I recently finished Plato’s Phaedrus. Interesting, but frequently challenging. For a change I’m reading Aristophanes’ The Clouds. Interesting that the cloud chorus says to Socrates “you strut like a popinjay through the streets… and wear a haughty expression” (Henderson’s translation in the Loeb edition). I am sure I’m in the minority, but I when I read the Euthyphro, I thought “even though Euthyphro is certainly a bad guy, Socrates is very irritating.” At points I sympathized with Euthyphro.
The other day, I decided to try reading Pindar. Of course, I’ve always thought that I’m not ready for Pindar, but then I realized that I will never be ready for Pindar, so why not give it a try? I worked my way through the choruses in Aeschylus’ Seven Again Thebes some years back and quite enjoyed it. I have just ordered Douglas Gerber’s book-length commentary on Pindar’s Olympian One. From reading the reviews I know that Gerber covers the interpretations of passages by commentators over the years – even ones that the reviewer considers ridiculous. Sounds perfect for me!
Thanks for the suggestion, Matt. I’d definitely follow up with Xenophon Socrates if I were primarily interested in Socrates or philosophy. In fact, it’s primarily for the dramatists that I decided to return to Greek in my retirement some years ago. I wanted to read enough Greek beforehand so that I felt that I had a good enough grasp of the language before starting on the plays in earnest. The Clouds was for me an obvious transition to theatre after reading the Phaedrus, and I expect I’ll continue with a number of Euripides’ plays after that. I’ve planned to read Medea for 50 years. In college I read Antigone in Greek. I imagined that Medea was Euripides response to Antigone.
I don’t find S irritating. for the first time in history which actually have a guy asking uncomfortable questions. here’s a little experiment you can perform: for one day walk around and just listen to how often people agree with one another, especially on something somewhat philosophical. i have found that in conversations among philosophers interlocutors often agree with more than 90% of what their counterpart is saying whereas in reality probably more than 90% of what they’re saying is inaccurate or so vague as to be meaningless. in some book clubs, I will actually purposefully politely disagree as much as I can. I do this because I know that it is necessary to wake people from their dogmatic slumber. i actually have more respect for people who disagree with me than those who agree with me.
