What did Agathon write?
400 BC) was an Athenian tragic poet whose works have been lost. He is best known for his appearance in Plato’s Symposium, which describes the banquet given to celebrate his obtaining a prize for his first tragedy at the Lenaia in 416. He is also a prominent character in Aristophanes’ comedy the Thesmophoriazusae.
What does the Greek word Agathon mean?
good
Agathon, meaning “good,” implies virtue when used to describe human beings, as does kalon (meaning “noble” or “beautiful”), the adjective most closely associated with aretē and nearly synonymous with agathon.
Who was the ancient Greek writer of poetry?
Homer
Homer is the presumed author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, two hugely influential epic poems of ancient Greece. If Homer did in fact compose the works, he is one of the greatest literary artists in the world, and, through these poems, he affected Western standards and ideas.
What does Agathon say about Love?
Agathon suggests that Love is the happiest of the gods because he is most beautiful and best. He is beautiful because, contrary to Phaedrus’ claim, he is the youngest of the gods. He always avoids old age, and only associates with the young.
What does Socrates say about Love in the symposium?
From this, Socrates has Agathon agree that Love must be love of beauty, which in turn implies that Love itself must be wholly without beauty. Socrates goes on to point out that if good things are beautiful, then Love must also be lacking in good things, and cannot himself be good.
What is the meaning of Kalos?
beautiful
The adjective καλός means beautiful and encompasses meanings equivalent to English “good”, “noble”, and “handsome”. The form given by convention is the masculine, but it was equally used of women (the feminine form is καλή) and could also describe animals or inanimate objects.
Who are the two earliest Greek poets?
The lyric poets Sappho, Alcaeus, and Pindar were highly influential during the early development of the Greek poetic tradition.
Who is Agathon in the symposium?
Agathon was the son of Tisamenus, and the lifelong companion of Pausanias, with whom he appears in both the Symposium and Plato’s Protagoras. Together with Pausanias, he later moved to the court of Archelaus, king of Macedon, who was recruiting playwrights; it is here that he probably died around 401 BC.
What does Agathon mean in Greek?
Agathon (/ˈæɡəθɒn/; Ancient Greek: Ἀγάθων; c. 448 – c. 400 BC) was an Athenian tragic poet whose works have been lost.
Was Agathon a student of Gorgias?
The epideictic speech in praise of love which Agathon recites in the Symposium is full of beautiful but artificial rhetorical expressions, and has led some scholars to believe he may have been a student of Gorgias.
Why is Agathon mocked in the Thesmophoriazousae?
According to this interpretation, Agathon is mocked in the Thesmophoriazousae not only for his notorious effeminacy, but also for the pretentiousness of his dress: “he seems to think of himself, in all his elegant finery, as a rival to the old Ionian poets, perhaps even to Anacreon himself.”