Cebes

Cebes of Thebes ( el, Κέβης Θηβαῖος, ''gen''.: Κέβητος; ''c''. 430 – 350 BCEDebra Nails, (2002), ''The people of Plato: a prosopography of Plato and other Socratics'', page 82.) was an Ancient Greek philosopher from Thebes remembered as a disciple of Socrates. One work, known as the ''Pinax'' (Πίναξ) or ''Tabula'', attributed to Cebes still survives, but it is believed to be a composition by a pseudonymous author of the 1st or 2nd century CE.

Life

Cebes was a disciple of Socrates and Philolaus, and a friend of Simmias of Thebes. He is one of the speakers in the ''Phaedo'' of Plato, in which he is represented as an earnest seeker after virtue and truth, keen in argument and cautious in decision. Xenophon says he was a member of Socrates' inner circle, and a frequent visitor to the hetaera, Theodote, in Athens. He is also mentioned by Plato in the ''Crito'' and '' Epistle'' ''XIII''.

Three dialogues, the ''Hebdome'', the ''Phrynichus'', and the ''Pinax'' or ''Tabula'', are attributed to him by the '' Suda'' and Diogenes Laërtius. The two former are lost, and most scholars deny the authenticity of the ''Tabula'' on the ground of material and verbal anachronisms.

The ''Tablet of Cebes''

The ''Tablet of Cebes'' is probably by a pseudonymous author of the 1st or 2nd century. The work professes to be an interpretation of an allegorical picture of a tablet on which the whole of human life with its dangers and temptations was symbolically represented, and which is said to have been dedicated by someone in the temple of Cronus at Athens or Thebes. The author introduces some youths contemplating the tablet, and an old man who steps among them undertakes to explain its meaning. It is intended to show that only the proper development of our mind and the possession of real virtues can make us truly happy. The author develops the Platonic theory of pre-existence, and shows that true education consists not in mere erudition, but rather in the formation of character. Parallels are often drawn between this work and John Bunyan's ''The Pilgrim's Progress''.

The ''Tabula'' has been widely translated both into European languages and into Arabic (the latter version published with the Greek text and Latin translation by Claudius Salmasius in 1640). It has often been printed together with the ''Enchiridion of Epictetus''. Separate editions have been issued by CS Jerram (with introduction and notes, 1878), Karl Praechter (1893), and many others.See Eduard Zeller's ''History of Greek Philosophy''; F Klopfer, ''De Cebetis Tabula'' (1818–1822); C Prachter, ''Cebetis Tabula quanam aetate conscripta esse videatur'' (1885). An English translation and commentary by John T. Fitzgerald and L. Michael White was published in 1983.

See also

*List of speakers in Plato's dialogues

References

External links

''The Greek Pilgrim's progress. Generally known as the Picture, by Kebes''
Translated by Kenneth Sylvan Guthrie, 1910, at the Internet Archive.
''Cebes' tablet, with introduction, notes, vocabulary, and grammatical questions''
Greek, by Richard Parsons, 1904, at the Internet Archive.
''The Table of Cebes, or, The Picture of Human Life''
Translated by Thomas Scott, 1754.
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4th-century BC Greek people
4th-century BC philosophers
Ancient Greek ethicists
Ancient Thebans
Pupils of Socrates
Pythagoreans