Abstract

At a time when Athenians were still trying to explain the loss of their empire, Plato's Gorgias—through its dramatic structure and themes, through its allusions to critical moments in the Peloponnesian War, and through its literary engagements with Thucydides, Isocrates, and Polycrates—challenged both the actuality and legitimacy of that power as well as the rhetoric with which democratic Athenians rationalized their former tyranny. By portraying imperial Athens as an unjust student of sophistic rhetoric, as an immoderate practitioner of opportunistic reasoning, Plato offers an instructive explanation for its defeat. Interpreted in its historical contexts, his Gorgias has new relevance.

Journal
Rhetoric Society Quarterly
Published
2007-06-29
DOI
10.1080/02773940601039462
CompPile
Search in CompPile ↗
Open Access
Closed
Topics
Export

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (1)

  1. Philosophy & Rhetoric

References (51) · 3 in this index

  1. Aristophanes.Clouds.Trans. Jeffrey Henderson.Aristophanes. Vol. 2 . Ed. Jeffrey Henderson . Cambridge : Loeb …
  2. ——— .Frogs.Trans. Jeffrey Henderson.Aristophanes. Vol. 4 . Ed. Jeffrey Henderson . Cambridge : Loeb Classical…
  3. ———.Knights.Trans. Jeffrey Henderson.Aristophanes. Vol. 1 . Ed. Jeffrey Henderson . Cambridge : Loeb Classica…
  4. Aristotelis Fragmenta Selecta
  5. Athenaeus.The Deipnosophists. Vol. 2 . Trans . and Ed. Charles Burton Gulick . Cambridge : Loeb Classical Lib…
Show all 51 →
  1. Helping Friends and Harming Enemies: A Study in Sophocles and Greek Ethics
  2. The Library of History
  3. Lives of the Eminent Philosophers
  4. Plato: Gorgias: A Revised Text with Introduction and Commentary
  5. Rhetoric Review
  6. Proceedings of the Boston Area Colloquium in Ancient Philosophy
  7. Socrates and the Socratics
  8. Gorgias.Encomium of Helen. Trans. George Kennedy.The Older Sophists. Ed. Rosamond Kent Sprague . Columbia : U…
  9. The Sophists
  10. Plato: The Man and His Dialogues: Earlier Period
  11. 10.1017/S0009838800020541
  12. Isocrates .Against the Sophists. Trans. George Norlin.Isocrates. Vol. 2 . Ed. George Norlin . Cambridge : Loe…
  13. ——— .Antidosis. Trans. George Norlin.Isocrates. Vol. 2 . Ed. George Norlin . Cambridge : Loeb Classical Libra…
  14. ——— .Busiris. Trans. La Rue Van Hook.Isocrates. Vol. 3 . Ed. La Rue Van Hook . Cambridge : Loeb Classical Lib…
  15. ———.Helen. Trans. La Rue Van Hook.Isocrates. Vol. 3 . Ed. La Rue Van Hook . Cambridge : Loeb Classical Librar…
  16. ———.Nicoles. Trans. George Norlin.Isocrates. Vol. 1 . Ed. George Norlin . Cambridge : Loeb Classical Library …
  17. ——— .Panathenaicus. Trans. George Norlin.Isocrates. Vol. 2 . Ed. George Norlin . Cambridge : Loeb Classical L…
  18. ——— .Panegyricus. Trans. George Norlin.Isocrates. Vol. 1 . Ed. George Norlin . Cambridge : Loeb Classical Lib…
  19. Rhetoric Society Quarterly
  20. Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy
  21. Plato and the Socratic Dialogue: The Philosophical Use of a Literary Form
  22. Philosophy and Rhetoric
  23. The Art of Persuasion in Greece
  24. The Sophistic Movement
  25. The Unknown Socrates: Translations, with Introduction and Notes, of Four Important Docume…
  26. Marchant , E. C. Introduction and notes toMemorabilia.Xenophon. Vol. 4 . Trans. and Ed. E. C. Marchant . Camb…
  27. Plato: Gorgias
  28. Genres in Dialogue: Plato and the Construct of Philosophy
  29. Isocrates
  30. Plato.Apology. Trans. Harold North Fowler.Plato. Vol. 1 . Ed. Harold North Fowler . Cambridge : Loeb Classica…
  31. ———.Gorgias. Trans. W. R. M. Lamb.Plato. Vol. 3 . Ed. W. R. M. Lamb . Cambridge : Loeb Classical Library , 1925 .
  32. Collected Dialogues of Plato
  33. The Dialogues of Plato
  34. Plato
  35. Plutarch's Lives
  36. Rhetoric Society Quarterly
  37. Plato's Dialogues: New Studies and Interpretations
  38. Interpretation
  39. Protagoras and Logos: A Study in Greek Philosophy and Rhetoric
  40. The Unity of Plato's Gorgias: Rhetoric, Justice, and the Philosophic Life
  41. Plato: The Man and His Work.
  42. History of the Peloponnesian War
  43. History of the Peloponnesian War
  44. Xenophon.Hellenica. Trans. Carleton L. Brownson. 2 vols.XenophonVols. 1–2 . Cambridge : Loeb Classical Librar…
  45. ———.Memorabilia. Trans. E. C. Marchant.Xenophon. Vol. 4 . Cambridge : Loeb Classical Library , 1923 .
  46. Taming Democracy: Models of Political Rhetoric in Classical Athens