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πρὸ τῆς ψυχῆς: sense-perception is, according to Plato, always untrustworthy, and hence the knowledge gained through it is always uncertain, often untrue. With that, Socrates contrasts the knowledge which is gained by the immediate and thoughtful action of the soul itself, which he represents here as soul-perception.
ἐπίπροσθεν γίγνεται: “comes before them,” “puts itself in their way.” Their wrappings become a hindrance to perception of the truth.
28 f. πρῶτον μὲν οὖν: introduces the preliminaries which must first be settled.
τοῦτο: is the condition of προείδησις mentioned in the previous clause. Closely connected with it is αὐτῶν as a gen. of possession, such as we see occurring with θαυμάζειν, e.g. Phaedo 89 a ἔγωγε μάλιστα ἐθαύμασα αὐτοῦ (in him) πρῶτον μὲν τοῦτο κτἑ., Apol. 17 a μάλιστα αὐτῶν ἓν ἐθαύμασα. The regular const. with both verbs is an acc. of the person with a gen. of the thing.
τῷ Προμηθεῖ: in the Attic cult, Prometheus was honored next to Hephaestus and Athena as a bene factor of mankind. As such he bore the surname πυρφόρος, under which name Sophocles celebrates him in Oedipus Coloneus, where he says of the neighborhood which Oedipus enters (O. C. 54 ff.): χῶρος μὲν ἱερὸς πᾶς ὅδ᾽ ἐστ̓, ἔχει δέ νιν | σεμνὸς Ποσειδῶν ἠδ᾽ ὁ πυρφόρος θεὸς | Τιτὰν Προμηθεύς. Of his enmity with Zeus, which Aeschylus, following Hesiod, made the central point of his magnificent poem, there is no mention either in Sophocles or in Plato, who also, in the Prot. 320 d, in the myth of the Gods related by the sophist, says: προσέταξαν Προμηθεῖ καὶ Ἐπιμηθεῖ κοσμῆσαί τε καὶ ϝεῖμαι δυνάμεις ἐκάστοις ὡς πρέπει. As a Titan he is called the son of Iapetus. —Not to be mistaken is the allusion to Aeschylus P. V. 248-251, though with a modification of the tone:
Πρ. Θνητοὺς ἔπαυσα μὴ προδέρκεσθαι μόρον.
Χορ. Τὸ ποῖον εὑρὼν τῆσδε φάρμακον νόσου;
Πρ. Τυφλὰς ἐν αὐτοῖς ἐλπίδας κατῴκισα.
Χορ. Μέγ᾽ ὠφέλημα τοῦτ̓ ἐδωρήσω βροτοῖς.
ὅπως ἂν παύσῃ: see on 481 a and 480 d. Whether the manner of bringing about this desired object was also prescribed to Prometheus, or left to his own ingenuity, is not said.— αὐτῶν: must be taken as the gen. of the person, with τοῦτο as object of παύσῃ. As a rule we have the reverse.
Gonzalez Lodge. Commentary on Plato Gorgias. Ginn & Company. Boston and London. 1891.
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