J. Adam, A. M. Adam, Commentary on Plato, Protagoras
J. Adam & A. M. Adam, Ed.

CHAPTER VI

1. δόξαν ἡμῖν ταῦτα. This idiom seems not to occur elsewhere in Plato. We can hardly supply ποιεῖν: rather δόξαν ταῦτα is like δόξαντα ταῦτα, an accusative absolute, the singular verb being kept as in ἔδοξε ταῦτα. See Goodwin's Moods and Tenses (1889), p. 339, § 854.

2. προθύρῳ. The rooms of a Greek house opened on the cloisters surrounding the αὐλή or court: from the αὐλή a passage (θυρωρεῖον, so called because the porter's lodge was situated in it) led into the πρόθυρον or space in front of the main door (αὔλειος θύρα or αὐλεία without θύρα). Blümner, Griechische Privatalterthümer, pp. 147 ff.

ἐπιστάντες διελεγόμεθα. The situation recalls Symp. 175A ff., where Socrates, on his way to Agathon's house, is discovered standing wrapt in thought in front of a neighbouring house.

4. οὕτως ἐσίοιμεν. οὕτως with the apodosis after participles is extremely common in Plato: see above on 310D

5. στάντες. For the dropping of the preposition after ἐπιστάντες see on 311A The Bodleian has ἐστάντες, but T στάντες: Schanz reads ἐπιστάντες, Cobet ἑστῶτες. Tr. ‘we came to a stand and conversed’.

6. δοκεῖ οὖν μοι. Cf. Phaedo, 108D ὁ βίος μοι δοκεῖ ὁ ἐμὸς— τῷ μήκει τοῦ λόγου οὐκ ἐξαρκεῖ: the construction is fairly common in Plato: see on Crito, 43D. To have a eunuch for porter was rare, and a mark of wealth: they were supposed to be more trustworthy than others and fetched a higher price in the East (Hdt. VIII. 105).

7. κινδυνεύει—ἄχθεσθαι. Present, because the dialogue is narrated just after it took place (see 309B, and as Protagoras is still with Callias, the stream of visitors probably continues. It is not quite clear why the number of the sophists should have made the porter annoyed with the visitors, unless the visitors themselves were sophists. Probably therefore τοῖς φοιτῶσιν means τοῖς φοιτῶσιν σοφισταῖς: in the porter's judgement the house was already too full of sophists. φοιτᾶν implies frequent visitation: cf. Lach. 181C χρῆν μὲν οὖν καὶ πρότερόν σε φοιτᾶν αὐτὸν παρ᾽ ἡμᾶς καὶ οἰκείους ἡγεῖσθαι.

9. ἐκρούσαμεν τὴν θύραν. There was a metal knocker (ῥόπτρον, κόραξ, ἐπίσπαστρον) on the αὔλειος θύρα. Blümner, Gr. Privatalt. p. 149.

10. οὐ σχολὴ αὐτῷ. For αὐτῷ ‘the master’ cf. below, 315B Rep. I. 327B ἠρόμην ὅπου αὐτὸς εἴη, and the Pythagorean αὐτὸς ἔφα ipse dixit.

11. ἀμφοῖν τοῖν χεροῖν. So B: T has ταῖν for τοῖν. Cobet has shown that the dual feminine of the article is the same as the dual masculine: Variae Lectiones, p. 70.

13. ἐκρούομεν, but ἐκρούσαμεν in l. 9. Socrates pretends to be somewhat staggered by the rebuff.

ἐγκεκλῃμένης. So Bekker for ἐγκεκλειμένης of B: the Attic form is κλῄω not κλείω: Cobet, Var. Lect. p. 159.

18. ἅνθρωπος. According to Ast, the Greeks sometimes used ἀνήρ and ἄνθρωπος without the article of a definite person sed ita ut vel contemptionem vel reprehensionem aliquam simul indicarent. But in the cases quoted in support of this usage where the word is in an oblique case, the meaning is quite general like the English ‘a man’, e.g. Rep. X. 596C δεινόν τινα λέγεις καὶ θαυμαστὸν ἄνδρα; Phaedo, 98B ὁρῶ ἄνδρα τῷ μὲν νῷ οὐδὲν χρώμενον; Soph. Phil. 1228 ἀπάταισιν αἰσχραῖς ἄνδρα καὶ δόλοις ἑλών; Theaet. 155D ἐάν σοι ἀνδρός, μᾶλλον δὲ ἀνδρῶν ὀνομαστῶντῆς διανοίας τὴν ἀλήθειαν—συνεξερευνήσωμαι: it is therefore safer to suppose (with Schanz and most Platonic scholars) that where ἀνήρ and ἄνθρωπος of the MSS. can only be translated by ‘the man’, the rough breathing should be restored: e.g. below, 315E and Phaedr. 267A, 268C; Rep. I. 331E.

20. προστῴῳ. The αὐλή was surrounded by cloisters. This προστῷον is doubtless that on which the passage from the πρόθυρον opened.

23. Πάραλος—Ἀντίμοιρος. The mother of Xanthippus and Paralus had once been the wife of Hipponicus, to whom she bare Callias: Plut. Pericl. XXIV. 9. In 320Aas well as in Meno, 94B Plato remarks that Pericles was unable to teach the art of statesmanship to either of his two sons: cf. Alc. I, 118E τὼ— Περικλέους υἱέε ἠλιθίω ἐγενέσθην. They both died of the plague. One of the most interesting fragments of Protagoras describes the fortitude of Pericles when his sons died: see Appendix 11, p. 221, Frag. 3. Charmides, son of the elder Glaucon, was Plato's maternal uncle: the dialogue Charmides is named after him. He was φιλόσοφός τε καὶ πάνυ ποιητικός (Charm. 155A), and as remarkable for σωφροσύνη as for personal beauty (ibid. 157D). He was afterwards one of the Ten, and fell along with Critias at the battle of Munychia in 404 B.C. (Xen. Hell. II. 4. 19). Of Philippides and his father Philomelus and Antimoerus of Mende (on the west coast of the peninsula Pallene) nothing further is known.

28. τούτων—ἐφαίνοντο. B and T omit οἵ, which was inserted by Stephanus: Heindorf prefers to insert ὧν after λεγομένων. The MSS. reading could only be defended if ἐφαίνοντο could be regarded as parenthetical = ὡς ἐφαίνοντο, like δοκεῖ μοι = ὡς δοκεῖ μοι (see on 314Cabove), but there seems to be no authority for such a use of φαίνομαι. It is hardly to be supposed that in ἐπακούοντες and ἐπήκοοι (in B below) there is an allusion to an outer circle of Protagorean students, deemed unworthy of the subtlest teaching of the master, in spite of Theaet. 152C, where Socrates is hardly serious.

30. ἐξ ἑκάστων τῶν πόλεων. The plural is used as in Theaet. 157C παρατίθημι ἑκάστων τῶν σοφῶν ἀπογεύσασθαι and Rep. X. 601A χρώματ᾽ ἄττα ἑκάστων τῶν τεχνῶν.

33. χορῷ. The tragic chorus consisted of 15 χορευταί, arranged in 3 rows (στοῖχοι) of 5 each, the leader (κορυφαῖος） being in the middle of the first. So here Protagoras occupies the middle of a row of 7. With the metaphor cf. Theaet. 173B τοὺς— τοῦ ἡμετέρου χοροῦ and ibid. C λέγωμεν δὴ—περὶ τῶν κορυφαίων; Phaedr. 246E ff.

34. ηὐλαβοῦντο. The MSS. have εὐλαβοῦντο, but in the classic period εὐ- (and εἰ-) were always augmented in the past tenses, while after 300 B.C. ηὐ- does not appear on inscriptions. See Meisterhans, Gr. der Att. Inschr.², p. 136.