Suggested Topics

1. How bad--according to our authors and/or their characters--is death? Is there something worse (or possibly worse)? If so, what? Contrast the views expressed by different authors and/or characters (note: you cannot assume that authors agree with what their characters say!), and say something about the significance of the differences you find. Obvious examples: Achilles; Hector; Socrates in the Apology. (But there are other examples, and more than one answer for some on the list above.)

2. What--according to our authors and/or their characters--does it mean to benefit people? Is it the same as making them better? What makes something useful or profitable? Is it the same as what would make it beneficial? Conversely, what does it mean to harm people? Is it the same as corrupting them (making them worse)? Is wisdom (and/or knowledge and/or understanding) beneficial, useful, profitable (by these standards)? Could it be harmful? (Note: different characters and/or authors may disagree on the meaning of those terms, as well.) (Obviously you will want to discuss Plato's Socrates, but, as far as who else to talk about, there are many other possibilities. Don't forget that, in addition to characters from Plato and Aristophanes, you could use examples from the Iliad, e.g. Nestor, Poulydamas, Hector, Achilles.)

3. What--according to our authors and/or their characters--is the correct way of speaking before an audience? (Does is make a difference who you are and who is in the audience?) Is it important to tell them what they want to hear? What they need to hear? (``Need'' for what?) Is it good or bad to make them laugh? To make them cry? To insult them? To flatter them? Why? (What is the relationship between speaking well and speaking truly? Speaking justly?) What is the purpose of public speaking? What can go wrong with it? (In addition to Socrates, think of, for example, Nestor, Thersites, Ion, Euthyphro, and Aristophanes--including especially his portrayal of himself by means of the chorus.)

4. Do mortals--according to our authors and/or their characters--inflict suffering on themselves, or can this be blamed on the gods (and/or ``fate''), or neither or both? (Note: the question here is about responsibility, not about ``free will,'' though of course there might be some relationship between the two.) Similarly (but the answer might be different), are mortals responsible for (what seem to be) their positive achievements? Again, you can contrast the views expressed by different characters, but here you might want to give special weight to some authors' own views, insofar as one can deduce them from the plot. What do the different views imply about morality? Or: about religion? (Remember that the phrase ``divine lot'' or ``divine allotment,'' used by Socrates in the Ion and the Apology, could also be translated ``divine fate.'') (If you wrote about a topic similar to this for the first paper, you should explain how the new material has changed and/or confirmed your previous understanding.)

5. A different question which could be developed using mostly the same materials (but Aristophanes could play a bigger role): what--according to our authors and/or their characters--is the relationship between the gods--or belief in the gods--and justice? (What does ``belief in'' mean? Always the same thing? And ``justice''?) Again, what are the implications for morality and religion?

6. According to our authors and/or their characters, what obligations (if any) do children bear to parents and vice versa? (There may or may not be a difference between fathers and mothers or between sons and daughters.) What is the source of such obligations? (Are they similar to the obligation of paying off a debt, or of ``justice'' in general?) What, if anything, might cancel such obligations? Think of the Euthyphro; of several moments in the Apology; of Strepsiades and Pheidippides in the Clouds; also of numerous examples from the Iliad. (Note: both the Euthyphro and the Ion potentially raise issues about divine parents and/or children, as well as human ones.) (If you use Aristophanes, it is particularly important, and especially in this case, not just to take at face value what the characters say. What attitudes is Aristophanes parodying or commenting on, and what is he implying about them?)

7. How or to what extent does Plato, in his Apology and/or elsewhere, defend Socrates, and how or to what extent does he attack him? Similarly, how or to what extent does Aristophanes attack and defend Socrates? To what extent does he identify with Socrates, and what, if anything, does he show to be the difference between them? (Note: clearly the character of Socrates in the Clouds is meant as a parody, rather than a literal representation; you must try to figure out what kind of figure Aristophanes is parodying, i.e. what he thinks the real Socrates is like.) Do Plato and/or Plato's Socrates agree or disagree with Aristophanes on these points? (You may want to use the figures of Terrence and Phillip in the South Park movie as an analogy. But I strongly recommend making the paper mostly about Plato and Aristophanes; writing about the movie is likely to seem easy and therefore to lead to an uninteresting paper.)