Gonzalez Lodge, Commentary on Plato: Gorgias

δημιουργοί: the word is found as early as Homer and denotes all who carry on a business which is public and useful to the people; as, physicians, soothsayers, singers, goldsmiths. Later, the expression was extended to free manual laborers, without, however, losing any of its respectability. Hence it corresponds to our use of the word ‘master’ (master-workman, master-mason). Cf. 455 b. It is noteworthy that only such things are enumerated as, like the assumed result of rhetoric, were reckoned among external advantages; for rhetoric, according to the view of Gorgias, should procure in the state either high office or honors. Hence the scolion is very applicable. Socrates brings forward the physician, the bodytrainer, and the banker, in order to contrast with the subjective judgment of Gorgias the subjective opinions of others, and thus to show the subjectivity of the answer.

παιδοτρίβης: the body-trainer for boys taught in the gymnastic schools (παλαῖστραι). He is often confounded with the γυμναστής, whose proper office was the scientific treatment of the whole subject of bodily exercises, and whose field was the public γυμνάσια, where he instructed grown men in general and also those who were training for the games (ἀθληταί). Both the παιδοτρίβης and the λυμναστής are often mentioned alongside of the physician, since the nurture and care of the body was their common aim. Cf. Crito 47 b.

εἴποι πρῶτον: the ἄν before παρασταῖεν is felt as extending over the whole sentence.