Abstract
If you had to choose a site for the greatest oracle in the ancient world you would be hard pushed to beat Delphi. Sitting both confidently and precipitously on a ledge below the Phaedraides — the ‘Shining Cliffs’ — in central Greece, it looks like the vertiginous utterances must have felt to the people who sought Apollo’s word there for over 1000 years. Today, a wide road, built for coaches, brings visitors up from the plain of Thebes. Its sleepy meander seems oblivious to the calamitous events that took place beneath the tarmac: ‘there is no road away from Delphi’, said Seneca, reflecting on Oedipus’ attempt to flee the oracle’s curse by the same route, only to kill his father on the way. But after an hour or so, you turn one final bend, and suddenly the telltale signs of broken pillars and a ticket office emerge from the cypress trees.
I am very conscious that I am not wise at all.
Socrates
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Further Reading and References
Greek Religion, by Walter Burkert, translated by John Raffan, published by Blackwell (1985), is the standard text on the eponymous subject.
The Religion of Socrates, by Mark L. McPherran, published by Penn State University Press (1996), is the most thorough examination of the historical Socrates’ attitude and feelings about religion and belief that I have seen.
The Road to Delphi: The Life and Afterlife of Oracles, by Michael Wood, published by Picador (2003), is a fascinating and evocative study of the role of ancient oracles.
Protagoras’ writings only survive as a few fragments, including the two quoted here.
The quote from Plato’s Laws is at 948c. The quote from Plato’s Timeaus is at 29a–c.
Xenophon’s Socratic ‘proof’ for the existence of gods is in his Memoirs of Socrates 1.4. The account of Socrates’ response to the oracle begins at Apology 20e.
Plutarch’s account of Socrates’ peripatetic method is in Whether a Man Should Engage in Politics when He Is Old, 26, 796d.
The ‘four-part cure’ is cited in The Epicurus Reading: Selected Writings and Testimonia, translated and edited by Bran Inwood, L.P. Gerson and D.S. Hutchinson, published by Hackett Publishing Company (1994).
The discussion about gods and goodness (or piety) is in Plato’s Euthyphro 9c following.
Diotima’s contribution in Plato’s Symposium begins at 201d. Alcibiades appears at 212d.
The interview with Bertrand Russell is reprinted in Russell on Religion: Selections from the Writings of Bertrand Russell, published by Routledge (1999), Chapter 4, ‘What Is an Agnostic?’
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© 2011 Mark Vernon
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Vernon, M. (2011). Socrates’ Quest: The Agnostic Spirit. In: How To Be An Agnostic. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-230-30144-3_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-230-30144-3_2
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