The Trials of Socrates: Six Classic Texts ed. by C.D.C. Reeve (review)

BOOK REVIEWS/COMPTES RENDUS 81 C.D.C. REEVE, ed. The Trials of Socrates: Six Classic Texts. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing, 2002. Pp. X + 186. ISBN 087220 -589-4 (pb), 0-87220-590-8 (hb). Nowhere in The Trials of Socrates (Euthyphro, Apology, Crito and Phaedo I IsbI-I I8aI7) does Reeve claim either a real need for new translations of the Platonic texts or that his translations are really new-he readily acknowledges their "huge debt" to the translations of David Gallop and G.M.A. Grube ("Acknowledgments," vD. Set side by side, the three sets of translations by Grube, Gallop and Reeve do not differ a great deal; however, there is a distinct character to each. Grube is increasingly dated by his use of Burnet's text and his own reserved idiom; Gallop's philosophical interest occasions interpretive renderings; Reeve usually attempts the most precise rendering, in the most contemporary (American) idiom. Make it a chariot race and we have Gallop overtaking Grube at the wire, with Reeve winning by a nose. The lucidity of Reeve's contemporary idiom is evident at Phaedo 1I6e4-5: Kat CVYYEVOIlEVOVC y' EVIOVC WV 8v TUXWC1V ETII8vIlOVVTEC, "and some of them enjoy intimacy with their loved ones" (Grube); "and even in some cases enjoying themselves with those they fancied" (Gallop ); "and even, in some cases, by having sex with whomever they happen to desire" (Reeve). The (misleading) domesticity of Grube's translation suggests embarrassment at the sexual implications of Plato's Greek: Gallop fares better, but the text is most faithfully rendered by Reeve. Cri. 48a6-7 6 ETIalwv TIEpt TWV OIKaiwv Kat aoiKwv, 6 ETc Kat aUTIl n aAn8Ela is a good example of where a literal Reeve is preferable to an interpretive Gallop: "what the expert on matters of justice and injustice will say, the individual authority or Truth" (Gallop); "what the person who understands just and unjust things will say, the one man and the truth itself" (Reeve). Compared with Grube's "what he will say who understands justice and injustice. the one, that is, and the truth itself," Reeve's concrete "one man," which preserves the masculine gender of 6 ETc, improves on Grube's abstract "the one," which misleadingly suggests TO EV, the principle of the later dialogues. There are exceptions to this general pattern. Nearly the reverse occurs at Phd. IIses-6 TO JJIl KaAWc AEYE1V OU 1l0VOV Eic aUTO TOVTO TIA'lIlIlEAEC, aAAa Kat KaKOV Tl EilTI01El Talc ,+,vXalc, "to express oneself badly is not only faulty as far as language goes, but does harm to the soul" (Grube, emphasis added); "that misuse of words is not only troublesome in itself, but actually has a bad effect on the soul" (Gallop, emphasis added); "that false speaking is not only an error in its own terms, but also does something bad to men's souls" (Reeve, emphasis added). In Grube's more literal translation, Socrates criticises one's manner of 82 BOOK REVIEWS/COMPTES RENDUS speaking (which seems inconsistent with his characteristic censure of rhetoric) and argues incoherently that it can harm the soul. If it is not (literally) the manner of speaking that Socrates means, perhaps he is referring more generally to the abuse of language, as in Gallop's interpretive "misuse of words." Uncharacteristically, Reeve takes the further interpretive step (away from Plato's text) to render Hfalse speaking "-erossing the line between what Socrates may have meant by what he said. and what he should have said if that was what he meant (lln aATl8we, or simply ~evowe). Reeve's error arises from attempting to say exactly what Socrates means by "not speaking well" in this context. Grube at least give his (Greekless undergraduate) reader approximately what Socrates said, and the opportunity to figure out for herself what Socrates meant. Reeve (although he neglects to provide a textual note) and Gallop share the advantage of having Nicoll's 1995 revision of Burnet's 1924 text. In the case of the Apology, they rely on the de Strycker and Slings 1994 commentary to improve on Grube's use of (mainly) Burnet's 1924 commentary. Minor improvements can be found at: 17a6 xpfiv, reading xpn; r8d1...