Gonzalez Lodge, Commentary on Plato: Gorgias

ληφθῇ: pictures vividly the actual scene. In compound verbs the metaphorical meaning often predominates, and leaves the actual in the background (cf. ἐπ᾽ αὐτοφώρῳ καταλαμβάνεσθαι). In what follows, notice the rhetorical heaping up of the most frightful punishments; which reminds us of Aesch. Eum. 186 ff. καρανιστῆρες ὀφθαλμωρύχοι | δίκαι σφαγαί τε σπέρματός τ᾽ ἀποφθοραὶ | παίδων, κακοῦ τε χλοῦνις ἠδ᾽ ἀκρωνία, | λευσμός τε καὶ μύζουσιν οἰκτισμὸν πολὺν | ὑπὸ ῥάχιν παγέντες. Cf. Rep. ii. 361 e μαστιγώσεται, στρεβλώσεται, δεδήσεται, ἐκκαυθήσεται τὠφθαλμώ, τελευτῶν πάντα κακὰ παθὼν ἀνασχινδυλευθήσεται.

καὶ ἄλλας κτἑ.: notice the ὁμοιοτέλευτα.

ἐπιδών: sc. λωβηθέντας.

καταπιττωθῇ: an especially severe manner of punishment. The criminal was put into a sack smeared with pitch,—the so-called tunica molesta,—which was then set on fire.

διαφυγών: “if he succeed”; opposed to ληφθῇ.

ὅτι ἂν βούληται: Polus has again forgotten the explanation of the difference between δοκεῖν and βούλεσθαι.—

εὐδαιμονιζόμενος: to be thought εὐδαίμων by the multitude is to be so, in Polus' estimation.

καὶ τῶν ἄλλων ξένων: cf. Hom. B 191 ἀλλ᾽ αὐτός τε κάθησο καὶ ἄλλους ἵδρυε λαούς, 480 d, Phaedo 110 e λίθοις καὶ γῇ καὶ τοῖς ἄλλοις ζῴοις τε καὶ φυτοῖς. The same idiom is found in Latin, as equites et aliud vul gus. See on 447 c.

43 f.

ταῦτα λέγεις: Polus is trium