J. Adam, A. M. Adam, Commentary on Plato, Protagoras
J. Adam & A. M. Adam, Ed.

37. εἰ μέν τι—ἔοικεν. Heindorf remarks that Stephanus' conjecture τοῦτο ἔοικεν is needless, the vague indefinite subject being frequently omitted. Cf. Crat. 387D εἴπερ τι τοῖς ἔμπροσθεν μέλλει ὁμολογούμενον εἶναι; Phaedo, 99E ἴσως μὲν οὖν ὧ̣ εἰκάζω τρόπον τινὰ οὐκ ἔοικεν.

39. εἰς τοὑς Ἕλληνας σαυτόν. εἰς τοὺς Ἕλληνας goes with παρέχων: cf. Symp. 179B ἱκανὴν μαρτυρίαν παρέχεται—εἰς τοὺς Ἕλληνας. Young men of fashion were fond of looking to Greek, as opposed to Athenian, public opinion. The MSS. have αὑτόν, but the use of the third personal reflexive pronoun for the first and second in the singular number does not seem to be certain in Plato; and it is simplest to suppose that ς fell out after Ἕλληνας: Schanz, VII, xii.

41. ἀλλ᾽ ἄρα—μὴ οὐ τοιαύτην. οὐ goes closely with τοιαύτην, and μή is virtually ‘perhaps’ (originally ‘lest’ as in ὅρα μή Theaet. 145B): ‘but perhaps after all (ἄρα) this is not the kind of learning which etc.’ Cf. Euthyd. 290E ἀλλ᾽ ἄρα—μὴ ὁ Κτήσιππος ἦν ὁ ταῦτ᾽ εἰπών and Apol. 25A ἀλλ᾽ ἄρα—μὴ οἱ ἐν τῇ ἐκκλησία̣, οἱ ἐκκλησιασταί, διαφθείρουσι τοὺς νεωτέρους; Meno, 89C μὴ τοῦτο οὐ καλῶς ὡμολογήσαμεν. In all of these passages it is better to take μή in this way than as equivalent to Latin num. From this use of μή grew up the use of μήποτε = ‘perhaps’, frequent in Aristotle and later, e.g. Eth. Nic. X. 2. 1173^a. 22 μή ποτ᾽ οὐ λέγουσιν το αἴτιον.