In the Apology Socrates makes his own defense of the accusations he had received for corrupting the youths and introducing new gods in the city of Athens. It is interesting to note that this dialogue does not take a proper noun (the name of one of the characters in the dialogue concerned) as a title but chooses a common noun, one that refers to the act of defense. Why is… Read more
The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours is based on a course that Professor Gregory Nagy has been teaching at Harvard University since the late 1970s. The book discusses selected readings of texts, all translated from the original Greek into English. This series of galleries attempts to illustrate each Hour with visual art. This fifth gallery covers Hours 17–20. Read more
When we investigate how the law and the courts of Classical Greece worked, the law of ancient Athens provides most of our source material. This overview will therefore focus on Athenian law in the fifth and fourth centuries, BCE. Before that time, disputes were adjudicated by officials called archons. The archons may have heard testimony from parties and witnesses, may have questioned them, and perhaps the parties were allowed to… Read more
