tyrant

History,  Visiting Scholars

Open House | Plato and the Tyrant, with Professor James Romm

We were pleased to welcome Professor James Romm, The James Ottaway Jr. Professor of Classics, Bard College, when he joined members of the Kosmos Society for the Open House discussion (below) on Plato and the Tyrant: The Tale of the Platonic Letters.  Plato made three trips outside Athens during his life, all of them to the Greek city of Syracuse (in Sicily). His relations with two powerful tyrants there, a… Read more

Word Study

Core Vocab: turannos

A guest post by Sarah Scott This month I’m inviting everyone to explore the word turannos [τύραννος], which is defined in the Core Vocabulary: “turannos, plural turannoi (Lydian word for ‘king’): ‘king’ (from the viewpoint of most Greek dynasties); ‘unconstitutional ruler’ (from the viewpoint of Greek democracy).” A more detailed explanation is given in H24H[1][1] 19§6, where the focus is on Oedipus in the Sophocles drama Oedipus Tyrannus: In this book, the… Read more