The Hemlock Cup - Bettany Hughes [227]
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Paddling in the river, sweating in the gym: Socratic youth
1 Trans. J. Fogel (2002) [adapt.].
2 See Chapter 53 where Socrates bathes before he dies.
3 Plato, Phaedrus, 229a. Trans. H. N. Fowler (1954) [LCL].
4 Plato, Apology, 40c. Trans. H. Tredennick (1954).
5 Plato, Phaedrus, 230b-d. Trans. H. N. Fowler (1954) [LCL].
6 Theognis, 1335–6. See also trans. by T. K. Hubbard (2003).
7 Sarla, Evangelou and Tsimpidis-Pentazos (1973), 26; Plutarch, Themistocles, 1.
8 Aristophanes, The Knights, 309.
9 Now in Athens’ Epigraphical Museum, cat. no. 12553.
10 Pseudo-platonic Axiochus, 364a-5a. Trans. J. P. Hershbell [adapt.].
11 Herodotus describes a sanctuary here in 490/89 BC. The ‘white-bitch’ or ‘swift-dog’ was supposed to have stolen a piece of sacrificial meat offered by the wealthy Athenian Diodymous. Suda k2721 e3160
12 Herodotus, 5.63.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Gym-hardened fighting men
1 Trans. J. Davidson (2007).
2 Plato, Lysis, 203a; Euthydemus, 271a.
3 Aristophanes, Clouds, 1005–15. Trans. A. H. Sommerstein (1973) [adapt.].
4 Themistocles tried to tempt non-nothoi down here, to break class barriers, as it were. And after Socrates’ death, a disciple of his, Antisthenes, set up a ‘Socratic’ school at Kynosarges – but partly because of its sub-prime reputation, the venture never had the lasting impact of the Academy or the Lyceum.
5 The ephebes went on to cite as their witnesses an impressive array of gods and goddesses to this oath: ‘Aglauros, Hestia, Enyo, Enyalios, Ares and Athena Areia, Zeus, Thallo, Auxo, Hege-mone, Herakles, (and) the boundaries of my fatherland, the wheat, the barley, the vines, the olives, the figs.’ If you considered going back on your words, there would have been very few places to run to, nowhere to hide. Trans. P. Harding, quoted in Loren J. Samons, What’s Wrong with Democracy? From Athenian Practice to American Worship, Ch. 2.
6 At first it appears that we have opened a window onto a violent society. The literary evidence seems to back up this picture – just think of the gore of Greek tragedy, the chill of Aristotle’s words ‘revenge is sweet’ (Aristotle, Rhet., 1370b30), or of the lex talionis – a tacit understanding that all civilians, Hellenic and Barbarian alike, could be killed or enslaved during warfare (cf. Thucydides, 3.36). But in comparative terms, Athens was an ordered place, focused – particularly in Socrates’ youth and middle-age – on trying to achieve some kind of heroic perfection on earth that was not animated by blood-lust.
7 Gabriel Herman discusses this in ‘How Violent was Athenian Society?’ in Hornblower and Osborne (1994). See also Herman (2006).
8 Thucydides, 1.6.3. Trans. R. Warner (1972) [adapt.].
9 Antiphon, Tetralogies, 2.1.1; 2.2.3–7. Translation taken from Davidson (2007), 69. Ch. 3, ‘Age-classes, Love-rules and Corrupting the Young’ is extremely helpful for anyone interested in the issues of age divisions in Athens.
10 Theaetetus, 169bc. Nb Although Plato’s background as a wrestler encouraged his overuse of athletic and wrestling metaphors in his Dialogues, his portrayal of Socrates as a keen competitor rings true. This statement is in fact an allegory for the need to wrestle with words. It also echoes Socrates’ predilection for the thoughts of, e.g., Hesiod, quoted at Plato, Republic, 364d.
Vice in abundance is easy to get
The road is smooth and begins beside you,
But the gods have put sweat between us and virtue.
Trans. G. M. A. Grube, rev. C. D. C. Reeve (1997). See Ch. 35.
11 Plutarch, Agesilaus, 34.7. Trans. J. Davidson (2007).
12 Numerous refs. See, e.g., Bacchylides, Ode 17.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
‘Golden Age’ Athens
1 Trans. E. O’Neill, Jr (1938).
2 Konstam and Hoffman (2004).
3 The new Acropolis Museum does what the Attic landscape once did naturally. The soft, sand-blasted porous concrete inside the Museum building is designed not to fight for the light – it is those lifelike sculptures and cast figures that greedily grab the light-lines.
4 See Rose (2003). See also Aristotle,