3. A Platonic Reading of Plato’s Symposium Lloyd P. Gerson 1. The American poet and critic John Jay Chapman (1862–1933) wrote, … to the historical student, to the man who not only knows something of books, but something of the world, the Symposium of Plato is seen to have been in every age since Plato the most effective plea for evil that one can… Read more
4. Medicine, Magic, and Religion in Plato’s Symposium Mark L. McPherran If you [Eryximachus] show me that you know me better than I do myself, and can foresee even my next mood, … must I not conclude that my whole effort is puerile, that my intimate tactics vanish in the face of your entirely exterior art, which envelops my body and soul at once… Read more
5. Permanent Beauty and Becoming Happy in Plato’s Symposium Gabriel Richardson Lear [1] Our first encounter with Socrates in the Symposium is bizarre. Aristodemus, surprised to run into Socrates fully bathed and with his sandals on, asks him where he is going “to have made himself so beautiful (kalos)” (174a4, Rowe trans.). Socrates replies that he is on his way… Read more
6. A Study in Violets: Alcibiades in the Symposium C. D. C. Reeve [1] Agathon’s drinking-party has reached its philosophical apogee in Socrates’ vivid, Diotima-inspired description of the ultimate object of all love and desire, the Platonic form of beauty—the beautiful itself. All of a sudden, there is a commotion and loud knocking. Someone “very drunk and shouting loudly” is… Read more
7. Philosopher and Priest: The Image of the Intellectual and the Social Practice of the Elites in the Eastern Roman Empire (First–Third Centuries AD)* Matthias Haake 1. The Epicurean philosopher Lysias of Tarsus was something of a monster. At some point in the late Hellenistic or early Augustan period, [1] he was appointed stephanēphoros, that… Read more
8. An Egyptian Priest at Delphi: Calasiris as theios anēr in Heliodorus’ Aethiopica* Manuel Baumbach 1. The Discovery of the Priest in the Greek Novel When we consider the figure and role of the priest in the Greek romantic novel, there is a conspicuous discrepancy among the five extant novels. Whereas priests and priestesses do not appear at all within… Read more
9. The Iamidae: A Mantic Family and Its Public Image Michael A. Flower Every student of Greek history knows that the Peloponnesian War was brought to an end when Lysander, the brilliant and ruthless Spartan admiral, captured the entire Athenian fleet at Aegospotami in 405 BC. What is less well known, perhaps familiar only to a handful of scholars with an interest in Greek divination, is… Read more
10. Authority Disputed: The Seer in Homeric Epic* Kai Trampedach Michael Flower has already observed that we know a number of Greek seers of Archaic and Classical Greece by name. [1] When we compare this situation with priests, the transmission of seers’ names, at least for the historical context of the pre-Hellenistic period, is much richer. The reason… Read more
Epilogue. Practitioners of the Divine: A Task with Many Prospects Beate Dignas and Kai Trampedach Albert Henrichs warned us at the beginning of this volume. Did we even know what we were talking about when we invited scholars to a conference on Greek priests? To be sure, for practical reasons we were using the term priest in its broadest and most inclusive sense. The American anthropologist… Read more
Works Cited Acosta-Hughes, B., Kosmetatou, E., and Baumbach, M., eds. 2004. Labored in Papyrus Leaves: Perspectives on an Epigram Collection Attributed to Posidippus (P.Mil.Vogl. VIII 309). Cambridge, MA. Ajootian, A. 1996. “Praxiteles.” In Palagia 1996:91–129. ———. 2007. “Praxiteles and Fourth century Greek Portraiture.” In Schultz and von den Hoff 2007. Aland, B., Hahn, J.,… Read more
