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Socrates meets a friend, who asks him to describe his interview
with Protagoras.
1. πόθεν—ὥραν. The opening words of Cicero's translation
of the Protagoras are preserved by Priscian (VI. 63): quid tu?
unde tandem appares, o Socrate? an id quidem dubium non est,
quin ab Alcibiade? ἢ = Latin an? introduces a second question
intended to forestall Socrates' answer to the first: cf. Apol. 26B
πῶς με φῂς διαφθείρειν, ὦ Μέλητε, τοὺς νεωτέρους; ἢ δῆλον δὴ ὅτι
κτλ.;
2. κυνηγεσίου—ὥραν. For the metaphor in κυνηγεσίου
Sauppe quotes Soph. 222D τῇ τῶν ἐρώντων θήρᾳ τὸν νοῦν, ὡς
ἔοικας, οὔπω προσέσχες and Xen. Mem. 1. 2. 24 Ἀλκιβιάδης—διὰ
μὲν κάλλος—θηρώμενος κτλ. τοῦ περὶ τὴν Ἀλκιβιάδου ὥραν (= τὸν
ὡραῖον Ἀλκιβιάδην, cf. βίη Ἡρακλείη for βίαιος Ἡρακλῆς) is a
slight παρὰ προσδοκίαν as in the English: ‘From hunting, no
doubt—after the young and blooming Alcibiades.’ It was part
of Socrates' habitual irony to pretend to be in love with young
men of ability (cf. the words of Alcibiades in Symp. 216D
Σωκράτης ἐρωτικῶς διάκειται τῶν καλῶν καὶ ἀεὶ περὶ τούτους ἐστὶ
καὶ ἐκπέπληκται and 216E: see also below, note on 310A l. 36).
καὶ μήν μοι καί. καὶ μήν is merely ‘well’ as in Phaedo, 84D καὶ μὴν—τἀληθῆ σοι ἐρῶ. The second καί goes with πρῴην:
‘well, it was only the other day that I saw him, etc.’ In the next
line καλὸς ἀνήρ is in the predicate: the readings of Bekker (ἁνήρ）
and Athenaeus (ὁ ἀνήρ) are less good. ἀνὴρ μέντοι is ‘but yet a
man’)(παῖς. At the age of 18 an Athenian εἰς ἄνδρας ἐνεγράφετο.
4. ὥς γ᾽ ἐν αὐτοῖς ἡμῖν—ὑποπιμπλάμενος. αὐτοῖς =
μόνοις is emphatic as in the usual αὐτοὶ γάρ ἐσμεν and therefore
precedes ἡμῖν. ὥς γ᾽ ἐν αὐτοῖς ἡμῖν εἰρῆσθαι apologises for ἀνὴρ
μέντοι: for this use of ὥς γε cf. Euthyd. 307A ὥς γε πρὸς σὲ
τἀληθῆ εἰρῆσθαι and below 339E καὶ in καὶ πώγωνος is ‘and’ not
‘even’. ὑπο- in ὑποπιμπλάμενος is diminutive, like sub- in Latin.
So in 312Aἤδη γὰρ ὑπέφαινέν τι ἡμέρας.
6. οὐ σὺ μέντοι. ‘In interrogationibus haec particula’ (μέντοι) ‘ita cum οὐ negatione coniungitur, ut gravissima sententiae
vox intercedat, quo modo aliquis eis quae ex altero quaerit
summam veritatis ingerit speciem’ (Hoefer, de particulis
Platonicis, p. 34). The idiom is very frequent in Plato, e.g.
Rep. I. 339B, Crat. 439A, Theaet. 163E. Translate ‘You don't
mean to say that you disapprove of Homer’.
Plato. Protagoras. J. Adam & A. M. Adam. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press. 1893.
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