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Agathon
Agathon (; grc, Ἀγάθων; ) was an Athenian tragic poet whose works have been lost. He is best known for his appearance in Plato's ''Symposium,'' which describes the banquet given to celebrate his obtaining a prize for his first tragedy at the Lenaia in 416. He is also a prominent character in Aristophanes' comedy the ''Thesmophoriazusae''. Life and career Agathon was the son of Tisamenus, and the lover of Pausanias, with whom he appears in both the ''Symposium'' and Plato's ''Protagoras''. Together with Pausanias, he later moved to the court of Archelaus, king of Macedon, who was recruiting playwrights; it is here that he probably died around 401 BC. Agathon introduced certain innovations into the Greek theater: Aristotle tells us in the ''Poetics'' (1456a) that the characters and plot of his '' Anthos'' were original and not, following Athenian dramatic orthodoxy, borrowed from mythological or historical subjects. Agathon was also the first playwright to write choral ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Symposium (Plato)
The ''Symposium'' ( grc, Συμπόσιον, ) is a philosophical text by Plato, dated . It depicts a friendly contest of extemporaneous speeches given by a group of notable men attending a banquet. The men include the philosopher Socrates, the general and political figure Alcibiades, and the comic playwright Aristophanes. The speeches are to be given in praise of Eros, the god of love and desire. In the ''Symposium'', Eros is recognized both as erotic love and as a phenomenon capable of inspiring courage, valor, great deeds and works, and vanquishing man's natural fear of death. It is seen as transcending its earthly origins and attaining spiritual heights. This extraordinary elevation of the concept of love raises a question of whether some of the most extreme extents of meaning might be intended as humor or farce. ''Eros'' is almost always translated as "love", and the English word has its own varieties and ambiguities that provide additional challenges to the effort to under ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thesmophoriazusae
''Thesmophoriazusae'' ( grc-gre, Θεσμοφοριάζουσαι; ''Thesmophoriazousai'', meaning ''Women Celebrating the Festival of the Thesmophoria''), or ''Women at the Thesmophoria'' (sometimes also called ''The Poet and the Women''), is one of eleven surviving plays by Aristophanes. It was first produced in , probably at the City Dionysia. The play's focuses include the subversive role of women in a male-dominated society; the vanity of contemporary poets, such as the tragic playwrights Euripides and Agathon; and the shameless, enterprising vulgarity of an ordinary Athenian, as represented in this play by the protagonist, Mnesilochus. The work is also notable for Aristophanes' free adaptation of key structural elements of Old Comedy and for the absence of the anti-populist and anti-war comments that pepper his earlier work. It was produced in the same year as ''Lysistrata'', another play with sexual themes. How ''Thesmophoriazusae'' fared in the City Dionysia drama competi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anthos (play)
''Anthos'' or ''Antheus'' (''Flower'') is a play by the 5th century BCE Athenian dramatist Agathon. The play has been lost. The play is mentioned by Aristotle in his ''Poetics'' (1451b) as an example of a tragedy with a plot which gives pleasure despite the incidents and characters being entirely made up. ''Anthos'' is the only known Greek tragedy play whose plot was entirely invented by the poet. Other 5th century tragedies were based on myth Myth is a folklore genre consisting of Narrative, narratives that play a fundamental role in a society, such as foundational tales or Origin myth, origin myths. Since "myth" is widely used to imply that a story is not Objectivity (philosophy), ..., or less frequently on actual history. References {{reflist Lost plays Ancient Greek tragedies 5th-century BC plays ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gorgias
Gorgias (; grc-gre, Γοργίας; 483–375 BC) was an ancient Greek sophist, pre-Socratic philosopher, and rhetorician who was a native of Leontinoi in Sicily. Along with Protagoras, he forms the first generation of Sophists. Several doxographers report that he was a pupil of Empedocles, although he would only have been a few years younger. "Like other Sophists, he was an itinerant that practiced in various cities and giving public exhibitions of his skill at the great pan-Hellenic centers of Olympia and Delphi, and charged fees for his instruction and performances. A special feature of his displays was to ask miscellaneous questions from the audience and give impromptu replies." W. K. C. Guthrie, ''The Sophists'' (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1971), p. 270. He has been called "Gorgias the Nihilist" although the degree to which this epithet adequately describes his philosophy is controversial.Rosenkrantz, G. (2002). The Possibility of Metaphysics: Substance, Identity ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pausanias (Athenian)
Pausanias (; grc-gre, Παυσανίας; fl. c. 420 BC) was an ancient Athenian of the deme Kerameis, who was the lover of the poet Agathon. Although Pausanias is given a significant speaking part in Plato's ''Symposium'', very little is known about him. Ancient anecdotes tend to address only his relationship with Agathon and give us no information about his personal accomplishments. Around 407 BC he removed himself from Athens to the court of the Macedonian king Archelaus. Pausanias appears briefly in two other Socratic dialogues, Plato's ''Protagoras'' and Xenophon's ''Symposium''. He is also mentioned in Book V of Athenaeus' ''Deipnosophistae'', and in Book II of Claudius Aelianus' ''Varia Historia.'' See also *List of speakers in Plato's dialogues following is a list of the speakers found in the dialogues traditionally ascribed to Plato, including extensively quoted, indirect and conjured speakers. Dialogues, as well as Platonic '' Epistles'' and ''Epigrams'', in whic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Epigrams (Plato)
Eighteen ''Epigrams'' are attributed to Plato, most of them considered spurious. These are short poems suitable for dedicatory purposes written in the form of elegiac couplets.John Madison Cooper, D. S. Hutchinson, (1997), ''Plato, Complete works'', page 1742. Hackett Publishing. Text People, places and pantheon Typically of ancient Greek literature (and regardless of their Platonic authenticity), the Epigrams clearly refer to historical personalities, various places in and around ancient Greece, and specific characters of Greek mythology. People * Hecuba: queen of Troy. The Trojan loss of the Trojan war, as described in the Iliad, explains the decree of tears for Hecuba and the women of Troy at the hands of the Fates, who represent the harsher inevitabilities of the human condition, such as death and destiny. * Dion: the political figure of Syracuse whose campaign is discussed at length in the Platonic Epistles, or Letters. * Alexis: possibly one of a number of already-na ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Archelaus I Of Macedon
Archelaus I (; grc-gre, Ἀρχέλαος ) was a king of the kingdom of Macedonia from 413 to 399 BC. He was a capable and beneficent ruler, known for the sweeping changes he made in state administration, the military, and commerce. By the time that he died, Archelaus had succeeded in converting Macedon into a significantly stronger power. The Ancient Greek Thucydides credited Archelaus with doing more for his kingdom's military infrastructure than all of his predecessors together. Biography Family Archelaus was a son of Perdiccas II by a slave woman. He obtained the throne by murdering his own uncle Alcetas II and cousin Alexander, such that his father became king, and his half-brother, a child of seven years, the legitimate heir. It is speculated that his mother might be the descendant of Gygaea of Macedon and the Persian general Bubares furthermore that she was enslaved and sent back to Macedonia to marry the Macedonian king Perdiccas II of Macedon as a Gesture of go ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Euripides
Euripides (; grc, Εὐριπίδης, Eurīpídēs, ; ) was a tragedian Tragedy (from the grc-gre, τραγῳδία, ''tragōidia'', ''tragōidia'') is a genre of drama based on human suffering and, mainly, the terrible or sorrowful events that befall a main character. Traditionally, the intention of tragedy i ... of classical Athens. Along with Aeschylus and Sophocles, he is one of the three ancient Greek tragedians for whom any plays have survived in full. Some ancient scholars attributed ninety-five plays to him, but the ''Suda'' says it was ninety-two at most. Of these, eighteen or nineteen have survived more or less complete (''Rhesus (play), Rhesus'' is suspect). There are many fragments (some substantial) of most of his other plays. More of his plays have survived intact than those of Aeschylus and Sophocles together, partly because his popularity grew as theirs declinedMoses Hadas, ''Ten Plays by Euripides'', Bantam Classic (2006), Introduction, p. ixhe became, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
List Of Speakers In Plato's Dialogues
following is a list of the speakers found in the dialogues traditionally ascribed to Plato, including extensively quoted, indirect and conjured speakers. Dialogues, as well as Platonic '' Epistles'' and ''Epigrams'', in which these individuals appear dramatically but do not speak are listed separately. ;Unnamed speakers Notes Bibliography * Debra Nails. ''The People of Plato: A Prosopography of Plato and Other Socratics''. Hackett Publishing, 2002. . * Plato Plato ( ; grc-gre, Πλάτων ; 428/427 or 424/423 – 348/347 BC) was a Greek philosopher born in Athens during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. He founded the Platonist school of thought and the Academy, the first institution .... ''Complete Works''. Ed: John M. Cooper. Hackett Publishing, 1997. {{Socrates navbox * * Platos Dialogues Speakers in Plato's dialogues ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Symposium (painting)
''Symposium'' or ''Das Gastmahl des Platon'' are paintings by the German painter Anselm Feuerbach from c. 1869 and 1873/74 of a moment from Plato's Symposium, when the drunken Alcibiades and revelers enter the house of the poet Agathon. Socrates, near the wall at right-centre, turns his back on the scene, and bows his head. The 1869 painting is in the Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe and the 1874 painting in the Alte Nationalgalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. History ''Symposium'' was first displayed in 1869 at the Great International Art Exhibition, in Munich Germany. During the exhibition critics wrote, “a sea of ice that had forced itself undesired into a perfume shop.” Another critic, “An extreme of ugliness in form and color which borders on vulgarity and filth ... as if Feuerbach had put his paint brush into ink and calcium water instead of color.” The image ended up in a private collection. Feuerbach painted another more colorful version, which is since 187 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Macedon
Macedonia (; grc-gre, Μακεδονία), also called Macedon (), was an ancient kingdom on the periphery of Archaic and Classical Greece, and later the dominant state of Hellenistic Greece. The kingdom was founded and initially ruled by the royal Argead dynasty, which was followed by the Antipatrid and Antigonid dynasties. Home to the ancient Macedonians, the earliest kingdom was centered on the northeastern part of the Greek peninsula,. and bordered by Epirus to the west, Paeonia to the north, Thrace to the east and Thessaly to the south. Before the 4th century BC, Macedonia was a small kingdom outside of the area dominated by the great city-states of Athens, Sparta and Thebes, and briefly subordinate to Achaemenid Persia. During the reign of the Argead king PhilipII (359–336 BC), Macedonia subdued mainland Greece and the Thracian Odrysian kingdom through conquest and diplomacy. With a reformed army containing phalanxes wielding the ''sarissa'' pike, PhilipII d ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Protagoras (dialogue)
''Protagoras'' (; grc-gre, Πρωταγόρας) is a dialogue by Plato. The traditional subtitle (which may or may not be Plato's) is "or the Sophists". The main argument is between Socrates and the elderly Protagoras, a celebrated sophist and philosopher. The discussion takes place at the home of Callias, who is host to Protagoras while he is in town, and concerns the nature of sophists, the unity and the teachability of virtue. A total of twenty-one people are named as present. The characters Of the twenty-one people who are specifically said to be present, three are known sophists. In addition to Protagoras himself, there are Hippias of Elis and Prodicus of Ceos. Two of the sons of Pericles are said to be there, Paralus and Xanthippus. With the exception of Aristophanes, all of Socrates' named friends from the '' ''Symposium'''' are in attendance: Eryximachus the doctor, Phaedrus, the lovers Pausanias and Agathon (who is said to be a mere boy at this point), and Alc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
