ABSTRACT: Aspasia of Miletus remains a somewhat enigmatic figure, overshadowed by the flood of male-centric narratives from fifth-century Athens. Her legacy is often reduced to her relationship with ...

She associated with leading philosophers, including Socrates, and appears in Plato’s Menexenus, where he portrays her as a master of rhetoric. Her influence was controversial in Athens, as women were ...

Wednesday 11:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. A faculty member at CUNY since 1993, I have been on the GC doctoral faculty since 1997, and a member of the Classics faculty as of 2023. Most of my work is published ...

Primary Reading: Read up to the "catalog of ships" (you will know when you get to it: it's a long list of what city sent what ships under whose command) in Iliad Book 2 online text. Pay special ...

Socrates was remarkably full-blooded for an ascetic philosopher. In Xenophon’s Symposium, he says, “For myself I cannot name the time at which I have not been in love with someone.” ...

In the Lysis, Socrates is in conversation with two youths, Lysis and Menexenus. Socrates tells the youths, who are friends to each other, that, whereas some people desire horses, or dogs ...

A line drawing of the Internet Archive headquarters building façade. An illustration of a magnifying glass. An illustration of a magnifying glass.

The dialogue is fundamentally a failure in that Socrates and the two young friends he interrogates, Lysis and Menexenus, are unable to arrive at a satisfactory definition of friendship.

After Socrates offers to show Hippothales how this should be done, he begins his demonstration at 207c when he initiates conversation with Menexenus and Lysis. The remainder of the dialogue divides ...