Vol. 14 (2014): Plato Journal #14

The current volume of the Plato Journal is published in the new format and in accordance with the guidelines that have been introduced in the previous volume. Like the preceding issue, the current issue of the Plato Journal is available both in electronic and printed versions. Furthermore a new online platform is available for the submission of papers. As a result of these changes and in continuity with its tradition the Plato Journal constitutes an attractive channel for the promotion and the dissemination of excellent work in the study of Plato and of the Platonic tradition. Volume 14/2014 contains six articles, three of which are on Plato’s Symposium and represent revised versions of papers presented at the X Symposium Platonicum in Pisa in July 2013. The volume also contains articles on the Theaetetus and the Sophist, the Republic and the Myth of Er, and on the Ion, along with two reviews on recent publications. As for the section on the Symposium, we start with an article by Menahmen Luz (University of Haifa) on ‘The Rejected Versions in Plato’s Symposium’. Luz focuses on Apollodorus’ prelude to the Symposium. He argues that the rejection of earlier accounts of Socrates’ participation in the Symposium can be subtextually regarded as a rejection of a previous literary version. The second article, by Anne Gabrièle Wersinger (Université de Reims/ CNRS Jean Pépin), addresses ‘Le sens de la « kuèsis » dans la perspective des mythes de la gestation (Banquet 201d-212b)’. According to Wersinger, Diotima applies the desire to become pregnant to both men and women in order to convey the idea that creation cannot be reduced to the begetting of novelty, but takes time, as does maternal gestation. The section on the Symposium ends with an article by Gabriele Cornelli (Universidade de Brasília) on ‘Socrate et Alcibiade’. According to Cornelli, in describing the relationship between Socrates and Alcibiades, Plato uses a clever dramatic construction in order to ‘rewrite’ this relationship and then deepen his ‘J’accuse’ against Alcibiades.