Greater Hippias By Plato Audiobook

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Greater Hippias By Plato audiobook with text and illustrations, and dramatized 🎵 with sound effects and music, by Audiobooks Dimension.

Socrates talking with Hippias

Title : Greater Hippias (Ἱππίας μείζων)
Author : Plato (Πλάτων)
Written : 391 BCE.
Place of Origin : Ancient Greece
Original Media type : Papyrus, Manuscript
Original Language : Ancient Greek
Genre(s) : Ancient Greece, Dialogue
Translator : Benjamin Jowett (1817 - 1893)
Narrators : David Rintoul, and Full Cast
Musician : Nature's Eye
Editor : Audiobooks Dimension

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Dramatized 🎵

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Greater Hippias (Ἱππίας μείζων) or Hippias Major or What is Beauty?, to distinguish it from the Lesser Hippias, which has the same chief character), is one of the dialogues of Plato. In this dialogue, Socrates and Hippias set out to find a definition for "beauty". The actual Greek term that is used in the dialogue is καλόν, which as an adjective often means fine or noble as well as beautiful.

As in Charmides, Lysis and Euthyphro, Greater Hippias has an "anatreptic" purpose, that is, the result of the dialogue is to defeat commonly held opinions, without necessarily offering a resolution. The concept of something good in and of itself (if only obliquely) makes its first appearance in this work. The dialogue can be read as much as a serious philosophical work as a light satirical comedy with two actors. The astuteness of Socrates in taking refuge under the authority of a supposed third protagonist in order to direct biting criticism at Hippias, endows the dialogue with humour.

This Dialogue has the Addition of Greater to its Name, Hippias, in contra-distinction to Another of the Same Name, which is shorter. Concerning the Title of it, there is not any Dispute or Diversity : neither indeed can any be. For, after an Introduction of greater Length than usual, acquainting us fully with the Character of Hippias ; at the same time artfully leading to the main Subject, and preparatory likewise to that high Doctrine, which our Philosopher aims to inculcate ; the Subject of the Conversation is opened plainly in this question, proposed by Socrates to Hippias, — " What is The Beautiful ? " — And the Point is debated simply and closely, without any of those collateral Disquisitions, or Digressions by the Way, with the Variety of which our Author makes the greates Part of his Writings so entertaining. The Design of this Dialogue is by little and little to unfold the Nature of true Beauty ; and gradually to conduct our Minds to the View of that Being, who is Beauty Itself ; and from whose Original Ideas, all of them essential to his Nature, is copyed every Particular Beauty. This Plato does, in the first place, by establishing Four grand Characteristic Marks of The truly Beautiful : the First of which is Universality ; all Things, which are fair, deriving their Beauty from it, and according as they more or less partake of it, in the same Proportion being Beautiful. The Second Characteristic is Supremacy ; The Universal Fair supporting always the same Dignity, and maintaining its Character of Superiority in Beauty, with whatever else it be compared, and in whatever Light beheld : so that the Beauty of every Thing, any way set in Competition with it, is found inferior. A Third Property, essentially belonging to the Universal Sovereign Beauty, and characterizing it, is the Sameness of it in all Places, and at all Times. And the Fourth Essential Property, by which it is denoted, is the Immutability of it ; this unrivaled Beauty, to whose Presence there is no Bar, and of whose Being there is no Decay, abiding independent of Fancy, or of Fashion ; nor ever varying, however Things or the Circumstances of Things may change, But all these Marks are pointed out to us in a Negative Way of Reasoning, by shewing The Beautiful not to be That, which wants any of these Essential and Characteristic Properties ; in particular, not to be Corporeal Beauty, whether simple, or set off with any additional Ornaments ; nor to be the Assemblage of all those outward Advantages, which are vulgarly supposed to constitute a Happy Life, and seem to the Many above all things Beautiful and Good, the highest Objects therefore of Love and of Desire ; such as Riches, Health, Honour, Long Life, and a surviving Offspring. The next Step, which the Philosopher advances in the Disquisition of this Supreme Beauty, is to settle Three farther Characteristics of it, more decisive, and more declarative of its Nature. One of these is Truth or Reality ; the Essence of The truly Beautiful being independent on the Senses or on Opinion, which present us only with Appearances of Things. Another Property inherent in the Nature of The Supremely Beautiful is Power and Government ; that is, Power to produce Good, and Government for the Sake of producing it ; Power and Government, productive of Ill, not really doing any thing, but tending rather to undo all things. The Discernment of this Property in The Sovereign Fair opens a Way to the Discovery of Another, that is, Good considered in its Source and Fountain : all the Good, which any Being enjoys, naturally flowing from this Principle, which Plato loves to contemplate most under its Character of Fair and Beautiful. All this he inculcates in a like Negative Way, by distinguishing The truly Beautiful, first, from the mere Appearance of it founded on Opinion ; next, from what in common Estimation is the Powerful ; and lastly, from the Profitable, or probable Means of attaining Good. Having now explained the Nature of this Universal Fair, in its own Essence, copiously and clearly enough to set the Mind on thinking What it may he, the Philosopher proceeds to shew, What are the Effects of it ; What Qualities it communicates to each Being, which any way partakes of it ; by what Part of us, and how, those qualities are perceived and felt ; and what is the Consequence of our having such a Perception, and such a Sense. We find then, that every 'Thing, whether it he the Object of outward Sense or of Intellect, having in its self any Proportion or Order, any Species of Harmony or Beauty, oweth such Form or Quality to this all-beauteous Principle : This Form or Quality is perceived only by the Mind ; which has a Faculty or Power of perceiving it, only because it partakes of the fame Principle : And this Perception of Harmony, or of Beauty, is always accompanied by a Sense of Pleasure and Delight, in which consist the Enjoyment and the Happiness of Mind. All this also is represented to us by Plato in the same Negative Manner, by distinguishing The Beautiful from the Pleasant in General, and by throwing out of the Inquiry all those Species of Pleasure, which have nothing to do with Proportion or Order, nor immediately affect the Mind itself, as belonging to o another Genus or Kind of Things. In the last place, to prevent a dangerous and common Error concerning the Nature of that Divine Essence, The Beautiful, our Philosopher intimates to us, it can be Nothing which admits of Number, no Particular Being or Beings ; nor even One, as distinguished from any Other One ; and consequently must be, in the most comprehensive Sense, Universal. From considering all these Properties, which are proved by Plato to be necessary Attributes of The Beautiful, it comes out plainly to be nothing less than UNIVERSAL FORM, INTELLIGENT AND ACTIVE ; imparting Form and Beauty to All things, as being itself the Plenitude of Forms, and therefore Absolutely and Supremely Fair and Beautiful : energizing every where and always with equal Efficacy ; and leaving no Chaos of Things, in any Place, or at any Time, unformed or in Disorder : giving Law to Infinitude and Wildness, and by that Law governing the Universe and every Part of it ; a Law, which must be immutable and unvarying, a Law equally to All through all Ages, because no other than its own eternal Essence, considered not as viewing, but as defining the Nature of Things, disposing and ordering them : — UNIVERSAL REASON ; — giving Bound and Measure to Things ; assigning them a certain Nature, and enduring them with certain Properties ; and being thus the Foundation of all their Reality, the Cause of all their Power and Virtue, and the Origin of all their Good : — UNIVERSAL MIND ; — communicating, with a Sense or Taste of Order and Proportion, of Harmony and Beauty, Intellectual Delight and Happiness : branching out into Many Minds, and making them Partners of its own pure Unity, and all-comprehensive Universality ; yet still remaining in its Self entire and complete, pure and simple. — In the Order we have here described, and through the Process we have thus distinctly, and at the same time briefly, attempted to explain, does Plato in this Dialogue lead us on to the Point, which he has always principally in View, because true Virtue, according to His Doctrine, depends on it, the Knowledge of DEITY. But since, in the Conclusion of this high Inquiry, he strongly asserts the Unity of the Divine Nature, a Tenet inconsistent with the Popular Religion at Athens ; and because in Governments merely Popular, such as the Athenian, it is unsafe to oppose Opinions, by the People held Sacred ; for this reason his Manner of Writing, though always such as to cover his Design, and hide it from the Eyes of Any, but of Those, whom a Discipline in the Principles of his Philosophy admits into the Secret, is more covert and concealed in this Dialogue than in any Other. Socrates all the way seems only to be confuting the several false Definitions given of The Beautiful by Hippias ; and doing it too under the Character of some Other, and Imaginary Person. Beside this, our Author conceals the Importance of his Meaning still more, by a Vein of Humour and Drollery, which runs throughout the Dialogue. For the same reason, his Style here is lower than usual, often the Burlesque ; and his Metaphors or Images remote from the Subject, and much below the Dignity of it. The Introductory Part of the Dialogue is of a Piece with the Principal ; being purely Ironical ; and seeming at first Sight as if intended merely to deride the Sophists, and to expose their Love of Gain, their Polymathy or various Knowledge, of itself useless to the Prime Purposes of Life, and their total Want of that true Wisdom, whose Tendency is to make Men Good and Happy. But though the Introduction has undoubtedly this View, it will appear, on a closer Examination, to have a farther and more immediate Reference to the Subject. For in the first place it is there shewn, that the sincere Study of Nature, and especially of the Governing Principle in Nature, Mind, must be Liberal ; because not followed by Riches or Honours, and making no Figure in the Eyes of the World : that the lower Affections are first therefore to be kept under, and the Heart secured on the Side of Truth. In the next place it is insinuated, that Right Reason is alone truly Law, the just Rule of Human Actions, and the true Standard of Beauty in Manners ; and that the End of Law is Public Good : that Human Institutions are to be tried by these Tests, and owe their Authority and Validity to their Correspondence with such Divine Rule, and to their Efficacy for such Godlike End. The Prejudices of False Taste in Beauty, arising from received Rules contrary to Reason, from Popular Modes and Customs pernicious to the Public, being thus removed ; immediately is introduced the Mention of Grammar, of Arithmetic, Music, Geometry and Astronomy ; Sciences, which open, cultivate, and improve the Mind ; lay the Fundamental Rules of Order in every Art, and regulate the Taste of Beauty ; withdraw the Mind from Particulars, and familiarize it to the Contemplation of Things in General, the Objects of Intellect ; Sciences therefore these, according to the Doctrine of Plato and his Followers, necessarily previous and introductory to found Physics and Metaphysics, that is, the General Knowledge of NATURE, and of MIND. In the last Part of the Introduction, to guard against Error and destroy the Foundation of it, all the Learning of Mythology and of Antiquities, by which the Vulgar Religion was supported, is stigmatized with the Character of old Wife’s Fables. — And thus much concerning the Subject and the Design of the GREATER HIPPIAS ; as also concerning the Method in which that Design is carried on, and the Conduct of the Argument throughout the Dialogue. — The Character of its Composition is so perfectly Dramatic, that but for the Want of Fable, it might be presented on the Stage by good Comedians with great Advantage : nay, so highly Picturesque is it, in the Manner which it imitates, as to be a worthy Subject for the Pencil of any Moral Painter. — The Ancients agree in placing it among the Dialogues, by Them called Anatreptic ; a Species, answering to that, which in our Synopsis we call the Confuting. The Composition of it has, we confess, that Turn given it ; and the outward Appearance of it carries that Air. But we are in Doubt, and submit it to the Judgment of discerning Critics, whether it partakes not rather of the Embarrassing or puzzling Kind. For, in the first place, though every Thing, said by Hippias, is confuted by Socrates ; yet the Falsity of no Tenet or Doctrine, laid down by that Sophist, is here exposed. He only gives Random-Answers to the questions proposed to him, apparently without ever having either thought Himself, or heard any Other speaking, upon the Subject. In the next place, though it appears from the latter Part of the Dialogue, that there was an Audience round them ; yet we may observe that Audience composed of Persons, who were of the Intimate Acquaintance of Socrates, entirely in his own Way of Thinking, and consequently in no Danger of being misled by the Sophist. Lastly, in the Close of the Conversation, we find the Intention of Socrates, in disputing thus with Hippias, represented by Plato to have been no other, than to exercise his own Mind in thinking and discoursing upon his Favorite Topic, that of BEAUTY.

Film adaptation :
Socrates (1971)

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Persons of Greater Hippias dialogue :

  1. Hippias (Ἱππίας) : a famous sophist, originally from Elis. Known throughout ancient Greece, he was reputed to have mastered mathematics, astronomy and rhetoric; he boasted that he could speak on any subject at Olympia without preparation. Plato presents him as setting himself up as an expert on Homeric criticism, and over-reaching his expertise. Hippias is exactly the sort of man Socrates complains about in the Apology, a man who develops expertise in one or more areas, and then imagines he knows everything.
  2. Socrates (Σωκράτης) [469 - 399 BCE] : an Athenian whose mature life was devoted to discussing ethical questions with any and all interested persons, in a charateristic way which has come to be considered as one of the central methods of philosophizing in western culture. Plato was greatly influenced by Socrates, and he used Socrates as a speaker in nearly all of his dialogue.

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Persons mentioned in Greater Hippias dialogue :

  1. Achilles (Ἀχιλλεύς) : the son of the Nereid Thetis and Peleus, king of Phthia and famous Argonaut. He was a hero of the Trojan War who was known as being the greatest of all the Greek warriors.
  2. Aeacus (Αἰακός) : a king of the island of Aegina in Greek mythology. He was a son of Zeus and the nymph Aegina, and the father of the heroes Peleus and Telamon.
  3. Anaxagoras (Ἀναξαγόρας) : a Pre-Socratic Greek philosopher. Born in Clazomenae at a time when Asia Minor was under the control of the Persian Empire, Anaxagoras came to Athens. Responding to the claims of Parmenides on the impossibility of change, Anaxagoras introduced the concept of Nous (Cosmic Mind) as an ordering force. He also gave several novel scientific accounts of natural phenomena, including the notion of panspermia, that life exists throughout the universe and could be distributed everywhere. He deduced a correct explanation for eclipses and described the Sun as a fiery mass larger than the Peloponnese, and also attempted to explain rainbows and meteors.
  4. Apemantus : father of Eudicus, and Hippias’ host in Athens.
  5. Bias (Βίας) : a Greek sage widely accepted as one of the Seven Sages of Greece and was renowned for his probity.
  6. Daedalus (Δαίδαλος) : a skillful architect and craftsman, seen as a symbol of wisdom, knowledge and power. He is the father of Icarus, the uncle of Perdix, and possibly also the father of Iapyx. Among his most famous creations are the wooden cow for Pasiphaë, the Labyrinth for King Minos of Crete which imprisoned the Minotaur, and wings that he and his son Icarus used to attempt to escape Crete.
  7. Dardanus (Δάρδανος) : a son of Zeus and the Pleiad Electra. He was the founder of the city of Dardanus at the foot of Mount Ida in the Troad.
  8. Eudicus : the son of Apemantus.
  9. Gorgias (Γοργίας) : an ancient Greek sophist, pre-Socratic philosopher, and rhetorician who was a native of Leontinoi in Sicily. Along with Protagoras, he forms the first generation of Sophists.
  10. Heracleitus (Ἡράκλειτος) : an ancient Greek pre-Socratic philosopher from the city of Ephesus, which was then part of the Persian Empire. He exerts a wide influence on ancient and modern Western philosophy, including through the works of Plato, Aristotle, Hegel, and Heidegger. The central ideas of Heraclitus's philosophy are the unity of opposites and the concept of change. He also saw harmony and justice in strife. He viewed the world as constantly in flux, always "becoming" but never "being".
  11. Heracles (Ἡρακλῆς) : a divine hero in Greek mythology, the son of Zeus and Alcmene, and the foster son of Amphitryon. He was the greatest of the Greek heroes, the ancestor of royal clans who claimed to be Heracleidae (Ἡρακλεῖδαι), and a champion of the Olympian order against chthonic monsters.
  12. Neoptolemus (Νεοπτόλεμος) : the son of the warrior Achilles and the princess Deidamia, and the brother of Oneiros. He became the mythical progenitor of the ruling dynasty of the Molossians of ancient Epirus.
  13. Nestor (Νέστωρ) : a legendary king of Pylos. He is a prominent secondary character in Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, where he appears as an elderly warrior who frequently offers long-winded advice to the other characters.
  14. Pelops (Πέλοψ) : the son of Tantalus and the father of Atreus. He was king of Pisa in the Peloponnesus region.
  15. Pheidias (Φειδίας) : an Ancient Greek sculptor, painter, and architect, active in the 5th century BCE. His Statue of Zeus at Olympia was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Phidias also designed the statues of the goddess Athena on the Athenian Acropolis, namely the Athena Parthenos inside the Parthenon, and the Athena Promachos, a colossal bronze which stood between it and the Propylaea, a monumental gateway that served as the entrance to the Acropolis in Athens.
  16. Pheidostratus : probably one of Athenian philosopher.
  17. Pittacus (Πιττακός) : an ancient Mytilenean military general and one of the Seven Sages of Greece.
  18. Prodicus (Πρόδικος) : a Greek philosopher, and part of the first generation of Sophists. He came to Athens as ambassador from Ceos, and became known as a speaker and a teacher. Plato treats him with greater respect than the other sophists, and in several of the Platonic dialogues Socrates appears as the friend of Prodicus.
  19. Protagoras (Πρωταγόρας) : a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher and rhetorical theorist. He is numbered as one of the sophists by Plato. In his dialogue Protagoras, Plato credits him with inventing the role of the professional sophist.
  20. Solon (Σόλων) : an archaic Athenian statesman, lawmaker, political philosopher, and poet. He is one of the Seven Sages of Greece and credited with laying the foundations for Athenian democracy. Solon's efforts to legislate against political, economic and moral decline[5] resulted in his constitutional reform overturning most of Draco's laws. Solon's reforms included debt relief later known and celebrated among Athenians as the Seisachtheia (shaking off of burdens). He is described by Aristotle in the Athenian Constitution as "the first people's champion." Demosthenes credited Solon's reforms with starting a golden age.
  21. Sophroniscus (Σωφρονίσκος) : the father of the philosopher Socrates.
  22. Tantalus (Τάνταλος) : a son of Zeus and a woman named Pluto. Tantalus was the father of Pelops, Niobe, and Broteas. He was famous for his punishment in Tartarus: for trying to trick the gods into eating his son, he was made to stand in a pool of water beneath a fruit tree with low branches, with the fruit ever eluding his grasp, and the water always receding before he could take a drink.
  23. Thales (Θαλῆς) : an Ancient Greek pre-Socratic philosopher from Miletus in Ionia, Asia Minor. Thales was one of the Seven Sages, founding figures of Ancient Greece.
  24. Zethus (Ἀμφίων) : a sons of Zeus by Antiope.

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Deities mentioned in Greater Hippias dialogue :

  1. Athena (Αθηνη) : the Olympian goddess associated with wisdom, warfare, and handicraft.
  2. Hera (Ἥρα) : the goddess of marriage, women, and family, and the protector of women during childbirth. She is queen of the twelve Olympians and Mount Olympus, sister and wife of Zeus, and daughter of the Titans Cronus and Rhea. One of her defining characteristics in myth is her jealous and vengeful nature in dealing with any who offended her, especially Zeus's numerous adulterous lovers and illegitimate offspring.
  3. Zeus (Ζεύς) : the sky and thunder god in ancient Greek religion and mythology, who rules as king of the gods on Mount Olympus.

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Place mentioned in Greater Hippias dialogue :

  1. Athens (Ἀθῆναι) : one of the oldest named cities in the world, having been continuously inhabited for perhaps 5,000 years. Situated in southern Europe, Athens became the leading city of Ancient Greece in the first millennium BCE, and its cultural achievements during the 5th century BCE laid the foundations of Western civilization.
  2. Ceos (Κέως) : a Greek island in the Cyclades archipelago in the Aegean Sea.
  3. Elis (Ήλιδα) : an ancient district in southern Greece on the Peloponnese, bounded on the north by Achaea, east by Arcadia, south by Messenia, and west by the Ionian Sea.
  4. Greece (Ἑλλάς) : a northeastern Mediterranean civilization that comprised a loose collection of culturally and linguistically related city-states and other territories.
  5. Inycus (Ἰνυκός) : an ancient town of Sicily, situated in the southwest of the island, on the river Hypsas (today the Belice).
  6. Leontini (Λεοντῖνοι) : a town and comune in the Province of Syracuse, southeastern Sicily (Southern Italy). The city was founded by colonists from Naxos as Leontini in 729 BCE, which in its beginnings was a Chalcidian colony established five years earlier in Magna Graecia. It is virtually the only Greek settlement in Sicily that is not located on the coast, founded around 10 km inland. The site, originally held by the Sicels, was seized by the Greeks owing to their command on the fertile plain in the north. The city was reduced to subject status in 494 BCE by Hippocrates of Gela, who made his ally Aenesidemus its tyrant. In 476 BCE, Hieron of Syracuse moved the inhabitants from Catana and Naxos to Leontini.
  7. Sicily (Σικελία) : an island in the central Mediterranean Sea, south of the Italian Peninsula in continental Europe and is one of the 20 regions of Italy. From about 750 BCE, the Greeks began to live in Sicily, establishing many significant settlements. The most important colony was in Syracuse; others grew up at Akragas, Selinunte, Gela, Himera and Zancle.
  8. Sparta : a prominent city-state in Laconia in ancient Greece. In antiquity, the city-state was known as Lacedaemon (Λακεδαίμων), while the name Sparta referred to its main settlement on the banks of the Eurotas River in the Eurotas valley of Laconia, in south-eastern Peloponnese. Around 650 BCE, it rose to become the dominant military land-power in ancient Greece.
  9. Thessaly (Θεσσαλία) : one of the traditional regions of Ancient Greece. During the Mycenaean period, Thessaly was known as Aeolia, a name that continued to be used for one of the major tribes of Greece, the Aeolians, and their dialect of Greek, Aeolic. At its greatest extent, ancient Thessaly was a wide area stretching from Mount Olympus to the north to the Spercheios Valley to the south. Thessaly is a geographically diverse region, consisting of broad central plains surrounded by mountains. The plains are bounded by the Pindos Mountains to the west, Mount Othrys to the south, the Pelion and Ossa ranges to the east, and Mount Olympos to the North. The central plains consist of two basins, the Larisa basin and the Karditsa basin, drained by the Pineios River into the Vale of Tempe. The Pagasetic Gulf in southeastern Thessaly was and is the only body of water suitable for harbours in region. Thessaly refers primarily to the central plains inhabited by the Thessalians in antiquity. The plains were divided in antiquity into four administrative regions called tetrads: Pelasgiotis, Phthiotis, Thessaliotis, and Histiaeotis. In its broader sense, Thessaly also included the surrounding regions called the perioikoi, which were regions inhabited by different ethnic groups that were closely tied to the Thessalians either as subordinates, dependents, or allies. The perioikoi were composed of Perrhaibia, Magnesia, Achaea Phthiotis, Dolopia, Ainis, Malis, and Oitaia. The three largest cities in Thessaly were Larisa (Pelasgiotis), Pherai (Pelasgiotis), and Pharsalos (Phthiotis). The Thessalian plains were ideally suited for cultivating grains and cereals, and were known in antiquity for horse-rearing.
  10. Troy (Τροία) : or Ilion (Ίλιον), ancient city in northwestern Anatolia that holds an enduring place in both literature and archaeology. It occupied a key position on trade routes between Europe and Asia. The legend of the Trojan War, fought between the Greeks and the people of Troy, is the most notable theme from ancient Greek literature and forms the basis of Homer’s Iliad.

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Term mentioned in Greater Hippias dialogue :

  1. Choes (Χοαί) : the second day of Anthesteria (Ἀνθεστήρια), one of the four Athenian festivals in honor of Dionysus. The Anthesteria was held each year from the 11th to the 13th of the month of Anthesterion, around the time of the January or February full moon. The three days of the feast were called Pithoigia, Choes, and Chytroi. The first day was Pithoigia (Πιθοίγια), aka 'The Jar-Opening'. The jars of wine (pithoi) from the previous year were opened, libations offered to Dionysus, and the entire household (including slaves) joining in the festivities. Spring flowers were used to decorate the rooms of the house, the home's drinking vessels, and any children over three years of age. The second day was Choes (Χοαί), aka 'The Pouring'. Merrymaking continued: people dressed themselves gaily, some in the figures of Dionysus's entourage, and paid a round of visits to their acquaintances. Drinking clubs held contests to see who could drain their cups the most rapidly. These competitions were done in silence and slaves were also allowed to participate. Others poured libations on the tombs of deceased relatives. The day also marked a state occasion: a peculiarly solemn and secret ceremony in the sanctuary of Dionysus 'in the marshes' (ἐν λίμναις), which was closed throughout the rest of the year. Despite the name, there were no actual marshes in the immediate surroundings of Athens and the sanctuary was located in the Bouleuterion in the Athenian Agora. Athens' ritual queen, the basilinna, underwent a ceremony of marriage to the god. She was assisted by the gerarai, 14 Athenian matrons chosen by her husband the archon basileus, who were sworn to secrecy. Burkert regarded the ceremony as a recreation of the yielding of Ariadne to Dionysus by Theseus during their escape from Crete. The days on which the Pithoigia and Choes were celebrated were both regarded as apophrades (ἀποφράδες, 'unlucky'; Latin equivalent nefasti) and miarai (μιαραί, 'defiled'), necessitating expiatory libations. On them, the souls of the dead came up from the underworld and walked abroad. People chewed leaves of hawthorn or buckthorn and besmeared their doors with tar to protect themselves from evil. Nonetheless, the festive character of the ceremonies predominated. The third day was Chytroi (Χύτροι), aka 'The Pots'), a festival of the dead. Fruit or cooked pulse was offered to Hermes in his capacity as Hermes Chthonios, an underworld figure, and to the souls of the dead, who were then bidden to depart. None of the Olympians were included and no one tasted the pottage, which was food of the dead. Celebration continued and games were held. Although no performances were allowed at the theater, a sort of rehearsal took place, at which the players for the ensuing dramatic festival were selected.
  2. Greek : an ethnic group and nation native to Greece, Cyprus, southern Albania, Anatolia, parts of Italy and Egypt, and to a lesser extent, other countries surrounding the Eastern Mediterranean and Black Sea.
  3. Inycenes : people of or from the town of Inycus.
  4. Milesian : the inhabitants of Miletus (Μῑ́λητος), a city in the Anatolia province of modern-day Turkey.
  5. Mina (μνᾶ) : an ancient Near Eastern unit of weight for silver or gold, equivalent to approximately 1.25 pounds (0.57 kg), which was divided into 60 shekels. The mina, like the shekel, eventually also became a unit of currency. In ancient Greece, it originally equalled 70 drachmae but later, at the time of the statesman Solon (c. 594 BCE.), was increased to 100 drachmae. The Greek word mna (μνᾶ) was borrowed from Semitic. Different city states used minae of different weights. The Aeginetan mina weighed 623.7 g (22.00 oz). The Attic mina weighed 436.6 g (15.40 oz). In Solon's day, according to Plutarch, the price of a sheep was one drachma or a medimnos (about 40 kg) of wheat. Thus a mina was worth 100 sheep.
  6. Siceliotes : a distinct ethno-cultural group in Sicily from about the 8th century BCE until their assimilation into the general Sicilian population. As Hellenic colonists (often reputedly of Doric origin) and descendants of colonists from Greece, they spoke Greek and participated in the wider cultural and political activities of Greek Sicily and of the Hellenic world as a whole.
  7. Spartans : people from the ancient Greek city-state of Sparta.

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