Tag Archives: Sophocles

Women in Antiquity

By Ben Potter The idea that women in antiquity were housebound is obviously ridiculous… and, paradoxically, true. That is to say, the ‘ideal’, in ancient Athens certainly, is that a woman should be neither seen nor heard, but pervade an aura of feminine invisibility. For example, Pericles (reported by Thucydides) addressed the women of Athens

Written on November 21, 2014 at 5:11 pm, by plato

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Categories: Traditions

Tags: Agrippina, Ancient Women, Antigone, Ben Potter, Dr. John Winkler, feminist, Hesiod, Lesley Dean-Jones, Livia, pericles, Plato, Robin Osborne, Roman women, Sophocles, Spartan women, Thucydides

A Tradition of Thumos

1. What Is Thumos? The first thing we should point out is that there is not an exact translation for thumos. The general understanding of the word is that it refers to “spirit” or “spiritedness”. However the implications of this term are far more important and far more complicated than what is suggested by such

Written on June 23, 2014 at 3:25 pm, by Socrates

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Categories: Traditions

Tags: Achilles, Ajax, Antigone, iliad, Patrocles, Sophocles, Thumos

Aristotle’s De Interpretatione: Fate Or Free Will?

The miserable King Oedipus of Thebes and his woeful story is a rather significant thought experiment for those of us struggling with this “fate or free will” problem. Known primarily through the ancient plays of the Athenian, Sophocles, Oedipus is a mythical Greek King who, despite his attempts to avoid it, is destined to kill

Written on May 5, 2014 at 6:41 pm, by Socrates

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Categories: Aristotle

Tags: Fatalism, free will, Oedipus, Sophocles

Wine in Ancient Greece

While the ancient philosophers were attempting to unearth truth through intellectual discourse, they were often doing so with a cup of wine in hand and plenty more waiting in a nearby carafe. These “symposia” were intellectual gatherings where the philosophers of ancient Greece would collect around a table and allow the conversation and wine to

Written on May 31, 2013 at 5:20 pm, by Socrates

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Categories: Traditions

Tags: Dionysus, Nestor's cup, Sophocles, wine

Herodotus: Father of History or Father of Lies?

Insatiably curious, prone to whimsy, a talented writer, a slave to gossip, an innovator, a barbarian apologist, a cosmopolitan, a partisan egoist; Herodotus has been praised for and accused of much since the publication of his Histories. He was both denigrated and venerated in his own time…and has remained so ever since. However, it is almost

Written on April 12, 2013 at 8:13 am, by Ben Potter

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Categories: Historians

Tags: Ancient Greek writer, Aristophanes, Cicero, Father of History, Herodotus, Herodotus Father of History, Herodotus Histories, Histories, Sophocles