James Adam, The Republic of Plato

ὕμνους -- ἀγαθοῖς. In Laws 801 E —802 A the same exceptions are allowed. Even religious hymns would fall under the heading of μίμησις, according to Plato's definition of the term: so that it is once more clear that his real quarrel is not with Imitation as such, but only with Imitation of the false and immoral. See on 595 A. For the construction cf. (with Stallbaum) Symp. 194 D τοῦ ἐγκωμίου τῷ Ἔρωτι. In pp. 55—59 of his Stellung d. Poesie in der plat. Phil. Stählin gives an interesting sketch of the kind of Poetry which Plato would have admitted in the Republic.

ἡδυσμένην. The same word is used by Aristotle in a narrower sense, with specific reference to what he considers the ἡδύσματα or seasoning of poetry, viz. metre and melody: see Butcher Aristotle's Theory of Poetry^{2} etc. p. 146 note 1. Here ἡδυσμένην points the way to ἡδονή; and for that reason ‘pleasurable’ is a more suitable translation than ‘honeyed’ (Jowett) or ‘highlyseasoned’ (D. and V.), although the epithet also suggests a comparison with cookery (cf. ὄψον ἡδῦναι Theaet. 175 E). For the sentiment cf. III 398 A f. αὐτοὶ δ᾽ ἂν τῷ αὐστηροτέρῳ καὶ ἀηδεστέρῳ ποιητῇ χρῴμεθα κτλ.

τοῦ κοινῇ -- λόγου: ‘the principle which the community shall in every instance have pronounced to be the best.’ See 604 B—D, where one example of such a λόγος is provided. For λόγος in this sense cf. (with Schneider) Crit. 46 B ἐγὼ—ἀεὶ τοιοῦτος οἷος τῶν ἐμῶν μηδενὶ ἄλλῳ πείθεσθαι ἢ τῷ λόγῳ, ὃς ἄν μοι λογιζομένῳ βέλτιστος φαίνηται. In his second edition Ast wished to place a comma after βελτίστου (‘that which has ever been judged best by all, viz. reason’). This interpretation lends a certain weight and dignity to the clause; but the other is easier and more natural. Cf. Shorey in A. J. Ph. XIII pp. 364 ff. Plato elsewhere provides against what he takes to be the antinomian tendency of Poetry by enacting that the Poet shall παρὰ τὰ τῆς πόλεως νόμιμα καὶ δίκαια ἢ καλὰ ἢ ἀγαθὰ μηδὲν ποιεῖν ἄλλο, and submit all his works to a state censorship (Laws 801 C, D), although in a striking passage of the Politicus (299 B, E) he himself insists that freedom is the very life of poetry and every other art. See Reber Platon u. die Poesie p. 71.