CLASSIC 10A Lecture Notes - Lecture 21: Greco-Roman Mysteries, Thrasymachus, Dionysia
Document Summary
Satire/critique of athenian sophistic movement and its impact on ethics and education. No obvious moral center of gravity: better argument: cranky old man, worse argument: defends unscrupulous self-promotion. No truly sympathetic characters: strepsiades: father, tries to avoid paying debts through rhetoric, pheidippides: son, extravagant horse racing, socrates. Enters the stage like a god (on a swing, deus ex machine) Initial conflict between father and son: the son is spending too much money on his extravagant activities, money which the father is not rich enough to pay. Description of thinkery: school for sophistic thought, intellectual superiority, teach rhetoric in a way that turns a worse argument into a better argument, mysterious cult fees and initiation, exploration of the physical world. Better and worse argument: just and unjust argue over how better to educate a boy unjust wins the argument and is given the boy to teach. What the son learns from them: how to be a sassy little smart-ass.
