Greek 011: Plato and Socratic Irony

GOALS

By the end of this course, you should be able to:

• Translate Greek prose with greatly increased speed and accuracy.
• Identify and comprehend both simple and complex Greek constructions.
• Recite Greek prose with confidence and polish.
• Provide detailed information on the character of Socrates as presented in the dialogues of Plato: personality, philosophy, rhetorical techniques, interests and realness.
• Describe the prose style of Plato, especially as a writer of dialogues: the constructions he regularly employs, his favorite expressions, his use of irony, his sentence structure, etc.
• Illuminate the social and cultural climate of Athens in the late fifth and early fourth centuries B.C.

PREREQUISITES

Greek 011 is normally taken after Greek 002 (GREK 002). If you're concerned about placement in the course, please let me know.

READINGS

You will need to buy copies of the following:

• G. P. Rose (ed.), Crito (Bryn Mawr, 1983)
• L. A. Wilding, Greek for Beginners (revised and expanded edition: Focus, 2001)
• H. Tarrant (ed.) and H. Tredennick (trans.), The Last Days of Socrates (reissue edition: Penguin Classics, 2003)

All three of these should be available in the bookstore, but you may be able to find used copies for less elsewhere: amazon - Barnes & Noble - abe Books. *Please make sure that you have the proper edition of each text.*

The rest of the reading assignments for this course will be provided to you in class or made available for download from this website as pdf files. To view/download them, you will need Adobe Acrobat Reader (free download available here).

If you haven't done so already, as a burgeoning classicist you will need to purchase a Greek/English dictionary. I would recommend Liddell and Scott's Intermediate Greek-English Lexicon (the so-called "Middle Liddell;" 7th edition: Oxford UP, 1959), though smaller (the "Little Liddell") and larger (the "Great Scott" - ha ha ha!) editions are also available. The bookstore will have copies of the intermediate edition, but you may be able to find it cheaper elsewhere.

Finally, if you're REALLY keen on buying Greek books, a copy of Herbert W. Smyth's Greek Grammar (revised edition: Harvard UP, 1983) is a must for thorough study of the language. Since we'll be using Wilding as our base grammar text for the course, you're on your own for Smyth. But you might as well buy it now, as you'll need to do so eventually.

RESEARCH

The following texts may prove useful in navigating Plato and his work and can be found in McCabe and/or the Classics Seminar Room (Trotter 115). All non-Reference McCabe books will be placed on reserve.

Editions, Translations and Commentaries

• R. E. Allen (trans.), Euthyphro; Apology; Crito; Meno; Gorgias; Menexenus (New Haven, 1984). McCabe: B358.A44 1984 v. 1.
• T. C. Brickhouse and N. D. Smith, The Trial and Execution of Socrates: Sources and Controversies (New York, 2002). McCabe: B316.B75 2002.
• J. Burnet (ed.), Platonis opera (Oxford, 1905). McCabe: PA4279.A2 1905 v. 1, 2.
• G. M. A. Grube (trans.), The Trial and Death of Socrates: Plato's Euthyphro, Apology, Crito and the Death Scene from Phaedo (Indianapolis, 1975). McCabe GenRes: B358.G78 1975.
• C. D. C. Reeve (ed.), The Trials of Socrates: Six Classic Texts (Indianapolis, 2002). McCabe: B312.E5 T75 2002.
• G. P. Rose (ed.), Plato's Crito (Bryn Mawr, 1983). McCabe: PA4279.C8 1983.
• E. de Strycker and S. R. Slings (eds.), Plato's Apology of Socrates: a literary and philosophical study with a running commentary (Leiden/New York, 1994). McCabe: B365.S77 1994.
• H. Tredennick (trans.), The Last Days of Socrates: Euthyphro, The Apology, Crito, Phaedo (Harmondsworth, England and Baltimore, 1969). McCabe: B358.T7 1971.
• T. G. West, Plato's "Apology of Socrates:" an interpretation, with a new translation (Ithaca, New York, 1979). McCabe: B365.W47.
• ––– and G. S. West (trans.), Four Texts on Socrates: Plato's Euthyphro, Apology, and Crito, and Aristophanes' Clouds (Ithaca, New York, 1984). McCabe: B316.F68 1984.

Studies

General Tools for Classicists

• Quizzes (10%): Quizzes (generally no more than 5 minutes in length) will occur 1–2 times per week. These will cover grammar and syntax from recent readings and review materials. It is a safe bet that most sessions will begin with a quiz.

• Hour Exams (10% each, 20% total): There will be two hour exams in this course. The first will occur on Monday, September 25; the second on Monday, October 30. Each exam will cover all material read and discussed in the course over a specific period of time and will consist of translation and commentary on grammar, syntax and style. Do not miss the exams.

• Paper/Podcast (15%): Each student will hand in a translation of and commentary on a short segment from one of the two main dialogues read in the course (i.e., the Crito and the Hipparchus) and also complete an audio recording (a podcast: link here) of his or her segment (read by the student in proper Attic Greek). The podcast is due at 5 p.m. on Friday, November 17; the translation/commentary at 5 p.m. on Friday, December 22. More information on this paper/podcast assignment can be found here.

• Final Exam (20%): The final exam will consist of passages from the Crito and the Apology and perhaps a few sight passages from other Platonic dialogues. It will take place from 9:00 a.m.–12:00 noon on Friday, December 15. Do not miss it.

The Hipparchus presents a discussion between Socrates and an unnamed friend on the subject of philokerdoi, "lovers of gain." Socrates rejects a series of definitions proposed by his companion, digresses at length on the rule of Hipparchus (brother of the Athenian tyrant, Hippias) and ultimately argues that gain must be something good. The Hipparchus was probably not written by Plato, but its stripped-down style and brevity make it a convenient starting point for our investigation of the Socratic method and the Platonic dialogue. As supplements, we will also read two other dubious dialogues, the First Alcibiades (regarded in antiquity as then best introduction to Platonic philosophy) and the Minos (which, like the Hipparchus, features a long digression on a controversial figure from history/myth, the Cretan king Minos).