Looking at beauty to kalon in western Greece : selected essays on from the 2018 Symposium on the Heritage of Western Greece

This book is born from a desire to understand how Plato influenced and was influenced by the intellectual culture of Western Greece, the ancient Hellenic cities of Sicily and Southern Italy. In 2018, a seminar on Plato at Syracuse was organized, in which a small group of scholars discussed a new translation of the Seventh Letter and several essays on the topic. The seminar was intense but friendly, having attracted a diverse group of scholars that ranged from graduate students to senior professors, hailing from at least three different continents, and representing a variety of academic specialties. We tried to create a book that would invite further study of the topic by identifying new questions to be asked while addressing enduring issues. The essays consider the historical, political, and philosophical implications of Platos involvement in Syracuse. They also look at the reception of his voyage among fellow philosophers, ancient and modern. Readers may come to their own conclusions, but one thing is clear: the history of philosophy was profoundly influenced by Platos voyages in Western Greece. The book begins with a new translation of Platos Seventh Letter by Jonah Radding, as well as the epitaph for Dion attributed to Plato. An introduction by editors Heather Reid and Mark Ralkowski is followed by essays from Carolina Arajo, Christos C. Evangeliou, Filippo Forcignan, Francisco J. Gonzalez, Jill Gordon, Andrew Hull, Tony Leyh, Marina Marren, Mary R. McHugh, Robert Metcalf, Marion Theresa Schneider, Karen Sieben, and Nickolas Pappas. The ancient Greek word kalon can be translated as beautiful, good, noble, or fine—yet somehow it transcends any one of those concepts. In art and literature, it can apply straightforwardly to figures like Helen or Aphrodite, or enigmatically to the pais kalos: the youthful athlete that decorates so much sympotic pottery. In the philosophy of Plato, Aristotle and Plotinus, meanwhile, it takes on an ethical, even transcendent dimension. And yet, the thread between a beautiful painting and the Platonic form of the beautiful is never completely broken. In the summer of 2018, a group of scholars from varying disciplines gathered in Siracusa, Sicily – a place of not indifferent beauty itself – to discuss the nature of to kalon in ancient Greek culture. We were especially interested in the large part of that heritage that derives from or was influenced by Western Greece – the ancient Hellenic cities of Sicily and Southern Italy. The result is a volume that considers art, literature, rhetoric, and philosophy in exploring the nature of beauty. Because the histories of theater, politics, art, poetry, athletics, and philosophy tend to be studied separately, it is easy to forget how interconnected they were in Western Greece--the coastal areas of Southern Italy and Sicily settled by Hellenes in the 8th and 7th centuries BCE. Hieron I of Syracuse may be remembered as a tyrant, but his political power was inseparable from the theater. Hieron was the patron of the dramatist Epicharmus, who was as much a philosopher as Xenophanes, who was a poet in his own right like Pindar, who was also supported by the tyrant and whose work--like all the others'--was performed for political ends. Even Plato's adventures in Syracuse can be seen as a performance of his own political poetry. This collection of essays from a variety of disciplinary perspectives including archaeology, classics, philosophy, and art history, offers a refreshing new outlook on the ancient cultural interactions of politics and performance in Western Greece "This book is born from a desire to understand how Plato influenced and was influenced by the intellectual culture of western Greece, the ancient Hellenic settlements of Sicily and southern Italy. In 2018, a seminar on Plato at Syracuse was organized, in which a small group of scholars discussed a new translation of the Seventh letter and several essays on the topic"--Résumé de l'éditeur "This book is born from a desire to understand how Plato influenced and was influenced by the intellectual culture of western Greece, the ancient Hellenic settlements of Sicily and southern Italy. In 2018, a seminar on Plato at Syracuse was organized, in which a small group of scholars discussed a new translation of the Seventh letter and several essays on the topic"--Page 4 of cover Part I. The early intellectual tradition -- Part II. Socratic and Platonic Legacies -- Part III. Plato at Syracuse -- Part V. Drama -- Part VI. Archaeological Insights -- Part VII. The Artistic Influence of Western Greece