting; for the life of the χρηματιστής is βίαιος (Ar. Eth. Nic. 1. 3. 1096 a . 5).

ἔμοιγ’ ἐξαρκεῖ κτλ. See Appendix I, pp. 214 ff. for the arrangement of this part of the poem.

γ’ ὀνησίπολιν . The MSS. read γ’ ὀνήσει πόλιν , which G. Hermann emended to τ’ ὀνησίπολιν , Bergk to ὀνασίπολιν .

οὐ μήν : so the MSS., and so, most probably, Plato; but Simonides can hardly have written this, which will not scan; see Appendix I, p. 217.

οὐ γάρ εἰμι φιλόμωμος probably belongs to an earlier part of the poem (before ἔμοιγ’ ἐξαρκεῖ : cf. οὐ διὰ ταῦτά σε ψέγω, ὅτι εἰμὶ φιλόψογος in line 45): see Appendix I, p. 217.

γενέθλα is Stephanus' correction for γένεθλα of the MSS., a mistake due to supposing that ἀπείρων (not from ἄπειρος ) went with ἠλιθίων : it belongs to γενέθλα .

πάντα τοι καλά—μέμικται sums up the whole moral teaching of the poem.

καὶ οὐ ζητῶ κτλ. Socrates recapitulates part of the poem by way of interpreting the final text: see note on τὸ δ’ ἐστὶν γενέσθαι κτλ. in 344E above and Appendix I, p. 214.

τούτου γ’ ἕνεκα : ‘si hoc spectetur s. requiratur, τὸ πανάμωμον εἶναι ’ (Heindorf): cf. Phaed. 85B ἀλλὰ τούτου γ’ ἕνεκα λέγειν τε χρὴ καὶ ἐρωτᾶν ὅ τι ἂν βούλησθε . The sense is: if I must wait for perfection before beginning to praise, I shall never praise anyone.

ὡς πρὸς Πιττακὸν λέγων : not serious, of course, nor true.

διαλαβεῖν : i.e. make a division, ‘pause’, virtually ‘punctuate’. The editors compare the use of διαστίξαι in Ar. Rhet. III. 5. 1407 b . 14 τὰ γὰρ Ἡρακλείτου διαστίξαι ἔργον διὰ τὸ ἄδηλον εἶναι ποτέρω? πρόσκειται .

ἄκων δ’ ἔστιν οὕς : see on 344B

Plato Protagoras 346

ed. John Burnet

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