Departing from Perfect Goodness? The tetragonōs and the hugiēs man in Plato’s Protagoras

Authors

  • Elena Irrera Università di Bologna

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.11606/issn.1981-9471.v13i2p01-34

Keywords:

Plato, Protagoras, Moral virtue

Abstract

Simonides’ well known Ode to Scopas, which Plato introduces in the Protagoras, provides fertile ground for a discussion of two different forms of human goodness: on the one hand, the excellence embodied by the perfectly good man (τετράγωνος ἀνήρ); on the other hand, a less perfect form of goodness, which is the one embodied by the “healthy man” (ὑγιὴς ἀνήρ). This essay will critically address the shift from perfect to imperfect goodness and its underlying reasons. More specifically, I will argue that the distinctive goodness of the “healthy man” can be identified with a form of “minimal political decency”. As such, this can be praised only in comparison to a condition of lawlessness.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

Adam, J. and Adam, A.M. (1893). Platonis Protagoras. With Introduction, Notes and Appendices. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Arieti, J.A., and Barrus, R.M. (translated and edited by) (2010). Plato’s Protagoras. Rowman and Littlefield Publishers: Plymouth.

Barnstone, W. (Translated and annotated by) (20104). Ancient Greek Lyrics. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press (first puhlished 1962).

Beresford, A. (2008). “Nobody’s Perfect: A New Text and Interpretation of Simonides PMG 542.” Classical Philology 103 (3): 237-256. https://doi.org/10.1086/596516

Bowra, C.M. (1934). “Simonides and Scopas.” Classical Philology 29: 230-239. https://doi.org/10.1086/361747

Buongiovanni, A.M. (1998). “OY MIN EΓΩ MΩMAΣOMAI: LA RILEVANZA ENCOMIASTICA DI SIMONIDE, "PMG" 542.” Studi Classici e Orientali 46 (3): 1033-1047.

Cairns, D. (1993). Aidōs: The Psychology and Ethics of Honour and Shame in Ancient Greek Literature, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Carson, A. (1992). “How Not to Read a Poem: Unmixing Simonides from ‘Protagoras’.” Classical Philology 87 (2): 110-130. https://doi.org/10.1086/367294

Coby, P. (1987). Socrates and the Sophistic Enlightenment. A Commentary on Plato’s Protagoras. London and Toronto: Associated University Presses.

Cornford, F.M. (1974). Mysticism and Science in the Pythagorean Tradition. In Mourelatos, A.P.D., ed by. The Pre-Socratics: A Collection of Critical Essays. Princeton: Princeton University Press: 135-160.

Crisp, R., ed. by (2000). Aristotle. Nicomachean Ethics, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Del Corno, D. (1988). Letteratura Greca, Milano: Principato.

Denyer N., ed. by (2008) Plato. Protagoras, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.

Diehl, E., ed. by. (1954), Anthologia Lyrica Graeca. Lipsia: Teubner.

Dickie, M. (1978). “The Argument and Form of Simonides 542 PMG.” Harvard Studies in Classical Philology 82: 21-33. https://doi.org/10.2307/311018

Donlan, W. (1969). “Simonides, Fragment 4D and P. Oxy. 2432.” Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association 100: 71–95. https://doi.org/10.2307/2935902

Edmonds, J.M., ed. by (1922). Lyra Graeca. Being the Remains of all the Greek Lyric Poets From Eumelus to Timotheus excepting Pindar. London: Heinemann.

Edmonds, J.M., ed. by (1931). Elegy and Iambus (Vol. I), Cambridge, (MA): Harvard University Press, and London: William Heinemann.

Fowler, H.N., ed. by (1921), Theaetetus. In Plato in Twelves Volumes, Cambridge, (MA): Harvard University Press, and London: William Heinemann.

Frede, D. (1986). “The Impossibility of Perfection: Socrates’ Criticism of Simonides’ Poem in the Protagoras.” 39 (4): 729-753.

Freese, J.H., ed. by and translated (1926), Aristotle. Rhetoric. Cambridge and London: Harvard University Press.

Gentili, B. (1964). “Studi su Simonide.” Maia 16: 278–304.

Giuliano, F.M. (1992). “Esegesi letteraria in Platone: la discussione sul carme simonideo nel Protagora.” 41: 105-190.

Goold, G.P. (1992). Greek Lyric, Vo. IV, Cambridge (Massachusetts), London: Harvard University Press.

Hutchinson, G.O. (2001). Greek Lyric Poetry: A Commentary on Selected Larger Pieces. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Johnston, R.W. and Mulroy, D.D. (2004). “Simonides’ Use of the Term ΤΕΤΡΑΓΩΝΟΣ.” Arethusa 37 (1): 1-10. https://doi.org/10.1353/are.2004.0006

Kahn, C.H. (1974). “Pythagorean Philosophy before Plato”, in Mourelatos, A.P.D., ed by. The Pre-Socratics: A Collection of Critical Essays. Princeton: Princeton University Press: 161-186. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400863204.161

Lamb, W.R.M., ed. by (1967). Protagoras, in Plato. Plato in Twelve Volumes, Vol. 3. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd.

Liddell, H.G., Scott, R., and Jones, H.S. (1996, ninth edition). A Greek-English Lexicon, with a Revised Supplement, Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Noussia Fantuzzi, M., ed. by (2010). Solon the Athenian. The Poetic Fragments. Leiden and Boston: Brill.

Page, D.L., ed. by (1962), Poetae Melici Graeci, Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Parry, H. (1965). “An Interpretation of Simonides 4 (Diehl)”, Transactions of the American Philological Association 96: 297-320. https://doi.org/10.2307/283734

Pearson, L. (1962). Popular Ethics in Ancient Greece, Stanford: Stanford University Press.

Pippin Burnett, A. (1985). The Art of Bacchylides, Cambridge (MA) and London: Harvard University Press.

Reale, G. (2000). Platone. Tutti gli Scritti. Milano: Bompiani.

Sauppe, H. and Towle, J.A. (eds.). Protagoras, with Commentary. Boston and London: Ginn & Co.

Schneidewin, F.W. (1835). Simonides Cei Carminum Reliquiae. Brunswig: Vieweg and Son.

Schütrumpf, E. (1987). “Simonides an Skopas (542 PMG),” Würzburger Jahrbücher für Altertumswissenschaft 13: 11-23.

Schwarts, E. (1951). Ethik der Griechen, Stuttgart: Koehler.

Segal, Ch.P. (1989). “Song, Ritual, and Commemoration in Early Greek Poetry and Tragedy.” Oral Tradition 4 (3): 330-359.

Snell, B. (1961). Poetry and Society. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Smyth, H.W. (1900). Greek Melic Poets. London, Macmillan and co.

Svarlien, D.A. (translated by) (1991). Bacchylides. Odes. The Annenberg CPB/Project.

Taylor, C.C.W. (translated with notes by) (1976). Plato, Protagoras, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Vegetti, M., (1989). L’etica degli antichi, Roma-Bari: Laterza.

Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, U. von. (1913). Sappho und Simonides: Untersuchungen über griechische Lyriker. Berlin: Weidmann.

Woodbury, L. (1953). “Simonides on Arete.” Transaction and Proceedings of the American Philological Association 84: 135-163.

Downloads

Published

2019-12-05

Issue

Section

Articles

How to Cite

Departing from Perfect Goodness? The tetragonōs and the hugiēs man in Plato’s Protagoras. (2019). Journal of Ancient Philosophy, 13(2), 01-34. https://doi.org/10.11606/issn.1981-9471.v13i2p01-34