James Adam, The Republic of Plato

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ὡς γλίσχρως εἰκάζω: ‘how greedy I am of parables’ (lit. ‘how greedily I make parables), not (as J. and C.) ‘what a poor hand I am’ at similes, an interpretation which deprives ἔτι μᾶλλον of all its force. γλίσχρος (connected with γλία ‘glue’ and γλίχομαι) is used as in Ar. Ach. 452 γλίσχρος προσαιτῶν λιπαρῶν τε. ‘Niggardly,’ ‘stingy’ is a secondary meaning, as for example in VIII 553 C and Crat. 414 C. The idea is that a man must be greedy of similes when he runs all over the world to find one (ἐκ πολλῶν ξυναγαγεῖν). αὐτό should be taken with εἰκάζοντα, by an easy hyperbaton.

τραγελάφους and similar fantastic creations were of frequent occurrence in Oriental art. The word is fully illustrated by Blaydes on Ar. Frogs 937.

μιγνύντες should be taken with γράφουσι: ‘as painters paint goat-stags and the like by fusing creatures together.’

τοιουτουὶ κτλ. There is no occasion to read τοιοῦτόν τι: see III 388 D note For γενόμενον Richards would write γιγνόμενον, because of ὁρῶντα etc. in B ff. and γιγνομένων in 488 E. But Plato rightly asks us to conceive of the completed scene, although the scene itself must of course be described by present participles.

ναύκληρον κτλ. The ναύκληρος is the Demos, as Aristotle observed (Rhet. III 4. 1406^{b} 35): cf. also Olympiodorus Proleg. 27 ed. Hermann. Cope on Arist. l.c. erroneously asserts that the ναύκληρος is the ‘governor or governors of the unruly mob of citizens’; and Windelband's identification of the ναύκληρος with the younger Dionysius is a strange freak of fancy: see Hirmer Entsteh. u. Komp. etc. p. 620. As the ναύκληρος owned his own ship (II 371 B note), it is right that the Demos should be ναύκληρος in a democracy. For the frequent comparison of the State to a ship in Greek literature see Smyth's Gk. Melic Poets p. 215. With ὑπόκωφος cf. Ar. Knights 42, 43 Δῆμος πυκνίτης, δύσκολον γερόντιον ὑπόκωφον and Blaydes ad loc. Plato's picture of the Δῆμος is not unamiable: cf. 499 E ff. Though unwieldy, sluggish, and dullwitted (cf. Ap. 30 E ὑπὸ μεγέθους δὲ νωθεστέρῳ καὶ δεομένῳ ἐγείρεσθαι ὑπὸ μύωπός τινος), he is placid, and not deliberately vicious. It is the δημαγωγοί (in the widest sense of the term, including demagogues, sophists etc.), and not the δῆμος who are here attacked. With μεγέθει καὶ ῥώμῃ cf. μεγάλου καὶ ἰσχυροῦ 493 A.