6. ἰώμενος μεῖζον τὸ νόσημα ποιῶ. Socrates is thinking of
the proverb κακὸν κακῷ ἰᾶσθαι.
8. ποιητοῦ—ἐκτῆσθαι. The poet is not of course Hesiod
but Simonides. Socrates nowhere said that in censuring Pittacus
Simonides implies that it is easy to ‘keep virtue’, i.e. to be
virtuous: the quotation from Hesiod was put in the mouth of
Prodicus and ἄλλοι πολλοί (340C. At the same time Protagoras
might fairly turn Socrates' fallacies (see on 331A against himself and say that if Simonides said it was ‘not difficult’ to be
virtuous, he meant that it was ‘easy’ to be so.
12. κινδυνεύει γάρ τοι: the art of Prodicus (Socrates means)
can lay as good claims to antiquity as yours: cf. 316D
13. θεία τις εἶναι πάλαι. Kroschel's reading εἶναι καὶ παλαιά
would somewhat change the meaning, which is ‘has long been
an art divine’: divine because practised by poets and the like,
cf. Rep. I. 331E ἀλλὰ μέντοι—Σιμωνίδῃ γε οὐ ῥᾴδιον ἀπιστεῖν:
σοφὸς γὰρ καὶ θεῖος ἁνήρ: above 315Eand note. In ἤτοι ἀπὸ
Σιμωνίδου there is an allusion to 316D
Plato. Protagoras. J. Adam & A. M. Adam. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press. 1893.
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