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The Great Literature Adventures of Plato and Socrates
Is human history forever plagued to repeat itself?
Over the last year and a half, I have been plowing through a book I picked up at a rummage sale entitled The Great Dialogues of Plato. It includes the complete texts of Plato’s Republic as well as dissertations by Socrates.
I came across a passage that really struck a chord with me given the tribulations of the past four years between January 20th, 2017 and January 20th, 2021 and in particular, the period between November 3rd, 2020, and January 6th, 2021.
Before reciting the passages from the book, I should explain that the preponderance of the use of the word “man” was how it was in that day and age and is not meant to offend. At the time of Plato, the wife was not the center of the home but only the manager of the household and the bearer of children. When Plato wrote the Republic around 375 BCE, Athenian women were for the most part, second-class citizens. They were unable to vote, own land, inherit or play any role in political life. Until marriage, which took place at an average age of 14 , women were under the guardianship of their fathers or other male relatives. Upon marriage, a woman became legally subject to the rule of her husband.
