James Adam, The Republic of Plato

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ἐνέρους καὶ ἀλίβαντας. The Scholiast writes: ἐνέρους τοὺς νεκρούς, ἀπὸ τοῦ ἐν τῇ ἔρᾳ (ὅ ἐστι γῇ) κεῖσθαι. Cf. ἔραζε. Early psychology scarcely separated the dead body from the surviving spirit: the latter still lived where the body lay ‘within the ground.’ Hence ‘those within the ground’ (opposed to the ἐπιχθόνιοι or living) became an expression for the spirits of the departed, and the denizens of the lower world in general: see Il. XV 188, XX 61. The Scholiast's derivation is more probable than that of Brugmann, who (Grundriss II p. 180) derives the word from ἐν and a nominal suffix -ερο. Plato at any rate would have preferred the Scholiast. On ἀλίβαντας (not found in Homer or Hesiod) see Plut. Quaest. Symp. VIII 736 A (cited by Ast) ὁ δὲ ἀλίβας καὶ ὁ σκελετὸς ἐπὶ τοῖς νεκροῖς γέγονε, λοιδορουμένης ὀνόματα ξηρότητος. The ancients derived the word from ἀ and the root of λείβω λίψ etc., calling the dead ‘sapless’ διὰ τὴν τῆς λιβάδος ἀμεθεξίαν (Schol.). L. and S. object that the ἀ is long, relying perhaps on the line of Callimachus in Et. M. 63, 51 ἔβηξαν οἷον ἀλίβαντα πίνοντες (where ἀλίβαντα=ὄξος). There, however, the right reading may be ἁλίβαντα, i.e. οἱ ἀλίβαντα. But in Sophocles Fr. 751 ed. Dindorf the α is certainly long, unless the text is corrupt. Possibly the word is connected with ἠλίβατος; cf. Hesych. s. v. ἠλίβατον, where we are told that Στησίχορος Τάρταρον ἠλίβατον τὸν βαθὺν λέγει.

τούτου τοῦ τύπου. Instead of writing ἄλλα ὀνόματα ὅσα τούτου τοῦ τύπου ὄντα Plato writes ἄλλα ὄσα τούτου τοῦ τύπου ὀνομαζόμενα, with precisely the same meaning: τούτου τοῦ τύπου therefore depends on the copula involved in ὀνομαζόμενα. Stallbaum takes ὀνομαζόμενα as “quum pronuntiantur”; but this is pointless. The words mean simply ‘other names of this type which make all who hear them shudder’ etc.

φρίττειν δὴ ποιεῖ. The remark ὡς οἴεται, which appears in the best MSS— see cr. n.—after ποιεῖ gives no sense, and is admittedly corrupt. ὡς οἷόν τε, found in four inferior MSS besides q, is a rare phrase, occurring, I believe, nowhere else in Plato (except of course in combination with superlatives, e.g. III 412 B, VI 484 C), though found in Aristotle (Pol. E 11. 1313^{a} 39, where Bekker conjectured οἴονται); but ‘to shiver as much as possible’ is painfully frigid. No emendation at all satisfactory has yet been proposed—neither Winckelmann's οἰκέτας, nor Hermann's ὅσα <*>τη (with reference to recitations of the rhapsodists!), nor Madvig's ὡς οἰητέα, nor Campbell's ὡς ἐτεά. Hertz (Fl. Jahrb. 1872 p. 852) supposes the words to be a gloss by some Christian reader, meaning ‘as he’ (i.e Plato) ‘imagines.’ The author of the gloss wished to indicate that he at least could hear such tales without shivering. After ὡς οἴεται found its way into the text, it was probably altered to οἴονται (to suit the plural ἀκούοντας), from which οἷόν τε is a corruption: cf. 11 358 E, where q has οἴονται as against οἷόν τε of the best MSS. See also on VI 504 E.

καὶ ἴσως -- ἄλλο τι: “videlicet ad suavitatem et delectationem: v. p. 387 B, 390 A, 397 D, 398 A al.” (Stallbaum).

μὴ ἐκ -- ἡμῖν . φρίκη is a cold shiver, sometimes followed by sweat, whence ἐκ τῆς τοιαύτης φρίκης θερμότεροι. Cf. (with Hartman) Phaedr. 251 A ἰδόντα δὲ αὐτόν, οἷον ἐκ τῆς φρίκης, μεταβολή τε καὶ ἱδρὼς καὶ θερμότης ἀήθης λαμβάνει, where Thompson remarks that φρίκη is used by Hippocrates of the ‘cold fit of a fever.’ In θερμότεροι καὶ μαλακώτεροι Plato is thinking of the softening effect of heat upon iron: cf. (with J. and C.) infra 411 B ὥσπερ σίδηρον ἐμάλαξε, Laws 666 C, 671 B καθάπερ τινὰ σίδηρον τὰς ψυχὰς τῶν πινόντων διαπύρους γιγνομένας μαλθακωτέρας γίγνεσθαι; see also Il. XVIII 468—477 and Whitelaw on Soph. Ajax 651 in Cl. Rev. v pp. 66, 230. In so far as it associates heat with cowardice, the comparison breaks down, for heat meant courage to the Greeks. For this reason Stephanus conjectured ἀθερμότεροι and Ast ἀθυμότεροι, a reading afterwards found in v. Ast's conjecture is thus refuted by Hartman (l.c.): “Astii coniectura inepta est, quum ἀθυμία vitium sit, non vero iusta ac temperata μαλακία (dixit enim μαλακώτεροι τοῦ δέοντος).” In the next sentence Hartman expunges φοβούμεθα without sufficient cause.