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ἐάν τε -- βλάψειν is in oratio obliqua: ‘et si quis inimicum laedere velit, nocituros se parvo sumptu iusto pariter et iniusto’ (Schneider Addit. p. 11). This explanation (which Tucker also proposes without knowing that Schneider had forestalled him) is by far the best and simplest. For other views see App. III. ἐπαγωγαῖς -- καταδέσμοις . ἐπαγωγαί are ἀγωγαὶ δαίμονος φαύλου ἐπί τινα γενόμεναι (Timaeus Lex. s.v.). The datives are usually construed with πείθοντες, and καταδέσμοις understood as the binding formulae “by which the seer compels the invisible powers to work his will” (Rohde Psyche^{2} II p. 88 note). But in the κατάδεσμοι which have been discovered it is the victim and not the god who is bound down; see e.g. CIG 538 (an Athenian inscription of about 380 B.C.)—καταδῶ Κτησίαν—καὶ Κλεοφράδην καταδῶ—καὶ τοὺς μετὰ Κτησίου ἅπαντας καταδῶ. This and other instances from leaden tablets found in graves are given by Wachsmuth Rhein. Mus. XVIII (1863) pp. 560 ff.: cf. also Marquardt Röm. Staatsverwaltung III p. 109 note 6. On this account I think it better to connect ἐπαγωγαῖς τισὶν καὶ καταδέσμοις with βλάψειν, exactly as in Laws 933 D ἐὰν δὲ καταδέσεσιν ἢ ἐπαγωγαῖς ἤ τισιν ἐπῳδαῖς ἢ τῶν τοιούτων φαρυακειῶν ὡντινωνοῦν δόξῃ ὅμοιος εἶναι βλάπτοντι—τεθνάτω. Plato is still alluding to the debasing forms of oriental superstition which had gained a footing in Greece in his day: see Foucart l. c. p. 172. θεοὺς -- σφισιν ὑπηρετεῖν: whereas true religion consists in man's ὑπηρεσία τοῖς θεοῖς Euthyph. 13 D ff. οἱ μὲν κτλ.: ‘some declaiming about the easiness of vice, how that’ etc. οἱ μὲν—ᾁδοντες recalls 364 A, while οἱ δέ refers to the ἀγύρται καὶ μάντεις of 364 B. The reference in the first case is as precise as possible: πάντες γὰρ ἐξ ἑνὸς στόματος ὑμνοῦσιν ὡς καλὸν μὲν ἡ σωφροσύνη τε καὶ δικαιοσύνη, χαλεπὸν μέντοι καὶ ἐπίπονον: ἀκολασία δὲ καὶ ἀδικία ἡδὺ μὲν καὶ εὐπετὲς κτήσασθαι, δόξῃ δὲ μόνον καὶ νόμῳ αἰσχρόν (364 A). Those who ὑμνοῦσιν ὡς—ἀκολασία—καὶ ἀδικία—εὐπετὲς κτήσασθαι can be accurately described as κακίας περὶ εὐπετείας ᾁδοντες, but scarcely by οἱ κακίας πέρι εὐπετείας διδόντες, because ‘to offer facilities for vice’ is not the same thing as to say that vice is easy. Stallbaum attempts to evade this difficulty by taking διδόντες as equivalent to διδόσθαι λέγοντες, but neither is ‘saying that facilities are offered for vice’ quite the same as ‘saying that vice is easy.’ It is also difficult to find another instance of the plural of εὐπέτεια. The verbal echoes seem to me very strongly in favour of περὶ—ᾁδοντες. For ᾁδοντες=‘harping on’ (like the ὑμνοῦσιν to which it refers) cf. Lys. 205 C ἃ δὲ ἡ πόλις ὅλη ᾁδει and 205 D ἅπερ αἱ γραῖαι ᾁδουσι (with reference to the proverbial γραῶν ὕθλος): the use of ᾁδειν in Laws 854 C is different, but akin. For the corruption of ᾁδοντες to διδόντες see Introd. § 5. The conjectures of Liebhold (Fl. Jahrb. 1888 p. 107) and Zeller (Arch. f. Gesch. d. Phil. II p. 694) κακίας πέρι εὐπετείας διελθόντες and κακίας πέρι εὐπέτειαν διδόντας have little in their favour. , D 20 ὡς τὴν -- ἔθηκαν. Hesiod OD. 287—289. ὡς is due to Plato: Hesiod has τὴν μέν τοι κτλ. For λείη the MSS of Hesiod read ὀλίγη: λείη (also in Laws 718 E, Xen. Mem. II 1. 20 and elsewhere) proves the existence of a different recension. Cf. G. E. Howes Harvard Studies in Cl. Philol. VI p. 165. The verses are partially quoted or referred to again in Laws 718 E, Prot. 340 D; their influence is also seen in Phaedr. 272 C.
The Republic of Plato. James Adam. 1902. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press.
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