Plato Republic 9.573

ὑπόπτερον is doubly appropriate: for Ἔρως too has wings.

τῶν τοιούτων . Masculine, not neuter, as Stallbaum once supposed.

ὅταν . A large majority of MSS have ὅταν δή, which Schneider retains. δή is unsuitable after οὐκοῦν, and may possibly have arisen from the accidental reduplication of ΑΝ: see on V 450 C. I agree with most editors in accepting the text of A.

αὐτὸν κτλ. αὐτόν means ἔρωτα, the μέγαν κηφῆνα. On βομβοῦσαι see VIII 564 D note The position of the participial adjective ἀνειμένων is illustrated on VII 532 C.

αὔξουσαί τε καὶ τρέφουσαι . The object is τὸν κηφῆνα, not of course πόθου κέντρον, as Jowett translates. This master-passion grows by what it feeds on, until it becomes acute, and ends in madness and frenzy. πόθου κέντρον (cf. Phaedr. 253 E πόθου κέντρων) is ‘the sting of unsatisfied desire’ ( Sehnsucht Schneider): cf. the definition of πόθος in Crat. 420 A πόθος—οὐ τοῦ παρόντος—ἀλλὰ τοῦ ἄλλοθί που ὄντος καὶ ἀπόντος. Ast conjectured τρέφουσαι πόθον, κέντρον κτλ., “namque πόθος s. ἔρως iam inest in fuco.” But in point of fact the ἔρως is the drone, and the MS text is far more picturesque and expressive.

δορυφορεῖται . Cf. VIII 566 B ff.

ἐν αὑτῷ . The Oxford editors, with Herwerden, read ἐν αὐτῷ, “i.e. the man,” remarking that “good opinions and desires could hardly be supposed to exist” in the drone. True; but παρ’ αὑτοῦ shews that αὑτῷ is right, and αὐτῷ is unpleasing on aesthetic as well as on grammatical grounds. Plato speaks as if the master-passion were itself the soul. The inaccuracy is easily excused because the whole soul is rapidly falling under its sway.

ποιουμένας =‘accounted.’ Hermann proposes ποτωμένας, Herwerden ἐμποιουμένας: but the text is sound. See VI 498 A note

καθήρῃ : as in the καθαρμός of VIII 567 C.

μανίας δὲ κτλ. See cr. n. A few deterioris notae MSS agree with A, which is certainly in error here. Cf. IV 441 D. The epithet ἐπακτοῦ recalls the ξενικοί of VIII 567 D f.

καὶ μεθυσθεὶς κτλ. Ast compares Bacchyl. Frag. 27. 6 f. Bergk (on the effects of wine) αὐτίχ’ ὁ μὲν πόλεων κρήδεμνα λύει | πᾶσι δ’ ἀνθρώποις μοναρχήσειν δοκεῖ. But τυραννικόν τι φρόνημα ἴσχει has of course a wider meaning than this.

ὑποκεκινηκώς =‘deranged’ (D. and V.). The litotes in ὑπο‐ is only euphemistic. ὑποκεκινηκώς with this meaning does not apparently occur elsewhere in classical Greek: see StephanusHase Thes. s.v., where the only parallel cited is from a scholium on Soph. Aj. 531 ὑποκεκινηκότι μὴ πιστεύουσα. W. H. Thompson (on Phaedr. 249 D ) proposes παρακεκινηκώς, in view of Ar. Frogs 643 , where he approves ‘on MS authority’ the reading ἤν με παρακινήσαντ’ ἴδῃς. In point of fact, however, this reading will not scan, and the Ravenna with other MSS has ἤν μ’ ὑποκινήσαντ’ ἴδῃς, although ὑποκινεῖν is not used with the same sense as here.

οὐ μόνον κτλ. The madman also τυραννικόν τι φρόνημα ἴσχει. ἐλπίζει is not here ‘expects’ (D. and V.) but ‘fancies,’ ‘imagines’ (II 383 B note).

τυραννικὸς δὲ κτλ. I formerly printed δή for δέ (with q and Vermehren Plat. Stud. p. 112), but now prefer the reading of the best MSS. Plato is testing his account of the origin of the tyrannical man by obvious and admitted facts: cf. (with Schneider) IV 442 E ff. Lust, Drink, and Madness are confessedly tyrants; and we hold that a τυραννικὸς ἀνήρ in the strictest sense of the term (for ἀκριβῶς cf. I 341 C) is produced when a man falls under the dominion of all three. So that our theory accords with everyday experience. μελαγχολικός is not of course ‘passionate’ (Jowett), but ‘insane’: cf. ὅ γε μαινόμενος καὶ ὑποκεκινηκώς above.

γίγνεται κτλ. ‘Such, apparently, is the origin also of the tyrannical man.’ The stress of the voice falls on τοιοῦτος i.q. τυραννικός ( τυραννικὸς ἀνήρ in Socrates' last sentence). καί is etiam : we have now described his origin as well as that of the others. J. and C. propose ἁνήρ, as if Plato meant γίγνεται οὕτω, καί <*>στιν τοιοῦτος. But the character of the man has still to be described ( ζῇ δὲ δὴ πῶς;): hitherto we have been concerned only with his genesis ( γίγνεται μέν). Schneider caught the meaning (“so nun entsteht auch dieser Mann”); but recent English translators are wrong. For μέν Richards conjectures μὲν οὖν (or οὐκοῦν γίγνεται μέν as an alternative). The asyndeton helps of course to accentuate the antithesis between γίγνεται and ζῇ .

τὸ τῶν παιζόντων . παροιμία ἡνίκα τις ἐρωτηθείς τι ὑπὸ γινώσκοντος τὸ ἐρω‐ τηθέν, αὐτὸς ἀγνοῶν, οὕτως ἀποκρίνηται ‘σὺ καὶ ἐμοὶ ἐρεῖς’ (Schol.). Cf. Phil. 25 B .

αὐτοῖς : the τυραννικός and his associates.

θαλίαι . See cr. n. θάλεια is either an adjective or the name of the Muse. Schneider (who was unaware that II has θαλίαι) retains θάλειαι, but his note conclusively proves, I think, that the Attic writers as well as Homer invariably observed the distinction. Stallbaum alone of recent editors reads θαλίαι .

ἑταῖραι . “Nullus locus scortis est inter ἑορτὰς atque κώμους καὶ θαλίας” says Stallbaum. On this account he prefers ἑταιρίαι (a conjecture of G. W. Nitzsch), taking the word, strangely enough, for lupanaria. There is not the shadow of a difficulty: cf. II 373 A note and ἑταίρας 574 B below.

ὧν κτλ. : ‘in whoso's breast the tyrant Love indwelling steers all their soul.’ The words are tinged with poetical colouring, as often in passages of this kind: cf. VIII 560 D, E al. J. and C. erroneously make ὧν neuter and dependent on Ἔρως. The pronoun is construed with τὰ τῆς ψυχῆς ἅπαντα by Shorey ( A. J. Ph. XVI p. 237), but in that case οἷς would have been more natural. The view I take agrees with Schneider's.

παραβλαστάνουσιν : ‘shoot up beside’ the master-passion. These desires correspond to τὸ τοῦ τυράννου στρατόπεδον τὸ καλόν τε καὶ πολὺ καὶ ποικίλον καὶ οὐδέποτε ταὐτόν in the τυραννουμένη πόλις (VIII 568 D).

ἀναλίσκονται κτλ. Cf. VIII 568 D.

τῆς οὐσίας παραιρέσεις κτλ. : ‘encroachments on his capital’ etc. (J. and C.), viz. to meet the moneylender's claims. See VIII 555 E. On ἐπιλίπῃ see VIII 568 E note

ἀνάγκη μὲν κτλ. Bekker reads ἀνάγκη τὰς μέν with q and Flor. U: “recte, si cupiditates ipsis opponi statuimus. Sed nihil impedit, quo minus alteram necessitatem—quae postea hanc consequi particula δή significatur, iam hic scriptori obversatam atque hanc illi alteri oppositam putemus. Accedit quod si τὰς μὲν ἐπιθυμίας scripsisset, non τοὺς δέ, sed αὐτοὺς δὲ dicturus fuisse videtur” (Schneider). We have no right to change τούς to αὐτούς as Stallbaum is fain to do.

ἐννενεοττευμένας is copied, as Ast observes, by Longinus περὶ ὕψους 44. 7.

κέντρων . The other desires (as well as the master Passion) are compared to goads. For the idiom ὥσπερ ὑπὸ κέντρων τῶν κτλ. cf. VIII 553 B note

αὐτοῦ τοῦ ἔρωτος κτλ. is not for τῶν αὐτοῦ τοῦ ἔρωτος κτλ., as Stallbaum seems to hold; for the ἔρως is itself an ἐπιθυμία: see 572 E ff. With δορυφόροις cf. VIII 567 D.