An attempt at a
collaborative translation of Plato’s Protagoras. Every day for a few months, Dhananjay Jagannathan will post roughly a page of the dialogue, side by side in Greek, in his own translation, and in Jowett’s classic 1871 translation. He's invited readers to comment and offer suggestions to improve the translation. Jagannathan's goal is to communicate Plato in English the way readers of his would have interpreted his Greek.
posted by unliteral
on Jun 30, 2010 -
11 comments
As to
The Uses and Disadvantages of Socrates, sources differ but seem to share in common an ideal fictional Socrates to speak their understanding of the common account. From Doug Linder's
Famous Trials--for your bookmarking convenience--comes
The Trial of Socrates, featuring ample background materials, including
I.F. Stone's take. Marilyn Katz's
Background Materials on Socrates' Trial and Death are essential, too. Several other accounts are offered online--consider
Socrates and his Audience,
The Accusations Against Socrates, Gadfly on Trial: Socrates as Citizen and Social Critic and the rather d.i.y.
Socrates Had It Coming. But as to the historical Socrates, the man in context becomes key--as all of the above do contend, more or less, let it be noted--and therefore one needs to become become familiar with things like
sexuality in Fifth-Century Athens,
desecration of the herms,
Eleusian Mysteries,
the Peloponnesian War,
the fateful Sicilian Expedition and the collective memory of
civil war and civic memory in ancient Athens that ensued, as well as the personalities of
Critias and
Alcibiades to answer the question entitled in my own favorite account, the book entire:
Who Was Socrates ?
posted by y2karl
on Jul 24, 2003 -
39 comments
