Critias was a relative (probably cousin) of Plato's mother, from an old and wealthy Athenian family which, like most such families, traditionally favored close relations with Sparta; he seems to have been a vocal advocate of Spartan customs (see frs. 18–21). He is best known as one of the leaders of the Thirty, a group of oligarchs who with the support of Sparta staged a coup against the democratic government of Athens in 404–403. The Thirty had some reasonable goals but their regime soon turned brutal, and democrats regained power in 403. Critias was killed in the final battle at about the age of fifty. The moderate tone of his surviving fragments seems strangely incongruent with the cruelty and violence that characterized his last year. See the Bibliographical Note, § B.5, for details of the fragments in our selection.

Tragedies

Pirithus

Ancient sources ascribe Pirithus to Euripides, but most scholars accept Critias' authorship.

(DK 21, S 10)

(DK 22, S 11)

Protagoras was born in Abdera around 485 and enjoyed a career of forty years as a professional teacher. He traveled widely and was richly paid for his efforts. The tradition that he was a student of Democritus is probably false, although he too came from Abdera. Most scholars also doubt the story that Protagoras was tried in Athens and condemned for atheism.

We translate here all of the generally accepted fragments, as well as texts in which Protagoras is paraphrased or closely imitated. We have shown only as much of the context as is needed for comprehension. Irrelevant intrusions of context have been omitted without comment. Some passages contain only a word or phrase that is a quotation from Protagoras; in such cases we have underlined the quotation and supplied the necessary context in normal print. We have included titles of works by Protagoras that are well attested and are interesting in their own right. We have also included passages that probably represent teachings of Protagoras that have been filtered through the teachings of other thinkers; these passages are labeled “reconstruction.”

In a few cases we print passages that have long been associated with Protagoras, even though we are not convinced that their content is due to Protagoras. In such cases we preface our designation with the comment “doubtful.”

Pindar (518–c. 440) was an aristocratic Boeotian lyric poet known especially for his odes in honor of victors at festivals such as the one at Olympia. He wrote for rich and powerful patrons throughout the Greek world and was, on the whole, a defender of tradition. The fragment translated here comes from one of the most frequently cited poems of Greek antiquity. It is most notably cited by Herodotus (3.38, fr. 3) and by Plato, Gorgias 484b (Unknown authors, fr. 2), who quotes the first five lines and summarizes part of the remainder (cf. Laws 680b). About forty lines of the poem have been reconstructed from a recently discovered papyrus and other sources, but the original meaning is increasingly uncertain after line 20. Pindar's point appears to be that, despite the apparent injustice of Heracles' violent treatment of his two victims, the traditional glorification of Heracles' labors makes this behavior just.

The Nomos–Basileus fragment (S 169)

This short piece is preserved with a group of hymns attributed to Homer, but most probably date from the seventh or sixth centuries. Hephaestus is the smith-god; in the Iliad he forges Achilles' elaborate new armor.

Sophocles lived 496–406. In addition to his poetic activity, he held a minor, hereditary priesthood, and he was elected general, perhaps more than once. His first production was in 468 and we are told that he wrote about 120 plays during his career. He was victorious eighteen times with his plays at the Greater Dionysia (i.e. with seventy-two individual plays).

Antigone

Chorus (332–375)

This choral passage, often called the “Ode to Man,” follows a long speech by Creon in justification of his decree forbidding the burial of Polyneices on the grounds that he was a traitor to the city. Earlier Antigone had affirmed her intention to bury him. Creon asserts that the primary duty of a king is to uphold law and order in the city. In view of the tragic turn of events, there is undoubtedly irony in the optimistic view of the progress of human civilization expressed in this ode. Antigone was produced about 442, and the ode is one of the earliest surviving expressions of the progressive anthropology developed during the sophistic period. Compare Aeschylus' Prometheus (frs. 1–3), Protagoras' Myth (fr. 8), Euripides, fr. 4, Critias, fr. 5, and Democritus, fr. 1.

The passages printed in this book are for the most part short, and many of them are fragmentary. They have all been the subject of far more scholarly research than can be aired in this format. We have tried to provide sufficient explanatory material for students to reach a basic understanding of the texts. Those who wish to go further may consult the Bibliographical Note. All readers should be warned that nothing presented here is beyond controversy.

We have been generous in our selection of texts. Some texts of doubtful authenticity that nevertheless represent pre-Platonic political thought have been included. Some texts have been chosen not because of what they say about political theory, but for the light they shed on other texts that are directly relevant to our themes. Questions of authenticity are mentioned in the notes when they arise. We have arranged our texts by genre, with the sophists at the end. We exclude texts representing the thought of Socrates, who will be the subject of another volume in this series. For a chronology of authors and events, see below, pp. xxxii–xxxv. Unless otherwise indicated, all our dates are bce.

The translations aim at clarity and accuracy, and for the most part follow the structure of the original Greek. Translations of Greek verse are roughly line-for-line, and verse passages are provided with the Greek line numbers for convenient reference.

The following fragments are attributed to minor tragedians, or are anonymous tragic fragments plausibly assigned to the period. Authors who are not native Athenians probably wrote their tragedies for production in Athens.

Thespis (TGF 1 F 3)

Aristarchus of Tegea, Tantalus (TGF 14 F 1b)

Ion of Chios, Alcmene (TGF 19 F 5a)

Ion of Chios, Alcmene (TGF 19 F 55)

Iophon, Bacchae (TGF 22 F 2)

Agathon (TGF 39 F 5)

Theognis was an elegiac poet of the sixth century who most likely came from Megara. About 1,400 lines of verse have come down to us under his name. Some of these verses are elsewhere attributed to other poets, and it is likely that the corpus includes lines that are not written by Theognis. Of Theognis' life we know little, but we can infer from the poems that he was concerned to give advice to a young friend Cyrnus, and that he lived in a time of political upheaval.

Various fragmentary passages on different topics are all run together in what has come down to us. We have excerpted several passages that bear on ancient political thought. Some of these are probably complete poems. As all these verses represent upper-class views of the period, we have not taken a position on the question of authorship.

Lines 39–52

Hippias of Elis was born before the middle of the fifth century. He was frequently appointed to represent Elis as an ambassador and traveled widely for professional reasons as well. He was richly paid for his lessons on a variety of topics, including mnemonics, speech rhythms and harmonies, astronomy, mathematics, ethics, and history. He did original work in mathematics, and was known for a more technical approach to teaching than that of Protagoras. He visited Athens regularly, is the principal character in the two Platonic dialogues named after him, and appears also in the Protagoras. He appears to have been a supporter of the idea that nature is opposed to custom.

Hypothesis to Sophocles' Oedipus Tyrannos (DK 9)

The poets after Homer have this peculiarity: they call kings before the Trojan war “tyrants,” although this word was given to the Greeks rather late, in the time of Archilochus according to the sophist Hippias. For Homer says that Echetus – who was the most lawless of all – was a king and not a tyrant: “to Echetus the king, destroyer of men.” They say that tyrants are named after the Tyrrhenians, some of whom were terrible robbers.

The life of Simonides of Ceos (556–468) stretched from the age of tyrants through the overthrow of the Peisistratids in Athens, the turning back of the two Persian invasions, and the rise of Athens. Invited to Athens by the tyrant Hipparchus as part of his effort to bring culture to Athens, Simonides left after his fall for various courts in Thessaly. Later, when his patrons sided with the Persians, he returned to Athens where he celebrated the Greek victory. He died while visiting the court of Hieron in Syracuse. His reputation was such that his name was linked with those of Homer and Hesiod as a source of wisdom.

Is it hard to be good?

This is an encomium (or song of praise) to Skopas, a king in Thessaly whom Simonides had visited (PMG 542, four strophes in a complex lyric form).

The fables that have come down to us under Aesop's name represent an accumulation of popular wisdom on moral and political issues. We have translated here the fables of political interest that seem to derive from the sixth and fifth centuries.

The fox and the hedgehog (Perry 427; Aristotle, Rhetoric 2.20)

Aesop spoke in Samos in defense of a demagogue who was on trial for his life. “A fox,” he said, “was swept into a gully while trying to cross a river. She was unable to get out, and suffered for a long time, especially from the large number of dog-ticks she had on her. A hedgehog who was passing by took pity on her and asked if he could take off the dog-ticks. But the fox would not let him do so. When the hedgehog asked why, the fox said, ‘These ticks have already had their fill of me, and they are taking only a little blood; but if you take these away, others will come and in their hunger will drink up the rest of my blood.’

“Now in your case, men of Samos, this man is no longer doing you any harm, because he is rich. But if you kill him, others will come who are poor, and they will steal your common property and squander it.”

Euripides (c. 485 to c. 406) was an Athenian dramatic poet who was heavily influenced by the new learning of the sophists. Although controversial, he had ninety-two plays accepted for production and became after his death the most performed of Greek tragedians. Eighteen or nineteen plays have survived, along with numerous fragments. He is said also to have written the elegy for the Athenian troops lost in Sicily (413).

Euripides' plays represented advanced views about the position of women, and seem also to have been critical of traditional beliefs about the gods and the morality they stood for. His work is important for an understanding of ancient Greek rhetoric and political theory of the fifth century. Here we print only some of the most important passages. (Dates of production, where known, are given in parentheses.)

Medea (431)

On discovering the unfaithfulness of her husband Jason, Medea says: