CHAPTER XXIV
Hippias, anxious for a compromise, proposes the selection of an umpire in a speech marked by his characteristic doctrines and style.If we may judge from this speech, Hippias must have been devoted to metaphor: e.g. τύραννος, πρυτανεῖον in D, ὥσπερ ὑπὸ διαιτητῶν in E, and in 338Aἐφεῖναι καὶ χαλάσαι τὰς ἡνίας, κάλων ἐκτείναντα οὐπίᾳ ἐφέντα, ρέλαγος λόγων, ἀροκπύψαντα γῆν, μέσον τι τεμεῖν, ῥαβδοῦχον and πρύτανιν. Zeller (Archiv für Geschichte der Philosophie, V, 2, 175) thinks that the opening part of the speech may have come from some book of which Hippias was himself the author.
2. ἀπεδέξαντο means simply ‘assented’: cf. Theaet. 162E.
4. ἡμᾶς is Heindorf's correction for ὑμᾶς; ‘uti mox ἡμᾶς οὖν αἰσχρόν etc., neque video cur se a ceteris h. l. segreget Hippias’.
5. φύσει οὐ νόμῳ. The opposition between φύσις and νόμος frequently appears attributed to different sophists or their representatives in the Platonic dialogues: the historical Hippias was a leading champion of φύσις (see Introduction p. XX). Usually, however, νόμος is represented as a convention binding men together into friendship and φύσις (whose teaching is that might is right) as responsible for the enmity of man to man in the savage state: e.g. Rep. II. 358D ff., Gorg. 482D ff. From the natural principle of ‘Like to like’ is here deduced something like the Stoic doctrine of the kinship between wise men.
τὸ γὰρ ὁμοῖον τῷ ὁμοίῳ: Gorg. 510B φίλος μοι δοκεῖ ἕκαστος ἑκάστῳ εἶναι ὡς οἷόν τε μάλιστα, ὅνρεπ οἱ ραλαιοί τε καὶ σοφοὶ λέγουσιν, ὁ ὁμοῖος τῶ̣ ὁμοίῳ; Laws, IV. 716C. The proverb appears in the most various forms in Greek literature from Homer (Od. XVII. 218 ὡς αἰεὶ τὸν ὁμοῖον ἄγει θεὸς ὡς τὸν ὁμοῖον) downwards. For more examples of its use in Plato see Stallbaum on Gorg. loc. cit.
7. τύραννος—βιάζεται. Hippias has in view the lines of Pindar quoted in Gorg. 484B νόμος ὁ πάντων βασιλεὺς θνατῶν τε καὶ ἀθανάτων—ἄγε. δικαιῶν τὸ βιαιότατον ὑπερτάτᾳ χειρὶ κτλ.
11. πρυτανεῖον τῆς σοφίας. The prytaneum (like the temple of Vesta at Rome) was the religious centre of a Greek πόλις. It was sacred to Ἑστία, in whose honour fire was always kept burning, and contained what was called the ‘Common Hearth’ of the city: see Frazer in Journal of Philology, XIV, 145-72. The editors refer to Athenaeus, v. 187D τὴν Ἀθηναίων ρόλιν, τὸ τῆς Ἑλλάδος μουσεῖον, ἣν ὁ μὲν Ρίνδαπος Ἑλλάδος ἔπεισμα ἔφη, Θουκυδίδης δ᾽ ἐν τῷ εἰς Εὐπιρίδην ἐριγπάμματι Ἑλλάδος Ἑλλάδα, ὁ δὲ Πύθιος ἑστίαν καὶ πρυτανεῖον τῶν Ἑλλήνων.
16. συμβῆναι—ὥσπερ ὑπὸ διαιτητῶν ἡμῶν συμβιβαζόντων. συμβαίνω forms a passive to συμβιβάζω as πάσχειν to ποιεῖν, whence ὑπό: see note on Apol. 17A. συμβιβάζω is regular in the sense of bringing together, effecting an arrangement between: cf. (with Sauppe) Thuc. II. 29. 6 ξυνεβίβασε δὲ καὶ τὸν Περδίκκαν τοῖς Ἀθηναίοις. Note that ἡμῶν has no preposition with it—this is frequent (but not universal) in similes where ὥσπερ and a preposition precede the object compared, and the effect is almost to make the simile an identification: if on the other hand the object compared comes first, the preposition must be expressed twice. Cf. Theaet. 170A ὥσπερ πρὸς θεοὺς ἔχειν τοὺς ἐν ἑκάστοις ἄρχοντας (which might have been πρὸς τοὺς ἐν ἑκάστοις ἄρχοντας ὥσπερ πρὸς θεοὺς ἔχειν) and see notes on Crito, 46C, Euthyphr. 2C.
19. λίαν: with ζητεῖν: κατὰ βραχύ as in Gorg. 449B ἀλλ᾽ ἐθέλησον κατὰ βραχὺ τὸ ἐρωτώμενον ἀποκρίνεσθαι.
20. ἐφεῖναι καὶ χαλάσαι τὰς ἡνίας τοῖς λόγοις. For the metaphor Kroschel compares Laws, III. 701C καθάπερ ἀχάλινον κεκτημένον τὸ στόμα, βίᾳ ὑπὸ τοῦ λόγου φερόμενον κτλ.
22. ἡμῖν: so most editions: BT have ὑμῖν, which can hardly be right, as Hippias is at this moment addressing Socrates alone. ‘Pro ὑμῖν dici potuit σοί, sed ὑμιν recte explicari nequit’ (Kroschel).
23. πάντα κάλων ἐκτείναντα. παροιμία ἐπὶ τῶν πάσῃ προθυμίᾳ χρωμένων, says a scholiast (quoted by Sauppe). This nautical metaphor means to stretch out every reefing rope and so set all sail: κάλως does not refer to the sheet, which is πούς. κινεῖν, σείειν, ἐξιέναι, ἐφιέναι, ἐκλύειν are also found with κάλων in much the same sense.
οὐρίᾳ ἐφέντα: see on συγκαθεῖναι 336A For the asyndeton before these words Heindorf compares Euthyphr. 4C συνδήσας τοὺς ρόδας καὶ τὰς χεῖπας αὐτοῦ, καταβαλὼν εἰς τάφπον τινά, ρέμρει δεῦρο ἄνδρα κτλ.
24. πέλαγος τῶν λόγων. Sauppe aptly refers to Symp. 210D ἐπὶ τὸ πολὺ πέλαγος τετραμμένος τοῦ καλοῦ. Similar metaphors abound in Plato: e.g. Euthyd. 293A σῶσαι ἡμᾶς—ἐκ τῆς τρικυμίας τοῦ λόγου, Rep. V. 472A ἴσως γὰρ οὐκ οἶσθα ὅτι μόγις μοι τὼ δύο κύματε ἐκφυγόντι νῦν τὸ μέγιστον καὶ χαλερώτατον τῆς τρικυμίας ἐπάγεις κτλ.
ἀποκρύψαντα: like Virgil's ‘protinus aerias Phaeacum abscondimus arces’ (Aen. III. 291): cf. the use of καταδύω in Callimachus, Epigr. 2 ἥλιον ἐν λέσχῃ κατεδύσαμεν and Virgil's imitation ‘saepe ego longos Cantando puerum memini me condere soles’ (Ecl. IX. 51).
25. μέσον τι—τεμεῖν. τέμνειν ὁδόν like secare viam is a natural metaphor. Cf. Pindar, Isthm. VI. 22 μυρίαι δ᾽ ἔργων καλῶν τέτμηνθ᾽ ἑκατόμπεδοι ἐν σχερῷ κέλευθοι, Pl. Laws, VII. 803E τὸ μὲν τῶν τύπων εἴρηται καὶ καθάπερ ὁδοὶ τέτμηνται καθ᾽ ἃς ἰτέον κτλ. Here μέσον τι τεμεῖν = μέσην τινὰ ὁδὸν τεμεῖν.
ὣς οὖν ποιήσατε καὶ πείθεσθε. ὥς (so B: T has ὡς) is best understood as for οὕτως—a rare usage, except after a preceding ὡς or ὥσπερ as in 326D but it is found in Thuc. III. 37. 5 (with οὖν and a form of ποιεῖν as here) ὣς οὖν χρὴ καὶ ἡμᾶς ποιοῦντας— παραινεῖν. For ποιήσατε the MSS. read ποιήσετε, which is very harsh before πείθεσθε, and is probably a mistake for ποιήσατε, due to the influence of the common construction of ὅπως with 2nd person fut. ind. It is, however, possible that this use of the future as well as the use of ὥς for οὕτως was characteristic of Hippias' style.
26. ῥαβδοῦχον—πρύτανιν. ῥαβδοῦχος, ἐπιστάτης and βραβευτής are said of umpires or presidents at games: ῥαβδούχους εἶπε τοὺς κριτὰς τοῦ ἀγῶνος, says the schol. on Ar. Peace, 733; for ἐπιστάτης cf. Laws, XII. 949A γυμνικῶν τε καὶ ἱππικῶν ἄθλων ἐπιστάτας καὶ βραβέας. πρύτανις is an old word with lofty associations for ruler or prince. Cron thinks Hippias made this proposal with a view to being chosen President himself; he was probably still sitting on his θρόνος, cf. 315B 317D
27. τὸ μέτριον μῆκος: Phaedr. 267B αὐτὸς (sc. ὁ Πρόδικος） εὑρηκέναι ἔφη ὧν δεῖ λόγων τέχνην: δεῖν δὲ οὔτε μακρῶν οὔτε βραχέων, ἀλλὰ μετρίων.
