Skip to main content
BIOGRAPHY OF PLATO

Biography of Plato

Birth

  • Place: Athens or Aegina

  • Time: 7th day of the month Thargelion (the birthday of Apollo), during the term of Eponymous Archon Ameinias; specifically, the 2nd year of the 88th Olympiad (April 30, 427 BC).

Identity

  • Deme: Collytus

  • Tribe: Aegeïs

Parents

  • Father: Ariston

  • Mother: Perictione

Siblings

  • Adeimantus, Glaucon (older) and Potone (younger).

Financial Status

  • Wealthy

Real Name

Aristocles. "Plato" was a nickname given to him either for the breadth of his interpretations, his wide forehead, his athletic vigor, or his broad shoulders.

Lineage to Solon

Solon had a brother named Dropides. Dropides was the father of Critias. Critias was the father of Callaeschrus. Callaeschrus was the father of Critias (one of the Thirty Tyrants) and Glaucon. Glaucon was the father of Charmides and Perictione (Plato’s mother).

Meeting Socrates

One night, Socrates dreamed he had a small swan on his knees; its wings suddenly grew, and it flew away, singing a loud, sweet note. The next day, when Plato was brought to him as a student, Socrates declared he was the swan from the dream. Plato was a wrestler, painter, and poet. He was about to compete in a tragedy competition at the Festival of Dionysus, but after hearing Socrates teach, he gathered his poems and burned them, saying: "Come hither, Hephaestus, Plato has need of thee." It was the 2nd year of the 93rd Olympiad (407 BC) when the twenty-year-old Plato began following Socrates.

After Socrates’s death, Plato traveled across Greece and abroad. Upon returning to Athens, he practiced philosophy at the Academy, a wooded gymnasium near the city named after the hero Hecademus.

His Teachings

Plato’s philosophy was a synthesis of the teachings of Heraclitus, Pythagoras, and Socrates:

  • The Perceptible: Influenced by Heraclitus.

  • The Intelligible: Influenced by Pythagoras.

  • Politics: Influenced by Socrates.

Plato purchased three Pythagorean books from Philolaus for one hundred minae (a massive sum). He was able to afford this because he had received over eighty talents from Dionysius of Syracuse (one talent equaled sixty minae).

Theory of Forms (Ideas): He argued that those seeking knowledge of the origin of the universe must first distinguish the Forms themselves. Because Memory exists, Forms must exist; Memory implies a stable and permanent object, and nothing material is more permanent than a Form. Living beings would not survive if they did not possess an innate perception of the Form of food (the constant) rather than just the specific food item (the variable).

The Soul: He taught that the soul is immortal and undergoes cycles (reincarnation). The soul has an arithmetic principle, while the body has a geometric one. The soul is self-moving and governs the body. He divided the soul into three parts:

  1. Logistikon (The Rational/Logical)

  2. Thymoeides (The Spirited/Emotional)

  3. Alogiston / Epithymetikon (The Irrational/Appetitive)

In the Timaeus [36d], he suggests the movement of the soul mirrors the movement of the universe and the orbits of the planets.

Travels

After the death of Socrates, he traveled to various locations, including Egypt. He visited Sicily three times:

  1. First Trip: He went to see the island and the craters of Mount Etna. Dionysius I (the Tyrant) invited him to discuss philosophy. Plato was biting in his criticism; Dionysius, offended, handed him over to Pollis of Sparta to be sold as a slave in Aegina. Because of a law in Aegina stating any Athenian landing there would be executed without trial, Plato’s life was at risk until he was identified as a philosopher. The assembly chose to sell him into slavery instead. Anniceris of Cyrene happened to be there and bought his freedom for twenty (or thirty) minae. When Plato returned to Athens, his friends tried to reimburse Anniceris, but he refused. That money was instead used to purchase the site of the Academy.

  2. Second Trip: Invited by Dionysius the Younger (366 BC) to help establish an ideal state. Dionysius failed to keep his promises. Plato was accused of conspiring with Dion and Theodotas to overthrow the Tyrant. He was saved only by the intervention of Archytas of Tarentum, head of the Pythagorean School, who wrote a letter ensuring Plato's safe return to Athens.

  3. Third Trip: He attempted to reconcile Dion and Dionysius but failed. He returned to Athens in 361 BC to focus on his school and writing.

Politics and Military

  • Politics: He never entered Athenian politics, despite a deep interest. He believed Athenians had become accustomed to flawed systems, whether Tyrannical or Democratic.

  • Military: He was a wrestler and served in three campaigns: Tanagra, Corinth, and Delium, where he received an award for bravery.

The End

In the 2nd year of the 108th Olympiad (347 BC), at eighty years old, Plato passed away, leaving behind a body of work that continues to illuminate human nature.

Works (Tetralogies according to Thrasyllus)

1st Tetralogy

  • Euthyphro or On Holiness

  • Apology of Socrates

  • Crito or On Duty

  • Phaedo or On the Soul

2nd Tetralogy

  • Cratylus or On the Correctness of Names

  • Theaetetus or On Knowledge

  • Sophist or On Being

  • Statesman or On Kingship

3rd Tetralogy

  • Parmenides or On Ideas

  • Philebus or On Pleasure

  • Symposium or On the Good

  • Phaedrus or On Love

4th Tetralogy

  • First Alcibiades or On Human Nature

  • Second Alcibiades or On Prayer

  • Hipparchus or The Profiteer

  • Lovers or On Philosophy

5th Tetralogy

  • Theages or On Philosophy

  • Charmides or On Temperance

  • Laches or On Courage

  • Lysis or On Friendship

6th Tetralogy

  • Euthydemus or The Disputatious

  • Protagoras or Sophists

  • Gorgias or On Rhetoric

  • Meno or On Virtue

7th Tetralogy

  • Greater Hippias or On the Beautiful

  • Lesser Hippias or On Falsehood

  • Ion or On the Iliad

  • Menexenus or The Funeral Oration

8th Tetralogy

  • Clitophon or The Exhortation

  • Republic or On Justice

  • Timaeus or On Nature

  • Critias or Atlantic

9th Tetralogy

  • Minos or On Law

  • Laws or On Legislation

  • Epinomis or The Night Council

  • Epistles (Letters)

Nikolaos Ch. Koundourakis | IDAION
Author