Opening lines of Plato's Apology of Socrates, from a manuscript copy of Plato's works that was produced in 895 C.E. in Cappadocia (in present-day Turkey).
This manuscript, known now as the Clarke Codicil, is the earliest surviving source text for many of Plato's works (Bodleian Library, Oxford).

PLATO: "SOCRATIC" DIALOGUES

Reading Assignments:

9/9: Plato, The Apology of Socrates [PDF]

Plato, Euthyphro [PDF]

☞ How to Cite Texts of Plato and Aristotle

☞ Study Guide & Questions for Plato's Euthyphro

9/18: Plato, Protagoras [PDF]

Note on the Texts: Plato's works are customarily known as "Dialogues," as they usually take the form of conversations between two or more interlocutors. Nearly all of them feature Plato's hero Socrates, usually as the primary speaker; Plato himself never appears. The Apology is Plato's dramatic rendering of Socrates' defense-speech at his trial in 399 B.C.E. (The work's traditional English title, "Apology," is just a transliteration of the Greek, "Apologia," which just means 'defense speech' - as you'll see, the speech is not at all 'apologetic' in tone or content.) Euthyphro presents a conversation that takes place just before Socrates' trial, arising from a chance encounter between Socrates and a self-described prophet, Euthyphro, when both are on their way to the law-courts.

These two works, along with Protagoras and a few others, are believed by many scholars to be among Plato's earliest writings, as their representation of Socrates is thought to correspond fairly closely to what he was actually like. For this reason, these works are often designated as Plato's "Socratic" dialogues. (As we'll see, the Socrates of Plato's Phaedo and Republic is a bit different.)

- Socrates
  470 -399 B.C.E.
  
  Portrait Bust of Socrates. Roman, first-century C.E., possibly based on lost bronze by the Greek sculptor Lyssipos, dating from c. 317 B.C.E. (Paris, Louvre).
  According to Diogenes Laertius (writing in the third century C.E.), the Athenians commissioned Lyssipos' statue out of regret for having sentenced Socrates to death.
  The Roman marble shown here may have been the basis of Jean-Louis David's depiction of Socrates in his 1787 painting The Death of Socrates, now in the Metropolitan Museum, New York.
- Plato
  427 -347 B.C.E.
  Portrait Bust of Plato (Roman, first-century C.E.), possibly a copy of bronze original made by Silanion for the Academy in 370 B.C.E.
  (Rome, Museo Capitolini)