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Science

Plato's Final Hours Recounted In Scroll Found In Vesuvius Ash (theguardian.com) 153

An anonymous reader shared this report from the Guardian: Newly deciphered passages from a papyrus scroll that was buried beneath layers of volcanic ash after the AD79 eruption of Mount Vesuvius may have shed light on the final hours of Plato, a key figure in the history of western philosophy. In a groundbreaking discovery, the ancient scroll was found to contain a previously unknown narrative detailing how the Greek philosopher spent his last evening, describing how he listened to music played on a flute by a Thracian slave girl. Despite battling a fever and being on the brink of death, Plato — who was known as a disciple of Socrates and a mentor to Aristotle, and who died in Athens around 348BC — retained enough lucidity to critique the musician for her lack of rhythm, the account suggests....

In a presentation of the research findings at the National Library of Naples, Prof Graziano Ranocchia, of the University of Pisa, who spearheaded the team responsible for unearthing the carbonised scroll, described the discovery as an "extraordinary outcome that enriches our understanding of ancient history". He said: "Thanks to the most advanced imaging diagnostic techniques, we are finally able to read and decipher new sections of texts that previously seemed inaccessible... For the first time, we have been able to read sequences of hidden letters from the papyri that were enfolded within multiple layers, stuck to each other over the centuries, through an unrolling process using a mechanical technique that disrupted whole fragments of text."

Plato's Final Hours Recounted In Scroll Found In Vesuvius Ash

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  • by Opyros ( 1153335 ) on Sunday May 05, 2024 @12:07PM (#64449410) Journal
    Of course, there's no telling whether or not the account is accurate. This article [talesoftim...gotten.com] argues among other things that it has the earmarks of an apocryphal anecdote.
    • by g01d4 ( 888748 )

      apocryphal anecdote

      The question scholars sometimes pose in these instances is if you're going to relate such an anecdote why would this be it, i.e. the less flattering the anecdote for a famous person, the more likely it is to be true.

  • Hell of a legacy there. Of course that account is probably like the bible. It contains the opinions and alterations by every person who transcribed it in the time between 79CE and 348BC. No way to ever know what really happened.
    • You do realize that there are lots of Biblical (New Testament) texts between those years, right? Mostly fragmentary, but not differing substantially from later complete texts.

  • by frdmfghtr ( 603968 ) on Sunday May 05, 2024 @02:31PM (#64449708)

    While most of the commentary has centered on applying today's standards of morality to a culture from 2000 years ago, how about we take on for a moment the technological advances and skills needed to recover writing from a scroll over two millennia old and buried by a volcanic eruption?

    There is no morality about it, no "woke" aspect of it...it's just plain amazing that we have the skills and technology today to do this. We can get insights into our past from ancient relics that should otherwise have been destroyed and lost to time thousands of years ago, but by a remarkable set of events we are recovering their contents today.

    Try wrapping your head around THAT for a minute.

    • Becomes possible! And all I hear is "Plato sure was an ass." or "People writing about Plato sure thought he was an ass."
      Guess what kids, revel in the luxury of knowing that Plato was an asshole. Your comic book back-page purchase has finally arrived.
  • Plato — who was known as a disciple of Socrates and a mentor to Aristotle,

    Heh. Anytime I hear discussions of these guys I can't help but think about Chidi's Ethics Lesson [youtube.com] in S1E3 of The Good Place [wikipedia.org]:

    Chidi: So Aristotle was Plato's student. And Aristotle believes that your character is voluntary, because it's just the result of your actions, which are under your control. For example, right now, you have made the insane choice to ignore the person who is literally trying to save you from eternal damnation.

    Eleanor: No, yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm listening. Uh, I just... are we sure we should be paying attention to these guys? It's like, who died and left Aristotle in charge of ethics?

    Chidi: [points to blackboard] Plato!

    • And Plato in turn was Socrates pupil.

      A scroll of Socrates' last minutes might reveal his last words to have been, "Say, just what kind of tea did you say this was?" :)

      hawk

      • And Plato in turn was Socrates pupil.
        A scroll of Socrates' last minutes might reveal his last words to have been, "Say, just what kind of tea did you say this was?" :)

        From the movie Real Genius [wikipedia.org]:

        Chris Knight: I was thinking of the immortal words of Socrates, who said, "... I drank what?"

  • Clearly fiction (Score:2, Insightful)

    by argStyopa ( 232550 )

    Thracian slave girl? Thrace is in Greece, ergo she was probably white.

    Black Lives Matter insists that America invented and perfected slavery AND that only blacks have ever been slaves, therefore this must be a fictional account.

    • Black Lives Matter insists that America invented and perfected slavery

      No they don't. They just insist that Americans invented and perfected black slavery in America. Why do they not acknowledge European slavery? To answer that ask yourself why would BLM give a flying fuck about what happened in Greece 2000 years ago which is completely and utterly irrelevant to slavery in America?

  • My last hour I listened to some music in the the Castle of Aaaaarrrrrrggghhh!

People who go to conferences are the ones who shouldn't.

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