The man who at Delos set forth in the precinct of the god his own opinion composed an inscription for the forecourt of the temple of Leto in which he distinguished goodness, beauty and pleasantness as not all being properties of the same thing. His verses are: Justice is fairest, and Health is best, But to win one’s desire is the pleasantest. Theog. 255f. But for our part let us… Read more
Every art and every investigation, and likewise every practical pursuit or undertaking, seems to aim at some good: hence it has been well said that the Good is That at which all things aim. (It is true that a certain variety is to be observed among the ends at which the arts and sciences aim: in some cases the activity of practising the art is itself the end, whereas in… Read more
Peace, comedy by Aristophanes, performed at the Great Dionysia in 421 BCE. The plot concerns the flight to heaven on a monstrous dung beetle by a war-weary farmer, Trygaeus (“Vintager”), who searches for the lost goddess Peace only to discover that the God of War has buried her in a pit. The play was written during the Peloponnesian War fought between Athens and Sparta. It was staged about seven months… Read more
First I shall draw you a word-picture of the man himself, making as close a likeness as I can, although I am not particularly good at drawing. As regards his person—in order that I may exhibit this also to you—he was tall and handsome in appearance, and really godlike; his skin was fair, his beard not very thick; his long hair was in part natural, in part false, but very… Read more
Plato’s Meno (or Menon): “Can Virtue Be Taught?” “If the Phaedon and the Gorgias are noble statues, the Menon is a gem.” [1] Meno’s, or the Learner’s Paradox: [A] man cannot enquire either about that which he knows, or about that which he does not know; for if he knows, he has no need to enquire; and if not, he cannot; for he does not know the very subject about… Read more