10. The Sick Man of Asia? Christopher Tuplin If you will take, I don’t say unlimited time or many generations, but only these last fifty years immediately preceding our generation, you will be able to understand the cruelty of Fortune. For can you suppose, if some god had warned the Persians or their king, or the Macedonians or their king, that in fifty years… Read more
11. Local History, Polis History, and the Politics of Place Rosalind Thomas The Greek polis was, as we all know, the central and abiding socio-political institution of the Greek world, continuing in the Hellenistic period and even into Roman times, but with vastly reduced political power. Yet it was inherently changeable in ways which make the identification of what constituted ‘the polis’ extraordinarily elusive; even identifying… Read more
5. Digressing toward a Possible Regime Although the basic trajectory of the Republic could certainly be understood in other ways, one can see the conversation rising from the Piraeus (in the wake of a spectacular event), moving through ideal political regimes and ascending to a high point of theoretical discussion in the middle, and then returning back down through degenerate regimes toward a vision of the afterlife. Read more
6. Imagining Images in Chains In this chapter, I approach Plato’s scenario of the Cave, starting with some narratological observations and then considering the sequence that moves from the Good through Sun and Divided Line to the Cave. It will take some preparation to reach the Cave itself, but an important part of my argument goes against the typical and long-standing view of the Cave as a… Read more
Afterword It is generally assumed that Plato, while cultivating and perpetuating Socrates’ legacy of ostensible ignorance in the most important matters, writes as a knower with a persuasive, didactic agenda. Some see Plato promoting specific theoretical doctrines; others figure that Plato is guiding us to adopt practices that will in turn lead us to find truths he has already found. Especially insofar as the dialogues portray goal-oriented… Read more
Glossary of Key Greek Words Greek words are transliterated and given in the forms they have as headwords in LSJ (e.g. heuriskō ‘to find’, literally ‘I find’). Other forms of the same word found in the text are noted under the headword unless they differ significantly. These words are meant as signposts for those who do not read Greek, and the definitions simply identify some relevant semantic… Read more
Bibliography Adam, J. 1902. Republic of Plato. 2 vols. London. Adams, H., ed. 1992. Critical Theory Since Plato. Rev. ed. Fort Worth. Annas, J. 1981. An Introduction to Plato’s Republic. Oxford. ———. 1996. “Plato.” Oxford Classical Dictionary, 3rd ed. ———. 1999. Platonic Ethics, Old and New. Ithaca. … Read more
Acknowledgments For my menfolk, with love I started writing this book when I was a graduate student at the University of Chicago Divinity School. There, I found welcome support for my comparative project, even though the scholarly norm tended increasingly toward highly specialized studies. In my wider-ranging intellectual interests, I was encouraged by Wendy Doniger, my dissertation advisor, and by Anthony C. Yu and Laura M. Slatkin, the… Read more
Note on Texts and Translations The classical sources that I have cited are found in the following editions, unless otherwise specified: The Kauṭilīya Arthaśāstra, ed. and trans. R. P. Kangle, 2nd ed., 2 pts. (Bombay, 1969–1972). Dhvanyāloka of Ānandavardhana, ed. and trans. K. Krishnamoorthy (Dharwar, 1974). Herodoti Historiae, ed. Karl Hude, 3rd ed., 2 vols. (Oxford, 1927). Read more
Introduction. Defining Epics through Comparison An epic is an extensive poem that has been composed in an elevated style, that treats a pivotal epoch in the past of a particular people, and that endures because it both entertains its audiences and educates them on issues of ultimate importance. But the images that the term “epic” now evokes—mighty heroes who face fierce foes while traveling to exotic realms… Read more
