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Memorabilia (Xenophon)
 
 
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The Memorabilia are also known by the alternate Latin title Commentarii, the Greek title Apomnemoneumata (?p?΅??΅??e?΅ata, ?p?΅??΅??e?΅ata), and a variety of English translations (Recollections, Memoirs, etc.). The lengthiest and most famous of Xenophon
Xenophon

Xenophon , son of Gryllus, of the deme Erchia of Athens, also known as Xenophon of Athens and Xenophon of Thebes, was a soldier, mercenary and a contemporary and admirer of Socrates....
's Socratic writings, the Memorabilia is essentially an apologia (defense) of Socrates
Socrates

Socrates was a Classical Greece Philosophy. Credited as one of the founders of Western philosophy, he is an enigmatic figure known only through the classical accounts of his students....
, differing from both Xenophon's Apology and Plato
Plato

Plato , was a Classical Greece Greeks philosopher, mathematician, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Platonic Academy in Ancient Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the western world....
's Apology mainly in that the latter present Socrates' defense in what are purportedly his own words, whereas the former presents Xenophon's own defense of Socrates, offering edifying examples of Socrates' conversations and exploits along with commentary and explanation.






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The Memorabilia are also known by the alternate Latin title Commentarii, the Greek title Apomnemoneumata (?p?΅??΅??e?΅ata, ?p?΅??΅??e?΅ata), and a variety of English translations (Recollections, Memoirs, etc.). The lengthiest and most famous of Xenophon
Xenophon

Xenophon , son of Gryllus, of the deme Erchia of Athens, also known as Xenophon of Athens and Xenophon of Thebes, was a soldier, mercenary and a contemporary and admirer of Socrates....
's Socratic writings, the Memorabilia is essentially an apologia (defense) of Socrates
Socrates

Socrates was a Classical Greece Philosophy. Credited as one of the founders of Western philosophy, he is an enigmatic figure known only through the classical accounts of his students....
, differing from both Xenophon's Apology and Plato
Plato

Plato , was a Classical Greece Greeks philosopher, mathematician, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Platonic Academy in Ancient Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the western world....
's Apology mainly in that the latter present Socrates' defense in what are purportedly his own words, whereas the former presents Xenophon's own defense of Socrates, offering edifying examples of Socrates' conversations and exploits along with commentary and explanation. The Memorabilia was probably completed only after 371, as one passage (3.5) appears to assume the military situation after the Spartan defeat at the battle of Leuctra in that year.

The Memorabilia falls into two parts. The first presents a direct defense against the charges against Socrates (Book 1, chapters 1 and 2). In this section of the Memorabilia, Xenophon not only discusses matters immediately relevant to the formal charges against Socrates, which were broadly religious in nature, but also addresses the political charges against Socrates. These include the charge that Socrates corrupted the future Athenian statesmen and scoundrels Alcibiades and Critias and the charge that he led the youth to despise democracy. These charges are not directly addressed in the Apology of Plato (or Xenophon's own Apology). It has often been argued that Xenophon is here responding not to charges in the air at time of the trial of Socrates in 399, but to charges made some years later by the Athenian sophist Polycrates in his Accusation of Socrates. But Polycrates' work is lost, and our sources for reconstructing it are late and unreliable. The assumption that Xenophon was responding to Polycrates point by point may be driven as much by the traditional low esteem for Xenophon's literary powers as to any historical influence from Polycrates. The role of Polycrates is one item in the debate over whether Xenophon's treatment of Socrates reflects the historical Socrates, or is a largely fictional contribution to the literary debate about Socrates.

The rest of the work (chapters 3-8 of book 1, and all of books 2-4) consists of short episodes of Socrates conversing with friends, rival teachers, and notable Greeks, with a few narrative remarks on Socrates' teachings. This section of the Memorabilia is meant to showcase Socrates' usefullness to a wide range of interlocutors. Readers of Plato often find this part of the work commonplace, lacking in philosophical substance or literary charm. But Xenophon's goal was not to present Socrates as an original philosopher (or to attribute to him his own original philosophy, as Plato was eventually to do), but to show that Socrates was a successful, upright, and wise teacher.

Among the most philosophically important sections of the work are two chapters (1.4 and 4.3) which outline the first known example of the argument from design (a.k.a. the Teleological argument
Teleological argument

A teleological argument, or argument from design, is an argument for the existence of God or a creator based on perceived evidence of order, purpose, design, or direction ? or some combination of these ? in nature....
). A related chapter gives a rudimentary account of Natural law
Natural law

Natural law or the law of nature is a theory that posits the existence of a law whose content is set by nature and that therefore has validity everywhere....
 (4.4), though as it also contains considerable praise of positive law, its interpretation is contested. As neither intelligent design nor natural law is normally associated with the Socrates presented in Plato's early dialogues, there is considerable debate about whether or not the historical Socrates held these views. It is clear, however, that the Stoics
Stoicism

Stoicism was a school of Hellenistic philosophy founded in Athens by Zeno of Citium in the early third century B.C. The stoics considered passionate emotions to be the result of errors in judgment, and that a Sage , or person of "moral and intellectual perfection," would not have such emotions....
 made considerable use of Xenophon's version of the argument from design, and their account of natural law also owed something to Socrates, if not necessarily to Xenophon's Socrates.

Translations

  • Xenophon, Memorabilia, trans. Amy L. Bonnette, introd. by Christopher Bruell, Ithaca: Cornell University Press, The Agora Editions, 1994.
  • Xenophon, Conversations of Socrates, translated by Hugh Tredennick and Robin Waterfield, edited with new material by Robin Waterfield. Penguin, 1990. [Contains all the Socratic works. Less painstakingly literal than the Bonette/Bruell combo; includes full introductions sympathetic to Xenophon.]
  • Xenophon, Xenophon IV: Memorabilia, Oeconomicus, Symposium, Apology, trans. by E.C. Marchant, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, Loeb Classical Library
    Loeb Classical Library

    The Loeb Classical Library is a series of books, today published by the Harvard University Press, which presents important works of ancient Greek Literature and Latin Literature in a way designed to make the text accessible to the broadest possible audience, by presenting the original Greek or Latin text on each left-hand leaf, and a fairly...
    , 1923. [Includes ancient Greek text and English translation on facing pages.]


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