Why Socrates Died: Dispelling the MythsW. W. Norton & Company, 8.6.2009 - 288 sivua A revisionist account of the most famous trial and execution in Western civilization—one with great resonance for American society today. Socrates’ trial and death together form an iconic moment in Western civilization. In 399 BCE, the great philosopher stood before an Athenian jury on serious charges: impiety and “subverting the young men of the city.” The picture we have of it—created by his immediate followers, Plato and Xenophon, and perpetuated in countless works of literature and art ever since—is of a noble man putting his lips to the poisonous cup of hemlock, sentenced to death in a fit of folly by an ancient Athenian democracy already fighting for its own life. But an icon, an image, is not reality, and time has transmuted so many of the facts into historical fable.Aware of these myths, Robin Waterfield has examined the actual Greek sources and presents here a new Socrates, in which he separates the legend from the man himself. As Waterfield recounts the story, the charges of impiety and corrupting the youth of Athens were already enough for a death sentence, but the prosecutors accused him of more. They asserted that Socrates was not just an atheist and the guru of a weird sect but also an elitist who surrounded himself with politically undesirable characters and had mentored those responsible for defeat in the Peloponnesian War. Their claims were not without substance, for Plato and Xenophon, among Socrates’ closest companions, had idolized him as students, while Alcibiades, the hawkish and notoriously self-serving general, had brought Athens to the brink of military disaster. In fact, as Waterfield perceptively shows through an engrossing historical narrative, there was a great deal of truth, from an Athenian perspective, in these charges. The trial was, in part, a response to troubled times—Athens was reeling from a catastrophic war and undergoing turbulent social changes—and Socrates’ companions were unfortunately direct representatives of these troubles. Their words and actions, judiciously sifted and placed in proper context, not only serve to portray Socrates as a flesh-and-blood historical figure but also provide a good lens through which to explore both the trial and the general history of the period. Ultimately, the study of these events and principal figures allows us to finally strip away the veneer that has for so long denied us glimpses of the real Socrates. Why Socrates Died is an illuminating, authoritative account of not only one of the defining periods of Western civilization but also of one of its most defining figures. |
Kirjan sisältä
Sivu xiv
... Aristophanes ' Clouds a teacher , from whom a young man learns how to rationalize and escape the consequences of beating up his father , is attacked in retaliation by the father . But Euripides ' play was produced in 428 BCE , thirteen ...
... Aristophanes ' Clouds a teacher , from whom a young man learns how to rationalize and escape the consequences of beating up his father , is attacked in retaliation by the father . But Euripides ' play was produced in 428 BCE , thirteen ...
Sivu xix
... to Athens Athenian defeat at Delium 427 425 Athenian victory at Pylos 424 423 422 Aristophanes ' Clouds and Ameipsias's Connus target Socrates Battle of Amphipolis 421 420 418 416 415 415-413 414-412 413 412 412-411 xix Key Dates.
... to Athens Athenian defeat at Delium 427 425 Athenian victory at Pylos 424 423 422 Aristophanes ' Clouds and Ameipsias's Connus target Socrates Battle of Amphipolis 421 420 418 416 415 415-413 414-412 413 412 412-411 xix Key Dates.
Sivu 13
... Aristophanes ' Clouds , originally produced in 423 , but extensively rewritten some time between then and 414. And in this play we find that Socrates is just such an amalgam : a scientist , a sharp talker , a hair - splitting quibbler ...
... Aristophanes ' Clouds , originally produced in 423 , but extensively rewritten some time between then and 414. And in this play we find that Socrates is just such an amalgam : a scientist , a sharp talker , a hair - splitting quibbler ...
Sivu 14
... Aristophanes chose Socrates as his figurehead intellectual for no better reason than that he was a native Athenian , whereas the vast majority of other cur- rent intellectuals were foreigners . Aristophanes returned to the theme in two ...
... Aristophanes chose Socrates as his figurehead intellectual for no better reason than that he was a native Athenian , whereas the vast majority of other cur- rent intellectuals were foreigners . Aristophanes returned to the theme in two ...
Sivu 37
Katseluoikeutesi tähän teokseen on päättynyt.
Katseluoikeutesi tähän teokseen on päättynyt.
Sisältö
3 | |
20 | |
The Charge of Impiety | 32 |
Alcibiades Socrates and | 51 |
Pestilence and War | 67 |
The Rise and Fall of Alcibiades | 85 |
The End of the War | 103 |
Critias and Civil War | 122 |
Symptoms of Change | 139 |
Reactions to Intellectuals | 155 |
Socratic Politics | 173 |
A Cock for Asclepius | 191 |
Glossary | 205 |
Bibliography | 227 |
Index | 247 |
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accused Aegean affair Agora Alcibiades alliance allies ancient Athenian ancient Greek Andocides Anytus aristocrats Aristophanes Aristotle Assembly Atheism Athenian democracy Athenian politics Athenian society Athens's became Cambridge University Press charge Charmides citizens claim Classical Athens clubs comic constitution court crimes Critias death defeat defence speeches democratic dialogue dikasts elite empire enemies Euripides exile fact favour festival fifth century friends gods Gorgias Greece herms hoplite hundred Hyperbolus impiety intellectuals involved Isocrates justice kind Lysander Meletus moral Mysteries Nicias oligarchic coup oligarchs one's ostracism Oxford University Press peace Peisander Peloponnesian Peloponnesian War Pericles Persian person philosopher Piraeus Plato Plato and Xenophon Plutarch poets politician Poteidaea Princeton prosecution prosecutors Protagoras Recollections of Socrates Religion religious repr Republic Rhetoric ritual Samos Sicilian Sicilian expedition Sicily social Socrates sophists Spartans Symposium Theramenes things Thirty thought thousand Thrasybulus Thucydides tion Tissaphernes trial voted wanted wealth Xenophon young