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

3. παρασχεῖν θεραπεῦσαι ἀνδρἱ σοφιστῇ. The word παρέχω is often used of putting oneself in the hands of a doctor: cf. Gorg. 456B φάρμακον πιεῖν ἢ τεμεῖν ἢ καῦσαι παρασχεῖν τῶ̣ ἰατρῷ. ἀνήρ is regularly used (mostly in a complimentary sense, real or feigned) with words which denote one's profession, standing or the like, e.g. ἀνὴρ μάντις, ἀνὴρ νομεύς, ἄνδρες δικασταί; cf. Euthyphr. 15D. For παρασχεῖν Cobet reads παρέχειν, but if MSS. can be trusted, Plato used the aorist infinitive with μέλλω tolerably often: see Schanz, Preface to Symposium, p. vii.

6. οὔτ᾽ εἰ ἀγαθῷ οὔτ᾽ εἰ κακῷ πράγματι. So in Gorgias 520B οὐκ ἐγχωρεῖν μέμφεσθαι τούτῳ τῷ πράγματι (their pupils) ὃ αὐτοὶ παιδεύουσιν. Here Socrates uses the most general form of expression because ex hypothesi nothing is yet known as to the sophist: cf. below, 330Cἡ δικαιοσύνη πρᾶγμά τί ἐστιν ἢ οὐδὲν πρᾶγμα; Cases like Crito, 53D οὐκ οἴει ἄσχημον ἂν φανεῖσθαι τὸ τοῦ Σωκράτους πρᾶγμα; are somewhat different and contain a slight admixture of contempt: see the Editor's note in loc.

7. οἶμαί γ᾽ εἰδέναι. Hippocrates οἴεται εἰδέναι μὴ εἰδώς: he is thus, according to Socrates, in the worst of all states: cf. Apol. ch. VI ff. Socrates now proceeds to convict him of ignorance.

8. ὥσπερ τοὔνομα λέγει—τῶν σοφῶν ἐπιστήμονα. Hippocrates derives σοφιστής from σοφός and (ἐπ）ίστ（αμαι） ‘quasi sit ὁ τῶν σοφῶν ἴστης’ (Heindorf, comparing the derivation of Ἥφαιστος in Crat. 407C from Φάεος ἵστωρ). The correct derivation is perhaps given by Suidas s.v.: σοφιστὴς καὶ ὁ διδάσκαλος ὡς σοφίζων (cf. σωφρονίζω=make σώφρων), but -ίζω is very elastic in meaning, and σοφίζω may very well mean ‘play the σοφός’.