CAMBRIDGE GREEK AND LATIN CLASSICS

GENERAL EDITORS

P.E. EASTERLING

Regius Professor Emeritus of Greek, University of Cambridge

PHILIP HARDIE

Senior Research Fellow, Trinity College, Cambridge

RICHARD HUNTER

Regius Professor of Greek, University of Cambridge

E.J. KENNEY

Kennedy Professor Emeritus of Latin, University of Cambridge

PLATO

PROTAGORAS

EDITED BY

NICHOLAS DENYER

University Senior Lecturer in Classics, University of Cambridge,
and Fellow and College Senior Lecturer in Philosophy, Trinity College, Cambridge

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First published 2008

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Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication data
Plato: Protagoras / edited by Nicholas Denyer.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and indexes.
ISBN 978-0-521-84044-6 (hardback)
1. Plato. Protagoras. 2. Protagoras. 3. Socrates. 4. Sophists (Greek philosophy) 5. Ethics. I. Denyer, Nicholas. II. Title.
B382.P53   2008
170 – dc22      2008015442

ISBN 978-0-521-84044-6 hardback
ISBN 978-0-521-54969-1 paperback

Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or
accuracy of URLs for external or third-party internet websites referred to
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CONTENTS

PREFACE

The Introduction to this book contains general remarks that could not conveniently be digested into the piecemeal format of the commentary. In spite of its name ‘Introduction’, and its position before the text, there is no need to have read the Introduction before starting to read the rest of the book. If some preliminary orientation to the Protagoras is required, it will be found in the italicised paragraphs of summary that are scattered throughout the commentary.

   I have incurred many intellectual debts in writing this book: to the Editors of this series; to the unfailingly efficient and helpful staff of that marvellous resource, the Thesaurus Linguae Graecae; to those who took part in the Mayweek 2004 seminars on the Protagoras; to Bernard Dod, an exact and scrupulous copy-editor; and to Adam Beresford, Lynne Broughton, Myles Burnyeat, Andrea Capra, Giovanni di Pasquale, David Konstan, Geoffrey Lloyd, Catherine Osborne, Philomen Probert, Christopher Rowe, Catherine Steel, Liba Taub, Christopher Taylor, James Warren, Roslyn Weiss, and Jo Willmott.

   More important than any intellectual debt is my debt to my father, Ronald Denyer. He died while I was writing this book. I dedicate it to his memory.

Trinity College, Cambridge      N. C. D.
29 February 2008

ABBREVIATIONS AND REFERENCES

PLATO

The page numbers of Stephanus’ 1578 edition continue to be printed in the margins of editions and translations, and used for references to the text of Plato. References to the Protagoras itself are given here simply in the form 345a6, where ‘345’ is the number of a Stephanus page, ‘a’ the letter of a section within the page, and ‘6’ the number of a line within the section. References to other works in the Platonic corpus are given here by title (sometimes abbreviated), Stephanus page number and section letter. The following abbreviations are used:

Alc. Ma. = Alcibiades Major, Alc. Mi. = Alcibiades Minor, Ap. = Apology, Chrm. = Charmides, Clit. = Clitophon, Cra. = Cratylus, Cri. = Crito, Ep. = Epistles, Euthd. = Euthydemus, Euthphr. = Euthyphro, Grg. = Gorgias, Hp. Ma. = Hippias Major, Hp. Mi. = Hippias Minor, La. = Laches, Lys. = Lysis, Mnx. = Menexenus, Phd. = Phaedo, Phdr. = Phaedrus, Phlb. = Philebus, Plt. = Politicus, Prm. = Parmenides, Rep. = Republic, Smp. = Symposium, Sph. = Sophist, Thg. = Theages, Tht. = Theaetetus, Tim. = Timaeus

OTHER ANCIENT AUTHORS AND WORKS

COMPENDIA AND WORKS OF REFERENCE

OTHER BOOKS ON THE PROTAGORAS

Adam, J. and Adam, A. M.(1893) Platonis Protagoras, Cambridge. Text, with introduction and commentary in English.

Burnet, J. (1903) Platonis opera, vol. Ⅲ, Oxford. Text and apparatus criticus. The Oxford Classical Text.

Capra, A. (2001) Αγὼν λόγων: il Protagora di Platone tra eristica e commedia, Milan. Università degli Studi di Milano: Pubblicazioni della Facoltà di Lettere e Filosofia, vol. CXCVII. Monograph in Italian, covering more than its title promises.

Casertano, G., ed. (2004) Il Protagora di Platone: struttura e problematiche, Naples. Two volumes of essays in Italian, that between them cover almost all aspects of the dialogue.

Croiset, A. and Bodin, L. (1923) Platon: oeuvres complètes, vol. Ⅲ.i, Paris. Text and apparatus criticus, with translation in French. The Budé edition.

Goldberg, L. (1983) A commentary on Plato’s Protagoras, New York. American University Studies, Series V Philosophy, vol. I. Discursive commentary in English.

Havlíček, A. and Karfík, F., eds. (2003) Plato’s Protagoras: proceedings of the third Symposium Platonicum Pragense, Prague. Essays in English and in German.

Hubbard, B. A. F. and Karnofsky, E. S. (1982) Plato’s Protagoras: a Socratic commentary (London). Translation and commentary in English. The commentary consists of stimulating questions.

Manuwald, B. (1999) Platon: Protagoras, Göttingen. Platon Werke: Übersetzung und Kommentar, vol. Ⅵ.ii. Translation and commentary in German. Much longer than Manuwald (2006).

Manuwald, B. (2006) Platon: Protagoras, Göttingen. Sammlung Philosophie, vol. Ⅵ. Translation, introduction and commentary in German, with extensive bibliographies.

Morel, P.-M. (2002) Platon: Protagoras, Paris. Classiques en Poche, vol. ⅩⅤ. The text of Croiset and Bodin (1923), without its apparatus criticus; translation, introduction, and notes in French; bibliography.

Nestle, W. (1931) Platon: Protagoras, Leipzig and Berlin. Platon Ausgewählte Schriften, vol. Ⅳ. Text, with introduction and commentary in German.

Taylor, C. C. W. (1976) Plato: Protagoras, Oxford. Translation and commentary in English, with ‘select’ but still extensive bibliography.

OTHER WORKS

Axelrod, Robert (1990) The evolution of cooperation, Harmondsworth

Beresford, Adam (2008) ‘Nobody’s perfect: a new text and interpretation of Simonides PMG 542’, Classical Philology, 103.

Betegh, Gábor (2004) The Derveni papyrus: cosmology, theology, interpretation, Cambridge

Boegehold, Alan L. (1999) When a gesture was expected, Princeton

Colinvaux, Paul (1978) Why big fierce animals are rare, Princeton

Guthrie, W. K. C. (1971) The sophists, Cambridge

Hacking, Ian (1975) The emergence of probability, Cambridge

Hobbes, Thomas (1651) Leviathan, London

Hogg, Michael A. and Vaughan, Graham M. (2005) Social psychology, 4th edn, Harlow

Hutchinson, G. O. (2001) Greek lyric poetry, Oxford

Kerferd, G. B. (1981) The sophistic movement, Cambridge

Keynes, John Maynard (1949) Two memoirs, London

Knorr, Wilbur (1986) The ancient tradition of geometric problems, Boston

MacDowell, Douglas M. (1978) The law in classical Athens, London

Murray, Oswyn, ed. (1990) Sympotica: a symposium on the symposion, Oxford

Page, D. L. (1955) Sappho and Alcaeus, Oxford

Stanhope, P. D. (1932) The letters of Philip Dormer Stanhope, fourth Earl of Chesterfield, ed. Bonamy Dobrée, London

Stewart, A. F. (1990) Greek sculpture: an exploration, New Haven and London

Stoppard, Tom (1972) Jumpers, London

Tulli, Mauro (1999) ‘Protagoras 337b3–357b2’, in Corpus dei papiri filosofici greci e latini, vol. I.i.∗∗∗, Florence, 310–34

Turner, E. G. (1987) Greek manuscripts of the ancient world, 2nd edn revised by P. J. Parsons, London