Plateuripidizein. An Interdisciplinary Dialogue on Plato and Euripides

This workshop will explore the relationship between Plato, often described as the most theatrical of philosophers, and Euripides, the most philosophic of tragedians, whose works shaped the Greeks' intellectual and literary traditions well beyond their own time. The event aims to foster dialogue across disciplinary boundaries and to illuminate new connections between the Platonic and tragic corpora.

This workshop is being generously supported by the Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies (SPHS), the Institute of Classical Studies (ICS), The Mind Association, the Duram Centre for Ancient and Medieval Philosophy (DCAMP). 

Day 1 – 28 May 

10.30-10.45 am: welcome and registration

 

10.45-11.00 am: introductory remarks 

 

panel 1 – chair Judy Quinn (Durham University)

 

11.00-11.45 am: Fritz-Gregor Herrmann (Swansea University), Top-flight? The Transformation of a Euripidean Story in Plato's Phaedrus

 

11.45 am-12.00 pm: coffee break

 

12.00-12.45 pm: Giorgia Lugani (University of Cambridge), Euripides, Socrates (and Plato) as Readers of Heraclitus

 

12.45-2.00 pm: lunch break

 

panel 2 – chair Lorenzo Iuliano (Durham University)

 

2.00-2.45 pm: Franco Trabattoni (University of Milan), A Sophistic Dionysus? Plato vs. Euripides

 

2.45-3.30 pm: Giulia Bernardini (Durham University), Euripides and Plato on (Self-)Ignorance and its Tragic(omic) Consequences

 

3.30-3.45 pm: coffee break

 

3.45-4:30 pm: Elizabeth Pender (University of Leeds), Poetic Allusion in Plato: Ambiguity and Ironic Distance

 

 

Day 2 – 29 May

 

panel 3 – chair Izzy Grout (Durham University)

 

9.30-10.15 am: Zara Amdur (Texas Tech University), The Role of Mαῖα in Euripides’ Hippolytus and Plato’s Theaetetus

 

10.15-10.30 am: coffee break

 

10.30-11.15 am: Chiara Blanco (Newcastle University), Tainted Love: Rethinking Phaedra's Erotic Passion in Light of Plato’s Symposium

 

11.15 am-12.00 pm: Penelope Volpi (University of Milan), Science, Sacrality, and Theriomorphism. The Legacy of Euripides’ Wise Melanippe in Plato’s Symposium

 

12.00-1.00 pm: lunch break

 

panel 4 – chair Ioannis Ziogas (Durham University)

 

1.00-1.45 pm: Sarah Miles (Durham University), Plato’s Symposium and Euripides’ Heracles: A Phenomenological Focus

 

1.45-2.30 pm: Nikos Charalabopoulos (University of Patras), Dead Poets Society: Euripides' Heracles and Plato's Republic

 

2.30-3.15 pm: Andrea Capra (University of Milan), Euripides’ Dionysus and the Symposium

 

3.15-3.45 pm: coffee break

 

panel 5 – chair Wenhao Yang (Durham University)

 

3.45-4.30 pm: Maria Cristina Mennuti (University of Tübingen), Who Governs Human Life? The Daimon’s Ambiguous Agency in Euripides’ Tragedy and Plato’s Philosophy

 

4.30-5.15 pm: Edith Hall (Durham University), Appalling Women and Praise of Tyranny: Plato (Mis)understanding of Euripides

 

7.30 pm: conference dinner

 

 

Day 3 – 30 May

 

panel 6 – chair Giulia Bernardini (Durham University)

 

9.30-10.15 am: Jurgen Gatt (University of Malta), Self-knowledge and the Law in Late 5th Century: Euripides, Socrates, and the Sophists 

 

10.15-11.00 am: Elena Sofia Capra (University of the Republic of San Marino), A Civil War Myth for Attica: Eumolpus against Athens between Euripides’ Erechtheus and Plato’s Menexenus

 

11.00 am-11.45 am: George Gazis (Durham University), Socratic and Euripidean Approaches to Incompetent Audiences

 

11.45 am-12.15 pm: coffee break

 

12.15-1.30 pm: roundtable – chair Penelope Volpi (University of Milan) 

 

1.30 pm: closing remarks