Abstract
In such a short space, I cannot possibly hope to review the differences in translation between the edition under review and those included in Cooper's Plato: Complete Works, which I take to be the contemporary standard (see also Zeyl's Gorgias, Ryan's Menexenus and Lombardo and Bell's Protagoras). Therefore I will say a few short words on the subject, discuss the inclusion of Menexenus in this volume, and speak to Malcolm Schofield's notation.
First, it seems that the goal of this new translation is to update the language, making it more readable and colloquial, and thus bringing the dialogues to a wider readership. For example, when Zeyl's Polus describes oratory as a knack, Griffith translates the Greek empeiria as skill (462c). Likewise, when Zeyl's Socrates replies that oratory is flattery (Greek kolakeia), Griffith's Socrates calls it ‘sycophancy, sucking up to people’ (462b) (hence assuming that ‘knack’ is a word that, in English, seems to be going out of favour and that ‘flattery’, in its current usage, does not quite capture what Socrates wants). Other examples abound. The result is that these new translations read more smoothly in more colloquial English, making them suitable as introductions to undergraduates and specialists alike.
Next, let me reply to the sentiment that it is surprising to see Menexenus, a rather minor dialogue, included in such a short and important series. Gorgias seems better paired with Apology or Crito, and Protagoras seems better paired with Symposium.
Menexenus consists mainly of a long funeral oration, possibly as a satire of Pericles’ famous oration after the Peloponnesian War. Since funeral orations are meant to flatter (or suck up to) the dead, Schofield includes it in this collection as a companion to Gorgias, since it provides a perfect example of the sycophancy that he criticises, as the art of rhetoric.
Let me end with praise for the editorial contribution of Schofield to these three works. The last definitive translations of these dialogues are more than a decade old, and so while much has been said in the literature about them, Schofield's notation does not concentrate on that (though it is of course mentioned where appropriate). Instead, the contribution in this text consists of relevant references to historical events and other dialogues, as well as explanations of idiomatic ancient Greek expressions (as when Socrates suggests that rhetoricians are trying to ‘learn pottery on the wine jar’, that is, trying to run before you have learned to walk [514e]).
For my undergraduate students I shall still assign the cheaper, older Hackett editions of these dialogues. However, this new edition in the Cambridge series ‘Texts in the History of Political Thought’ will surely be the edition to find on the shelves of scholars, and in the hands of more advanced students.