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ἐπιλανθάνεσθαι. There is no good reason for transferring to this place the clause αὐτὸς—πιεῖν as Herwerden wishes to do. In treating of this passage, Proclus quotes an interesting fragment of Aristotle's dialogue ‘On the Soul’ (l.c. 349. 17 ff. = Rose 1480^{b} 5 ff.): φησὶ γὰρ οὖν (sc. ὁ Ἀριστοτέλης） καὶ αὐτὸς ἐκ μὲν ὑγείας εἰς νόσον ὁδεύοντας λήθην ἴσχειν τινὰς καὶ αὐτῶν τῶν γραμμάτων ὧν ἐμεμαθήκεσαν, ἐκ νόσου δὲ εἰς ὑγείαν ἰόντα μηδένα πώποτε τοῦτο πάσχειν. ἐοικέναι δὲ τὴν μὲν ἄνευ σώματος ζωὴν ταῖς ψυχαῖς κατὰ φύσιν οὖσαν ὑγείᾳ, τὴν δὲ ἐν σώμασιν, ὡς παρὰ φύσιν, νόσῳ. ζῆν γὰρ ἐκεῖ μὲν κατὰ φύσιν αὐτάς, ἐνταῦθα δὲ παρὰ φύσιν: ὥστ᾽ εἰκότως συμβαίνειν τὰς μὲν ἐκεῖθεν ἰούσας ἐπιλανθάνεσθαι τῶν ἐκεῖ, τὰς δὲ ἐντεῦθεν ἐκεῖσε τῶν ἐνταῦθα διαμνημονεύειν. Cf. Timon of Athens V 1 “my long sickness Of health and living now begins to mend, And nothing brings me all things.” μέσας νύκτας. The plural, in which νύκτες according to Heindorf on Prot. 310 D signifies horae nocturnae, is regular in this and similar expressions, e.g. πόρρω τῶν νυκτῶν (Symp. 217 D) etc. γενέσθαι -- γενέσθαι. “Is Plato really responsible for the clumsy and ill-sounding repetition of γενέσθαι?” Richards, who would omit the first γενέσθαι and write κατὰ μέσας for καὶ μέσας. A similar correction had already been suggested by Herwerden. Plato himself is not in the least averse to echoes of this kind: see on VI 511 E. ἄνω. It follows that the souls just before their reincarnation are underground: see on Ἀνάγκης γόνασιν 617 B and διὰ καύματος κτλ. 621 A and Virg. Aen. VI 748 ff. Has omnis—Lethaeum ad fluvium deus evocat agmine magno: Scilicet immemores supera ut convexa revisant, Rursus et incipiant in corpora velle reverti. εἰς -- ἀστέρας is an instance—rare in Plato—of an apparently accidental iambic. See Arist. Rhet. III 8. 1408^{b} 33 ff. ὁ δ᾽ ἴαμβος αὐτή ἐστιν ἡ λέξις ἡ τῶν πολλῶν: διὸ μάλιστα πάντων τῶν μέτρων ἰαμβεῖα φθέγγονται λέγοντες and Cope ad loc. For souls conceived as stars cf. Ar. Peace 833 f. οὐκ ἦν ἄρ᾽ οὐδ᾽ ὃ λέγουσι κατὰ τὸν ἀέρα | ὡς ἀστέρες γιγνόμεθ᾽ , ὅταν τις ἀποθάνῃ; and Plut. de gen. Socr. 591 D πολλοὺς ἀστέρας περὶ τὸ χάσμα παλλομένους (said of disembodied souls) and 591 F. Similarly the Milky Way which, in the words of Milton, is ‘powdered with stars’ (Par. Lost VII 581: cf. Arist. Meteor. I 8), is the abode of certain souls, according to a tolerably widespread tradition, which meets us also in antiquity: see for example Cic. de repub. VI 15, 16 and Manil. I 753— 804. Cf. also Ettig Acherunt. l.c. p. 348 note 2 and Rohde Psyche^{2} II pp. 95, 213 notes ἕωθεν . ἄνωθεν (see cr. n.), which appears also in v, is approved by Richards, but adds nothing to the meaning. ἕωθεν is of course the morning of the twelfth day as μέσας νύκτας above was the midnight of the eleventh: cf. δωδεκαταῖος— ἀνεβίω 614 B and 616 B note κείμενον. See cr. n. ἤδη is inappropriate in itself, and has little authority besides A^{2}. μῦθος -- οὐκ ἀπώλετο. A Scholiast remarks: τοῖς μὲν οὖν πολλοῖς προστιθέναι τοῖς μύθοις ἔθος ἦν, ὅτι μῦθος ἀπώλετο, δεικνύναι βουλομένοις ὡς ἄρα οἱ μῦθοι λέγουσι μὴ ὄντα, καὶ ἅμα ἐρρήθησαν καὶ οὐκ εἰσίν. (Cf. Theaet. 164 D and Phil. 14 A.) Πλάτων δὲ τοὐναντίον πανταχοῦ σῴζεσθαί τε καὶ σῴζειν φησὶ τοὺς μύθους τοὺς παρ᾽ αὑτῷ, μάλα γε εἰκότως: τῶν γὰρ ὄντων εἰσὶν ἐξηγηταί, καὶ ὠφέλιμοι διὰ τοῦτο. (The Scholium is from Proclus l.c. 354. 24 ff.). Plato means that the story of Er is οὐκ ὄναρ, ἀλλ᾽ ὕπαρ ἐσθλόν. A similar play on the proverb occurs also in Laws 645 B.
The Republic of Plato. James Adam. 1902. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press.
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