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ὑπόπτερον is doubly appropriate: for Ἔρως too has wings. τῶν τοιούτων. Masculine, not neuter, as Stallbaum once supposed. ὅταν. A large majority of MSS have ὅταν δή, which Schneider retains. δή is unsuitable after οὐκοῦν, and may possibly have arisen from the accidental reduplication of ΑΝ: see on V 450 C. I agree with most editors in accepting the text of A. αὐτὸν κτλ. αὐτόν means ἔρωτα, the μέγαν κηφῆνα. On βομβοῦσαι see VIII 564 D note The position of the participial adjective ἀνειμένων is illustrated on VII 532 C. αὔξουσαί τε καὶ τρέφουσαι. The object is τὸν κηφῆνα, not of course πόθου κέντρον, as Jowett translates. This master-passion grows by what it feeds on, until it becomes acute, and ends in madness and frenzy. πόθου κέντρον (cf. Phaedr. 253 E πόθου κέντρων) is ‘the sting of unsatisfied desire’ (Sehnsucht Schneider): cf. the definition of πόθος in Crat. 420 A πόθος—οὐ τοῦ παρόντος—ἀλλὰ τοῦ ἄλλοθί που ὄντος καὶ ἀπόντος. Ast conjectured τρέφουσαι πόθον, κέντρον κτλ., “namque πόθος s. ἔρως iam inest in fuco.” But in point of fact the ἔρως is the drone, and the MS text is far more picturesque and expressive. δορυφορεῖται. Cf. VIII 566 B ff.
The Republic of Plato. James Adam. 1902. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press.
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