Phaedrus / Edition 1

by Plato, James H. Nichols

Overview

With a masterful sense of the place of rhetoric in both thought and practice and an ear attuned to the clarity, natural simplicity, and charm of Plato's Greek prose, James H. Nichols, Jr., offers a precise yet unusually readable translation of one of the great Platonic dialogues on rhetoric. Featuring some of Plato's most soaringly lyrical passages, the Phaedrus investigates the soul's erotic longing and its relationship to the whole cosmos, as well as inquiring into the nature of rhetoric and the problem of writing.Nichols's attention to dramatic detail brings this dialogue to life. Plato's striking variety in conversational address (names and various terms of relative warmth and coolness) is carefully reproduced, as is alteration in tone and implication even in the short responses. The translation renders references to the gods accurately and non-monotheistically for the first time, and includes a fascinating variety of oaths and invocations. Nichols believes that Plato's thought on rhetoric has been largely misunderstood, and he uses his translation as an opportunity to reconstruct the classical position on right relations between thought and public activity.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780801485329
Publisher:	Cornell University Press
Publication date:	11/15/1998
Series:	Agora Editions
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	128
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.29(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

James H. Nichols, Jr., is Professor of Government at Claremont McKenna College. His published work includes a translation of Alexandre Kojeve's Introduction to the Reading of Hegel, also from Cornell.

Table of Contents

	Introduction	ix
	Note on the Text	l
	Select Bibliography	li
	Phaedrus	1
	Explanatory Notes	76
	Textual Notes	106
	Index of Names	107

Editorial Reviews

This is a fine translation, both fluent and accurate. It captures the range of tonalities of the original in elegant English that is neither stiffly formal nor cheaply colloquial….The supplementary matter is appropriate and useful. The introduction is crisp and clear, the interpretive essay illuminating…Scully has done a sound and serious job of translating and annotating for the general reader. Above all, his translation is excellent in respect to style and clarity: really a pleasure to read.

— David Konstan, Brown University

From the Publisher