The Hemlock Cup: Socrates, Athens, and the Search for the Good Life - Hardcover

Hughes, Bettany

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1400041791 ISBN 13: 9781400041794

Publisher: Alfred a Knopf Inc, 2011

Synopsis

We think the way we do because Socrates thought the way he did; in his unwavering commitment to truth and in the example of his own life, he set the standard for all subsequent Western philosophy. And yet, for twenty-five centuries, he has remained an enigma: a man who left no written legacy and about whom everything we know is hearsay, gleaned from the writings of Plato, Xenophon and Aristophanes. Now Bettany Hughes gives us an unprecedented, brilliantly vivid portrait of Socrates and of his homeland, Athens in its Golden Age.

His life spanned “seventy of the busiest, most wonderful and tragic years in Athenian history.” It was a city devastated by war, but, at the same time, transformed by the burgeoning process of democracy, and Hughes re-creates this fifth-century B.C. city, drawing on the latest sources—archaeological, topographical and textual—to illuminate the streets where Socrates walked, to place him there and to show us the world as he experienced it.

She takes us through the great, teeming Agora—the massive marketplace, the heart of ancient Athens—where Socrates engaged in philosophical dialogue and where he would be condemned to death. We visit the battlefields where he fought, the red-light district and gymnasia he frequented and the religious festivals he attended. We meet the men and the few women—including his wife, Xanthippe, and his “inspiration” and confidante, Aspasia—who were central to his life. We travel to where he was born and where he died. And we come to understand the profound influences of time and place in the evolution of his eternally provocative philosophy.

Deeply informed and vibrantly written, combining historical inquiry and storytelling élan, The Hemlock Cup gives us the most substantial, fascinating, humane depiction we have ever had of one of the most influential thinkers of all time.

About this title

Review:

"The Hemlock Cup is another vibrant and atmospheric work from this well-known promoter of the ancient world." --BBC History Magazine

"Here is a work of dazzling erudition which remains hugely readable - what more can one ask" --John Julius Norwich

"After over thirty years of reading philosophical books and articles on Socrates (and even writing some of them!) it is very refreshing to see him approached from the perspective of his material and cultural environment. It anchors and illuminates the nature of his mission and achievements and really brings the period alive."--Angie Hobbs, Senior Fellow in the Public Understanding of Philosophy, University of Warwick

"No one before Bettany Hughes has thought to weave Socrates’ examined life into so rich a tapestry of democratic Athens's teeming high-cultural and mundane experience. Lucky readers will be drawn by Ms Hughes's beguiling prose into exploring the highways and byways of Athens's urban topography, the devices and desires of the world's first democratic regime, and a Mediterranean world of sex, violence, sympotic carousing and great man-made beauty."--Professor Paul Cartledge, A. G. Leventis Professor of Greek Culture, University of Cambridge

"Terrific and passionate writing about a philosopher whose heroism is unquestionable; and as lively and learned an introduction to classical Athens as you could want."--The Telegraph

"She does a very good job of re-creating the material world in which Socrates lived, presenting ancient Athens as a much gaudier, dirtier, smellier and in some respects more industrial place than we often imagine."--The Sunday Times

"Bettany Hughes breathes life into Socrates... Hughes’ expert attempts to make him flesh and blood, to fill in the gap... teach us about the value of the real as well as the philosophical."--The Scotsman

"Hughes cleverly extracts the man from the dramatic scene-setting in the Platonic dialogues and puts him in his life and times by reconstructing ancient Athens and putting the same questions to us that he puts to adherents and fellow citizens. Hughes credits two editors for saving her from ‘extreme colloquialism’ but enough survives to give this intelligent, bright-eyed, vigorous book a life as vibrant as that lived by its subject."--The Times

Book Description:

A riveting, lively and brilliantly researched biography of Socrates by the author of the acclaimed bestseller Helen of Troy

About this edition

• Publisher: Alfred a Knopf Inc
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 1400041791
• ISBN 13: 9781400041794
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 484