Athens

CHS Dialogues | Socrates, his inner voice, and "theorizing" as a sacred voyage

In this episode, Gregory Nagy and Keith Stone explore the following questions and more: * Does Socrates really believe what he says about a daimonion as some kind of an inner voice that communicates with him? *How is the “theorizing” of Socrates as he engages in dialogue with his followers in the Phaedo relevant to the theōriā or sacred voyage of the Athenian ship of state from Athens… Read more

CHS Dialogues | Socrates, his inner voice, and “theorizing” as a sacred voyage

In this episode, Gregory Nagy and Keith Stone explore the following questions and more: * Does Socrates really believe what he says about a daimonion as some kind of an inner voice that communicates with him? *How is the “theorizing” of Socrates as he engages in dialogue with his followers in the Phaedo relevant to the theōriā or sacred voyage of the Athenian ship of state from Athens to Delos… Read more

Genos Dikanikon: Amateur and Professional Speech in the Courtrooms of Classical Athens

Under the Athenian democracy, litigants were expected to speak for themselves, though they could memorize a speech written for them. The texts of about one hundred judicial speeches of the genos dikanikon (the forensic genre) have survived, all attributed to Demosthenes or another of the ten writers of canonical status. These professionals wrote either for themselves or members of a small elite. Victor Bers argues that men too poor to afford a professionally written… Read more