Hostname: page-component-89b8bd64d-sd5qd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-05-07T13:00:00.230Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Some Thoughts on ΔIKH

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

V. A. Rodgers
Affiliation:
Trinity College, Dublin

Extract

In a well-known passage of Plato's Protagoras the sophist of that name is made to suggest that what makes a society or community of human beings possible is their possession of δίκη and αίδώϧ, which are given to them by Zeus. But though all men have these qualities, they are not ‘natural’ in the way that ugliness or beauty of face is natural. They are acquired; and Protagoras gives a detailed description of how they are inculcated, first by parents, then by schoolmasters, and then by laws. The view that these qualities are peculiar to men was, of course, not a new one. Already in the Works and Days Hesiod writes,

And again the age of lawlessness and violence is described as

Information

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1971

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable