"Despite battling a fever and being on the brink of death, Plato...retained enough lucidity to critique the musician [an enslaved Thracian girl] for her lack of rhythm, the account suggests." he died as he lived www.theguardian.com/books/2024/a... - ThreadSky

olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social • 338 days ago

"Despite battling a fever and being on the brink of death, Plato...retained enough lucidity to critique the musician [an enslaved Thracian girl] for her lack of rhythm, the account suggests."

he died as he lived

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2024/apr/29/herculaneum-scroll-plato-final-hours-burial-site

Comments

optimist-press.bsky.social•100 days ago

Plato certainly deserved to die the most miserable death imaginable.

decmusicology.bsky.social•100 days ago

This seems about right

IIRC, Plato took music pretty goddam seriously

brainchain.bsky.social•338 days ago

Maybe that cave of his was filled with exiled Thracian musicians

thedapperdiner.bsky.social•338 days ago

Is it too late to nominate Plato?

laundrystorment.bsky.social•338 days ago

Whom among us would be unbothered by the deathbed company of an incompetent musician?

spoonbill.bsky.social•338 days ago

A Stoic would put up with it, an Epicurean wouldn't, and I suppose a Peripatetic would just get up and leave the room.

thesandwichman.bsky.social•100 days ago

And that's... PHILOSOPHY!

careycuprisin.bsky.social•100 days ago

Lol

charliebird.bsky.social•338 days ago

Isn't making millions of childhoods better not enough?

handcraftedcinema.bsky.social•338 days ago

“Either she goes or I do”

oinonio.bsky.social•338 days ago

pyroclastic surge would be a good band name. Or maybe a drink.

olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social•338 days ago

more interestingly: "The text also reveals that Plato was sold into slavery on the island of Aegina, possibly as early as 404BC when the Spartans conquered the island, or alternatively in 399BC, shortly after Socrates’ passing."

oulipien.bsky.social•338 days ago

"Reveals" or states?

oulipien.bsky.social•338 days ago

kind of annoying that few of the press articles include this information

optimist-press.bsky.social•100 days ago

It's only fitting that the Spartans would sell Plato into slavery given that they were in large part his inspiration for the "Republic," which laid out the societal blueprint for the late Roman Empire and Nazi Germany.

billjank.bsky.social•338 days ago

One of my favorite dad jokes is “Socrates’ last words were ‘I drank WHAT?’”

rocksizedrock.bsky.social•338 days ago

One of my favorite movies uses that :D

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmK5dftQ0_Q

billjank.bsky.social•338 days ago

Probably where I picked it up.

My mom had an “I ❤️ Toxic Waste” tee made for me for one of my birthdays.

Tho, Bill and Ted mean that I will always hear “So-kraits” instead of “So-crat-ese”

rocksizedrock.bsky.social•338 days ago

I see we had the same childhood influences :D

olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social•338 days ago

Diogenes Laertius' history puts this event on Plato's first trip to Sicily, cool if they end up firming up bits of the timeline here

https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0258%3Abook%3D3%3Achapter%3D1

sparkapus.bsky.social•338 days ago

Please don't mind my note to find this back (on a larger screen)

runtch.bsky.social•338 days ago

It's a mood though.

milti.bsky.social•338 days ago

this reminds me of the hospital scene from brittas empire...

sicburns2.bsky.social•100 days ago

Coming soon: Titanic Captain Smith’s final words before being sucked into the briny deep were, “Good Christ who hired that cellist he sucks shit”

thesandwichman.bsky.social•100 days ago

I guess it never occured to Plato that his fever might be distorting his perception of the rhythm. Enougn lucidity my foot.

thesandwichman.bsky.social•100 days ago

an a-hole

harryfinch.bsky.social•337 days ago

Sad they had to explain who Plato was.

lacanmunist.bsky.social•338 days ago

Levels of superhuman, near-death hateration rivaled only by Val Kilmer's portrayal of Doc Holliday in Tombstone

ansonia.bsky.social•100 days ago

I think of Val Kilmer doc holliday all of the time lmao

whogivesashirt.bsky.social•338 days ago

“Either that Thracian dancer goes or I do.”

booktweeting.bsky.social•338 days ago

he died as he lived, being a jerkweed know-it-all

eventscape.bsky.social•338 days ago

everyone is glossing over that he himself was a slave at that point at it was his deathbed and certainly if the music is disturbing and out of rhythm then maybe lodging a critique is within his limited rights as the dying person?

bakingui.bsky.social•98 days ago

Jumping through hoops to defend slavery is certainly stupid and embarrassing of you.

olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social•338 days ago

he was not a slave, though it's not clear from the Guardian writeup if he was the Thracian girl's owner or if someone else was

eventscape.bsky.social•338 days ago

the article I read stated he had been sold into slavery due to the Spartans defeating Athens. I wonder why the Guardian glossed over that fact and emphasized it for the musician. strange reporting. are they Spartan sympathizers at the Guardian since they are still living under a Monarchy?

olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social•338 days ago

he *was* sold into slavery - sold to a fellow philosopher who freed him immediately

eventscape.bsky.social•338 days ago

that wasn’t in the article I read. weird he complained about the music playing at his death bed and this is somehow related to the slave status of the musician. if his slave then couldn’t he just ask her to stop? whose musician was it and why write down his complaint instead of asking her to stop?

booktweeting.bsky.social•338 days ago

maybe, but he was also not exactly known for his support of artists in general

eventscape.bsky.social•338 days ago

artists or artistry?

booktweeting.bsky.social•338 days ago

art, in general? idk, Plato always seems like a jerk to me, but of course we don’t have all of his writing to really judge

dominarabner.bsky.social•338 days ago

Haha, Plato a dickhead to the end.

nataliebrender.bsky.social•338 days ago

Another tranche of special-pleading dissertations coming up.

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