CHAPTER XXIV
Hippias, anxious for a compromise, proposes the selection of an
umpire in a speech marked by his characteristic doctrines and
style.
If we may judge from this speech, Hippias must have been
devoted to metaphor: e.g.
τύραννος, πρυτανεῖον in D,
ὥσπερ ὑπὸ
διαιτητῶν in E, and in
338Aἐφεῖναι καὶ χαλάσαι τὰς ἡνίας, κάλων
ἐκτείναντα οὐπίᾳ ἐφέντα, ρέλαγος λόγων, ἀροκπύψαντα γῆν, μέσον τι
τεμεῖν, ῥαβδοῦχον and
πρύτανιν. Zeller (
Archiv für Geschichte der
Philosophie, V, 2, 175) thinks that the opening part of the speech
may have come from some book of which Hippias was himself
the author.
2.
ἀπεδέξαντο means simply ‘assented’: cf.
Theaet. 162E.
4.
ἡμᾶς is Heindorf's correction for
ὑμᾶς; ‘uti mox
ἡμᾶς
οὖν αἰσχρόν etc., neque video cur se a ceteris h. l. segreget
Hippias’.
5.
φύσει οὐ νόμῳ. The opposition between
φύσις and
νόμος
frequently appears attributed to different sophists or their
representatives in the Platonic dialogues: the historical Hippias
was a leading champion of
φύσις (see Introduction p. XX).
Usually, however,
νόμος is represented as a convention binding
men together into friendship and
φύσις (whose teaching is that
might is right) as responsible for the enmity of man to man in
the savage state: e.g.
Rep. II. 358D ff.,
Gorg. 482D ff. From the
natural principle of ‘Like to like’ is here deduced something
like the Stoic doctrine of the kinship between wise men.
τὸ γὰρ ὁμοῖον τῷ ὁμοίῳ:
Gorg. 510B φίλος μοι δοκεῖ ἕκαστος
ἑκάστῳ εἶναι ὡς οἷόν τε μάλιστα, ὅνρεπ οἱ ραλαιοί τε καὶ σοφοὶ
λέγουσιν, ὁ ὁμοῖος τῶ̣ ὁμοίῳ;
Laws, IV. 716C. The proverb appears
in the most various forms in Greek literature from Homer (
Od.
XVII. 218 ὡς αἰεὶ τὸν ὁμοῖον ἄγει θεὸς ὡς τὸν ὁμοῖον) downwards.
For more examples of its use in Plato see Stallbaum on
Gorg.
loc. cit.
7.
τύραννος—βιάζεται. Hippias has in view the lines of
Pindar quoted in
Gorg. 484B νόμος ὁ πάντων βασιλεὺς θνατῶν τε
καὶ ἀθανάτων—ἄγε. δικαιῶν τὸ βιαιότατον ὑπερτάτᾳ χειρὶ κτλ.
11.
πρυτανεῖον τῆς σοφίας. The prytaneum (like the
temple of Vesta at Rome) was the religious centre of a Greek
πόλις. It was sacred to
Ἑστία, in whose honour fire was always
kept burning, and contained what was called the ‘Common
Hearth’ of the city: see Frazer in
Journal of Philology, XIV,
145-72. The editors refer to Athenaeus, v. 187D
τὴν Ἀθηναίων
ρόλιν, τὸ τῆς Ἑλλάδος μουσεῖον, ἣν ὁ μὲν Ρίνδαπος Ἑλλάδος ἔπεισμα
ἔφη, Θουκυδίδης δ᾽ ἐν τῷ εἰς Εὐπιρίδην ἐριγπάμματι Ἑλλάδος Ἑλλάδα,
ὁ δὲ Πύθιος ἑστίαν καὶ πρυτανεῖον τῶν Ἑλλήνων.
16.
συμβῆναι—ὥσπερ ὑπὸ διαιτητῶν ἡμῶν συμβιβαζόντων. συμβαίνω forms a passive to
συμβιβάζω as
πάσχειν to
ποιεῖν, whence
ὑπό: see note on
Apol. 17A.
συμβιβάζω is regular
in the sense of bringing together, effecting an arrangement
between: cf. (with Sauppe) Thuc. II. 29. 6
ξυνεβίβασε δὲ καὶ τὸν
Περδίκκαν τοῖς Ἀθηναίοις. Note that
ἡμῶν has no preposition with
it—this is frequent (but not universal) in similes where
ὥσπερ
and a preposition precede the object compared, and the effect is
almost to make the simile an identification: if on the other hand
the object compared comes first, the preposition must be expressed twice. Cf.
Theaet. 170A ὥσπερ πρὸς θεοὺς ἔχειν τοὺς ἐν
ἑκάστοις ἄρχοντας (which might have been
πρὸς τοὺς ἐν ἑκάστοις
ἄρχοντας ὥσπερ πρὸς θεοὺς ἔχειν) and see notes on
Crito, 46C,
Euthyphr. 2C.
19.
λίαν: with
ζητεῖν:
κατὰ βραχύ as in
Gorg. 449B ἀλλ᾽
ἐθέλησον κατὰ βραχὺ τὸ ἐρωτώμενον ἀποκρίνεσθαι.
20.
ἐφεῖναι καὶ χαλάσαι τὰς ἡνίας τοῖς λόγοις. For the
metaphor Kroschel compares
Laws, III. 701C καθάπερ ἀχάλινον
κεκτημένον τὸ στόμα, βίᾳ ὑπὸ τοῦ λόγου φερόμενον κτλ.
22.
ἡμῖν: so most editions: BT have
ὑμῖν, which can hardly
be right, as Hippias is at this moment addressing Socrates alone.
‘Pro
ὑμῖν dici potuit
σοί, sed
ὑμιν recte explicari nequit’
(Kroschel).
23.
πάντα κάλων ἐκτείναντα. παροιμία ἐπὶ τῶν πάσῃ προθυμίᾳ χρωμένων, says a scholiast (quoted by Sauppe). This
nautical metaphor means to stretch out every reefing rope and
so set all sail:
κάλως does not refer to the sheet, which is
πούς.
κινεῖν, σείειν, ἐξιέναι, ἐφιέναι, ἐκλύειν are also found with
κάλων
in much the same sense.
οὐρίᾳ ἐφέντα: see on
συγκαθεῖναι 336A For the asyndeton
before these words Heindorf compares
Euthyphr. 4C συνδήσας
τοὺς ρόδας καὶ τὰς χεῖπας αὐτοῦ, καταβαλὼν εἰς τάφπον τινά, ρέμρει
δεῦρο ἄνδρα κτλ.
24.
πέλαγος τῶν λόγων. Sauppe aptly refers to
Symp.
210D
ἐπὶ τὸ πολὺ πέλαγος τετραμμένος τοῦ καλοῦ. Similar metaphors abound in Plato: e.g.
Euthyd. 293A σῶσαι ἡμᾶς—ἐκ τῆς
τρικυμίας τοῦ λόγου,
Rep. V. 472A ἴσως γὰρ οὐκ οἶσθα ὅτι μόγις
μοι τὼ δύο κύματε ἐκφυγόντι νῦν τὸ μέγιστον καὶ χαλερώτατον τῆς
τρικυμίας ἐπάγεις κτλ.
ἀποκρύψαντα: like Virgil's ‘protinus aerias Phaeacum
abscondimus arces’ (
Aen. III. 291): cf. the use of
καταδύω in
Callimachus,
Epigr. 2
ἥλιον ἐν λέσχῃ κατεδύσαμεν and Virgil's
imitation ‘saepe ego longos Cantando puerum memini me
condere soles’ (
Ecl. IX. 51).
25.
μέσον τι—τεμεῖν. τέμνειν ὁδόν like
secare viam is a
natural metaphor. Cf. Pindar,
Isthm. VI. 22
μυρίαι δ᾽ ἔργων
καλῶν τέτμηνθ᾽ ἑκατόμπεδοι ἐν σχερῷ κέλευθοι, Pl.
Laws, VII.
803E
τὸ μὲν τῶν τύπων εἴρηται καὶ καθάπερ ὁδοὶ τέτμηνται καθ᾽ ἃς
ἰτέον κτλ. Here
μέσον τι τεμεῖν =
μέσην τινὰ ὁδὸν τεμεῖν.
ὣς οὖν ποιήσατε καὶ πείθεσθε. ὥς (so B: T has
ὡς) is best
understood as for
οὕτως—a rare usage, except after a preceding
ὡς or
ὥσπερ as in
326D but it is found in Thuc. III. 37. 5 (with
οὖν and a form of
ποιεῖν as here)
ὣς οὖν χρὴ καὶ ἡμᾶς ποιοῦντας—
παραινεῖν. For
ποιήσατε the MSS. read
ποιήσετε, which is very
harsh before
πείθεσθε, and is probably a mistake for
ποιήσατε,
due to the influence of the common construction of
ὅπως with
2nd person fut. ind. It is, however, possible that this use of the
future as well as the use of
ὥς for
οὕτως was characteristic of
Hippias' style.
26.
ῥαβδοῦχον—πρύτανιν. ῥαβδοῦχος, ἐπιστάτης and
βραβευτής are said of umpires or presidents at games:
ῥαβδούχους
εἶπε τοὺς κριτὰς τοῦ ἀγῶνος, says the schol. on
Ar. Peace, 733;
for
ἐπιστάτης cf.
Laws, XII. 949A γυμνικῶν τε καὶ ἱππικῶν ἄθλων
ἐπιστάτας καὶ βραβέας. πρύτανις is an old word with lofty associations for ruler or prince. Cron thinks Hippias made this proposal with a view to being chosen President himself; he was
probably still sitting on his
θρόνος, cf.
315B 317D
27.
τὸ μέτριον μῆκος:
Phaedr. 267B αὐτὸς (sc.
ὁ Πρόδικος)
εὑρηκέναι ἔφη ὧν δεῖ λόγων τέχνην: δεῖν δὲ οὔτε μακρῶν οὔτε βραχέων,
ἀλλὰ μετρίων.