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Critias

Critias: Encyclopedia - Critias

Critias, 460-403 BC, was the uncle of Plato, leading member of the Thirty Tyrants, and one of the most violent. He was an associate of Socrates', a fact that did not endear Socrates to the Athenian public. He was noted in his day for his tragedies, elegies and prose works. From his Sisyphus a fragment has been preserved in which he declares faith in the gods to be merely a clever device for holding the masses in check; but as no one would dare to make such a statement before an Athenian audience, the pi ...

Critias

Critias: Encyclopedia - Critias

Critias

Critias is also a work by Plato, see Critias (dialogue).

Critias, 460-403 BC, was the uncle of Plato, leading member of the Thirty Tyrants, and one of the most violent. He was an associate of Socrates', a fact that did not endear Socrates to the Athenian public. He was noted in his day for his tragedies, elegies and prose works. From his Sisyphus a fragment has been preserved in which he declares faith in the gods to be merely a clever device for holding the masses in check; but as no one would dare to make such a statement before an Athenian audience, the piece was probably intended only for private reading — unless the quote was dialogue for the notoriously impious Sisyphus himself.

Critias appears as a character in Plato's dialogues Charmides, Protagoras, Timaeus, and Critias.

Categories: Ancient Athenians | Pederastic lovers