Speeches for the Dead: Essays on Plato’s Menexenus

Description

The Menexenus, in spite of the dearth of scholarly attention it has traditionally received compared to other Platonic texts, is an important dialogue for any consideration of Plato's views on political philosophy, history, and rhetoric - to say nothing of the dialogue's contribution to the study of civic ideology and institutions, natural law theory, and Plato's notion of race. Speeches for the Dead unites the contributions of scholars working on diverse aspects of the dialogue, growing out of a one-day workshop on the same subject at the University of Pennsylvania organized by the editors. In offering a variety of perspectives on the Menexenus, the volume is the very first of its kind in any language. In addition, the volume contains an up-to-date bibliography of scholarship in English, French, German, and Italian. This makes the book a definitive guide and ideal starting point for advanced students and scholars looking for further information about the dialogue. Table of Contents Acknowledgement Introduction Plato’s Funeral Oration: The Motive of the Menexenus Reading the Menexenus Intertextually On the Structure of Plato’s Menexenus Improvisatory Rhetoric in the Menexenus The Rhetoric of Natural Law in Plato’s Menexenus A Strange Migration from the Menexenus to the Laws Does the political regime feed and rear the citizens? Trophē in Plato’s Menexenus and his other political dialogues Ethnic Identity and Its Political Consequences in the Menexenus Bibliography