Tag Archives: death of socrates

Aristophanes and The Clouds

by Ed Whelan, Contributing Writer, Classical Wisdom He’s known as the ‘Father of Comedy.’ He is regarded as the greatest comedic dramatist of the ancient world, and his work is surprisingly interlinked with the history of philosophy. He even appears as a character in Plato’s Symposium, where he is shown as a genial figure who

Written on February 11, 2022 at 6:05 pm, by Whelan

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Categories: Literature

Tags: Aristophanes, death of socrates, Old Comedy, Sophists, The Clouds

The Fragility of Democracy: Athens and the Thirty Tyrants

Written by Edward Whelan, Contributing Writer, Classical Wisdom Athens is traditionally seen as the birthplace of democracy. However, as we know, democracies are vulnerable to anti-democratic forces, such as populism and authoritarian movements. This was also the case with Athens. For some eight months (404-403 BC) the city was controlled by a pro-Spartan oligarchy known

Written on May 8, 2020 at 6:34 am, by Whelan

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Categories: History

Tags: Athens, Critias, death of socrates, democracy, oligarchy, Peloponessian War, Pnyx, Sicily, socrates, Sparta, Theramenes, Thirty Tyrants, Thrasybulus, tyranny

Reflections on the Brevity of Life

By David Hooker, Contributing Writer, Classical Wisdom Weekly “Life is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.” So said the 17th Century English philosopher Thomas Hobbes in his magnum opus, Leviathan. It is a stark and negative statement, to be sure. Of course, Hobbes had in mind that the life of ordinary people would go much better under

Written on November 15, 2019 at 6:00 am, by David Hooker

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Categories: Philosophy

Tags: Aristotle, death of socrates, Peloponessian War, pericles, Pericles Funeral Oration, socrates, Thomas Hobbes, Thucydides

Timeline of Ancient Greek history

3000 BCE First Settlers: Hunter-gathers begin to settle in what is Greece. A bronze age culture and civilization begins on the island of Crete. 1600 BCE Mycenaean Greece: Bronze age kingdoms in mainland Greece. Powerful kings who ruled centralized states and who built great palaces such as Mycenae. 1194 BCE Trojan War: This was a

Written on October 15, 2019 at 2:37 pm, by Whelan

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Categories: History

Tags: Alexander invades India, Alexander the Great, Ancient Greek history, Ancient Greek warfare, Aristotle, Cleopatra, Corinth, death of socrates, Draco's code of Law, Homer, iliad, Magna Graecia, Messenian War, Mycenaean, Odyssey, Olympic games, Peloponnesian war, persian war, Phillip II, Phoenician Alphabet, Plato, Solon, syracuse, Timeline of Ancient Greece, Xerxes

Plato’s “Apology” And The Wisdom Of Socrates

“The Apology” recounts the speech Socrates delivers to the court of Athens that means to put him to death for his odd practices. He is charged with “corrupting the youth and believing in strange gods” a crime that was punishable by death in ancient Athens. Socrates would have had some choice words for the man

Written on September 26, 2018 at 6:19 am, by plato

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Categories: Philosophers

Tags: Apology, death of socrates, Phaedo, Plato, socrates, Tale of two cities

Plato’s Phaedo: The Spirituality of Socrates

“Crito, we ought to offer a cock to Asclepius. See to it, and don’t forget.” – the Last words of Socrates, according to Plato. Reading Socrates’ final utterance, one could be forgiven of thinking he was a practical, material man. Nothing, however, could be further from the truth. Socrates, as depicted in Plato’s Phaedo, was

Written on September 4, 2017 at 8:19 am, by plato

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Categories: Socrates-Plato

Tags: Apology, Argument of Affinity, cebes, Crito, death of socrates, Phaedo, Simmias, socrates, Theory of Forms, Theory of Recollection