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περὶ ἐπῶν: this and also ὀρθῶς
were probably expressions characteristic of Protagoras, cf. 342 a. As to his ὀρθοέπεια, so called in Phaedr, 267 c, see Introd. p. 4.
διελεῖν: analyze, explain. Cf. 314 b διελέσθαι, Hipp. Ma. 285 c ἃ σὺ ἀκριβέστατα ἐπίστασαι ἀνθρώπων διαιρεῖν, περί τε γραμμάτων δυνάμεως καὶ συλλαβῶν, Charm. 163 d καὶ γὰρ Προδίκου μυρία τινὰ ἀκήκοα περὶ ὀνομάτων διαιροῦντος. But in 340 a, 341 c it is distinguish.
νῦν δή : ἀρτίως ἢ μικρὸν ἔμπροσθεν, Photius Lex. p. 305, 9. cf. Poll. i. 72, when used with an impf. (otherwise in 349 a). The contrast is marked, as here, by νῦν or νῦν δέ, cf. 340 b νῦν δὴ εἶπες . . . νῦν σκόπει, Legg. iii. 683 e ἢ νῦν δὴ μὲν τούτοις περιτυχόντες τοῖς λόγοις οὕτω ταῦτ᾽ ἐτίθεμεν, νῦν δ̓ ἐπιλελήσμεθα or did we a little while ago, coming to these principles, lay them down thus, and now have we forgotten them? the comic poet Magnes (Meineke Com. Frag. ii. 10) εἰπέ μοι: νῦν δὴ μὲν ὤμνυς μὴ γεγονέναι, νῦν δὲ φῄς; After the interruption, the contrast of the earlier with the later (νῦν ἔσται) could not be expressed by νῦν διαλεγόμεθα (the reading of the Mss.).
πρὸς Σκόπαν: “in a poem in honor of Scopas.” The Scopadae, a princely family of Thessaly, allied with the Aleuadae, were dynasts in Crannon and Pharsalus. Of this family, Diactorides was among the suitors for the daughter of Clisthenes in Sicyon (Hdt. vi. 127), and a Scopas, according to Diogenes Laërtius, ii. 25, invited Socrates to his residence. Simonides, as Gorgias at a later day, was often the guest of the Scopadae, and composed several poems in their honor. These included an epinician ode (in which he celebrated the Dioscuri, Cic. de Or. ii. 86, Quint. xi. 2. 11 ff.), the poem before us (whether an epinician ode or a scolion see Introd. p. 19), and a threnos when a great part of the family perished, at a triumphal feast, by the fall of the roof of the banqueting hall (Bergk Poet. Lyr. iii. 384^{4}). To meet the ἀποπία, the criticism of Protagoras, several answers are now ready; namely, the first attempted explanation by Socrates, the one by Prodicus, the second by Socrates, and the barely intended one by Hippias. See Introd. pp. 11 f.
Hermann Sauppe. James A. Towle. Commentary on Plato: Protagoras. Ginn & Company. Boston and London. 1889.
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