In this work, Associate Professor Andreas Panagopoulos demonstrates that Wilamowitz’s claim that “Plato scarcely knew more about Crete than the average person of his time” was mistaken. The 58 Platonic passages dealing with Cretan subjects, together with their analysis, show that Plato was very well acquainted with Dorian Crete—perhaps even through firsthand knowledge.
Here, Plato does not use history as an ancilla philosophiae (“handmaiden of philosophy”). Rather, as a mature lawgiver and social reformer, he demonstrates a thorough understanding of all three levels of the island’s reality and proposes institutions that continue to engage humanity—not only from a philosophical and historical perspective—even today. These three levels are: (a) the present (Dorian Crete), (b) the past (Minoan Crete), and (c) the future (the legislative framework for a new city-state).
The work was highly praised by both Greek and international scholars and critics, leading to an invitation for the author to serve as a reviewer for the international classical studies journal The Classical World.
