James Adam, The Republic of Plato

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σιδηροῖς κτλ. The epithet is significant and should be pronounced with emphasis. The horns and hoofs wherewith these human βοσκήματα ‘kick and butt’ are lethal weapons made of iron. Van Leeuwen's conjecture σκληροῖς for σιδηροῖς (Mnem. N. S. XXV Pt 4) only emasculates a fine comparison. J. and C. aptly cite in illustration Aesch. Ag. 1115 ff. ὁπλαῖς may be said “with a glance at ὅπλοις” (J. and C.). War springs from the insatiate desires of the flesh (II 373 E note): hence δἰ ἀπληστίαν.

ἅτε οὐχὶ -- πιμπλάντες explains ἀπληστίαν. They cannot be ‘filled’ because that part of themselves which they fill is not the real, not the continent part, and that wherewith they fill it is not the real either. Bosanquet aptly compares “Whoso drinketh of this water shall thirst again.” In οὐδὲ τὸ στέγον Plato doubtless has in mind the story of the Danaids, in which the πίθος τετρημένος was interpreted by certain ‘wise men’—probably preachers of the Orphic-Pythagorean way of life: cf. App. IV—as the bottomless or incontinent part of soul: see Gorg. 493 A ff., especially the words τῶν δ᾽ ἀμυήτων τοῦτο τῆς ψυχῆς, οὗ αἱ ἐπιθυμίαι εἰσί, τὸ ἀκόλαστον αὐτοῦ καὶ οὐ στεγανόν, ὡς τετρημένος εἴη πίθος, διὰ τὴν ἀπληστίαν ἀπεικάσας together with Rohde Psyche^{2} I pp. 326—329. Schneider makes a curious error when he says “τὸ στέγον hic corpus quasi vas animi significare videtur.”

χρησμῳδεῖς refers to the halforacular style of Socrates' description: compare for instance σιδηροῖς κέρασί τε καὶ ὁπλαῖς with the famous ξύλινον τεῖχος in the oracle to the Athenians (Hdt. VII 141—144: see also id. 1 55 al. for more examples).

ἐσκιαγραφημέναις κτλ. See on 583 B. The words ὑπὸ τῆς—ἀποχραινομέναις mean ‘taking their colour from juxtaposition.’ The word ἀποχραίνειν had also a more technical sense (τὸ τὰ χρωσθέντα ἑνοποιεῖν Tim. lex. Pl. s.v. χραίνειν), to which Plato alludes in Laws 769 A.