So I asked AI. It gave me the following, which seems plausible to me. What do you think?
The ancient Greek phrase “οἵα τε καὶ ἐξ οἵων” translates generally to “of what sort and from what kind (of men/sources)”.
It is a common expression used in philosophical and historical texts, particularly by Plato, to inquire about the nature, origin, or qualities of something, often a state, a group of people, or a concept.
The phrase appears prominently at the beginning of Plato’s dialogue Timaeus. Socrates is summarizing the ideal city-state he described previously (in the Republic), specifically its constitution and its citizens:
“…the main points of the arguments spoken by me yesterday about the constitution, of what sort and from what kind of men it appeared to me it would be best established”.
Language models are now generally quite good at explaining Greek. The problem is that you cannot rely on them. Sometimes they give plausible explanations that are way off. If you don’t know the actual answer, there is often no way of knowing that you have received nonsense.
That AI response doesn’t quite get it. It’s mostly ok, but “the main points” should be "the main point”—τὸ κεφάλαιον singular not plural. The main point was (literally) “of what sort and from what sorts of men it (i.e. a constitution) would seem to me to be the best.” For Soc. that was just one two-part question: the ideal constitution’s (i) nature (οἵα) and (ii) personnel (ἐξ οἵων ἀνδρῶν), and AI fudges that.
So we still have to learn Greek for ourselves, or failing that to use more reliable translations, as polemistes suggests.
I did a search for this phrase at TLG and only this reference from the Timaeus came up. As a check, I also searched for “ὦ ἄνδρες Ἀθηναῖοι”, and many, many hits came up, as you might image.
I only searched the TLC “canon” as I do not have a subscription, but I bet this phrase is not “a common expression used in philosophical historical texts.”
Since it only occurs once, you can’t argue that it “appears prominently” either. What does that even mean? It’s a core component of the argument?
Conclusion: the AI generalized from this one hit, in order to basically sound authoritative and/or reassuring.
TL/DR; stop using AI. It’s dangerous to depend on it.
I suggest a more careful discussion before getting carried away with such sweeping conclusions (if only we had a term for over-certain human proclamations from poor data). For a start, what model and what mode was being used? What question or context was given the prompt? I tested several new models (Grok 4.1/Gemini 3/ChatGPT 5.2, in thinking mode) and all follow the plural singular distinction correctly.
For the TLG search, instead of exact search, do a word proximity on “οια” and “οιων” to see numerous near parallels.