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ὑφέξοντα. “Si ὑφέξοντα non sanum, corrige ὑφέξειν” (Hartman). This catches the point, but, as Hartman admits, the text can be defended as it stands. The participle agrees with the subject of ὁμιλεῖν, εἰ δὲ μή being all but adverbial, and therefore not followed by a main clause. Cf. Prot. 311 D. δεῖ δέ που κτλ. The love of Beauty is φιλοσοφία (Symp. 204 B); so that the famous saying of the Phaedo (61 A) φιλοσοφία μεγίστη μουσική resembles this. I agree with Krohn (Pl. St. p. 71) in holding that τοῦ καλοῦ is still beauty as it is revealed in Nature and in Art (see on 402 C), the πολὺ πέλαγος τοῦ καλοῦ of Symp. 210 D, and not yet the transcendent Idea of the Beautiful, the contemplation of which demands a still higher flight (ib. 210 D—212 A). But Plato leaves his μουσικός already knocking at the gates ‘of the blest promised Land.’ 403C - 405A Let us now discuss the subject of physical training. We may safely entrust the duty of making specific rules to the intelligences which we train, and content ourselves with tracing outlines. Every kind of excess or self-indulgence in eating, drinking, and the other appetites, must be forbidden. Gymnastic must be ‘simple’ like her sister Music. Complexity in the one case breeds disease, in the other vice; so that doctors and judges rise in public estimation, and chicanery and medicine give themselves airs. γυμναστικῇ κτλ. Plato's statements on γυμναστική have been carefully collected and expounded by Kanter Platos Anschauungen über Gymnastik, Graudenz 1886. Admirable remarks on the whole subject will be found in Nettleship Hell. pp. 132—134: cf. also his Lectures and Remains II pp. 123—126. Plato deals here chiefly with the hygienic aspect of gymnastic—a subject which was much discussed in his day: see Dict. Ant. I p. 929, where we are reminded that gymnasia were dedicated to Apollo, father of Asclepius, and himself a god of healing. In his interesting treatise Die Platonischen Dialoge in ihrem Verhältnisse zu den Hippokratischen Schriften (Landshut 1882) Poschenrieder has shewn that Plato was strongly influenced throughout this passage by the views of Hippocrates and his school. See also Häser Lehrb. d. Gesch. d. Med. etc. I pp. 94 ff. The athletics of Gymnastic are treated of in Laws 795 D ff., 833 ff.
The Republic of Plato. James Adam. 1902. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press.
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