Plato Republic 6.495

ἐλέγομεν . 491 B ff.

εἰς should be taken with ὄλεθρος and διαφθορά, as Schneider points out. They are spoiled ‘with reference to’ or ‘for’ the best of all vocations. Jowett wrongly connects εἰς with βελτίστης.

φαμέν . 491 A, B.

ἐκ τούτων κτλ. Corruptio optimi pessima.

οἱ ‐‐ ἐργαζόμενοι was true of Alcibiades: see Grote VIII p. 116 and Lysias In Alc. I 16, 30, 35 ff. Isocrates' attempt in his περὶ ζεύγους to make out that Alcibiades was a benefactor to his city is a futile and fantastic performance.

ῥυέντες κτλ. With the metaphor cf. 485 D. For σμικρὰ—δρᾷ see 419 E note

προσήκει : sc. φιλοσοφία: “nam philosophia cum virgine ἐπικλήρῳ comparatur, qualem in matrimonium ducere proximis cognatis aut permissum aut iniunctum fuit” (Stallbaum). See Meier u. Schömann Att. Proc. pp. 614—617.

ἀτελῆ κτλ. ἀτελῆ is said with reference to the rites of marriage: cf. Philostrat. Vit. Apoll. IV 45 ἐπ’ ἀτελεῖ γάμῳ and Soph. Ant. 1240 f. τὰ νυμφικὰ | τέλη λαχὼν δείλαιος ἔν γ’ Ἅιδου δόμοις. With τε followed by δέ cf. X 611 D and other examples quoted by Hoefer de part. Pl. p. 16.

ἀληθῆ is like ἀληθῶς ζῴη in 490 B, a passage where the same kind of imagery is employed.

ᾔσχυνάν τε κτλ. Is the aorist gnomic or past? It is usually taken as gnomic, but Plato may be thinking of his own times, in which Philosophy had come to shame, because the unworthy had defiled her.

σὺ φῄς . Cf. 489 D and 487 C, D.

ἐκ τῶν τεχνῶν κτλ. It has been supposed that Plato has in view Antisthenes and the Cynic Diogenes, the latter of whom apparently started life as a moneychanger (D. L. VI 20). But the description which follows applies to sophists and sophistical rhetoricians rather than to the Cynic philosophers. The poet Gray says “this seems to be aimed at Protagoras, who was an ordinary countryman and a woodcutter” (see Gellius Noct. Att. V 3 and other authorities cited by Frei Quaest. Prot. pp. 6 ff.). Hermann ( Gesch. u. Syst. p.628) cites Euthydemus and Dionysodorus as cases in point (cf. 496 A note). Each of these sophists had formerly taught the art of fighting in full armour ( Euthyd. 271 C — 272 B, 273 E). As speech-writing and rhetoric generally were counted among the arts, we may think also of Isocrates, who loved above everything to call himself a φιλόσοφος ( Antid. 271 ff.). But although these and other examples may be quoted in illustration of what Plato here says, the tone of the whole passage shews that Plato is describing a familiar phenomenon of his own times, when clever and ambitious young men were in the habit of forsaking their handicrafts and devoting themselves to ‘culture.’ Cf. Prot. 318 E τὰς γὰρ τέχνας αὐτοὺς πεφευγότας ἄκοντας πάλιν αὖ ἄγοντες ἐμβάλλουσιν εἰς τέχνας (sc. Hippias etc.), λογισμούς τε καὶ ἀστρονομίαν καὶ γεωμετρίαν καὶ μουσικὴν διδάσκοντες, and my article in Cl. Rev. XV p. 220.

ἐφιέμενοι κτλ. is an anacoluthon. The natural flow of the sentence is interrupted by the question ἢ οὐκ ἀνάγκη; which is intended to obtain Adeimantus' assent to τὰς ψυχὰς—τυγχάνουσιν. On resuming, Plato interposes a comparison, and to this the general idea which forms the logical predicate to πολλοί is accommodated in ποἶ ἄττα—φαῦλα. The sentence was thus understood by the editor of q; for τυγχάνουσιν, which seems a difficulty on this theory, is in q τυγχάνοντες. But τυγχάνοντες would be extremely inelegant; and Plato writes τυγχάνουσιν to correspond to λελώβηνται. Even in other cases a finite verb sometimes replaces a participle in the second of two contrasted clauses, e.g. Ap. 21 E . J. and C. explain the passage in nearly the same way, as well as (apparently) Schneider and Stallbaum. It is impossible for many reasons to connect τυγχάνουσιν with ἐφιέμενοι and so escape the anacoluthon. I formerly suspected the text, and proposed <ἀπο> τυγχάνουσιν (‘miss the mark,’ i.e. fail to win the distinction which they covet). Another solution might be to place the troublesome τυγχάνουσιν after πολλοί. But neither change is in any degree probable; and it is better to acquiesce in the reading of the MSS. Plato's anacolutha are a device for imparting life and reality to his dialogues. A careful translation should preserve them all.

ἀποτεθρυμμένοι : lit. ‘broken off’ i.e. ‘truncated,’ ‘maimed.’ The word is rare, and apparently used only here by Plato. Schneider thus explains the preposition: “quorum animis quasi arboribus cacumina defracta et vires ad enitendum necessariae debilitatae sunt.” A comparison of Theaet. 173 A πολλὰ κάμπτονται καὶ συγκλῶνται and Prot. 325 D ὥσπερ ξυλον διαστρεφόμενον καὶ καμπτόμενον εὐθύνουσιν ἀπειλαῖς καὶ πληγαῖς makes it not unlikely that the metaphor is as Schneider supposes. On the vox nihili ἀποτεθρυωμένοι (in the margin of Flor. A) see Ruhnken on Timaeus Lex. s.v. Timaeus seems to have found it in his text of the Republic.

διὰ τὰς βαναυσίας . Cf. Xen. Oec. 4. 2 αἵ γε βαναυσικαὶ καλούμεναι (sc. τέχναι)— καταλυμαίνονται—τὰ σώματα τῶν τε ἐργαζομένων καὶ τῶν ἐπιμελομένων, ἀναγκάζουσαι καθῆσθαι καὶ σκιατραφεῖσθαι, ἔνιαι δὲ καὶ πρὸς πῦρ ἡμερεύειν. τῶν δὲ σωμάτων θηλυνομένων καὶ αἱ ψυχαὶ πολὺ ἀρρωστότεραι γίγνονται. It is probable that βαναυσία was “primarily a military conception, dependent for its origin on the obvious fact that certain modes of life and the exercise of certain trades disqualify from prowess in the field” (Greenidge Gk. Const. History p. 22, quoting in support Hdt. II 165—167). “Sedentary and within-door arts,” says Bacon (quoted by Newman Politics of Aristotle I p. 105), “have in their nature a contrariety to a military disposition.” In practice the term is freely applied by the writers of the best period to every kind of mechanical or illiberal labour or pursuit. Aristotle defines βαναυσία in these words: βάναυσον δ’ ἔργον εἶναι δεῖ τοῦτο νομίζειν καὶ τέχνην ταύτην καὶ μάθησιν, ὅσαι πρὸς τὰς χρήσεις καὶ τὰς πράξεις τὰς τῆς ἀρετῆς ἄχρηστον ἀπεργάζονται τὸ σῶμα τῶν ἐλευθέρων ἢ τὴν ψυχὴν ἢ τὴν διάνοιαν ( Pol. Θ 2. 1337^{b} 8 ff.). See also Whibley Gk. Olig. pp. 42 ff. and Newman l.c. pp. 104—115. The ancients mostly derived the word from βαῦνος ‘a furnace’ and αὔω, “quasi βάναυσος qui caminum accendit” (Stephanus-Hase Thes. s. v.). In view of the Boeotian βανά= γυνή and βανῆκας· γυναῖκας Βοιωτοί in Hesychius, I have conjectured in Cl. Rev. VII p. 112 that βάναυσος, which does not look like an Attic word, may be connected with βανά. If so, the word perhaps originally meant ‘effeminate’ ‘unmanly’: cf. θηλυνομένων in the extract quoted from Xenophon. In any case, however, the ancient etymology can hardly be right.

δοκεῖς οὖν τι κτλ. In the ‘little bald tinker’ several critics have recognised Isocrates: see for example Teichmüller Lit. Fehd. I p. 105 and Jackson's article on the Sophists in the Enc. Brit. ἐκ δεσμῶν λελυμένου—ἐν βαλανείῳ δὲ λελουμένου is an admirable example of rhetorical παρομοίωσις, and satirises the tricks of style for which Isocrates was notorious. But all the sophistical rhetoricians of the school of Gorgias affected meretricious ornaments of this kind (see Hug on Symp. 194 E ff. and especially Cope's Rhetoric of Aristotle III pp. 105, 106), and Plato's shafts are not levelled at Isocrates alone. As usual, he individualises the type, and if the resultant picture resembles Isocrates, so much the worse for him. Plato would not be sorry (cf. Euthyd. 305 ff., with Spengel's Isokr. u. Pl. pp. 36—40), and doubtless intended his readers to think of Isocrates, as they certainly would. See also on 498 E.

ἀργύριον κτλ. Cf. Cratin. Seriph. 2 Meineke ἀνδρῶν νεοπλουτοπονήρων | αἰσχρῶν .

φαλακροῦ καὶ σμικροῦ . Was Isocrates bald and short? The bust of him in the Villa Albani is not bald, and it would be pressing the personality to the verge of absurdity to take these words so seriously. The poverty ( πενίαν etc.) and loneliness is of course the daughter's (cf. 495 C ἔρημον καὶ ἀτελῆ φιλοσοφίαν λείποντες), not her father's, as D. and V. suppose. In other words τοῦ δεσπότου belongs only to τὴν θυγατέρα.