Damascius: Commentary on Plato's Phaedo

Edited and translated by L.G. Westerink.

This is the second volume of L.G. Westerink's fine text and parallel translation of the surviving Greek Commentaries on Plato's Phaedo. It contains the all of the surviving material from two commentaries of Damascius. The first of these covers the Phaedo from 61c to its conclusion, the second from 69e again to its conclusion.

Damascius, as the last head of the Athenian Academy and a philosopher of great penetration, displays the profundity of the Platonic tradition after many centuries of continuous development.

Both volumes have excellent introductions, extensive notes, and indices: together they give an insight into the final phase of the Platonic tradition before its disruption by the closure (by imperial edict) of the pagan Academies of Athens and Alexandria.

This is a new edition, which incorporates the amendments noted by Prof. Westerink in the margin of his own working copy, after its first publication.

416 pages. Hardcover.