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μὴ λαθών: “si non latueris” (Schneider). Stephanus conjectured μήν and Ast με for μή: but either change would destroy the antithesis between λανθάνειν and βιάζεσθαι—secret guile and open fraud: cf. II 365 D ἀλλὰ δὴ θεοὺς οὔτε λανθάνειν, οὔτε βιάσασθαι δυνατόν. Hirschig's excision of μὴ λαθών greatly impairs the emphasis. τὸν ὡς ἔπος εἰπεῖν. The only exact parallel to this use of ὡς ἔπος εἰπεῖν in Plato is Laws 656 E σκοπῶν δ᾽ εὑρήσεις αὐτόθι τὰ μυριοστὸν ἔτος γεγραμμένα ἢ τετυπωμένα οὐχ ὡς ἔπος εἰπεῖν μυριοστὸν ἀλλ᾽ ὄντως. This idiomatic phrase is rare before Plato, who uses it 77 times with the meaning ‘to put the matter in a word,’ implying that other and possibly more exact means of describing the thing in question might be found. In 52 of these cases the phrase is combined with πᾶς or οὐδείς and their family of words, in the sense of fere, propemodum: its use in other connexions is in part a return to old poetic usage; cf. Aesch. Pers. 714, Eur. Hipp. 1162, Heracl. 167. See Grünenwald in Schanz's Beiträge zur hist. Synt. d. gr. Spr. II 3, pp. 21 ff. The other examples in the Republic are V 464 D, VIII 551 B, IX 577 C. ὃ νῦν δὴ ἔλεγες: viz. in 340 E κατὰ τὸν ἀκριβῆ λόγον. The antecedent is the phrase ἀκριβεῖ λόγῳ. The conjecture of Benedictus, ὅν for ὅ, though adopted by several editors, would (as Schneider remarks) leave it uncertain whether λόγῳ or τόν was referred to by the relative. There is no MS authority for ὅν.
The Republic of Plato. James Adam. 1902. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press.
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