Books

The Archaeology of the Soul: Platonic Readings of Ancient Poetry and Philosophy

– The Archaeology of the Soul: Platonic Readings of Ancient Poetry and Philosophy by Seth Benardete, edited by Ronna Burger and Michael Davis, South Bend: St. Augustine's Press 2012.
From the publisher: The Archaeology of the Soul is a testimony to the extraordinary scope of Seth Benardete’s thought. Some essays concern particular authors or texts; others range more broadly and are thematic. Some deal explicitly with philosophy; others… More

The Bow and the Lyre: A Platonic Reading of the Odyssey

– The Bow and the Lyre: A Platonic Reading of the Odyssey, Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 1997.
From the publisher: In this exciting interpretation of the Odyssey, the late renowned scholar Seth Benardete suggests that Homer may have been the first to philosophize in a Platonic sense. He argues that the Odyssey concerns precisely the relation between… More

Aristotle’s “On Poetics”

– Aristotle - On Poetics. A translation by Seth Benardete and Michael Davis. South Bend, IN: St. Augustine's Press, 2002.
The original, Aristotle’s short study of storytelling, written in the fourth century B.C., is the world’s first critical book about the laws of literature. Although the work is 2400 years old, Aristotle’s discussions—Unity of Plot,… More

Encounters and Reflections: Conversations with Seth Benardete

– Encounters and Reflections: Conversations with Seth Benardete. Edited by Ronna Burger. With Robert Burman, Ronna Burger, and Michael Davis. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2002.
From the publisher: By turns wickedly funny and profoundly illuminating, Encounters and Reflections presents a captivating and unconventional portrait of the life and works of Seth Benardete. One of the leading scholars of ancient thought, Benardete here… More

Plato’s Symposium

– Plato's Symposium. A translation by Seth Benardete with commentaries by Allan Bloom and Seth Benardete. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001.
From the publisher: Plato, Allan Bloom wrote, is “the most erotic of philosophers,” and his Symposium is one of the greatest works on the nature of love ever written. This new edition brings together the English translation of the renowned Plato… More

The Argument of the Action: Essays on Greek Poetry and Philosophy

– The Argument of the Action: Essays in Greek Poetry and Philosophy by Seth Benardete, edited by Ronna Burger and Michael Davis. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000.
From the publisher: This volume brings together Seth Benardete’s studies of Hesiod’s Theogony, Homer’s Iliad, and Greek tragedy, of eleven Platonic dialogues, and Aristotle’s Metaphysics. These essays, some never before… More

Plato’s Laws: The Discovery of Being

– Plato's Laws: The Discovery of Being. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000.
From the publisher: The Laws was Plato’s last work, his longest, and one of his most difficult. In contrast to the Republic, which presents an abstract ideal not intended for any actual community, the Laws seems to provide practical guidelines for… More

Sacred Transgressions: A Reading of Sophocles’ Antigone

– Sacred Transgressions: A Reading of Sophocles' Antigone. South Bend: St. Augustine's Press, 1999.
From the publisher: This detailed commentary on the action and argument of Sophocles’ Antigone is meant to be a reflection on and response to Hegel’s interpretation in thePhenomenology (VI.A.a–b), and includes, in addition, two appendixes dealing… More

The Tragedy and Comedy of Life: Plato’s Philebus

– The Tragedy and Comedy of Life: Plato's Philebus. Translation and commentary. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993.
From the publisher: In The Tragedy and Comedy of Life, Seth Benardete focuses on the idea of the good in what is widely regarded as one of Plato’s most challenging and complex dialogues, the Philebus. Traditionally the Philebus is interpreted as… More
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Essays

Horace C.I.xv

– "Horace C.I.xv." Manuscript, undated. In The Archaeology of the Soul, 2012.
Excerpt: Four poems of Horace’s first book seem to be so placed as to represent a proportion. The fifth and sixth seem to be in the same relation to one another as the fourteenth and fifteenth; and the fifth and fourteenth in turn seem to be as related… More

Aeneid

– "Aeneid." Manuscript, undated. In The Archaeology of the Soul, 2012.

On Reading Pindar Platonically

– "On Reading Pindar Platonically." Manuscript undated. In The Archaeology of the Soul, 2012.
Excerpt: At the beginning of the Phaedrus, Socrates, in order to hear about Lysias’ speech, has to accompany Phaedrus on his constitutional; and, in response to Phaedrus’ oblique question as to whether he has the leisure, he scrambles slightly… More

Aeschylus’ Agamemnon: The Education of the Chorus

– "Aechylus's Agamemnon: The Education of the Chorus." Manuscript, undated.  In The Archaeology of the Soul, 2012.
Excerpt: According to one interpretation of the Oresteia, the ground of Athenian democracy is the divine condonation of matricide; but a stricter interpretation would be that the Olympian gods allow the people to judge for themselves provided they… More

Freedom, Grace and Necessity

– "Freedom, Grace and Necessity." Freedom and the Human Person, edited by Richard Velkley. Studies in Philosophy and the History of Philosophy, Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 2007. Reprinted in The Archaeology of the Soul, 2012.
Excerpt: Before the start of the Isthmian games at Corinth in 196 B.C., a Roman herald proclaimed that with the conquest of philop of Macedon all the cities of Greece and Asia Minor were to be free, exempt from tribute, and under their own laws. The crowd was… More

The Plan of Odysseus and the Plot of the Philoctetes

– "The Plan of Odysseus and the Plot of Philoctetes," Epoche 7, no. 2 (Spring 2003): 133-150. Reprinted in The Archaeology of the Soul, 2012.
Excerpt: Odysseus is the Cinna of tragedy, with a “head to contrive, and a tongue to persuade, and a hand to execute any mischief” In Philoctetes Odysseus presents himself as being as resourceful as he is adaptable: he can become whomever he wants… More

Derrida and Plato

– "Derrida and Plato." Lecture delivered at NYU, in a series "Derrida and his Non-Contemporaries," October 19, 2000. In The Archaeology of the Soul, 2012.
Excerpt: The French for nothing rien comes from the Latin for thing rem; Derrida suggests that in thought the reverse is true. This is one of the very large claims Derrida makes, but the evidence he compiles for them is fragmentary, elusive, and… More

On Heraclitus

– "On Heraclitus." Review of Metaphysics 53, No. 3 (March 2000): 613-33.
Excerpt: Lucretius, after he has expounded that nothing comes out of nothing and nothing goes into nothing, and there are only bodies and void, turns to three pre-Socratics: Heraclitus, Empedocles, and Anaxagoras. He characterizes Heraclitus, clarus ob… More
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Multimedia

The Benardete Memorial Service

– N.Y.U. memorial service for Seth Benardete, Feb. 1, 2002. Copyright 2003 by The Benardete Archive Inc. [email protected] Speakers included Harvey Mansfield, Ronna Burger, Michael Davis, Victor Gourevitch, José Benardete, and others.
Memorial speeches in honor of Seth Benardete. Speakers included: Matthew S. Santirocco Dean of the College of Arts & Sciences Angelo J. Ranieri Director of Ancient Studies Professor of Classics, New York University Michèle Lowrie Associate Professor and… More

“Socrates and Plato: The Dialectics of Eros” (1999)

– Seth Benardete, "Socrates and Plato: The Dialectics of Eros," Munich, July 1, 1999.
The only known footage of Seth Benardete, this is a lecture filmed in Munich in 1999. Thanks to the Carl Friedrich von Siemens Foundation in Munich for its kind permission to use this video of the talk Benardete presented at the Foundation, July 1, 1999.