James Adam, The Republic of Plato

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γενναίους -- τὰ ἤθη: ‘of noble and masculine characters.’ Cf. Theaet. 149 A μαίας μάλα γενναίας τε καὶ βλοσυρᾶς, Nicostrat. Frag. 35 ed. Kock νὴ τὴν Ἀφροδίτην, ὦ ξένη, βλοσυράν γε τὴν φυχὴν ἔχεις, and Aelian Var. Hist. 12. 21 δεμνὸν ἅμα καὶ βλοσυρὸν ὁρῶσαι (of Spartan women). In Cl. Rev. XIII p. 10 I have tried to shew that the original meaning of this vigorous and expressive word is ‘hairy,’ ‘shaggy,’ ‘bristling’ (horridus), from which to ‘virile’ the transition is natural enough. Mr L. D. Barnett has since supplied me with an interesting confirmation from Pollux IV 136 (on tragic masks) ὁ δὲ οὖλος, ξανθός, ὑπέρογκος. αἱ τρίχες τῷ ὄγκῳ προσπεπήγασιν, ὀφρύες ἀνατέτανται, βλοσυρὸς τὸ εἶδος.

ἃ -- πρόσφορα: ‘the natural characteristics suitable for our scheme of education.’ τῆς φύσεως depends on ἅ, not (as Stallbaum supposes) on τῇδε τῇ παιδείᾳ. The following list of qualifications should be compared with that in VI 485 A ff. The difference is slight, but φιλοπονία as a special attribute is new, and on the other hand some of the secondary moral qualities are not insisted upon here.

ἀποδειλιῶσι κτλ. Cf. VI 504 A.

ἄρρατον. The word ἄρρατος, which occurs again in Crat. 407 D, is apparently, like βλοσυρός, an expressive vulgarism de foro arreptum. There is considerable variety here in the inferior MSS, but the evidence of the Scholiast places the reading beyond doubt. ἄρρατος is explained by Timaeus (s. v.) as ἰσχυρός, στερεός, and with this explanation the Scholiast and Lexicographers agree. Some of the ancients derived the word from an obsolete verb ῥάω = ῥαίω. Schneider remarks that the α must be long “si verum est quod scholiastes Victorianus ad Il. XIIII 56 tradit, pro ἄῤῥηκτον alios legisse ἄῤῥατον.” See Stephanus-Hase Thes. s. v.