Plato: Menexenus

In Menexenus Plato depicts an elderly Socrates reciting an inspiring funeral oration learned from his teacher Aspasia, although such a scenario is entirely fictional. The work reveals Plato's mastery of prose style and his critique of rhetoric and democratic ideology. Suitable for intermediate and advanced students of ancient Greek.

List of contents

Introduction; 1. The Athenian state funeral; 2. The epitaphios logos; 3. The Menexenus of Plato; A note on the presentation of the text; Text; Commentary; Bibliography.

About the author

David Sansone is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Classics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. In a career of over forty years he has taught a great variety of courses, and these have often inspired his publications, including Ancient Greek Civilization (3rd ed. 2017) and Greek Athletics and the Genesis of Sport (1988). The main focus of his research, however, has been on Greek language and literature, especially Attic tragedy and its influence on the development of Greek prose; his book Greek Drama and the Invention of Rhetoric (2012) argues for the decisive effect Greek tragedy had on the creation of a formal art of rhetoric in fifth-century Greece.

Summary

In Menexenus Plato depicts an elderly Socrates reciting an inspiring funeral oration learned from his teacher Aspasia, although such a scenario is entirely fictional. The work reveals Plato's mastery of prose style and his critique of rhetoric and democratic ideology. Suitable for intermediate and advanced students of ancient Greek.

Product details

• Authors: David Sansone, David (University of Illinois Sansone
• Assisted by: Sansone David Sansone (Editor), David Sansone (Editor), David (University of Illinois Sansone (Editor), Sansone David (Editor)
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press ELT
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 31.08.2020
• EAN: 9781108730563
• ISBN: 978-1-108-73056-3
• No. of pages: 202
• Series: Cambridge Greek and Latin Classics
• Subjects: Fiction > Narrative literature; Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > General and comparative literary studies; LITERARY CRITICISM / Ancient & Classical, Classical texts, Literary studies: classical, early & medieval, Ancient (Classical) Greek, Literary studies: ancient, classical and medieval, Ancient, classical and medieval texts