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ὡς φήσομεν. The sense (as Schneider observes) is ὡς ὁ μῦθος λέγει, ὃν πρὸς αὐτοὺς ἐροῦμεν. Hartman cancels ὡς, but it was more likely to have been wrongly omitted here than inserted. χρυσὸν κτλ. The metals are borrowed from Hesiod (O. D. 109—201), as Plato indicates in VIII 546 E. Hesiod enumerates five ages of men (interposing the age of heroes between those of copper and iron), but the older legend probably recognised four only: see Rohde Psyche^{2} I p. 87. Plato makes the golden and the other classes coexist—a truer and profounder view than Hesiod's. In other respects, the myth (as Jackson has pointed out in Susemihl and Hicks Politics of Aristotle p. 244) is not to be pressed: for “it does not recognise the promotion of ἐπίκουροι” to be ἄρχοντες. We should expect the φύλακες to contain admixtures, both of gold and silver, such as are to be Rulers receiving more gold than silver, and conversely; but the Greek does not favour this idea. Iron again seems to be exclusively (though less emphatically) reserved for the farmers, and copper for the artisans: cf. infra B, C, VIII 547 A, B, and Arist. Pol. B 5. 1264^{b} 14. It makes the ψεῦδος all the more γενναῖον and effective to tell the citizens that the classes are even more distinct than they really are. ἅτε οὖν ξυγγενεῖς ὄντες is said with reference to the δέ clause, on which the stress falls. The fundamental kinship of the different classes will occasionally reassert itself in their offspring. So J. and C., rightly.
The Republic of Plato. James Adam. 1902. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press.
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