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παρὰ σφίσιν οἴκοι εἶναι: ‘to be with them in their homes.’ παρὰ σφίσιν οἰκεῖν, which Cobet (V. L.^{2} p. 534) and Herwerden desire to read, would not necessarily mean more than ‘to dwell in their country.’ With the sentiment cf. Men. 89 B (quoted below). αὐτοὶ ἂν ἐπαιδαγώγουν: ‘they would have made themselves their tutors and escorted them’ etc. παιδαγωγεῖν is used in the same playful way in Alc. I 135 D κινδυνεύσομεν μεταβαλεῖν τὸ σχῆμα, ὦ Σώκρατες, τὸ μὲν σὸν ἐγώ, σὺ δὲ τοὐμόν: οὐ γὰρ ἔστιν ὅπως οὐ παιδαγωγήσω σε ἀπὸ τῆσδε τῆς ἡμέρας, σὺ δ᾽ ὑπ᾽ ἐμοῦ παιδαγωγήσει. The proverb δὶς παῖδες οἱ γέροντες perhaps lends an additional point to ἐπαιδαγώγουν, as in Soph. Fr. 623 Dindorf=Eur. Bacch. 193 γέρων γέροντα παιδαγωγήσω σ᾽ ἐγώ. μεταλάβοιεν. The regular sequence would be μετέλαβον, but cf. Men. 89 B οὓς ἡμεῖς ἂν—ἐφυλάττομεν ἐν ἀκροπόλει, κατασημηνάμενοι πολὺ μᾶλλον ἢ τὸ χρυσίον, ἵνα μηδεὶς αὐτοὺς διέφθειρεν (διαφθείρειεν conj. Madvig), ἀλλ᾽ ἐπειδὴ ἀφίκοιντο εἰς τὴν ἡλικίαν, χρήσιμοι γίγνοιντο ταῖς πόλεσιν. The difference is the difference between ‘should’ and ‘should have.’ πάντας τοὺς ποιητικούς: see on 595 C. μιμητὰς εἰδώλων: ‘imitators of images.’ The words can scarcely mean ‘forgers of semblances,’ ‘imitative makers of shadows,’ as suggested by J. and C., in spite of 599 D εἰδώλου δημιουργός and τοῦ εἰδώλου ποιητής in 601 B. The images which the poet manufactures are in fact images of images, according to both 598 B and 596 B ff.: cf. 602 B note νῦν δή. 598 B, C. ὁ ζῳγράφος κτλ.: ‘the painter will make what seems to be a shoemaker, in the eyes of those who understand as little about shoemaking as he does himself, but judge by colour and form.’ The dative is the dative of person judging, and does not directly depend on δοκοῦντα εἶναι, though doubtless affected by it. This explanation is better, I think, than to construe τοῖς μὴ ἐπαΐουσιν either directly with δοκεῖν (so Vermehren Pl. St. p. 120, comparing ὥστε ἑτέροις—δοκεῖν below), or with ποιήσει (“und für diejenigen, die auch nichts verstehen” Schneider).
The Republic of Plato. James Adam. 1902. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press.
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