Reading the Republic is easier said (or should I say "posted") than done. But I finally succeeded in getting through Book I, about 1/3 of Waterfield's Introductino, and also Julia Annas Introduction - and I have started on her first chapter, which is predictably devoted to Book I.

And I have already decided to abandon Waterfield's translation. For three reasons: (1) he insists on praising Socrates' ethical point of view by claiming that it "anticipates" Christianity. I don't know whether this is anachronistic, ethnocentric, or what it is other than just plain wrong-headed. As Annas argues very convincingly in her introduction, Plato was embracing traditional Greek religious and ethical values, not "anticipating Christiantiy". Plato saw one of his primary jobs as that of anwering cynical relativism with a rational justification of more or less traditional values. Obviously Waterfield does not wish to admit that such concepts as refraining from doing harm to one's enemies can be reconciled with "Pagan" traditional values - but in this he appears to disagree with Plato.

(2) Waterfield insists on translating "dikaiosune" as "morality" rather than "justice". I read his arguments for this, and then I read Julia Annas arguments for the more traditional translation ("justice") and then I read Waterfield' translation of Book I - and I just decided he's wrong. As he himself points out, the Greeks had no word for "morallity" - they had virtue, ethics, piety, justice - but not a separate word corresponding to "morality". My conclusion was that Waterfield was trying to say that Plato was promoting a whole new kind of virture - rather than providing a rational articulation of traditional virtures.

(3) When I started to cast about for another translation (already having used Cornford the first time around) I quickly settled on R.E. Allen's. It would be hard for me to say exactly why I chose - but now that I have started to read Allen's I'm glad I did. So far I have only read his "preface" and the first couple pages of his Introduction (in which he highly praises Cornford!) - and I am really falling in love with it.

So now I will read Allens little introduction, read Book I again, and finish Annas' chapter on Book I. This could take a while!!!!!!

And thank you Palma for your interesting and amusing post! Is the podcast available for others to download? I have CD's of both the Odyssey and the Iliad and I love to listen to them!