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βίβλων -- ἐγγόνων. The allusion is to Orphic liturgies. Musaeus was the son of Selene, according to Philochorus quoted by the Scholiast on Ar. Frogs 1033: cf. φαεσφόρου ἔκγονε Μήνης | Μουσαῖε in Abel Orphic. Fr. 4. Orpheus' mother was the Muse Calliope (Suidas s.v. Ὀρφεύς). There is no solid basis for the old view that ἔκγονος means ‘son,’ and ἔγγονος ‘grandson.’ The etymological form is ἔκγονος, but ἐκ- was often assimilated to ἐγ- before γ during the 4th century B.C., particularly in this word: cf. also ἐγγειτόνων etc. on Inscriptions. See Meisterhans^{3} p. 107. Elsewhere in the Republic ἔκγονος is the regular spelling. καθ᾽ ἃς θυηπολοῦσιν: sacrificial liturgies. A θυηπολικόν is mentioned by Suidas (s.v. Ὀρφεύς) as one of the ‘works’ of Orpheus: see also Lobeck Aglaoph. p. 371 and Rohde Psyche^{2} II pp. 112, 113 notes πόλεις: as for instance when Epimenides the Cretan purified Athens (see Grote III 85—89). Plato may be thinking of this event, which in defiance of chronology he placed ten years before the Persian wars (Laws 642 D, E). Cf. also infra 366 A and Laws 909 B. λύσεις -- καθαρμοί . λύσεις means ‘modes of absolution’ (Lobeck Aglaoph. p. 810): cf. 366 A οἱ λύσιοι θεοί and Arist. Pol. B 4 1262^{a} 32 τὰς νομιζομένας λύσεις. The Scholium on Ar. Frogs 1033 contains the remark: οὗτος (i.e. Musaeus) δὲ παραλύσεις καὶ τελετὰς καὶ καθαρμοὺς συντέθεικεν. For παραλύσεις Blaydes proposes λύσεις, while Rutherford reads περὶ λύσεις (apparently with the Ravenna Codex), inserting also on his own conjecture ποιήματα after συντέθεικεν. I have no doubt that the Scholiast wrote παρὰ λύσεις: ‘besides Absolutions, he has composed also τελεταί and καθαρμοί.’ καθαρμοί formed a distinct class of religious literature, and were written by Epimenides, Empedocles, and others: see Grote I p. 27 note 3. παιδιᾶς ἡδονῶν: ‘pleasures of play.’ παιδιᾶς depends on ἡδονῶν, and is here used abstractly: cf. Thuc. III 38. 7 ἀκοῆς ἡδονῇ and (with Schneider) Paus. I 21. 7 θέας ἡδονήν. Madvig would eject ἡδονῶν, but without ἡδονῶν Plato would probably have written παιδιῶν (cf. Laws 829 B): other suggestions, such as καὶ παιδιᾶς καὶ ἡδονῶν, or καὶ παιδιᾶς διὰ ἡδονῶν, or καὶ παιδιῶν καὶ ἡδονῶν are open to graver objection. For παίζειν and the like in connexion with religious celebrations Stallbaum cites Hdt. IX 11 Ὑακίνθιά τε ἄγετε καὶ παίζετε and VIII 99 ἐν θυσίῃσί τε καὶ εὐπαθείῃσι: add Phaedr. 276 B, Laws 666 B. Plato's point is that atonement if it is made a pleasure and not a penance sets a premium on sin.
The Republic of Plato. James Adam. 1902. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press.
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