@Pixley yes, i have jetset across new england to make this happen

P - phaedrus S - socrates

S: now i have heard a story [on the origins of writing] that the ancients told, but only they know whether or not it is true. so, if we ourselves can discover the truth of the matter, would we still care about the opinions of other people?

P: what a silly question! still, tell me what you've heard.

S: i have heard that at naucratis in egypt, there was an ancient god to whom the bird called the ibis is sacred. the name of that god was theuth, and it was he who discovered numbers and arithmetic, geometry and astronomy, as well as the games of draughts and dice, but most important of all: writing. now at that time the god thamus was the king of the whole country of egypt, and he lived in a great city in upper egypt that the greeks call "egyptian thebes," while thamus himself the greeks call "ammon." to him theuth came and demonstrated all of his inventions, urging the king to disseminate them to all egyptians. for his part, thamus asked him about the usefulness of each of these arts, and while he was describing them, he praised or blamed theuth for whatever he thought was right or wrong in his explanations.

the story goes that thamus said many things to theuth in praise or blame of each of these various arts, so much that it would take so long to repeat. but when they came to writing, theuth said: "king, here is an invention which, once learned, will make the egyptians wiser and improve their memory. for what i have discovered is an elixir [φάρμακον] of memory and wisdom."

but thamus replied: "most learned theuth, while one person may have the ability to discover an art, the ability to judge its usefulness or harmfulness belongs to another. and now you, who are the father of these letters, have been led by your affection for them to describe their effects as the opposite of what they really are. for this discovery will produce forgetfulness [λήθην] in the minds of those who learn it, because they will neglect to exercise their memory. instead they will put their trust in these letters, which are external signs that belong to others [ἔξωθεν ὑπ᾽ ἀλλοτρίων τύπων], instead of utilizing the memory that comes from within themselves [οὐκ ἔνδοθεν αὐτοὺς ὑφ᾽ αὑτῶν ἀναμιμνῃσκομένους]. you have invented an elixir not of memory [μνήμης], but of reminding [ὑπομνήσεως]. you provide your students only the appearance of wisdom, and not wisdom itself: for they will hear many things and have learned nothing; though appearing to know much, they will know nothing; and they will be difficult to get along with, since they will merely appear to be wise without truly being so."

[thamus' last point is a pivotal one and difficult to translate, so i have given the greek phrasing in brackets. some interesting things to note are the use of φάρμακον (c.f. derrida) and the fine distinction between memory and remembrance -- μνήμη and ὑπόμνησις -- which, if we're being very creative, we might be able to write as "minding" and "re-minding"]

@MoMartin

nothing i can really write here will do it justice, but “phaedrus” is almost certainly plato’s masterpiece from a compositional and philosophical perspective, and maybe the one dialogue of his that everyone should read. though ostensibly just a dialogue about the art of rhetoric, it is itself a pristine example of #greek prose rhetoric, and does everything that it recommends rhetors do compositionally when giving a speech. at the same time, it is able to pull in major parts of the platonic philosophy, including platonic love, spirituality, reincarnation, and a lot more.

we will be using the OUP edition of the text beginning at 274c, which you can follow along with in parallel here: http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0059.tlg012.perseus-grc1:274c

prior to this point in the dialogue, socrates has encountered the youth phaedrus in a shady grove outside of athens, who has just come from hearing the orator lysias give a speech on love. socrates asks phaedrus to recount the speech to him, and together the two have worked dialectically through the ideas on love expressed in the speech, through to the structure of a good speech, and now (where we pick up) the story of the origin of writing, and what makes writing good or bad.

additionally, the best and most recent text for learning to read #plato in greek is louise pratt’s “eros at the banquet,” which takes students who have had about two semesters’ worth of greek fundamentals through a large part of the symposium, and focuses especially on the most difficult parts of reading plato like attic vowel contraction. she is very good about where she chooses to give glosses, giving readings on forms that an intermediate student couldn’t be expected to know, while still not giving them too much. https://www.oupress.com/books/9780031/eros-at-the-banquet

translating @MoMartin's requested portion of phaedrus

hi, that was my fault