James Adam, The Republic of Plato

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αὐτοῦ. Does the pronoun mean τοῦ ἡμέρου or τοῦ φιλοσόφου? Four qualities are first distinguished: viz. the wild, the hard, the soft and the tame. The source of wildness is the spirited element, which if rightly cultivated becomes brave, if unduly strained, hard. So far, all is clear; but difficulties now begin. We should expect Plato to continue: τὸ ἥμερον is an attribute of τὸ φιλόσοφον, and τὸ φιλόσοφον—not τὸ ἥμερον—when relaxed becomes too soft, when rightly educated becomes κόσμιον (the virtue which contrasts with τὸ ἀνδρεῖον). At first sight, then, it looks as if αὐτοῦ meant ‘the philosophic temperament’ (so Stallbaum and J. and C.); but this is grammatically impossible, unless we make τὸ ἥμερον the subject to μαλακώτερον εἴη and therefore to ἥμερόν τε καὶ κόσμιον, which is hardly tolerable. We must therefore acquiesce in taking αὐτοῦ as τοῦ ἡμέρου, unless there is corruption somewhere. If Plato had written καὶ μᾶλλον μὲν ἀνεθὲν μαλακώτερον εἴη τοῦ δέοντος, καλῶς δὲ τραφὲν σῶφρόν τε καὶ κόσμιον, everything would be clear, but I do not venture to change the text. σῶφρον for ἥμερον is suggested also by Krohn (Pl. St. p. 26). Apelt proposes ἔμμετρον (Berl. Philol. Wochenschr. 1895 p. 969).

ἀμφοτέρα -- φύσει: viz. τὸ θυμοειδές and τὸ φιλόσοφον.

σώφρων τε καὶ ἀνδρεία . σωφροσύνη is the virtue of τὸ φιλόσοφον, ἀνδρεία of τὸ θυμοειδές: cf. 399 C and Pol. 307 C. The meaning would be caught more easily if Plato had written—as perhaps he did— σῶφρόν τε καὶ κόσμιον for ἥμερόν τε καὶ κόσμιον above, just as he wrote ἀνδρεῖον (410 D). ἄγροικος (implying, like ἀνελεύθερος, ἀνδραποδώδης, with which it is coupled in Laws 880 A, lack of power to control the feelings) is properly opposed to σώφρων here.