Abstract
When Plato died he bequeathed to Greek culture and the world a twofold gift, his Academy and his writings. In the same manner as the property of the land on which it was founded was the material foundation upon which the existence of the Academy rested, the respect for Plato’s personality was a shield to protect its ideological cohesion in spite of all the changes which took place in its teaching. The cult of Plato as a person was in the Academy added to that of Apollo, the Muses and Eros. On the seventh day of the month of Thargelion, towards the end of our month of May, Plato’s birthday was celebrated in the Academy. It was the holy day of the birth of the god Apollo and there is no doubt that the fixing of Plato’s birthday on this festive day is connected with the legend on the Apollonian origin of the adored philosopher.1 Plato’s statue served as a symbol of his continued presence in the Academy. It was the work of the sculptor Silanion and was dedicated to the Muses in the Academy by the Persian Mithridates, the son of Orontobates.2 Not far from the Academy was Plato’s grave.3
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References
ef. p. 309 seq.
Diog. Laert. 3,25.
Pausanias I 30,3.
In an attempt to erase from tradition any intimation of personal disagreement between Aristotle and Plato it is said in Aristotle’s biography (Vita Marciana para 429 R) that after Speusippus’ death the members of Plato’s school invited Aristotle and that he took charge of it toghether with Xenocrates; Aristotle in the Lyceum, Xenocrates in the Academy. This report shows, it is obvious, Aristotle’s school as a dependent branch of the Academy. According to another report which is contained in the Academicorum philosophorum index Herculanensis col. VI-VII, p. 38 seq. M, the young members of the Academy elected Xenocrates, because Aristotle was in Macedonia. Ph. Merlan defends the authenticity of this report in an article The successor of Speusippus (Transactions of the Amer. Philol. Assoc. 77, 1946).
F. Čáda, Platónùv nástupce v Akademii filol. 44, 1917, 167 seq., where the sources (= Plato’s Successor in the Academy), (Listy are mentioned).
Plutarch, On the Creation of the Soul 1.
Monograph: J. Baudry, Le problème de l’origine et de l’éternìté du monde d,ans la philosophie grecque de Platon à l’ère chrétienne (Paris, 1931).
Philo, On the indestructibility of the world 12; Censorinus, De die natali 4,3; Joannes Stobaeus, Anthology 1, 20, 3. The Documents were collected by R. Harder, Ocellus Lucanus (Berlin, 1926, p. 3 seq.).
Without sufficient evidence W. Jaeger, Aristoteles, p. 133, asserts that the Academy was at the time after Plato’s death the centre of orientalizing currents foreshadowing the rapprochment of East and West effected by Alexander’s campaign. Similarly Plato’s and his disciple’s relations with the Orient are pursued hy G. Bidez in his hook Eos ou Platon et l’Orient (Bruxelles 1945); his results also cannot all be accepted as certain.
Simplicius, On Arist. Physica 1165, 35 D; On Arist. De caelo 12, 33; 87, 22 Heiberg. fragm. 53 Heinze. Diogenes Laert. does not mention Xenocrates’ biography.
Cf. Simplicius On Aristotle’s De Physica 247, 33; 356, 32 D.
Suidas under “Фιλόσοϕος”.
Crantor’s commentary on the Timaeus is mentioned hy Proclus On Timaeus I, 76, 1 seq. and 277,8 seq. D. Plutarch in the treatise On the Origin of the Soul in the Timaeus 1 seq. does not mention the commentary, but refers to Crantor’s concept of the soul, which he opposes to Xenocrates’ notion, according to whom the soul is the mixture of two components, reason (υοητή ϕύσις) and belief in relation to the objects of sensation (ή πɛρì τά αìσϑητά δοξατή ϕύσις).
On the controversial question whether the Academy published or did not publish Plato’s work see for differing opinions G. Jachmann, Der Platontext (Nachr. d. Gesell. d. Wissensch., Göttingen, phil. hist. Kl., 1941, 11, Göttingen 1952) and Ernst Bickel, Geschichte und Recension des Platontextes (Rhein. Mus. 92, 1943).
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© 1977 František Novotný — Ludvík Svoboda
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Novotný, F. (1977). Plato’s First Successors. In: Svoboda, L., Barton, J.L. (eds) The Posthumous Life of Plato. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-9704-2_1
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