this I do not much insist upon. 3dly. Pericles is spoken of1 as yet living, though he died nine years before; and what is worse, his two sons Xanthippus and Paralus are both represented as present at this conversation, though they certainly died 2 during the plague sometime before their father. ANALYSIS OF THE DIALOGUE. Socrates is wakened before day-break with a hasty knocking at his door: it is Hippocrates, a young man, who comes eagerly to acquaint him with the arrival of Protagoras, the celebrated sophist, at Athens, and to entreat him to go immediately and present him to that great man; for he is determined to spare no pains nor expense, so he may be but admitted to his conversation. Socrates moderates his impatience a little, and while they take a turn about the hall together, waiting for sun-rise, inquires into his notions of a sophist, and what he expected from him; and finding his ideas not very 1 Protag. p. 320. Α δε αυτος σοφος εστι, ουτε αυτος παιδεύει, OUTE TW αλλW Tapadidwor and again, p. 329, which Dacier tries, but in vain, to elude. 2 Plutarch in Vit. Periclis.-Athenæus has taken notice of this, L. 11. p. 505, and Macrobius, who seems to copy the other, Saturnal. L. 1. c. 1. NOTES ON THE GREEK TEXT. P. 309. II. N. v. 347. Κουρω αισθητηρι εοικως, Πρωτον ὑπηνητη, τουπερ χαριεστατη ήβη. Ib. Bonov eμo.] Vid. infra, p. 336 and 347. 310. Toν σкμπodos.] A low bedstead, or couch, on which Socrates lay, for he was not yet risen. clear upon that head, shews him the folly of putting his soul into the hands of he knew not whom, to do Iwith it he knew not what. If his body had been indisposed, and he had needed a physician, he would certainly have taken the advice and recommendation of his family and friends; but here, where his mind, a thing of much greater importance, was concerned, he was on the point of trusting it, unadvisedly and at random, to the care of a person whom he had never seen, nor spoken to. That a sophist was a kind of merchant or rather a retailer of food for the soul, and, like other shopkeepers, would exert his eloquence to recommend his own goods. The misfortune was, we could not carry them off, like corporeal viands, set them by a while, and consider them at leisure, whether they were wholesome or not, before we tasted them; that in this case we have no vessel, but the soul, to receive them in, which will necessarily retain a tincture, and perhaps much to its prejudice, of all which is NOTES. P. 310. Eğ Owons.] There were two Anuo of Attica so called, the one near Marathon, the other near Eleutheræ on the confines of Boeotia, which I take to be here meant. See Meursius and Pausan. L. 1. c. 33 and c. 38. Ib. IITоinois.] An eager desire of a thing, proceeding from admiration. Ib. Newtepos eiμ.] He was upwards of twenty-four years of age; for he was a child when Protagoras first came to Athens, which was Ol. 84. 1. 311. Tov Kwov.] Hippocrates, the Coan, was now about forty years old. Ib. Pedia.] Phidias was not now living. He died O1. 87. 1. Polycletus was younger, and might be still alive. instilled into it. However, by way of trial only, they agree to wait upon Protagoras, and accordingly they go to the house of Callias, where both he and two other principal sophists, Prodicus and Hippias, with all their train of followers, were lodged and entertained. The porter, an eunuch, wearied and pestered with the crowd of sophists who resorted to the house, mistaking them for such, gives them a short answer, and shuts the door in their face. At last they are admitted, and find Protagoras with Callias, and more company, walking in the porticos. The motions of Protagoras's followers are described with much humour; how at every turn they divided and cast off, as in a dance, still falling in, and moving in due subordination behind the principal performer. Hippias is sitting in a great chair, NOTES. P. 312. Epv@piaσas.] For the bad morals of the professors, (see the Gorgias, p. 520, Zv de di' ayvolav, &c. and the Meno, p. 91, Ηρακλεῖς, ευφημει, &c.) had brought the name into general disrepute; though it was once an honourable appellation, and given afterwards to all such as called themselves Þoσopoi. Solon was the person who first bore the name of ὁ Σοφιστης. (See Isocrat. Hepi Avtidoσews, p. 344.) Socrates defines a sophist, such as the character was in his time, Εμπορος τις, η καπηλος των αγωγιμων, αφ' ὧν ἡ ψυχη τρεφεται. Protag. p. 313. 314. Ov oxoλn auтw.] i.e. "My Lord is not at leisure to be spoken with." Ib. Εν τω Προστοω.] Προστωον (which is also written ΠροσTOOS) is rendered by the lexicographers Vestibulum Porticûs, that is, as I imagine, the Cavædium or open court, surrounded with a peristyle or portico, opening upon the rooms of entertainment; for all these rooms together composed the Ανδρων, as Vitruvius describes it. on the opposite side of the court, discoursing on points of natural philosophy to a circle, who are seated on forms round him; while Prodicus, in a large inner apartment, in bed and wrapped up in abundance of warm clothes, lies discoursing with another company of admirers. Socrates approaches Protagoras, and presents the young Hippocrates to him. The sophist, having premised something to give an idea of his own profession, its use and dignity, the rest of the company, being summoned together from all quarters, seat themselves about him; and Socrates begins by entreating Protagoras to inform him, what was the tendency and usual effect of his lessons, that Hippocrates might know what he was to expect from him. His answers shew, that he professed to accomplish men for publick and private NOTES. P. 314. Adeλpos òμoμηтpios.] The widow of Hipponicus, and mother to Callias, took to her second husband, Pericles, and brought him a son called Paralus: they afterwards parted by consent, and both married again. See Plutarch in his life of Pericles, who says that she brought him two sons, Xanthippus and Paralus; but it seems to be a mistake, as he had Xanthippus by a former marriage. This lady was related to Pericles by blood. Ib. Adeiμаvтw.] The son of Cepis and of Leucolophides. This Adimantus was Σrparnyos with Alcibiades, against Andros, Ol. 93. 2. See Xenoph. Hist. Græc. L. 1. 315. Xapons.] Plato's uncle.-Þiλiπwidŋs.] Son of Philomelus. -Avтiμopos.] Of Mende. -Epvğıμaxos.] A physician. Ib. Avôpwv.] The son of Androtion; probably the same person, who was afterwards one of the Four Hundred, and brought in the decree against Antipho, the Rhamnusian: (see Harpocration) he is mentioned in the Gorgias (p. 487) as a friend of Callicles, and a lover of eloquence rather than of true philosophy. life, to make them good and useful members of the state, and of a family. Socrates admires the beauty of his art, if indeed there be such an art, which, he confesses, he has often doubted; for if virtue is a thing which may be taught, what can his countrymen the Athenians mean, who in their publick assemblies, if the question turn on repairing the publick edifices, consult the architect, and if on their fleet, the ship-builder, and laughed at such as on pretence of their wit, of their wealth, or of their nobility, should interfere in debates which concern a kind of knowledge, in which they have neither skill nor experience; but if the point to be considered relate to the laws, to the magistracy, to the administration of peace and war, and to such subjects, every merchant, every little tradesman and mechanick, NOTES. P. 315. Eon 'Ounpos.] An allusion to the Odyss. of Homer, A. v. 600, as Dacier well observes. Ib. Пavoavias.] A lover of Agatho, the tragick poet, who was now (he says) very young; he gained his first prize on the stage Ol. 90. 4, four years after this. See Plato, Sympos. p. 193, and Athenæus, L. 5. p. 216. 316. Ikkos.] of Tarentum.—Hpodɩkos.] Of Selymbria, a sophist and IIaidoтpiẞns. See the Phædrus, p. 227. 316. IIvoкλeidns.] Of Ceos; he taught Pericles musick. See Alcib. 1. p. 118. and Plutarch in Pericles. Ib. Aya@okλns.] The Athenian musician and sophist; he instructed the famous Damon. See Laches, p. 80. 317. Пoλλα ye eтn.] He (Pythoclides, who taught musick) was now about sixty-one years of age, and had taught it near thirty-one years: but how he can call himself old enough to be father to any one in the company, I do not see; for Socrates was near fifty years of age. |
