18 Cratinus’ Wine-flask (Pytinê in Greek) is a comedy. This play was supposed to have defeated Aristophanes’ Clouds (it also accuses A. of plagiarism) (cf. Thomas K. Hubbard, The Mask of Comedy: Aristophanes and the intertextual Parabasis (Ithaca and London, 1991), 75. Aristophanes’ Clouds was given third place behind Cratinus’ Wine-flask, (Pytinê) (first prize) and Ameipsias’ Konnos (second prize); see Pauly-Wissowa Real-Encyclopädie, vol. I. 2. 1819 (s.v.) Ameipsias. See also Kassel & Austin (1991), 200;this was also the year that Sophocles perhaps premiered his Maidens of Trachis.
19 Aristophanes, Clouds, 358–66. Trans. A. H. Sommerstein (1973).
20 Aristophanes, Clouds, 1504–10. Trans. A. H. Sommerstein (1973)
21 Plato, Apology, 18a–d, 19c. Trans. Brickhouse and Smith (2002).
22 See Plato, Gorgias, 468b–70b; Phaedrus, 248d; Xenophon, Memorabilia, 2.1.19, 4.5.10.
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
Amphipolis
1 In 405 BC we find Alcibiades negotiating to buy Thracian muscle for the Battle of Aegospotami (but he also defends Greek cities on the Hellespont against Thracian attack).
2 Thucydides, 4.102–8.
3 Thucydides, 4.108.1–3. Trans. R. Warner (1972).
4 Thucydides, 5.3.2–4.
5 A friend of aristocrats and cobblers, an also-ran hoplite – what did Socrates make of these campaigns? In some ways he seems, through the battles, skirmishes, and long marches, to be a funny little fellow, mongrel-class in a land that only understood rigid social divisions. Pursuing his own, private, mental world at a time when all that mattered was communal, the explicit, the shared, the public.
6 Years later Socrates would be invited back to those territories beyond the northern frontier. Archelaus, who was the King of Macedonia from 413 to 399 BC, asked Socrates to speak at his court – see Aristotle, Rhetoric, 1398a. Socrates turned him down.
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
Socrates in the symposium
1 Trans. R. Waterfield (1993).
2 Pherekrates, Persians, 130e.
3 Although there were gynaikeion – specific rooms where women worked (weaving cloth in particular) and spent time together. Nb. ‘flute-girl’ has come to be an accepted term for performing slave-girls. The aulos (previously identified as a flute) was in fact almost certainly more oboe-like.
4 Aristophanes, Acharnians, 530.
5 Plutarch also pointed up the theatrical nature of the symposia. In his Moralia, 10c–d, Socrates says, ‘I am teased in the theatre as if I were at a large symposium.’
6 Athenaeus, Deipnosophistai, 5.217a.
7 Aristophanes ridicules Agathon in his comedies, e.g., Thesmophoriazusae.
8 Laughter is, of course, one of those experiences that often escapes the historical record. But it was here, Plato talks of it, and Aristophanes’ jokes still make us smile. Aristotle describes there being a ‘certain sweetness in life itself’. And despite his sometime reputation as a needling curmudgeon, Socrates too seems to taste that sweetness. Recently laughter has been a focus of interest, see, e.g., Halliwell (2008); Sommerstein (2009); Beard, Roman Laughter, forthcoming.
9 Plato, Symposium, 221e–2a. Trans. W. R. M. Lamb [LCL].
10 See, for example, [Xen] Ath. Pol, 10; Plato, Laws, 655; Socrates (Xenophon, Memorabilia, 3.10.5); Iliad, 2, 211.
11 Plato, Phaedo, 100e. Trans. B. Jowett [adapt.].
12 Plato, Symposium, 210a–12a.
13 Xenophon, Symposium, 5.5.
14 Plato, Gorgias, 481d.
15 For further discussion see George Rudebusch, author of Socrates, Pleasure and Value (1999).
16 Plato, Symposium, 222c.
17 See Kahn (2006), passim, for a discussion of the place of pleasure and rational action in Plato’s Protagoras, e.g., ‘… the attempt to do justice to the deep psychological appeal of hedonism is a major theme of his [Plato’s] life’s work’.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
The trouble with love
1 Xenophon, Symposium, 4.25–6. Trans. O. J. Todd (1992) [LCL].
2 Xenophon, Memorabilia, 4.5.11. Trans. E. C. Marchant (1992) [LCL].
3 See Xenophon, Symposium, 4.38; Memorabilia, 1.3.14 and 2.1.30.
4 Xenophon, Memorabilia, 2.2.4. Trans. E. C. Marchant (1992) [LCL].
5 Xenophon, Symposium 8.25. Trans. O. J. Todd (1992) [LCL].
6 He happened to be Plato’s uncle (possibly his great-uncle or simply his guardian). You get a sense in the Symposium of what a small world Athens was – men bumping into one another on street corners, related to one another through blood or marriage.
7 Xenophon, Memorabilia, 1.2.30. Trans. E. C. Marchant (1992) [LCL].
8 Critias was killed when the democrats returned in 403 BC – flagging up to us his markedly oligarchic sympathies.
9 Scholium ‘B’. See W. Dindorf, Scholia Graeca in Homeri Odysseam (Oxford, 1855), 152–4, and G. Stallbaum, Eustathii Archiepiscopi Thessalonicensis Commentarii ad Homeri Odysseam (Leipzig, 1825), 130–2. See also E. Kadletz, 1981. www.jstor.org/stable/1509764.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
Oh, tell me the truth about love
1 Trans. B. Jowett (1953).
2 Plato, Theages, 128b.
3 Xenophon, Symposium, 8.2. Trans. O. J. Todd (1992).
4 See Plato, Symposium, 177d; Charmides, 155c; Xenophon, Symposium, 8.2.
5 This is something that perhaps we have busied out of our lives; but those Greeks who enjoyed many hours of schole each day and whose physical needs and desires were met by others, had time to delight and to wallow in an acute physical and intellectual exploration of Eros’ bitter-sweet gift – in love.
6 Plato, Lysis, 218a–b. Trans. S. Lombardo (1997).
7 Plato, Menexenus, 234c–5b. Trans. R. G. Bury (1929) [LCL].
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
Diotima – a very social priestess
1 Trans. T. J. Saunders (1975).
2 Trans. P. Vellacott (1953).
3 There could quite possibly be some wordplay here, as ‘Mantinea’ does sound a little like the Greek for ‘seer’. And ‘Dio-tima’ means ‘she who is honoured by Zeus/honours Zeus’.
4 Special privileges were given to priestesses when addressing the Council or Assembly. See LSCC 102, Lykourgos, On the Priestesses, Frag. 6.4. Some priestess-hoods, e.g., Athena Polias and Demeter and Kore, stay within family dynasties for seven hundred years.
5 Plato, Symposium, 211d–e. Trans. H. N. Fowler (1914) [LCL].
6 Joan Breton Connelly has estimated that women participated in 85 per cent of religious activity in Athens (cf. Blok), and that they were prominent in at least forty cults in the city.
7 The Captive Melanippe, Frag. 494 K. Trans. Helene Foley in Fantham et al. (1994), 95–6. H. van Looy (ed.), Euripide VIII2, Fragments (Paris, 2000), 347–96.
8 List taken from p.167 of Connelly (2007).
9 There are fine examples in, e.g., Museum of Kerkyra (Corfu). If you visit this museum do not forget to check out the Archaic pediment that carries what has to be one of the finest and fiercest Gorgon’s heads from antiquity.
10 British Museum 2070 (sceptre) and 1952 (necklace).
11 Cf. Xenophon, Memorabilia, 3.11.
12 List compiled by Joan Breton Connelly. p.46 of Connelly (2007).
13 Pindar, Pythian, 3.31–2, refers to girls singing songs in the evening.
14 Aristophanes, Birds, 873; Wasps, 9; Lysistrata, 387–90.
15 Aristophanes, Lysistrata, 387–8.
16 Arisophanes, Lysistrata, 641–7.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
Little Bears
1 Plato, Laws, 833d.
2 Plato, Laws, 774e-5a; see also Aristophanes, Lysistrata, 645, for the origins of the Brauron myth.
3 See Xenophon, specific examples below.
4 Xenophon, Oeconomicus, 3.12–13. Trans. E. C. Marchant (1992) [adapt.] [LCL].
5 Xenophon, Memorabilia, 2.7–9.
6 Plato, Republic, 452a.
7 Xenophon, Oeconomicus, 7.5. Tran
s. H. G. Dakyns (1890).
8 Xenophon, Symposium, 2.9. Trans. O. J. Todd (1992) [LCL].
9 Plato, Republic, 5.455d. Trans. P. Shorey (1930) [LCL].
10 Plato, Republic, 5.451e-2a. Trans. P. Shorey [LCL].
11 Xenophon, Memorabilia, 3.11.
12 See Zahm (1913), 197–9.
13 Plato, Theaetetus, 149a–51d.
14 Plato, Theaetetus, 149a; Greater Hippias, 298b; Laches, 180d.
15 There is a possibility that Plato was encouraging the character of Socrates to fantasise about his mother here so that he could engender a vivid analogy between the work of a midwife and the fact that Socrates struggled to bring new beings (ideas) into the world. It seems perverse, though, for Socrates to invent something so precise for his own family. The allegory stands whether or not the midwife was Socrates’ own mother. The fact that Phaenarete is described as well-built (genes inherited by her son), and therefore would be well suited to the intensely physical business of pulling healthy children from mothers, is salient.
16 Plato, Theaetetus, 150b–c.
17 Plato, Menexenus, 236b. Trans. W. R. M. Lamb [LCL].
18 IG II2 1409.14.
19 Antisthenes, Frag. 142, in Giannantoni, 1990: 2.191 (= Athenaeus, Deipnosophistai, 220d); see also Antisthenes, Aspasia. There is a possibility that this was not an historical incident, but an event fabricated in Attic comedy.
20 See Boston Museum of Fine Arts, 10.223 and Acropolis Museum 1766–67. Payment was for the Sanctuary of Aphrodite Ourania.
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
Xanthippe
1 Trans. J. C. Rolfe (1927).
2 Sources for Socrates’ bigamy: Diogenes Laertius, 2.26; Aulus Gellius, Attic Nights, 15.20.6; cf. Plutarch, Aristides, 27.
3 De Matrimonia, 62 (Haase, 1902, Teubner edition). Text attributed to Seneca the Elder. Fragmentary. Trans. C. A. Stocks (2008) [adapt.].
4 De Matrimonia, 62.
5 See Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers, 2.26. Trans. R. D. Hicks (1925).
6 Both times at Plato, Phaedo, 60a.
7 Cicero, De Inventione, 31, 52–3.
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
Alcibiades: violet-crowned, punch-drunk
1 Trans. A. Nehamas and P. Woodruff (1997).
2 Plato, Symposium, 213c.
3 Lysias, Against Andokides, 51. See also M. Reinhold’s fascinating ‘The history of purple’ (1970).
4 Plutarch, Alcibiades, 11.2. Trans. I. Scott-Kilvert (1960).
5 Aristotle, Politics, 1254b.34–6. Trans. T. A. Sinclair, rev. T. J. Saunders (1981).
6 Plato, Symposium, 218d. Trans. A. Nehamas and P. Woodruff (1997).
7 Plato, Symposium, 215d–e. Trans. C. D. C. Reeve (2006).
8 Xenophon, Memorabilia, 1.3.12–13. Trans. J. Fogel (2002) [adapt.].
9 Socrates was carnal as well as cerebral, and it is little surprise that the story of the Symposium is given to us by Xenophon and Plato within the modest four walls of an Athenian home; where drinking-games, remedies for hiccups and news of neighbours are as much a part of the search for the truth about love, as is Socrates’ definition of what it is to be human.
10 Plato, Alcibiades 1, 134a–b. Trans. W. R. M. Lamb (1927) [LCL].
CHAPTER FORTY
Melos
1 Trans. Brickhouse and Smith (2002).
2 Cleon in Thucydides, 3.38–39. Trans. J. M. Dent (1910) [adapted].
3 Alcibiades may have considered Melos an opportunity to make a favourable impact on the Athenians. See following chapter; this was perhaps a curtain-raiser for the invasion of Sicily.
4 Thucydides, 5.84.
5 Thucydides, 5.105.2. Trans. J. M. Dent (1910).
6 Recent excavated finds held in the Milos Museum since 1984.
7 There is an ancient tradition that Phaedo (the eponym of one of Plato’s Dialogues) was a Melian survivor.
CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
Venus de Milo abused
1 Trans. P. Vellacott (1973).
2 Plutarch, Life of Alcibiades, 16.4–5. ‘And he picked out a woman from among the prisoners of Melos to be his mistress, and reared a son she bore him. This was an instance of what they called his kindness of heart, but the execution of all the grown men of Melos was chiefly due to him, since he supported the decree.’ Trans. B. Perrin (1916) [LCL].
3 Andocides, Against Alcibiades, 22. Trans. K. J. Maidment (1941) [LCL].
4 Hyperides, Frag. 55.
CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
Priest of nonsense: playing with fire
1 Libanius Apology, 154–5. This refutes the lost pamphlet Accusation Against Socrates, published in 393/2 BC by Polycrates.
2 For a full discussion of the Derveni Manuscript, see Richard Janko, passim, in Ahbel-Rappe and Kamtekar (eds.) (2006), Ch.34, 56–7.
3 See Sir Kenneth Dover, Aristophanes’ Frogs (OUP, 1997) for the suggestion that this story bears relation to Socrates’ own trial.
4 Xenophon, Hellenica, 2.2.9, and Plutarch, Lysis, 14.4.
5 Aristophanes, Birds, 1072–5. Trans. J. Henderson (2000).
6 Aristophanes, Birds, 1420. Trans. J. Henderson (2000).
7 Rumbles of discontent as early as the invasion of Samos back in 440 BC seemed to suggest that the most stand-out of Pericles’ circle of intellectuals were, somehow, creating hardships on the ground for ordinary Athenians. Damon (the composer), Anaxagoras (the natural philosopher) and Pheidias (the architect and sculptor) found themselves under fire throughout the 430s. Aspasia was charged with asebeia – impiety. Many more were ostracised and exiled.
8 Diogenes Laertius, Life of Protagoras, 9.51. See also trans. C. D. Yonge (1853): ‘Concerning the Gods, I am not able to know for certain whether they exist or whether they do not. For there are many things which prevent one from knowing, especially the obscurity of the subject, and the shortness of the life of man’ [adapt.].
9 Euripides, Bacchae, 200.
10 Thucydides, 6.31.1. Trans. C. F. Smith (1919) [adapt.].
11 Cat. no. 752.
CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
Sicily
1 Trans. P. Vellacott (1973).
2 My thanks to Dr Moreno for alerting me to unexcavated sites on the high ground of Euboea. See Moreno (2001) and Moreno (2009).
3 Themistocles had pointed the way in his putative campaign.
4 Thucydides, 6.31.4. Trans. R. Warner (1972).
5 Aristophanes, Lysistrata, 390–7; Plutarch, Nicias, 13.7.
6 Agora 1 7307.
7 See Plutarch, Alcibiades, 22.4, for impeachment, including confiscation of property and cursing by priests: ‘… His case went by default, his property was confiscated, and besides that, it was also decreed that his name should be publicly cursed by all priests and priestesses.’ Trans. B. Perrin (1916) [LCL].
8 Vt. Marc. 41, in R. Janko, ‘Socrates the Freethinker’, in Ahbel-Rappe and Kamtekar (eds.) (2006), 60.
CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
Rivers of blood
1 Trans. R. Warner (1972).
2 Diodorus Siculus, Universal Library, 13.19.
3 Euripides, Phoenician Women, 1410–15. Trans. G. Murray (1913).
4 Xenophon, Anabasis 2.5.33. Trans. C. L. Brownson (1922) [adapt.], [LCL]
5 Samons, What’s Wrong With Democracy, 53 n. 59. Oaths of Loyalty, IGi3 39, 40 = Fornara 102, 103; oath ‘to love’ the demos: IG I3 37 = ML 47 = Fornara 99.
6 The real, awful drama of the moment inspired Plato to set one of his dramatic Socratic Dialogues, Ion, before the news hits Athens.
7 Cf Heraclides of Clazomenae: who proposes the increase in assembly pay from 1 obol to 2 obols, c.400–395 since there had been a further increase to 3 obols by the time of Aristophanes’ Ecclesiazusae, in the late 390s (Ath. Pol. 41. iii, Ar. Eccl. 289–311, 392), so he must have been made an Athenian citizen by then; and at some time he served as general (Plat. Ion 541 D 1–4, Ath. XI. 560 A, Ael, V.H. XIV. 5). The surviving part of the inscription (M&L 70=IG i3 227 with addenda) records his being awarded honours less
than citizenship, and therefore earlier, probably in connection with the alleged Peace of Epilycus between Athens and Persia c.423.
8 Plato, Ion, 541c–d. Trans. T. J. Saunders (1987).
9 Aristophanes, Birds, 1277–83. Trans. A. H. Sommerstein (1987). Nb Birds was presented in 414 BC.
10 Aristophanes, Birds, 1553–5. Trans. A. H. Sommerstein.
11 Aristophanes, Frogs, 1431–3.
CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
Decelea – closing down the mines
1 For a full account of this episode, see Hughes (2005), Ch. 6, ‘The Rape of “Fair Hellen” ’, and notes, passim.
2 Plutarch, Alcibiades, 15.1. Thucydides, 7.91.6.
3 In Athens itself in 411 BC a coup put 400 oligarchs in power – one of the first things they did was approach the Spartan king, holed up in the fort at Decelea, to try to do a deal.
4 Thucydides, 7.27.
5 Xenophon, Hellenica, 3.3.6. Trans. C. L. Brownson [LCL].
CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
Time of terror
1 Plutarch, Alcibiades 34.6.
2 Plutarch, Alcibiades, 23; Lysander, 22; Agesilaus, 3; Xenophon, Hellenica, 3.3.1–2.
3 Plutarch, Alcibiades, 24.4. Trans. I. Scott-Kilvert (1960).
4 See Samons (2000), 281–93.
5 A title resurrected by the Greek dictator Metaxas in the 1930s.
6 Thucydides, 8.66.
7 Thucydides, 8.97.
8 Compare with Mark Antony, a Roman exiled from Rome, but a man with the loyalty of the Roman navy.
9 ML 58 = Fornara 119 and Xenophon, Hellenica, 1.1.22.
10 Aristophanes, Frogs, 735–7. Trans. D. Barrett (1964).
The Hemlock Cup: Socrates, Athens, and the Search for the Good Life Page 53
