CAMBRIDGE GREEK AND LATIN CLASSICS GENERAL EDITORS E. J. KENNEY Emeritus Kennedy Professor of Latin, University of Cambridge AND P. E. EASTERLING Regius Professor of Greek, University of Cambridge PLATO PHARDO EDITED BY C. J. ROWE Professor of Greek, University of Durham $5 CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS Published by the Press Syndicate of the University of Cambridge The Pitt Building, Trumpington Street, Cambridge cB2 1RP 40 West 20th Street, New York, Nv 10011-4211, USA 10 Stamford Road, Oakleigh, Melbourne 3166, Australia (Ὁ Cambridge University Press 1993 First published 1993 Reprinted 1996 Printed in Great Britain at the Athenaeum Press Ltd, Gateshead, Tyne & Wear A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress cataloguing in publication data Plato. Phaedo / Plato ; edited by C. J. Rowe. p. cm.- (Cambridge Greek and Latin classics) Includes bibliography and index. ISBN O 521 30796 1. — ISBN O 521 31318x (pbk.) 1, Immortality (Philosophy) — Early works to 1800. t. Rowe, C. J. m. Title. π|. Series. PA4279.P3P39 1993 184-dc20 92-33958 CIP ISBN 0 521 307961 hardback ISBN 0 521 31318 x paperback AO CONTENTS Preface page vil List of abbreviations x Introduction I 1. Literature and philosophy I 2 Plato's conception of philosophy 3 3 The aims of Plato’s philosophical writing 5 4 The Phaedo and Pythagoreanism 6 5 The ‘theory of forms’ 7 6 Platonic conceptions of the soul 8 7 Myths and philosophy 10 8 The Phaedo and the Platonic corpus 11 9 The text of the Phaedo 12 10 Select bibliography 14 ΠΛΑΤΩΝΟΣ ΦΑΙΔΩΝ 23 Commentary 107 Indexes to the introduction and commentary 1. General 297 2 Proper names 298 4 Greek words 300 PREFACE The chief aim of this edition and commentary is to provide the basic tools required for an understanding and appreciation of Plato's Phaedo. The commentary attempts to anticipate the needs of those who may as yet be relative beginners in Greek language, while also waymarking a path through the maze of ideas and arguments contained in the dia- logue. The secondary literature on the Phaedo — of which a selection is listed in the Bibliography -- is large, and presents a bewildering variety of interpretations of both the whole and its parts, which may itself seem impenetrable without a guide. Considerations of space generally prevent detailed discussion of this literature; instead I have usually contented myself with indicaüng what seems to me the most promising way forward, referring to the work of others only where I am conscious of having borrowed directly from it, although my own interpretations will often have been formed through consideration of the alternatives offered by others. The fundamental assumption throughout the com- mentary is that the dialogue is a unified whole, and that the best evidence for the interpretation of any particular part will come from an analysis of its relationship with the parts that precede and follow it. That such an approach allows the work to offer up a complex but consistent sense is, I think, some kind of guarantee of its usefulness. (‘Sense’ in this context means what I find intelligible, which on the whole seems to coincide with what others find so.) But at no point do I mean to exclude other interpretations, if these can be shown to be better. By their nature, commentaries tend to acquire a certain author- ity; the present one claims to be no more than a set of reasoned judge- ments reached by one reader, which he intends as at least a helpful starting-point for others. My own interest in Plato is primarily in his skills as writer and as philosopher. He is an inconspicuously deliberate and artful author, who repays continual re-reading: each new encounter with his texts tends to reveal new connections, further layers of allusive subtlety. There are sudden changes of pace and tone, between narrative de- scription, quick exchanges of argument, inventive story-telling, solemn, passionate declamation, and ironic humour. The combination of these elements, together with his decision to retire behind his characters, vii viii PREFACE makes Plato's works peculiarly tantalising and elusive. Yet at the same time there is also a remarkable precision in the construction of his arguments, on both the large and the small scale, which belies the informal dramatic and conversational framework in which they are set. Unsuccessful though many of these arguments may be, the quality of the mind behind them is unmistakable (and a large part of the Phaedo in fact consists in the criticism by the participants of each other's arguments). There are some aspects of Plato's substantive ideas which we are likely to find unacceptable, even chilling — for example, the fate he proposes in the Phaedo for the souls of ordinary mortals who have led ordinary, apparently decent lives. Nevertheless, there is a grandeur and simplicity about the general world-view that underlies some of the longer Platonic dialogues (the Phaedo itself, the Symposium, the Republic, or the Phaedrus) which it is hard not to find seductive. I am grateful to numerous friends and colleagues who have allowed me to try out my ideas on them, or who have commented on parts of the commentary; none of the faults that will remain are theirs. The whole commentary was discussed in draft, over a year or more, at the weekly meetings of the informal Centre for Ancient Philosophy at Bristol, and has benefited greatly from criticism from fellow-members and from students. Important modifications of my views have also stemmed from discussions of papers developing or bringing together ideas in the commentary with audiences at Trinity College, Dublin, Brown and Boston Universities, the Universities of Leiden and Am- sterdam, the Università degli Studi di Perugia, and the Université de Paris XII. All of these papers either have been or will be published, and will help to fill out the following Introduction, which has had to contract as the commentary expanded: see Rowe 1992a, which defends my methods of interpretation (cf. also Rowe 1992b); Rowe 1991, 1991— 92, 1993.! My chief thanks, however, must go to Pauline Hire, of the Cambridge University Press, for her continuing encouragement and flexibility over deadlines, to Susan Moore for her keen copy-editor's eye, and to the general editors, Pat Easterling and Ted Kenney, for their gentle suggestions, admonitions, and attempts to introduce a greater economy of style. ! For the style of references to secondary literature, see Select Bibliography, p. 19. PREFACE ix The commentary claims to belong to no particular school of inter- pretation, although it no doubt especially reflects Anglo-Saxon habits of mind. It is written in the belief that rational discussion of the issues is always possible, however different our perspectives and presupposi- tions may be, and that no one variety of approach is likely to have a monopoly of understanding. The volume is dedicated to the Interna- tional Plato Society, one of whose aims is to promote Platonic studies across national, cultural and other boundaries. Centre for Ancient Philosophy, Bristol C.J.R. June 1992 ABBREVIATIONS ANCIENT AUTHORS AND WORKS Aesch. = Aeschylus; Ag. = Agamemnon; Sept. = Seven against Thebes Ar. = Aristophanes; Ach. = Acharnians Arist. = Aristotle; De an. = De anima; DC = De caelo; Hist. an. = Historia animalium; Met. = Metaphysics, Meteor. = Meteoro- logica, Nic. eth. = Nicomachean ethics; Phys. = Physics; Po. = Poetics, Probl. = [Arist.] Problemata; Top. = Topics Bacch. = Bacchylides Dem. — Demosthenes; Cor. — De corona D. L. — Diogenes Laertius Eur. = Euripides; Bacch. = Bacchae, Med. = Medea; Or. = Orestes Eust. = Eustathius; in Od. = in Odysseam Hdt. — Herodotus Hes. = Hesiod; WD = Works and days; Th. = Theogony Hom. = Homer; Il. = Iliad; Od. = Odyssey Lucr. = Lucretius; DRN = De rerum natura Lys. = Lysias P. = Plato; Ap. = Apology; Charm. = Charmides, Cr. = Crito; Crat. = Cratylus; Crit. = Critias; Euth. = Euthyphro; Euthd. = Euthydemus, Gorg. = Gorgias, HMa. = Hippias Major; La. = Laches, Parm. = Parmenides; Phd. = Phaedo; Phdr. = Phae- drus, Phil. = Philebus; Pol. = Politicus; Prot. = Protagoras; Rep. = Republic; Soph. = Sophist; Symp. = Symposium; Theaet. = Theaetetus; Tim. = Timaeus Pind. = Pindar; Ol. = Olympians Plut. = Plutarch; Thes. = Theseus; Phoc. = Phocion Soph. = Sophocles, El. = Electra; OC = Oedipus at Colonus, OT = Oedipus Tyrannus Theophr. = Theophrastus; De lap. = De lapidibus Thuc. = Thucydides Xen. = Xenophon; Ap. = Apology, Hell. = Hellenica, Mem. = Memorabilia, Symp. = Symposium (‘S.’, throughout, refers — unless otherwise indicated — to the Socrates of the Platonic dialogues.)