Adventure in Athens
Page 18
Hope is in Crina’s class. Her mum is Japanese and her dad is from Portugal. She has silky black hair and intense dark eyes, and Crina says she’s bright as well as beautiful.
‘Are you coming to our Socrates club, Dinu?’ she asked him.
Dinu nearly choked on his lasagne. ‘You’re joining the Socrates club?’
‘Yes!’ said Hope brightly. ‘Crina told me about it. It sounds really interesting. Plus it will look good on my list of extra-curricular activities.’
‘Hope wants to be a doctor,’ Crina explained. ‘She’s got it all planned out.’
Before Dinu could answer, a Year Ten boy from Latin club put down his tray. Some kids call him Sam Solo because he loves Star Wars and usually sits on his own.
‘I hear you’re starting a philosophy club,’ he said, straightening his knife and fork. ‘May I join?’
‘Sure!’ said Crina. ‘Only we’re calling it the Socrates club.’
‘Good,’ said Sam. ‘I like Socrates. Also Plato. But Aristotle is my favourite.’
‘Great!’ said Crina. ‘My idea is that we’ll discuss topics using the Socratic method. We can ask each other questions instead of just stating what we believe. Sometimes we might not actually find an answer. But it’s the discussion that would be important. Hearing each other’s points of view. Being willing to admit we don’t always have the answers. What do you think?’
‘Love Island!’ said a familiar voice. It was Chastity, the prettiest Mean Girl of them all. She was standing behind me and Crina with a fruit-cup dessert. Her fair hair was no longer blue-tipped but I could still see the butterfly tattoo on her neck.
‘Wrong table,’ Crina said.
I added, ‘We’re talking about a Socrates club.’
‘I know,’ she said brightly, and pulled up a chair. ‘We could use the Socratic method to discuss the ethical implications of glorifying fake tans and plastic bodies. It would tie in with Plato’s concepts of the Beautiful, don’t you think?’
We stared at her, open-mouthed.
All except for Sam, who said, ‘But we’d have to define what is beautiful first.’
‘Naturally.’ Chastity gave him a dazzling smile. ‘Socrates wouldn’t have it any other way.’
I looked at Dinu. ‘So are you in?’ I asked. ‘We only need one more.’
He grinned and shrugged. ‘I’m not clever like the rest of you,’ he said, ‘but why not? I have the perfect qualification.’
‘What’s that?’ we all asked.
‘Oo-den oy-dah.’ I know nothing.
The end
AUTHOR’S NOTE
Like Alex and Dinu’s previous adventure, this story is completely made up. Lots of it is based on literary sources, especially Plato’s dialogues, which are famous accounts of Socrates and his philosophy. However, until someone invents a time machine for real, we will never know how accurate Plato’s accounts really were.
What we do know about the bug-eyed, bearded, snub-nosed, wide-mouthed philosopher named Socrates is that he changed the world forever, especially the way we think. Philosophers before him are called ‘Pre-Socratics’ and philosophers after him always kept him in mind.
Two thousand years ago, the Roman philosopher and statesman Cicero wrote, ‘All philosophers think of themselves, and want others to think of them, as followers of Socrates.’
More recently a modern philosopher named Scott Samuelson wrote, ‘I put myself in that long line of philosophers who believe Socrates the wisest, most happy, most just man who ever lived. What Mozart is to music, Socrates is to being human.’
The Socrates in Plato’s dialogues is Plato’s version. The Socrates in Xenophon’s histories is Xenophon’s version. The same with Aristophanes, Diogenes Laertius and many other authors who have written about him.
What I did to create my version of Socrates was to read lots of books about him but especially the primary sources – that is, books written in ancient times by people who actually knew him. I even read some of those primary sources in ancient Greek (which nearly did my head in!).
Then I took all those facts and bits of information and used my imagination to create my own Socrates.
If time travel existed, I would love to go back 2,435 years or so to ancient Athens and follow Socrates to see how he interacted with people. But time travel will probably never happen, so in the meantime our imaginations are the best portals we have to the past.
And stories are the best way I know of telling people what’s important.
Caroline Lawrence
Caroline Lawrence’s Roman Mysteries books were first published in 2001 and have since sold over a million copies in the UK alone, and been translated into fourteen languages. The series was televised by the BBC in 2007 and 2008 with ten half-hour episodes per season. Filmed in Tunisia, Bulgaria and Malta, it was the most expensive BBC children’s TV series to date.
Caroline says: ‘I want to know everything about the past, especially the exciting things. Also the sounds, smells, sights and tastes. I write historical novels because nobody has invented a Time Machine. And I write for kids because eleven is my inner age.’
Visit Caroline’s website: www.carolinelawrence.com
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First published in Great Britain in 2020 by
PICCADILLY PRESS
80–81 Wimpole St, London W1G 9RE
www.piccadillypress.co.uk
Text copyright © Roman Mysteries Ltd., 2020
Illustrations by Sara Mulvanny/agencyrush.com, 2020
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
The right of Caroline Lawrence and Sara Mulvanny to be identified as Author and Illustrator of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
This is a work of fiction. Names, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN: 978-1-84812-848-4
Also available in audio
Piccadilly Press is an imprint of Bonnier Books UK
www.bonnierbooks.co.uk