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λέγεις δὲ καὶ κτλ. ‘And pray what are these desires?’ lit. ‘and you mean by these desires, pray, which?’ καί “significat accessionem aliquam pro interrogantis voluntate necessariam vel maiorem in modum expetitam” (Schneider, who compares Polit. 291 A τίνας αὐτοὺς καὶ λέγεις; Euthyd. 271 A and Heindorf ad loc.).

τὰς περὶ τὸν ὕπνον κτλ. “The cursed thoughts that Nature Gives way to in repose” (Macbeth II 1. 8). We must however beware of supposing that Plato regards sleep as the time when the lowest part of soul normally and naturally asserts its sway. It is only in the vicious, and after acts of self-indulgence, that the beast within us pollutes our slumber: cf. Cic. de div. I 115 and II 119. To translate ὅταν by ‘when’ (D. and V.) is therefore misleading: it means ‘as often as.’ See 571 D note

ἰέναι “vix sanum videtur,” says Herwerden. The text is perfectly sound. Although the man is, as we say, sleeping, his θηριῶδες ‘has shaken off sleep’ and ‘seeks to go and gratify its instincts.’ The theory is that in dreams the part of the soul concerned is not asleep, but awake, and goes out to seek the object of its desire. Cf. 572 A note

μητρί τε κτλ. Cf. Soph. O. T. 981 f. πολλοὶ γὰρ ἤδη κἀν ὀνείρασιν βροτῶν | μητρὶ ξυνηυνάσθησαν, with Jebb ad loc.

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