Saturday, October 2, 2010

Illustrated: Socrates et Amici


M0881 - M0882 - M0883

882. Socrates et Amici. Cum Socrates parvas aedes sibi fundasset, quidam ex populo “Quaeso,” inquit, “cur tu, talis vir, tam angustam ponis domum?” “Utinam,” Socrates respondet, “hanc veris amicis impleam!”


A bust of Socrates (2nd-century copy of a Greek original; source).

M0882 Perry500. Source: Phaedrus 3.9 (adapted into prose). This is Perry 500. Socrates was a philosopher of fourth-century Athens, executed by the state in 399 BCE. In Plato's Phaedo, we are told that before his execution Socrates, who had never composed poetry before, had decided to turn some fables of Aesop into verse. Read a Fabula Facilis version of this fable.