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Politics of Socratic Humor

John Lombardini

How was Socrates funny? Was he an ironist? Did he mock his interlocutors and, in doing so, show disdain for both them and the institutions of Athenian democracy? These questions were debated with ... More

How was Socrates funny? Was he an ironist? Did he mock his interlocutors and, in doing so, show disdain for both them and the institutions of Athenian democracy? These questions were debated with great seriousness by three generations of Greek writers and helped to define a primary strand of the Western tradition of political thought. This book reconstructs the debate between ancient Greek authors concerning the nature and purpose of Socratic humor. It compares the Socrates presented in Aristophanes, Plato, Xenophon, Aristotle, and the Hellenistic philosophical schools in order to demonstrate that humor was a key aspect of Socrates’s legacy in and after the classical period. It further shows how these ancient depictions of Socratic humor were shaped by the political context in which they were written and illustrates why Socratic intellectualism was thought to be dangerous to democratic authority. Practices of humor are connected with the operations of power; this book details how humor enabled Socrates to navigate relations of power between himself and his interlocutors. By attending to the politics of humor, these ancient writers explored the political implications of Socratic conversation in ways that shed new light on the relationships between humor, power, and democratic authority.Less

The 'Old Oligarch': The Constitution of the Athenians Attributed to Xenophon

J. L. Marr and P. J. Rhodes

'Old Oligarch' is a label often applied to the unknown author of the Athenian Constitution preserved with the works of Xenophon. Probably written in the mid-420s B.C., it is the earliest surviving ... More

'Old Oligarch' is a label often applied to the unknown author of the Athenian Constitution preserved with the works of Xenophon. Probably written in the mid-420s B.C., it is the earliest surviving Athenian prose text, and its author was probably a young pupil of the teachers known as sophists. It is an essay which replies to oligarchic criticisms of the Athenian democracy by agreeing with the critics that democracy is distasteful, but arguing that it is appropriate for Athens as a city whose power depends on the poorer citizens who row the navy's ships, and that it is successful and could not easily be overthrown. This edition provides a Greek text and English translation, with an introduction, commentary and appendixes that discuss the date, authorship and character of the work, the historical background, the statements and arguments presented by the author and features of the author's style.Less

The Shorter Writings

Xenophon

Gregory A. McBrayer (ed.)

This volume contains new, literal translations of Xenophon’s eight shorter writings along with interpretive essays on each work: Hiero, or The Skilled Tyrant; Agesilaus; Regime of the Lacedaemonians; ... More

This volume contains new, literal translations of Xenophon’s eight shorter writings along with interpretive essays on each work: Hiero, or The Skilled Tyrant; Agesilaus; Regime of the Lacedaemonians; Regime of the Athenians; Ways and Means, or On Revenue; The Skilled Cavalry Commander; On Horsemanship; and The One Skilled at Hunting with Dogs. The Agesilaos is a eulogy of a Spartan king, and the Hiero, or the Skilled Tyrant recounts a searching dialogue between a poet and a tyrant. The Regime of the Lacedaemonians presents itself as a laudatory examination of what turns out to be an oligarchic regime of a certain type, while The Regime of the Athenians offers an unflattering picture of a democratic regime. Ways and Means, or On Revenues offers suggestions on how to improve the political economy of Athens’ troubled democracy. The other three works included here—The Skilled Cavalry Commander, On Horsemanship, and The One Skilled at Hunting with Dogs—treat skills that are appropriate for gentlemen. By bringing together Xenophon’s shorter writings, this volume aims to help all those interested in Xenophon understand better the core of his thought, political as well as philosophic.Less

Xenophon: Hellenika II.3.11 - IV.2.8

Peter Krentz

The second part of the Hellenika, covering the decade after the end of the Peloponnesian War, is Xenophon at his best. It unfolds in a series of discrete, often dramatic, episodes: The Thirty at ... More

The second part of the Hellenika, covering the decade after the end of the Peloponnesian War, is Xenophon at his best. It unfolds in a series of discrete, often dramatic, episodes: The Thirty at Athens, the campaigns of Thibron and Derkylidas in Asia Minor, the Spartan War against Elis, the accession of King Agesilaos, the conspiracy of Kinadon, the campaigns of Agesilaos in Asia Minor, the outbreak of war against Sparta in Greece, and Agesilaos' recall. It includes several of Xenophon's best speeches, some of his wittiest dialogue, and several choice turns of phrase. This edition follows the pattern of the Hellenika III.3.10 (Warminster 1989). The commentary tries both to interpret the text and to assess its historical accuracy. Throughout the book uses the rest of Xenophon's works to throw light on the Hellenika. The edition presents Greek text with facing-page translation.Less

The Author's Voice in Classical and Late Antiquity

Anna Marmodoro and Jonathan Hill (eds)

What significance does the voice or projected persona in which a text is written have for our understanding of the meaning of that text? This volume explores the persona of the author in antiquity, ... More

What significance does the voice or projected persona in which a text is written have for our understanding of the meaning of that text? This volume explores the persona of the author in antiquity, from Homer to late antiquity, taking into account both Latin and Greek authors from a range of disciplines. It contains chapters on pseudepigraphy and fictional letters, as well as the use of texts as authoritative in philosophical schools, and the ancient ascription of authorship to works of art. The thirteen essays are divided into two main sections, the first of which focusses on the diverse forms of writing adopted by various ancient authors, and the different ways these forms were used to present and project an authorial voice. The second part of the volume considers questions regarding authority and ascription in relation to the authorial voice. In particular, the volume looks at how later readers—and authors of later texts—may understand the authority of a text's author or supposed author.Less

Moral History from Herodotus to Diodorus Siculus

Lisa Irene Hau

This book offers an interpretation of the first 500 years of history writing as a moral-didactic genre, and argues that this does not invalidate ancient Greek historiography as history. In Part I, it ... More

This book offers an interpretation of the first 500 years of history writing as a moral-didactic genre, and argues that this does not invalidate ancient Greek historiography as history. In Part I, it offers a thorough analysis of the moralising techniques and moral-didactic lessons of Polybius and Diodorus Siculus and then analyses the fragments of a range of less well-preserved Hellenistic works of historiography (Timaeus, Phylarchus, Duris, Hieronymus, Agatharchides, and Posidonius) to see how far it is possible to trace similar techniques and lessons in these works. In Part II, the roots of Hellenistic historiographical moralising are traced in the Classical works of Herodotus, Thucydides, and Xenophon, and the fragments of the Oxyrhynchus Historian, Ephorus, and Theopompus. The book concludes that the Greek genre of historiography was moral-didactic from its inception, like most of the Classical Greek literary genres, and that this purpose became explicit and its techniques formalised in Hellenistic times, but that neither the writers nor the readers of the genre believed this moral-didactic purpose to be detrimental to the truth-value of historiography. Ancient historiography was history writing with an agenda: it was Moral History (in the same way that some modern historiography can be defined as, say, Feminist History or Postcolonial History), but it was still History.Less

On Tyranny: Corrected and Expanded Edition, Including the Strauss-Kojeve Correspondence

Leo Strauss, Victor Gourevitch, and Michael S. f

On Tyranny is Leo Strauss' classic reading of Xenophon's dialogue Hiero, or Tyrannicus, in which the tyrant Hiero and the poet Simonides discuss the advantages and disadvantages of exercising ... More

On Tyranny is Leo Strauss' classic reading of Xenophon's dialogue Hiero, or Tyrannicus, in which the tyrant Hiero and the poet Simonides discuss the advantages and disadvantages of exercising tyranny. Included are a translation of the dialogue from its original Greek, a critique of Strauss' commentary by the French philosopher Alexandre Kojève, and the complete correspondence between the two. This revised and expanded edition introduces important corrections throughout and expands Strauss' restatement of his position in light of Kojève's commentary to bring it into conformity with the text as it was originally published in France.Less

The Socratic Way of Life: Xenophon's "Memorabilia"

Thomas L. Pangle

This is the first book length study in English of the philosophic teaching of Xenophon's masterwork, showing the Memorabilia to be an essential, if deeply defensive, guide to understanding the ... More

This is the first book length study in English of the philosophic teaching of Xenophon's masterwork, showing the Memorabilia to be an essential, if deeply defensive, guide to understanding the Socratic way of life in its fulfillment of the virtue of justice. The shorter first part of the book analyzes Xenophon's highly ironic defense of Socrates against the charges of criminal injustice upon which he was convicted and executed (not believing in the city's gods, and corrupting the young). The longer second part analyzes Xenophon's more elaborately playful account of how Socrates as the citizen-philosopher was positively just, in the sense of helping, in multifarious ways, a wide range of people— citizens and foreigners, friends and enemies, young and old, male and female—even as, and precisely because, Socrates as the founder of political philosophy never ceased raising and pursuing in dialogue answers to the questions: “What is piety, what is impiety?”; “What is noble, what is shameful?”; “What is just, what is unjust?”; “What is moderation, what is madness?”; “What is courage, what is cowardice?”; “What is a city; what is a statesman; what is rule of human beings; what is a skilled ruler of human beings?”Less

The Passionate Statesman: Erõs and Politics in Plutarch's Lives

Jeffrey Beneker

This book explores the intersection of passion and politics in Plutarch's Lives, with special emphasis on how Plutarch represents the influence of erōs (erotic desire) on the careers of his ... More

This book explores the intersection of passion and politics in Plutarch's Lives, with special emphasis on how Plutarch represents the influence of erōs (erotic desire) on the careers of his biographical subjects. The book first explains how Plutarch combines Aristotle's notion of friendship with Plato's conception of the soul to describe the ideal marriage, and heterosexual relationships in general, as based on a mutual love of character (philia) supported by an enduring erotic attraction. Then it examines how Plutarch applied his system of moral virtue to his reading of history in order to create historical-ethical reconstructions of past events. In a reading of the Alexander–Caesar, the book argues that Plutarch draws upon Xenophon's Cyropaedia to depict Alexander as a king who exhibits self-restraint in response to basic appetites, especially erotic desire, and that Plutarch applies the same model to Caesar, despite his reputation for sexual extravagance. In the Demetrius–Antony, Plutarch demonstrates the same principle from the opposite perspective, representing both men as unwilling or unable to exercise self-restraint. In the case of Antony, erōs is the primary cause of his political failure and his death. Plutarch's approach to the Agesilaus–Pompey defines a middle ground between absolute self-restraint and erotic license, exploring how the heroes allowed erotic involvement in their personal lives to influence their public actions. The book connects Plutarch's political thought to precedents from Classical authors to show how he uses the narration of his subjects' private erotic affairs to explain their success and failure in war and politics.Less

Xenophon's Mirror of Princes: Reading the Reflections

Vivienne J. Gray

This book is about Xenophon's literary presentation of the leadership of individuals in their communities, from those of private households up to those of great empires. Leadership is his main ... More

This book is about Xenophon's literary presentation of the leadership of individuals in their communities, from those of private households up to those of great empires. Leadership is his main interest throughout his works, and the examination of the methods he uses to portray leadership gives us an insight into his general literary techniques. The main aim is to show that these techniques produce images of leaders that are rich in literary and conceptual interest and contribute to the literary theory of writing in prose. As part of this analysis, the book addresses readings that have found concealed criticism behind his apparently positive images of leadership in a majority of his works. These represent a dominant trend of literary criticism of Xenophon in our time and we can profit from engaging with them. They can be called ‘ironical’ or ‘subversive’ or ‘darker’ readings and they reflect the preoccupation of the modern world with irony. They reveal the democratic suspicion of leaders that is reflected in modern management theory, which finds leadership problematic because of its inherent drift to autocracy, but solves the dilemma by placing restrictions on the power of leaders, such as the need to secure assent from other members of the organization, and to give them self-determination, inclusiveness, equal participation and deliberation. Xenophon believed also that leaders were fundamental to the success of any organization, but he also knew the risk of the drift toward autocracy, and it will become clear in the course of the analysis that his theory placed restrictions on his leaders that are very like the ones mentioned above in connection with modern democratic management theory.Less