CHAPTER XVII
Here begins Socrates' criticism of Protagoras' speech. The
question is first raised—Is Virtue one, or many? The connection
between this question and the speech of Protagoras is that if
Virtue has a unity in knowledge, it is teachable, otherwise not:
see Introduction, p. xviii.
2.
ἐπιδειξάμενος. ἐπιδείκνυσθαι and
ἐπίδειξις are regularly
used of a Sophistic display: e.g.
Gorg. 447A πολλὰ γὰρ καὶ καλὰ
Γοργίας ἡμῖν ὀλίγον πρότερον ἐπεδείξατο,
Crat. 384B τὴν πεντηκοντάδραχμον ἐπίδειξιν. ἐπιδείκνυμι is also sometimes used in the
same way, e.g.
Euthyd. 274D and below,
347B in
320Cabove
ἀλλ᾽ ἐπίδειξον is intended to suggest this meaning, which comes
out more clearly in
ἐπιδείξω two lines below.
2.
ἐπὶ μὲν πολὺν χρόνον goes with
ἔβλεπον and
ἔτι with
κεκηλημένος.
7.
ὦ παῖ Ἀπολλοδώρου: with mock solemnity: so
335Dὦ
παῖ Ἱππονίκου,
Rep. II. 368A ὦ παῖδες ἐκείνου τἀνδρός.
8.
ὦδε in the sense of
δεῦρο is noted as a Platonic idiom by the
lexicographers. The usage is found in tragedy, but no other
example is quoted from Plato.
10.
ἀνθρωπίνην ἐπιμέλειαν: cf.
Meno, 99E ἀρετὴ ἂν εἴη
οὔτε φύσει οὔτε διδακτόν, ἀλλὰ θείᾳ μοίρᾳ παραγιγνομένη ἄνευ νοῦ.
13.
ἐπεκδιδάξει—ἐξεδίδαξεν: see on
311A
16.
τάχ᾽ ἂν καὶ τοιούτους λόγους:
καί goes with
τοιούτους
—‘even such’, ‘just such’:
τούτου should not be inserted (with
Sauppe, Schanz, Kral) before
τοιούτους.
18.
ὥσπερ βιβλία. Hermann wished to read
οὐχ ὥσπερ
βιβλία, since the orators do make a speech when spoken to: but
the point is that like books they do not answer the questions
asked, or put questions themselves, as the true dialectician does:
cf.
Phaedr. 275D δεινὸν γάρ που—τοῦτ᾽ ἔχει γραφή, καὶ ὡς
ἀληθῶς ὅμοιον ζωγπαφίᾳ. καὶ γὰπ τὰ ἐκείνης ἔκγονα ἕστηκε μὲν ὡς
ζῶντα, ἐὰν δ᾽ ἀνέπῃ τι, σεμνῶς ράνυ σιγᾷ. ταὐτὸν δὲ καὶ οἱ λόγοι:
δόξαις μὲν ἂν ὥς τι φπονοῦντας αὐτοὺς λέγειν, ἐὰν δέ τι ἔπῃ τῶν
λεγομένων βουλόμενος μαθεῖν, ἔν τι σημαίνει μόνον ταὐτὸν ἀεί:
below,
347E and
Hipp. Min. 365Dτὸν μὲν Ὅμηρον—ἐάσωμεν,
ἐρειδὴ καὶ ἀδύνατον ἐρανεπέσθαι, τί ροτε νοῶν ταῦτα ἐροίησε τὰ
ἔπη. A similar objection applies to laws: see
Polit. 294A (quoted
above on
326D.
20.
ὥσπερ τὰ χαλκία. The MSS. have
χαλκεῖα, but (as
Kroschel points out) in
Crat. 430A εἴ τι χαλκίον κινήσειε
κρούσας. χαλκεῖα would mean ‘smithies’.
21.
μακρὸν ἠχεῖ καὶ ἀποτείνει: ἀποτείνει is used absolutely
as in
Gorg. 458B καὶ νῦν ἴσως πόρρω ἀποτενοῦμεν. Cf.
Euthyd.
300Bὅταν οὖν λίθους λέγῃς καὶ ξύλα καὶ σιδήρια, οὐ σιγῶντα
λέγεις; οὔκουν ἅ γε ἐγώ, ἔφη, παρέρχομαι ἐν τοῖς χαλκείοις
(MSS.
χαλκίοις),
ἀλλὰ φθεγγόμενα καὶ βοῶντα μέγιστον τὰ σιδήρια
λέγει.
23.
δόλιχον κατατείνουσι τοῦλόγου. δολιχόν is the reading
of B and T, but (1) the adjective
δολιχός seems to be exclusively
poetic, the word surviving in Plato's time only in the form
δόλιχος for
δολιχὸς δρόμος (cf. for the change of accent
κάκη and
κακή, Φαῖδρος and
φαιδρός and the like); (2)
δολιχὸς τοῦ λόγου
would be a rare construction, though not without parallels, e.g.
πολλὴν τῆς χώρας in Xen.
Cyrop. III. 2. 2 and
τής μαρίλης
συχνήν in
Ar. Ach. 350:
ἀμήχανον τῆς εὐδαιμονίας of
Apol. 41C
is different; (3) after the expressive simile which we have had,
‘a long speech’ sounds very weak. On the other hand
δόλιχος
τοῦ λόγου, the suggestion of Stephanus, is strongly supported by
335E where Socrates compares Protagoras, because he plays the
ῥήτωρ and not the dialectician, to a
δολιχοδρόμος:
νῦν δ᾽ ἐστὶν
ὥσρεπ ἂν εἰ δέοιό μου Κπίσωνι τῷ Ἱμεπαίῳ δπομεῖ ἀκμάζοντι
ἕρεσθαι ἢ τῶν δολιχοδπόμων τῳ ἢ τῶν ἡμεποδπόμων διαθεῖν τε καὶ
ἕπεσθαι, and the editors quote a number of parallels to the
metaphor, such as Plut.
Phoc. 23. 3
καλῶς ἔφη πρὸς τὸ στάδιον,
τὸν δὲ δόλιχον τοῦ πολέμου φοβοῦμαι; Epicrates in Kock's
Com.
Att. Frag. II, 283
ἐπεὶ δὲ δόλιχον τοῖς ἔτεσιν ἤδη τρέχει,
Ar.
Clouds, 430 τῶν Ἑλλήνων εἶναί με λέγειν ἑκατὸν σταδίοισιν
ἄριστον and
Frogs, 91
πλεῖν ἢ σταδίῳ λαλίστερα, Eupolis (Kock, I,
281) (of Pericles)
ὁπότε παρέλθοι δ᾽ ὥσπερ ἁγαθοὶ δρομῆς ἐκ δέκα
ποδῶν ᾕρει λέγων τοὺς ῥήτορας. Dropping the sporting metaphor
we may say ‘spin out a league of verbiage against you’. The
δόλιχος was 24
στάδια, the
στάδιον being covered 12 times both
ways: cf. Pind.
Ol. III. 33.
25.
ὡς αὐτὰ δηλοῖ. The MSS. read
αὐτά, which most recent
editors change to
αὐτό with Stephanus, regarding the idiom as
analogous to that in
324Aαὐτό σε διδάξει, but in this idiomatic
use of
αὐτό the verb is generally, if not always, in the future.
αὐτό που λέγει in
Ar. Eq. 204 and the cases quoted by Blaydes
in loc. are different, since in each case
αὐτό has a
definite antecedent expressed.
ὡς αὐτὰ δηλοῖ is simply ‘as things themselves’,
i.e. ‘as facts show’: the reference is to the speech which
Protagoras has just delivered. Cf. Ar.
Pol. IV. 12. 1331
a. 21
δῆλον ὡς αὐτὰ προκαλεῖται κτλ. and (with Heindorf) Xen.
Cyr.
VI. 1. 7
οὐκ οἶδα μὲν ἔγωγε, εἴ τι δεῖ λόγων, ὅπου αὐτὰ τὰ ἔργα
δείκνυσι τὸ κράτιστον.
29.
εἴ μοι ἀποκρίναιο τόδε. The optative follows
σμικροῦ
τινὸς ἐνδεής εἰμι πάντ᾽ ἔχειν as virtually equivalent to
πάντ᾽ ἂν
ἔχοιμι (Heindorf).
30.
εἴπερ ἄλλῳ τῳ ἀνθρώπων πειθοίμην ἄν, καὶ σοὶ πείθομαι. The fullness of expression is no doubt intentional:
Socrates politely dwells upon his compliment. The objections
to the syntax are twofold: (1)
ἄν with the optative in protasis;
(2)
εἴπερ (in clauses of this kind) with its verb expressed. Cases
of the potential optative in the protasis are given by Goodwin,
M.T. p. 192 (e.g. Xen.
Mem. I. 5. 3
εἴ γε μηδὲ δοῦλον ἀκρατῆ
δεξαίμεθ᾽ ἄν, πῶς οὐκ ἄξιον αὐτόν γε φυλάξασθαι τοιοῦτον γενέσθαι;):
for
εἴπερ with verb expressed Heindorf cites
Meno, 98B ἀλλ᾽
εἴπερ τι ἄλλο φαίην ἂν εἰδέναι (
ὀλίγα δ᾽ ἂν φαίην)
ἓν δ᾽ οὖν καὶ
τοῦτο ἐκείνων θείην ἂν ὧν οἶδα. Socrates'
νῦν δὲ πέπεισμαι (hardly
serious) in
328Eis not inconsistent with
πειθοίμην ἄν, since he
at once qualifies his assent by
πλὴν σμικρόν τί μοι ἐμποδών: it is
sufficiently represented here by
καὶ σοὶ πείθομαι. We therefore
agree with Heindorf, Wayte, and Turner in retaining the MSS.
reading: other editors mostly read either
εἴπερ ἄλλω̣ τῳ ἀνθρώπων πειθοίμην ἂν καὶ σοί, or drop
πειθοίμην ἄν and retain
καὶ σοὶ
πείθομαι.
33.
ἔλεγες γάρ:
332Cδικαιοσύνη and
αἰδώς are looked on as
two
distinct virtues.
34.
πολλαχοῦ:
324E325A cf.
323Aand E.
