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καί τινα ὁδὸν κτλ.: Hesiod OD. 290 μακρὸς δὲ καὶ ὄρθιος οἶμος ἐς αὐτὴν | καὶ τρηχὺς κτλ. The last two words account for the marginal addition καὶ τραχεῖαν in A. , E 26 λιστοὶ -- ἁμάρτῃ. See cr. n. The words are spoken by Phoenix to Achilles in Il. IX 497—501. Plato edits the lines to suit his own purposes. For λιστοί our text of Homer has στρεπτοί. The word λιστοί (though implied in ἄλλιστος, τρίλλιστος) does not occur elsewhere, a fact which is strongly in favour of its genuineness here. We must suppose that the recension which Plato used had λιστοί. The theology contained in these lines meets us continually in ancient literature: cf. also the words of the king in Hamlet III 3 “And what's in prayer but this twofold force To be forestalled ere we come to fall Or pardoned being down?” Plato expresses his dissent in Laws 716 E ff., 905 D: in Alc. II 149 E we read οὐ γὰρ οἶμαι τοιοῦτόν ἐστι, τὸ τῶν θεῶν ὥστε ὑπὸ δώρων παράγεσθαι οἶον κακὸν τοκιστήν.
The Republic of Plato. James Adam. 1902. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press.
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