Gonzalez Lodge, Commentary on Plato: Gorgias

στενά: mean, paltry, is in keeping with the view expressed by Callicles in 485 d of the relative provinces of philosophy and politics.

1 f.

τὰ μεγάλα μεμύησαι κτἑ.: two kinds of Eleusinian mysteries were distinguished, the greater and the lesser. In the great procession which on the 20th of Boedromion (September) conducted Iacchus to Eleusis, no one could take part who had not received previously at Athens the less and preparatory consecration (μύησις, κάθαρσις, προτέλεια) in the month Anthesterion (February). By this he became eligible to initiation into the Greater Mysteries; and after initiation, as an initiated member (μύστης), to the ἐποπτεία or view of the mysterious sacred relics and participation in the holy rites which were connected with the arrival of the pro cession at Eleusis and took place in the so-called τελεστήριον.—Socrates meets with most cutting irony the disdainful contempt with which Callicles regards dialectical methods. A different simile for the same matter is found in 514 e.

ὅθεν ἀπέλιπες: the interrupted argument is resumed again by Socrates at the point where it had been broken off by Callicles' refusal to answer.

ἡδονῶν: corresponding with what precedes we might expect ἡδόμενος. The noun is used owing to ἐπιθυμιῶν, which stands on the same plane as πεινῶν and as a kind of ἔνδεια (496 d) is an ἀνιαρόν. Hence the employment of λυπῶν below.