Page:The works of Plato, A new and literal version, (vol 6) (Burges, 1854).djvu/435

Rh Εὕφημα φώνει, as though in a part of a river, where there was a long and dangerous winding, the sailors used this piece of flattery by way of pro pitiating the Nile ; but this does not fully clear up the passage here. That this proverb was so used may appear from the words of Athenfflus, xii. 516, Τὸν τόπον καλοῦσι Γυναικῶν ἀγῶνα, γλυκὺν ἀγκῶνα: "they call the place of the women's contest 'pleasant bend;'" which last may mean, a specious term to cover their ignominy. Casaubon does not explain it: here it seems applied to such as speak one thing and mean another.

P. 259, 90. Falling asleep.] The Greeks usually slept at noon in summer, as it is still the custom in Italy and Spain, and in other hot countries.

P. 259, 91. τεττίγων.] The tettix, in Latin "cicada," is an animal with wings, the size of a man s thumb, of a dark brown colour, which sits on the trees and sings, that is, makes a noise like a cricket; but much more shrill, and without any intervals, which grows louder as the sun grows hotter. Some supposed it to live on the air, others, on dew only. It does in reality live on the exudations of plants, having a proboscis, like flies, to feed with; but is capable of living a long time, like many of the insect race, without any nourishment at all. The tettigometra, which is this creature in its intermediate state between a worm and a fly, was esteemed a delicacy to eat by the Greeks.

P. 261. The Eleatic Palamedes.] Quintilian, iii. 1–10, informs us, that the person here meant is Alcidamas of Elea. Diogen. Laert. ix. 25, takes it to be meant of Zeno Eleates, who is looked upon as the inventor of disputation and of logic, and who was at Athens when Socrates was not above eight years old, that is, above fifty years earlier than the time of this dialogue; but his contemporary Empedocles was the first who cultivated rhetoric as an art, and taught it to Gorgias, who published a book on that subject.

P. 270. Νοῦ τε καὶ ἅνοιας.] He (i.e. Anaxagoras) attributed the disposition of the universe to an intelligent cause, or mind, whence he himself was called Νοῦς. He was nearly of the same age with Pericles, and came to Athens Ol. 75, 1, where he passed about thirty years.

P. 275. This discourse of Thamus (or Jupiter Ammon) on the uses and inconveniences of letters is excellent; and he gives a lively image of a great scholar, that is, of one who searches for wisdom in books alone.