The Symposium’s tale of Alkibiades and Sokrates and its historical implications—of war and philosophy, of a shattered imperial democracy and a god-like leader driven out for supposed impiety and assassinated in exile, as well as a trial and execution of a philosopher for impiety and dissent—is dramatic in its own right. Read more
[In this online version, the original page-numbers of the printed version are indicated within braces (“{” and “}”). For example, “{ix|x}” indicates where p. ix of the printed version ends and p. x begins.] In the poetics of classical Athenian tragedy, it is conventional for a woman to react to… Read more
Edited with a Foreword by Marco Romani Mistretta. Inaugural Dissertation for Doctorate submitted to the faculty of philosophy at Christian-Albrechts University, Kiel. Referent: Professor Werner Jaeger. Defended August 6, 1920; approved for printing December 2, 1922. Published here under a Creative Commons License 3.0. Read more
In his new book, Plato’s Wandering Path: Literary Form and the Republic, Professor David Schur of Brooklyn College delivers insights 15 years in the making. Focusing on The Republic, Schur argues that the philosopher’s digressive style takes the reader on a deliberate “journey of perpetual approach” toward the sublime. In Plato’s literary structure… Read more
Plato’s Four Muses reconstructs Plato’s authorial self-portrait through a fresh reading of the Phaedrus, with an Introduction and Conclusion that contextualize the construction more broadly. The Phaedrus, it is argued, is Plato’s most self-referential dialogue, and Plato’s reference to four Muses in Phaedrus 259c–d is read as a hint at the “ingredients” of philosophical discourse,… Read more
Since Friedrich Schleiermacher’s work in the 1800s, scholars interested in the literary dimension of Plato’s writings have sought to reconcile the dialogue form with the expository imperative of philosophical argument. It is now common for mainstream classicists and philosophers to attribute vital importance to literary form in Plato, which they… Read more
Publications and Resources New in the Hellenic Studies Series Tarik Wareh The Theory and Practice of Life: Isocrates and the Philosophers (print via HUP) The Theory and Practice of Life is a study of the literary culture within which the works, schools, and… Read more
We are pleased to feature the following publications and resources that highlight ancient Greek song culture and ritual contexts. Online Publications Read more
This book explores the place of the sophists within the Greek wisdom tradition, and argues against their almost universal exclusion from serious intellectual traditions. By studying the sophists against the backdrop of the archaic Greek institutions of wisdom, it is possible to detect considerable intellectual overlap between them and their… Read more
In his Symposium, Plato crafted a set of speeches in praise of love that has influenced writers and artists from antiquity to the present. Early Christian writers read the dialogue’s “ascent passage” as a vision of the soul’s journey to heaven. Ficino’s commentary on the Symposium inspired poets and artists throughout Renaissance… Read more
