James Adam, The Republic of Plato

ἄλλα δὲ οὐκ ἔχουσιν: sc. λέγειν τιμωρήματα. Adimantus means that they dissuade men from injustice merely on account of its results, ignoring τίνα ἔχει δύναμιν αὐτὸ καθ᾽ αὑτὸ ἐνὸν ἐν τῇ ψυχῇ (358 B). J. and C. aptly cite Theaet. 176 D, E ἀγνοοῦσι γὰρ ζημίαν ἀδικίας, ὃ δεῖ ἥκιστα ἀγνοεῖν: οὐ γάρ ἐστιν ἣν δοκοῦσιν, πληγαί τε καὶ θάνατοι, ὧν ἐνίοτε πάσχουσιν οὐδὲν ἀδικοῦντες, ἀλλ᾽ ἣν ἀδύνατον ἐκφυγεῖν, viz. “that by their wicked acts they become like the pattern of evil.”

363E - 365A Secondly (continues Adimantus), both by poets and in private life virtue is called honourable but difficult, vice easy, and disgraceful only by convention. Injustice, men say, is in general the best policy: they admire the vicious rich, and despise the virtuous poor. Strangest of all, the gods themselves are said to be sometimes kind to the wicked, and unkind to the good; and seers profess to have power from the gods to atone for unjust dealing by pleasurable rites, and undertake to damage enemies for a trifling expenditure of money. In support of such teaching they quote the poets, Hesiod for example, and Homer. There are likewise books containing sacrificial formulae, by the use of which men are persuaded that their sins may be pardoned both in life and after death.

ff. The phase of Greek religious life here censured is illustrated by Dieterich Nek. pp. 81 f. and Rohde Psyche^{2} II 74 ff.: cf. also Lobeck Aglaoph. pp. 643 ff.

ἰδίᾳ has been understood of writing in prose, but the reference is only to the representations of private persons, e.g. parents, etc.)(to poets, who were in a sense the professional teachers of Hellas: cf. X 606 C, Laws 890 A ἰδιωτῶν τε καὶ ποιητῶν, and 366 E below.