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ξυρεῖν -- λέοντα . παροιμία ἐπὶ τῶν καθ̓ ἑαυτῶν τι ἢ ἀδύνατα ποιεῖν ἐπιχειρούντων λεγομένη (Schol.). The proverb is very rare, and does not seem to occur elsewhere in classical Greek. οὐδὲν ὢν καὶ ταῦτα: ‘though you were a nonentity at that too’: i.e. at bluffing me, as well as in other respects. So (I think) Schneider, rightly (“aber auch darin ist's nichts mit dir”). Others (e.g. Shorey in A. J. Ph. XVI p. 234) explain ‘and that too though you are a thing of naught.’ But in that case καὶ ταῦτα would surely precede οὐδὲν ὤν. Tucker can hardly be right in making καὶ ταῦτα simply ‘moreover’ ‘too,’ ‘and proved a failure, too.’ Nor (in spite of J. B. Mayor in Cl. Rev. X p. 110) is it quite enough to translate (with Campbell) ‘though here again you are nobody,’ i.e. ‘with as little effect as ever.’ καὶ λέγε -- ὄντα is expunged by Herwerden, but the emphatic reiteration is in keeping with the whole tone of the passage. For the sense we may recall the words of the so-called oath of Hippocrates εἰς οἰκίας δὲ ὁκόσας ἂν ἐσίω, ἐσελεύσομαι ἐπ᾽ ὠφελείῃ τῶν καμνόντων (Vol. 1. p. 2 ed. Kühn).
The Republic of Plato. James Adam. 1902. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press.
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