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αἱρεῖσθαι κτλ . αἱρεῖσθαι ‘to make his choice’ is used absolutely as in 620 A. πρὸς τὴν τῆς ψυχῆς κτλ. means ‘defining the worse and the better life with reference to the nature of the soul, calling that worse’ etc. (So also Schneider.) The two parts of τόν τε χείρω καὶ τὸν ἀμείνω βίον are afterwards taken separately in χείρω μέν and ἀμείνω δέ, as with so-called ‘partitive apposition’: cf. 611 D and IV 431 A note Others take αἱρεῖσθαι with τόν τε χείρω καὶ τὸν ἀμείνω βίον, but αἱρεῖσθαι is different from διαιρεῖσθαι and the possibility of a zeugma is excluded because τὸν χείρω precedes τὸν ἀμείνω and not vice-versâ.
The Republic of Plato. James Adam. 1902. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press.
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