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παράγειν . παράγοντας (conjectured by Richards) would be easier, but the slip, if such it be, is excusable. ὡςὄντας is not the accusative absolute: if it were, ὡς would express the reason, and here it does not. We are defining the τύπος: and the construction is (they must ποιεῖν) ὡς μήτε αὐτοὺς γόητας ὄντας, ‘represent the gods as neither themselves being sorcerers,’ etc. In παράγειν the construction is changed, but the change is natural, for our rule applies both to λόγος and ποίησις (καὶ λέγειν καὶ ποιεῖν), and λέγειν takes the accusative and infinitive. Both λέγειν and ποιεῖν affect the construction, which involves a sort of chiasmus. Cf. III 390 B note

τοῦ ἐνυπνίου πομπήν. Il. II 1— 34.

Θέτις κτλ. The verses are perhaps, as Schneider conjectures, from Aeschylus' Ὅπλων κρίσις, in which Thetis was one of the characters (Schol. on Ar. Ach. 883). Apollo with his harp (ἔχων φόρμιγγα) appears as present at the marriage of Thetis also in Homer (Il. XXIV 62, 63). Plato accommodates the beginning of the quotation to his own sentence: in Aeschylus perhaps it ran δ᾽ ἐνεδατεῖτο τὰς ἐμὰς εὐπαιδίας (so Butler, quoted by Schneider). ἐνδατεῖσθαι, ‘to dwell upon or emphasize,’ is elsewhere always used in an ominous sense (see Jebb on Soph. O. T. 205): and here too, perhaps, it strikes a foreboding note. The words μακραίωνας βίους were doubted by Stephanus, who suggested μακραίωνος βίου (so Euseb. Praep. Ev. XIII 3. 35) or μακραίωνας βίου: but Apollo's prophecies did not refer to Achilles only, so that the plural is justified. ἀπείρους should be taken not with εὐπαιδίας, but with βίους, which is in apposition to εὐπαιδίας. In the next line θεοφιλεῖς ἐμὰς τύχας depends on the compound expression παιῶν᾽ ἐπηυφήμησεν—a construction frequent in Aeschylus, especially with verbs which denote singing, celebrating, etc. (Ag. 174, 175 al.): after enumerating all the blessings in store for Thetis (ξύμπαντά τ᾽ εἰπών) Apollo raised a paean over her θεοφιλεῖς τύχας. This explanation— Schneider's—is much better than to connect ξύμπαντα adverbially with θεοφιλεῖς.

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  • Commentary references from this page (2):
    • Sophocles, Oedipus Tyrannus, 205
    • Aristophanes, Acharnians, 883
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