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

31. μήτε—μήτε—μήτε—μηδέ. μηδέ introduces the climax: see note on οὔτε—οὐδέ γε in Apol. 19D and Cope on Ar. Rhet. A, 4. 4. Presently ἀλλ᾽ εἶεν is used rather than ἀλλ᾽ εἰσί (in spite of ἐστίν in l. 31) because the hypothetical nature of the case is becoming more prominent. For the passage of a relative clause into a main clause (οἵ is not to be repeated after ἀλλά) see on 313A

33. ἀλλ᾽ εἶεν ἄγριοί τινες. It appears not only from Athenaeus (v. 218D), but from Suidas and others, that the play in question was called Ἄγριοι. The few fragments of it which remain (see Kock's Comicorum Atticorum Fragmenta, I, 146-50) give us no indication of the plot or treatment. The probability is that the Ἄγριοι formed the chorus (cf. the names Νεφέλαι, Βάτραχοι etc.), ‘ad quos’—as we should infer from the words of Plato— ‘Athenienses quidam, pauci sine dubio, vitae civilis in sua urbe pertaesi (μισάνθρωποι) sicut Pithetaerus et Euelpides, accedebant imprudenter sperantes se inter homines immanes meliorem iustioremque quam in civitate sua vitam inventuros esse’ (Kock). Plato was perhaps thinking of the same play again in Rep. VI. 496D ὥσπερ εἰς θηρία ἄνθρωπος ἐμπεσών, οὔτε ξυναδικεῖν ἐθέλων οὔτε ἱκανὸς ὢν εἶς πᾶσιν ἀγρίοις ἀντέχειν.

οἷοί περ οὓς πέρυσιν: so BT, and there is no sufficient reason for altering the text to οἵους πέρυσιν (with Sauppe, after Athenaeus V. 218D) or οἵους περ πέρυσιν with Schanz. Plato does not always avail himself of the liberty of attraction: a parallel is quoted from Crat. 432E ἵνα κομιδῇ ᾖ τοιοῦτον οἷόν περ οὗ ὄνομά ἐστιν.

34. πέρυσιν. Athenaeus, V. 218D ἐδιδάχθησαν δὲ οἱ Ἄγριοι ἐπ᾽ Ἀριστίωνος ἄρχοντος, i.e. Ol. 89 4 = 421/420 B.C. For the bearing of the date of the Ἄγριοι on the question when the dialogue of the Protagoras is assumed to have taken place see Introduction, p. xxxiii.

Φερεκράτης. The fragments of Pherecrates—a poet of the old comedy who gained his first victory in 438 B.C.—are given in Kock's Comicorum Atticorum Fragmenta, I, 145-209.

ἐδίδαξεν ἐπὶ Ληναίῳ. The Λήναιον (also called λίμναι and τέμενος τοῦ Διονύσου) was an enclosure sacred to Dionysus on the south-east slope of the Acropolis. Cf. Photius s.v. Λήναιον: περίβολος μέγας Ἀθήνησιν, ἐν ᾧ τοὺς ἀγῶνας ἦγον, πρὸ τοῦ τὸ θέατρον οἰκοδομηθῆναι, ὀνομάζοντες ἐπὶ Ληναίῳ. The phrase ‘at Lenaeum’ seems to have survived even after all plays were given in the Dionysiac theatre, as by this time they were, and to have been understood as equivalent to ‘at the Lenaean festival’ (cf. Ar. Ach. 504 οὑπὶ Ληναίῳ τ᾽ ἀγών), for which the expressions ἐν Ληναίοις and (ἐδιδάχθη) εἰς Λήναια are more usual in the didascaliae (see Müller's Bühnenalterthümer, p. 316, n. 3). The Lenaea took place in the month Gamelion.

36. ὥσπερ οἱ ἐν ἐκείνῳ τῷ χορῷ, sc. γενόμενοι. γίγνεσθαι ἐν is ‘to come to be in or among’, ‘to fall among’. ἐν τῷ προθύρῳ ἐγενόμεθα of 314Cis the same idiom.

μισάνθρωποι. So the MSS. The various suggested emendations (ἡμιάνθρωποι Heinrich, μιξάνθρωποι Jacobs, μεσάνθρωποι Lehrs) proceed on the supposition that the word is an epithet of the ἄγριοι, which is most improbable: ‘alii sunt ἄγριοι, alii μισάνθρωποι, neque in illa sermonis iunctura’ (sc. if we regard the ὥσπερ clause as explaining τοῖς τοιούτοις) ‘scribendum ὥσπερ sed οἷοί περ fuit’ (Heindorf).

37. Εὐρυβάτῳ καὶ Φρυνώνδᾳ. Two proverbial scoundrels of real life: see Suidas s.vv. Εὐρύβατος πονηρός, ἀπὸ τοῦ ρεμφθέντος ὑρὸ Κποίσου ἐρὶ ξενολογίαν μετὰ χπημάτων, ὥς φησιν Ἔφοπος, εἶτα μεταβαλομένου ρπὸς Κῦπον: ἦν δὲ Ἐφέσιος κτλ. Φπυνώνδας τῶν ἐρὶ ρονηπίᾳ διαβεβοημένων, ὃς ξένος ὢν κατὰ τὰ Ρελοροννησιακὰ διέτπιβεν Ἀθήνησιν:—ἐκ τούτου τοὺς ρονηποὺς Φρυνώνδας καλοῦσι. They are frequently mentioned in Greek literature: see Blaydes on Ar. Thesm. 861. Blaydes remarks that -ώνδας is a Boeotian termination: cf. Ἐπαμεινώνδας, Χαρώνδας and the like.