The library of Plato
Across 5 of Plato’s 36 works in the library, the harvest finds 83 named sources — 123 citations in all. The library holds 11 of them; the rest are the corpus’s wanted list. In the other direction, 38 works in the library quote Plato back — 205 citations.
most drawn on Homer · Aeschylus · Iliad · Hesiod · Aristophanes · Euripides · Pindar · Lycurgus · Odyssey · Sophocles
arrangedthe librarycited by
30 neutral 35 refuted 10 extended 6 endorsed Of the 123 citations Plato makes, 35 argue against the text cited.
the sources most drawn on
11 of 83-
Homer 4 neutral 5 refuted 1 extended 21 citations
- Republic
- book 1 · book 2 · book 3 · book 4 · book 5 · book 6 · book 7 · book 8 · and 1 more chapter
- 15 citations
- Symposium
- 3 citations
- Apology
- 2 citations
- Phaedo
- 1 citation
The gods themselves are moved by prayers, And men by sacrifice and soothing vows, And incense and libation turn their wills Praying, whenever they have sinned and made transgression.
Republic · book 2 · Cited as poetic authority for the claim that justice in a ruler brings prosperity ¶ -
Aeschylus 2 neutral 4 refuted 1 extended 7 citations
- Republic
- book 2 · book 8
- 5 citations
- Phaedo
- 1 citation
- Symposium
- 1 citation
and when we have set up an unjust man of this character, our theory must set the just man at his side—a simple and noble man, who, in the phrase of Aeschylus, does not wish to seem but be good.
Republic · book 2 · Invokes Aeschylus's phrase to characterize the just man ¶ -
Iliad Homer 2 neutral 1 refuted 1 extended 1 endorsed 5 citations
- Republic
- book 3
- 3 citations
- Crito
- 1 citation
- Symposium
- 1 citation
And again the trailings of Hector’s body round the grave of Patroclus and the slaughter of the living captives upon his pyre, all these we will affirm to be lies, nor will we suffer our youth to believe that Achilles, the son of a goddess and of Peleus the most chaste of men, grandson of Zeus, and himself bred under the care of the most sage Cheiron, was of so perturbed a spirit as to be affected …
Republic · book 3 · verses cited by name (Homer) and rejected as unfit for guardians to hear ¶ -
Hesiod 2 refuted 1 extended 7 citations
For, throwing in good standing with the gods, they have no lack of blessings to describe, which they affirm the gods give to pious men, even as the worthy Hesiod and Homer declare, the one that the gods make the oaks bear for the just:
Republic · book 2 · Cited as poetic authority for the claim that the gods reward just men materially ¶ -
Aristophanes 1 neutral 1 refuted 2 citations
For you yourselves saw these things in Aristophanes’ comedy, a Socrates being carried about there, proclaiming that he was treading on air and uttering a vast deal of other nonsense, about which I know nothing, either much or little.
apology · citation of the comedy as a source of false impressions which Socrates refutes ¶ -
Euripides 1 neutral 1 refuted 2 citations
- Symposium
- 1 citation
- Republic
- book 8
- 1 citation
The beginning of what I have to say is in the words of Euripides’ Melanippe, for not mine the tale that I intend to tell;
symposium · cited as the source of an opening formula borrowed by Eryximachus ¶ -
Pindar 1 neutral 1 refuted 1 endorsed 3 citations
For a beautiful saying it is, Socrates, of the poet that when a man lives out his days in justice and piety sweet companion with him, to cheer his heart and nurse his old age, accompanies Hope, who chiefly rules the changeful mind of mortals.
Republic · book 1 · Cited approvingly as support for Cephalus's view of a good conscience ¶ -
Lycurgus 1 citation
Or only look, she said, at the fine children whom Lycurgus left behind him in Lacedaemon to deliver his country and—I may almost say—the whole of Greece;
symposium · Lycurgus's laws are invoked as an authoritative example of spiritual begetting through lawgiving ¶ -
Odyssey Homer 1 citation
Do you suppose that, when he wrote those words, he thought of the soul as a harmony which would be led by the conditions of the body, and not rather as something fitted to lead and rule them, and itself a far more divine thing than a harmony?
phaedo · poetic authority invoked to support the claim that the soul rules the body rather than merely following it ¶ -
Sophocles 1 citation
But in fact I have ere now met with others who do not feel in this way, and in particular I remember hearing Sophocles the poet greeted by a fellow who asked, How about your service of Aphrodite, Sophocles—is your natural force still unabated?
Republic · book 1 · Invoked as an authoritative example supporting Cephalus's own view of old age ¶ -
Theogony Hesiod 1 citation
Hesiod says that Chaos came first into being— and thereafter rose Broad-breasted Earth, sure seat of all for aye, And Love.
symposium · cited as authoritative testimony for the antiquity and status of Love ¶
named once
72 sources · 4 worksEach of these stands at a single passage, named once and not held by the library. The work that names it carries the anchor.
- Apology
- Books of Anaxagoras · Charges of old accusers (informal, unwritten) · Delphic oracle's pronouncement · Sworn indictment of Meletus
- Phaedo
- Claim that the senses are inaccurate · Fables ¶ · Saying that all things are chaos · Teaching of the mysteries · Teaching on the prohibition of suicide · argument for the soul's harmony (as raised by Simmias) · popular belief about swan song · the initiates' teaching on the afterlife · the previous argument establishing the soul's pre-existence · unnamed book on nature · unspecified common doctrine on death (proverbial/folk belief) · unspecified skill or lore of Glaucus
- Symposium
- Philosophical-poetic account of divine origins (unspecified) · Rhetorical style/teaching (unspecified oratory) · a book praising the usefulness of Salt · eulogies of Hercules and other prose encomia · fragment on the bow and the lyre · laws of Solon ¶ · teaching of Diotima on Love · unspecified genealogical account · unspecified poem on Birth/origins · unspecified traditional story of the 'other half'
- Republic
- Counsel to pursue injustice · Cretan naming custom · Doctrine of Thrasymachus (Book I argument) · Elegy on the battle of Megara · Gnomic saying on wealth and virtue · Myth of the Lycaean Zeus shrine · Oracle concerning iron or brass guardians · Oracle delivered to Croesus · Orphic myth / Orphic tradition · Phoenician tale (traditional foundation myth type) · Retort to the man of Seriphus · Ritual books of Musaeus and Orpheus · Saying on old age and learning · Songs/books of Musaeus and his son · Sorrows of Niobe / tale of the Pelopidae / tale of Troy · The nuptial/geometrical number (doctrine attributed to the Muses) · Unnamed poem or saying on justice · Unnamed verse (the fox image) · Unnamed verses on the ease of vice · Unspecified Pythagorean doctrine on kinship of astronomy and harmonics · Unspecified tragic poetry · a play about Palamedes (unnamed) · account of the Trojan War / palinode · doctrine on ruling subjects for their own harm · epic poetry generally (unspecified poems by Hesiod and Homer) · epic poetry of Homer and Hesiod · musical theory doctrine · oracular interpretation · proverb of the necessity of Diomede · proverb on the difficulty of fine things · saying about divine exception to human rules · saying on Heraclitus's sun · the Delphic oracle ¶ · the earlier proposition on injustice's profitability · traditional poetic taunts against philosophy · traditional tale told to Alcinous · tragedy depicting Proteus and Thetis / Hera disguised as a priestess · unnamed formula of justice as the advantage of the stronger · unnamed poem on new songs · unspecified ancient fables · unspecified doctrine/way of life · unspecified epigram on wise men and the doors of the rich · unspecified poem on divine shape-shifting (gods in the likeness of strangers) · unspecified poetic tradition (mythic tales of heroes as sons of gods) · unspecified poetic/philosophical saying · unwritten law of homicide release
cited by
205 citations · from 38 works38 works in the library quote Plato — 205 citations, each anchored to a verbatim passage in the work that does the quoting.
through Plato 115 citations · Laws 26 citations · Timaeus 11 citations · Republic 10 citations · Phaedo 9 citations · Phaedrus 6 citations · Theaetetus 5 citations · Cratylus 3 citations · Statesman 3 citations · Gorgias 3 citations · Sophist 2 citations · Meno 2 citations · Apology 1 citation · Crito 1 citation · Symposium 1 citation · Theages 1 citation · Charmides 1 citation · Lysis 1 citation · Euthydemus 1 citation · Protagoras 1 citation · Menexenus 1 citation · Epinomis 1 citation
by the citing author
The harvest records where a citation is made: the paragraph in the citing book, and the chapter that paragraph stands in. It does not record which page of Plato is meant. Where the citing text names a locus, you will find it in the quotation.
-
Stromata Clement of Alexandria 18 neutral 24 extended 2 endorsed 82 citations · 95 passages
book 1 19 passages anchored here · book 2 12 passages anchored here · book 3 6 passages anchored here · book 4 9 passages anchored here · book 5 38 passages anchored here · book 6 6 passages anchored here · book 7 4 passages anchored here · book 8Plato is cited by name for having called sophistic a 'base art', used to ground the passage's condemnation of sophistry.
Plato outright called sophistic a "base art," and Aristotle, following him, declares it a kind of thievery, inasmuch as it plausibly filches the whole work of wisdom and professes a wisdom it has not practised.
book 1 ¶ -
Tusculan Disputations Cicero, Marcus Tullius 2 extended 2 endorsed 14 citations · 20 passages
Plato's soul theory is repeatedly treated as the highest authority, with the speaker recommending his book as needing no supplement.
His teacher Plato fashioned a threefold soul, whose sovereign part — that is, reason — he placed in the head as in a citadel;
book 1 ¶ -
The Rights of War and Peace Hugo Grotius 1 neutral 1 extended 1 endorsed 14 citations · 20 passages
general preface · ch. 9 · ch. 10 · ch. 11 3 passages anchored here · ch. 12 · ch. 15 2 passages anchored here · chapter xx.: on punishments. 3 passages anchored here · ch. 30and 4 more chapters
The passage explicitly endorses Plato's dialogues as enduringly valuable.
Plato’s “Republic” and “Statesman” must be regarded to-day not merely as historical records of a by-gone philosophy, but as living, teaching dissertations upon theories which cannot fail to awaken in studious minds the highest ideals of life and government.
general preface ¶ -
De Anima Tertullian 3 neutral 10 refuted 1 endorsed 14 citations · 15 passages
Plato's teachings on the soul's unbegotten nature and shapelessness are explicitly cited and systematically refuted.
Plato is unwilling, as if the immortality of the soul were thereby endangered.
de anima ¶ -
On Moral Ends Cicero, Marcus Tullius 1 neutral 1 refuted 1 extended 1 endorsed 8 citations
Explicitly named as the subject matter Cicero proposes to expound in Latin.
And shall it not, then, be permitted to set forth in Latin the discussions of Plato upon living well and happily?
book 1 ¶ -
On the Commonwealth Cicero, Marcus Tullius 3 neutral 1 extended 5 citations · 12 passages
Plato's books are explicitly named as the authoritative source on Socrates' teaching and method.
For what fuller authority can we cite concerning him than Plato?
book 1 ¶ -
Meditations Marcus Aurelius 1 refuted 1 endorsed 5 citations · 7 passages
Explicitly introduced with 'From Plato' followed by a quoted question-and-answer exchange
"Do you suppose that to a mind possessed of greatness and the contemplation of all time and of all substance, human life can seem any great thing?
book seven ¶ -
Letters to Lucilius Seneca, Lucius Annaeus 2 neutral 2 extended 5 citations · 24 passages
letter 24 · letter 44 · letter 58 15 passages anchored here · letter 65 6 passages anchored here · letter 94Explicitly mentioned as the book Cato reads, though not quoted or argued with directly.
" Why should I not tell of him, reading on that last night Plato's book with a sword laid at his head?
letter 24 ¶ -
Nicomachean Ethics Aristotle 1 neutral 1 refuted 1 extended 4 citations · 19 passages
The passage explicitly names 'the authors of the Theory of Ideas' and 'the Ideal Good' and systematically refutes the doctrine while noting the difficulty of doing so given friendship for its authors.
But perhaps it is desirable that we should examine the notion of a Universal Good, and review the difficulties that it involves, although such an inquiry goes against the grain because of our friendship for the authors of the Theory of Ideas.
book 1 ¶ -
Lucullus Cicero, Marcus Tullius 3 neutral 4 citations
Plato's writings are explicitly invoked as evidence of his genuine philosophical commitment.
What shall I say of Plato, who certainly would not have pursued these matters in so many books had he not approved them?
book 1 ¶ -
On the Nature of the Gods Cicero, Marcus Tullius 2 refuted 4 citations · 6 passages
Plato is explicitly named ('let us hear Plato, as a kind of god of philosophers') and his doctrine is used as authoritative support.
who holds that there are two motions, one a thing's own, the other from without, and that what is moved of itself by its own accord is more divine than what is stirred by an alien impulse.
book 2 ¶ -
Apologeticum Tertullian 2 neutral 1 refuted 4 citations · 7 passages
Named alongside Pythagoras as holding an opposing cosmological doctrine.
For this whole body of the world — whether unborn and unmade, as Pythagoras holds, or born and made, as Plato holds — once for all, in its construction, was found ordered and equipped and arranged with every governance of reason.
apologeticum ¶ -
Letters Basil of Caesarea 2 neutral 1 extended 3 citations · 5 passages
Plato's works are cited as a point of literary comparison, not endorsed or refuted doctrinally.
For your shrewdness has surely perceived this, that even among the philosophers outside the faith, those who composed dialogues — Aristotle and Theophrastus — laid hold at once of the matters themselves, because they were conscious of their own lack of Platonic graces.
letter 135 ¶ -
The Freedom of the Seas (Mare Liberum) Hugo Grotius 1 neutral 3 citations · 5 passages
Plato is explicitly named as agreeing on the priority of mercantile trade.
illegible character] quae ut vox ipsa indicat inter gentes dissitas, ordine naturae prior est, et sic a Platone ponitur.
ch. 12 ¶ -
On Anger Seneca, Lucius Annaeus 3 citations
Seneca explicitly states he will use Plato's argument because it supports his own case, invoking it as legitimating authority.
I will bring forward also the argument of Plato—for what harm is there in using what belongs to others in the part where it is ours?
book 1 ¶ -
Adversus Marcionem Tertullian 3 citations
The law's commands to love and fear God are invoked as authoritative definitions applied respectively to the obedient and the transgressor.
So in the rest too you reproach Him with contrarieties of precepts, as fickle and unstable, forbidding work on the sabbath and commanding the ark to be carried round for eight days, that is, even on the sabbath, in the storming of the city of Jericho.
book 2 ¶ -
De legendis gentilium libris Basil of Caesarea 2 citations
Plato is named directly as source for the teaching on subordinating bodily service to philosophy.
or else we must cling to it only so far—as Plato says—as we win from it a service for philosophy, speaking somewhat like Paul, who exhorts that we should take no forethought for the body unto the occasion of lusts.
de legendis gentilium libris ¶ -
Academica Cicero, Marcus Tullius 1 endorsed 2 citations
Plato's books are explicitly cited as the source through which Socrates' teaching can be understood.
And since he said this consistently and remained in this opinion, his whole discourse was spent only in praising virtue and in exhorting men to the pursuit of virtue, as can be understood from the books of the Socratics and chiefly of Plato.
book 1 ¶ -
Orations Dio Chrysostom 1 refuted 1 endorsed 2 citations
Plato's observation is explicitly endorsed as correct ('very rightly noted') regarding Homeric practice.
"He never represented them as tasting fish, and that though they were encamped beside the sea—calling the Hellespont, as it is, 'rich in fish' on each occasion;
oration 2 ¶ -
Institutes of Roman Law Gaius 2 neutral 2 citations
Explicitly cited by title and section ('Plato. Leges, 12, 7').
The search with a platter and girdle was probably a custom derived from Greece, for a similar formality is described by Plato.
consensv obligationes. (2) ¶ -
Kitāb al-Zawrāʼ wa-al-taʻlīqāt ʻalayhi Jalāl al-Dīn al-Dawwānī 2 endorsed 2 citations
Quoted approvingly as a rule of conduct for the seeker who is denied his worth.
and be as Plato (*Aflāṭūn*) said:
ch. 2 ¶ -
Risālat baqāʼ al-nafs baʻda fanāʼ al-jasad Naṣīr al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī 2 neutral 2 citations · 5 passages
Plato's madhhab is named and summarised as a doctrine, and later invoked as the authority the Islamic philosophers follow on matter.
Plato (1) built the foundation of his doctrine on the coming-to-be of the world upon the eternity (*azalīyah*) of an original matter, which he expresses as the unformed element, or first prime matter (*hayūlā*) (2):
ch. 2 ¶ -
On the Happy Life Seneca, Lucius Annaeus 1 neutral 2 citations
Plato is directly named as an authority figure subject to the same standing accusation, used to legitimize Seneca's own position.
" This charge, you most malignant of creatures, you bitter enemies of every best man, was brought against Plato, brought against Epicurus, brought against Zeno;
on the happy life ¶ -
Ad Nationes Tertullian 1 neutral 2 citations · 4 passages
Plato is named directly as the recorder of the sunken continent, used as evidence in the argument.
Where then were the Christians, when the islands of Hiera, Anaphe and Delos and Rhodos and Cea went to the bottom with many thousands of men — or that one, greater than Asia or Africa, which Plato records as sunk in the Atlantic sea?
book 1 ¶ -
Adab al-wazīr al-Māwardī 1 endorsed 1 citation
The maxim is expressly attributed to Plato by name and adduced in support of the rule.
The first discipline of the vizier is that he consider closely the king's character and his dealing:
ch. 2 ¶ -
Timaeus Cicero, Marcus Tullius 1 extended 1 citation · 50 passages
The work itself is titled Timaeus and is Cicero's Latin version/adaptation of Plato's dialogue of that name, developing its cosmological argument at length.
Wherefore, if perchance, in discoursing of the nature of the gods and the origin of the universe, we fall short of what our minds long for — that the whole discourse should hold together, lucid and plainly adorned, and agree with itself in every part — it will be no wonder at all;
timaeus ¶ -
Against Stephanus I Demosthenes 1 citation · 2 passages
The laws are explicitly invoked as authoritative norms.
for I am well aware that for you who are citizens by birth it is sufficient to perform public services as the laws require;
against stephanus i ¶ -
Apollodorus Against Callippus Demosthenes 1 citation · 3 passages
The law is explicitly invoked and read to authorize the oath procedure.
And that I was ready on my father’s behalf to take the oath which the law prescribes when an heir is sued in court on a charge brought against one who is dead,— that, namely, I believed that my father never agreed to pay the plaintiff the money which Lycon left, and that the plaintiff was not introduced to my father by Lycon;
ch. 1 ¶ -
Letters Demosthenes 1 citation
Demosthenes explicitly invokes Plato's school as an authoritative guarantee of Heracleodorus's honest and just character.
I was convinced that I spoke the truth, not because I possessed confirmation from having associated with you, but because I observed that, while gaining some renown, you were also glad to have an education, and that too in the school of Plato, the one that really has nothing to do with getting the better of people and the quackeries that concern themselves with this, but has been demonstrated to a …
letters ¶ -
Dissertations on Early Law and Custom Henry Sumner Maine 1 citation
Explicitly cited by title and passage reference as an early authority for the theory.
Plato (‘Laws,’ iii.
ch. 8 ¶ -
Lectures on the Early History of Institutions Henry Sumner Maine 1 neutral 1 citation
Identified as containing a parallel institution, reported neutrally.
Poste for the observation that the ideal institutions of Plato’s Laws include something strongly resembling the Roman Pignoris Capio;
ch. 10 ¶ -
Consolation to Marcia Seneca, Lucius Annaeus 1 citation
The passage explicitly names Plato and attributes to him a specific teaching ('Plato cries that...') used to support the argument, treating him as an authoritative source.
Hence it is that Plato cries that the wise man's soul leans wholly toward death, wills this, meditates this, and is ever borne by this desire as it stretches toward the things outside.
consolation to marcia ¶ -
On Benefits Seneca, Lucius Annaeus 1 citation
Plato is explicitly named as the source of the cited maxim about the difficulty of human conjecture
To wait is long (for, as Plato says, the conjecture of the human mind is difficult), not to wait is rash.
book 4 ¶ -
On Tranquillity of Mind Seneca, Lucius Annaeus 1 citation
The passage cites Plato's saying as authority for the idea that sober possession of one's senses cannot achieve poetic greatness.
For whether we believe the Greek poet that 'sometimes it is pleasant even to be mad,' or Plato that 'the man in possession of his senses has knocked in vain at the doors of poetry,' or Aristotle that 'no great genius has ever existed without a mixture of madness':
on tranquillity of mind ¶ -
De Carnis Resurrectione Tertullian 1 citation
Plato is directly cited as authority for the natural knowledge that the soul is immortal.
I will therefore use even the verdict of some Plato pronouncing, "Every soul is immortal";
de carnis resurrectione ¶ -
De Pallio Tertullian 1 extended 1 citation
Explicitly named and its reasoning followed through: 'if anyone follows the estimate of Plato...that other world too must needs change likewise.'
But even if anyone follows the estimate of Plato — Plato, of whom this world is the image — that other world too must needs change likewise.
de pallio ¶ -
De Testimonio Animae Tertullian 1 extended 1 citation
The 'Platonic' doctrine is explicitly named and positioned as a partial anticipation that Christian doctrine surpasses.
though fuller than the Platonic, which restores to you even the dower of a body;
de testimonio animae ¶ -
Cyropaedia Xenophon 1 citation
The laws are cited as an authoritative force shaping citizens' justice.
At any rate, fathers develop self-control in their sons by making them weep, and teachers impress good lessons upon their pupils in the same way, and the laws, too, turn the citizens to justice by making them weep.
book 2 ¶