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ὥσπερ ἱμάτιον κτλ. For the asyndeton cf. VI 497 B note ποικίλον=‘many-coloured’ is cancelled by Herwerden and J. J. Hartman. The word is in every MS and thoroughly harmonises with Plato's characteristic fulness of style: ‘like a many-coloured garment, diversified with every shade of colour.’ In itself it is the antithesis of ἁπλοῦς, and symbolical of kaleidoscopic diversity and changefulness, just as in recent years we have heard the expression ‘Joseph's coat of many colours’ applied to a versatile and distinguished statesman. See also on 561 E. ἄνθεσι is not ‘flowers’ (as seems to be generally supposed), but ‘dyes,’ ‘colours’ (IV 429 D note): nor need πεποικιλμένη be understood of embroidery: for ποικίλλειν means no more than ‘to diversify with colours’ and implies nothing whatever as to the process: cf. II 378 C. On the verbal play in ἄνθεσι—ἤθεσι see III 406 B note For ἦν δ᾽ ἐγώ repeated cf. VII 522 A note
The Republic of Plato. James Adam. 1902. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press.
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