James Adam, Commentary on Plato, Republic, ed. James Adam, 6.495E

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[495E] 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.

Commentary on Plato, Republic. James Adam. ed. James Adam. Cambridge. 1926-1929.

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Commentary on Plato, Republic (English) (Plato. The Republic, Vol 1-2. Adam, James, editor. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1902-1903.)

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Πολιτεία Perseus (Platonis Opera Tomus IV: Tetralogia VIII. Burnet, John, editor. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1905.) — 6.495 focus

[495] 495a
πολλή, ἦ δʼ ὅς, ἀνάγκη.
ἔστιν οὖν ὅπως ὁ τοιοῦτος φιλοσοφήσει;
οὐ πάνυ.
ὁρᾷς οὖν, ἦν δʼ ἐγώ, ὅτι οὐ κακῶς ἐλέγομεν ὡς ἄρα καὶ αὐτὰ τὰ τῆς φιλοσόφου φύσεως μέρη, ὅταν ἐν κακῇ τροφῇ γένηται, αἴτια τρόπον τινὰ τοῦ ἐκπεσεῖν ἐκ τοῦ ἐπιτηδεύματος, καὶ τὰ λεγόμενα ἀγαθά, πλοῦτοί τε καὶ πᾶσα ἡ τοιαύτη παρασκευή;
οὐ γάρ, ἀλλʼ ὀρθῶς, ἔφη, ἐλέχθη.
οὗτος δή, εἶπον, ὦ θαυμάσιε, ὄλεθρός τε καὶ διαφθορὰ 495b τοσαύτη τε καὶ τοιαύτη τῆς βελτίστης φύσεως εἰς τὸ ἄριστον ἐπιτήδευμα, ὀλίγης καὶ ἄλλως γιγνομένης, ὡς ἡμεῖς φαμεν. καὶ ἐκ τούτων δὴ τῶν ἀνδρῶν καὶ οἱ τὰ μέγιστα κακὰ ἐργαζόμενοι τὰς πόλεις γίγνονται καὶ τοὺς ἰδιώτας, καὶ οἱ τἀγαθά, οἳ ἂν ταύτῃ τύχωσι ῥυέντες· σμικρὰ δὲ φύσις οὐδὲν μέγα οὐδέποτε οὐδένα οὔτε ἰδιώτην οὔτε πόλιν δρᾷ.
ἀληθέστατα, ἦ δʼ ὅς.
οὗτοι μὲν δὴ οὕτως ἐκπίπτοντες, οἷς μάλιστα προσήκει, 495c ἔρημον καὶ ἀτελῆ φιλοσοφίαν λείποντες αὐτοί τε βίον οὐ προσήκοντα οὐδʼ ἀληθῆ ζῶσιν, τὴν δέ, ὥσπερ ὀρφανὴν συγγενῶν, ἄλλοι ἐπεισελθόντες ἀνάξιοι ᾔσχυνάν τε καὶ ὀνείδη περιῆψαν, οἷα καὶ σὺ φῂς ὀνειδίζειν τοὺς ὀνειδίζοντας, ὡς οἱ συνόντες αὐτῇ οἱ μὲν οὐδενός, οἱ δὲ πολλοὶ πολλῶν κακῶν ἄξιοί εἰσιν.
καὶ γὰρ οὖν, ἔφη, τά γε λεγόμενα ταῦτα.
εἰκότως γε, ἦν δʼ ἐγώ, λεγόμενα. καθορῶντες γὰρ ἄλλοι ἀνθρωπίσκοι κενὴν τὴν χώραν ταύτην γιγνομένην, καλῶν 495d δὲ ὀνομάτων καὶ προσχημάτων μεστήν, ὥσπερ οἱ ἐκ τῶν εἱργμῶν εἰς τὰ ἱερὰ ἀποδιδράσκοντες, ἅσμενοι καὶ οὗτοι ἐκ τῶν τεχνῶν ἐκπηδῶσιν εἰς τὴν φιλοσοφίαν, οἳ ἂν κομψότατοι ὄντες τυγχάνωσι περὶ τὸ αὑτῶν τεχνίον. ὅμως γὰρ δὴ πρός γε τὰς ἄλλας τέχνας καίπερ οὕτω πραττούσης φιλοσοφίας τὸ ἀξίωμα μεγαλοπρεπέστερον λείπεται, οὗ δὴ ἐφιέμενοι πολλοὶ ἀτελεῖς μὲν τὰς φύσεις, ὑπὸ δὲ τῶν τεχνῶν τε καὶ δημιουργιῶν ὥσπερ τὰ σώματα λελώβηνται, οὕτω 495e καὶ τὰς ψυχὰς συγκεκλασμένοι τε καὶ ἀποτεθρυμμένοι διὰ τὰς βαναυσίας τυγχάνουσιν—ἢ οὐκ ἀνάγκη;
καὶ μάλα, ἔφη.
δοκεῖς οὖν τι, ἦν δʼ ἐγώ, διαφέρειν αὐτοὺς ἰδεῖν ἀργύριον κτησαμένου χαλκέως φαλακροῦ καὶ σμικροῦ, νεωστὶ μὲν ἐκ δεσμῶν λελυμένου, ἐν βαλανείῳ δὲ λελουμένου, νεουογὸν ἱμάτιον ἔχοντος, ὡς νυμφίου παρεσκευασμένου, διὰ πενίαν καὶ ἐρημίαν τοῦ δεσπότου τὴν θυγατέρα μέλλοντος γαμεῖν;

Translations (1)

Republic Perseus (Plato in Twelve Volumes, Vol. 5-6. Shorey, Paul, translator. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1935-37 (printing).) — 6.495 focus

[495] 495a That is inevitable, he said. Is there any possibility of such a one continuing to philosophize? None at all, he said.
Do you see, then, said I, that we were not wrong in saying that the very qualities that make up the philosophical nature do, in fact, become, when the environment and nurture are bad, in some sort the cause of its backsliding,¹ and so do the so-called goods—² riches and all such instrumentalities³? No, he replied, it was rightly said. Such, my good friend, and so great as regards the noblest pursuit, 495b is the destruction and corruption⁴ of the most excellent nature, which is rare enough in any case,⁵ as we affirm. And it is from men of this type that those spring who do the greatest harm to communities and individuals, and the greatest good when the stream chances to be turned into that channel,⁶ but a small nature⁷ never does anything great to a man or a city. Most true, said he. 495c Those, then, to whom she properly belongs, thus falling away and leaving philosophy forlorn and unwedded, themselves live an unreal and alien life, while other unworthy wooers⁸ rush in and defile her as an orphan bereft of her kin,⁹ and attach to her such reproaches as you say her revilers taunt her with, declaring that some of her consorts are of no account and the many accountable for many evils. Why, yes, he replied, that is what they do say. And plausibly, said I; for other mannikins, observing that the place is unoccupied and full of fine terms and pretensions, 495d just as men escape from prison to take sanctuary in temples, so these gentlemen joyously bound away from the mechanical¹⁰ arts to philosophy, those that are most cunning in their little craft.¹¹ For in comparison with the other arts the prestige of philosophy even in her present low estate retains a superior dignity; and this is the ambition and aspiration of that multitude of pretenders unfit by nature, whose souls are bowed and mutilated¹² by their vulgar occupations¹³ 495e even as their bodies are marred by their arts and crafts. Is not that inevitable? Quite so, he said. Is not the picture which they present, I said, precisely that of a little bald-headed tinker¹⁴ who has made money and just been freed from bonds and had a bath and is wearing a new garment and has got himself up like a bridegroom and is about to marry his master’s daughter 496a who has fallen into poverty and abandonment?

James Adam Commentary on Plato, Republic 6.495E

ed. James Adam

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