Book description
Phaedrus is widely recognized as one of Plato's most profound and
beautiful works. It takes the form of a dialogue between Socrates and
Phaedrus and its ostensible subject is love, especially homoerotic love.
This new translation is accompanied by an introduction, further reading,
and full notes on the text and translation that discuss the structure of
the dialogue and elucidate issues that might puzzle the modern reader.
Plato (c. 427-347 BC) stands, with his teacher Socrates and his pupil
Aristotle, as one of the shapers of the whole intellectual tradition
of the West. In the mid-380s, in Athens, he founded the Academy, the
first permanent institution devoted to philosophical research and
teaching, and an institution to which all Western universities like to
trace their origins. Plato wrote over twenty philosophical dialogues,
appearing in none himself (most have Socrates as chief speaker).
Christopher Rowe is Professor of Greek in the University of Durham,
and from 1999-2004 held a Leverhulme Personal Research Professorship.
His books include Plato, The Cambridge History of Grek and Roman
Thought, and New Perspectives on Plato, Modern and Ancient. He has
also translated, and/or written commentaries on Plato's Phaedro,
Statesman, and Symposium. His present project is a comprehensive
treatment of Plato's strategies as a writer of philosophy.
