James Adam, The Republic of Plato

---

ἤδη = demum adds emphasis to ἀλλὰ καί. We may translate: ‘but positively also the older women.’ On this use of ἤδη (‘now that we have reached this point’) and kindred words see Cope Aristotle's Rhetoric Vol. I pp. 13 ff. J. and C. (with other editors) suppose a hyperbaton for τὰς ἤδη πρεσβυτέρας (which Herwerden would actually read): but the hyperbaton is harsh, and no parallel has yet been adduced. The rules laid down by Plato in this passage are an exaggeration of Spartan usage: cf. Plut. Lyc. 14 and the passages cited by Paley on Eur. Androm. 596 ff. Σπαρτιάδων —αἳ ξὺν νέοισιν ἐξερημοῦσαι δόμους | γυμνοῖσι μηροῖς καὶ πέπλοις ἀνειμένοις | δρόμους παλαίστρας τ᾽ οὐκ ἀνασχέτους ἐμοὶ | κοινὰς ἔχουσι, and by Blaydes on Ar. Lys. 82: cf. also Laws 813 E ff., 833 C ff. and infra 457 A. The words ὅταν ῥυσοὶ— φιλογυμναστῶσιν are a characteristically Hellenic touch: cf. Theaet. 162 B.

τῶν χαριέντων. It is tempting to see in this an allusion to the author of the Ecclesiazusae (with Krohn Pl. St. p. 81 and Chiappelli Riv. di Filol. XI p. 198). If —with the majority of modern critics— we hold that the Ecclesiazusae is earlier than Book V, and if we consider the play as at least in some measure directed against theories on communism and the position of women with which the Socratic school sympathised, it is easy to interpret Plato here as addressing a rebuke to the comic stage in the form of a further challenge. In any case, however, the words οὐ φοβητέον—ὀχήσεις are not a vaticinium ex eventu, for the Ecclesiazusae does not touch on any of the points specifically mentioned here. See also on 452 D, 455 A, 457 B, 464 B, and 473 E f. In each of these passages there is some prima facie ground for suspecting a personal or polemical motive of some kind. See on the whole subject App. I.