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a less successful interpretation of the subject painted his entire energies to philosophy and scholarship.
in Rome in 1782 (Private Collection, France) or Believing that argument was superior to writing he
maybe the preparatory drawings for it (Fig. 2 Berlin spent the greater part of his mature life in the mar-
art market 2009). Peyron is believed to have derived ketplaces and agora of Athens, engaging in dialogue
his composition from a passage in Plutarch’s Life of and argument with anyone who would listen or who
Alcibiades (VIII, 3.): ‘Hipparete was a virtuous and would submit to interrogation. He was reportedly
dutiful wife [to Alcibiades], but, at last, growing short and physically unattractive, but strong, pos-
impatient of the outrages done to her by her hus- sessing remarkable self-control and his zest for life;
band’s continual entertaining of courtesans, as well keen wit and generosity of spirit made him a popu-
strangers as Athenians, she departed from him and lar figure. Active in political circles, Socrates’ great-
retired to her brother’s house. Alcibiades seemed not est efforts went into teaching Athens’s young men to
at all concerned at this, and lived on still in the same think, which in his terms meant using discussion to
luxury.’ examine supposed truths. He recognized the neces-
sities of politics, but above all, believed in the con-
Alcibiades (c.450-404 BC) was one of ancient cept of ‘truth’ and spent a lifetime in its pursuit. For
Greece’s most adventurous and controversial per- this reason, his contribution to philosophy was
sonalities. He was the favourite disciple of Socrates, essentially ethical in character. The basis of his
and is one of the characters in Plato’s Symposium, teachings rested on an objective understanding of
where he is described as blessed by fortune, leading abstract concepts: justice, love, and virtue, and self-
a privileged life in Athens. He was, by most knowledge. He believed that all vice was the result
accounts, extremely good-looking, very wealthy and of ignorance and that no person was readily ‘bad’;
a bon vivant, and as such became subject to gossip correspondingly, virtue, in his mind, was knowledge
and equal parts admiration and opprobrium. He and those who knew ‘right’ would act ‘rightly’.
became a student of Socrates in his youth and they
were rumoured to even be lovers, but Alcibiades Courtesans, or hetairai were much more than mere
reputedly slept with women as well, and like most prostitutes and are better compared with the grandes
Athenian men of his day, including Socrates, he reg- horizontales of the 19th century. According to
ularly frequented courtesans. ancient literary sources and scenes from vase paint-
ings, hetairai were not only intelligent, but more
The father of modern thought, Socrates (469-399 BC) unusually for a woman, educated. In his
was the primary catalyst for Western philosophy, his Deipnosophistae, Athenaeus explained that hetairai
ideas recorded and promulgated by his pupil Plato. were trained in the art of conversation, musical
Born in Athens, the son of a sculptor and a midwife, entertainment including singing, dancing and play-
Socrates received the elementary Athenian educa- ing instruments. They cultivated whatever beauty
tion, including literature, music and athletics. Later, they possessed and were well-dressed.They had few
he familiarized himself with the rhetoric and dialec- restrictions on their lives, an existence that con-
tics of the Sophists, the speculations of the Ionian trasted sharply with the oppressive lives of married
philosophers and the general culture of Periclean women in Athens. They did not however, enjoy
Athens. After brief periods spent as a sculptor and a financial security or any legal or family protection.
soldier in the Peloponnesian War, Socrates turned As the paid escorts of aristocratic men hetairai
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