Critias

Critias, c.460-403 B.C., Athenian political leader and writer. A relative of Plato, he was an aristocrat and had early training in philosophy with Socrates and wrote poems and tragedies. He is best remembered, however, as one of the Thirty Tyrants imposed on Athens by the Spartans. He was soon at odds with Theramenes, who was put to death. Critias earned a name for rapacity and bloodthirstiness, although Plato seems to have admired him, using him as a speaker in the dialogues Protagoras, Timaeus, and Critias. When Thrasybulus led his forces against the Thirty, Critias was killed in battle.

Critias is also a work by Plato, see Critias (dialogue).

Critias (Greek Κριτίας, 460-403 BC), born in Athens, son of Callaeschrus, was an uncle of Plato, and a leading member of the Thirty Tyrants, and one of the most violent. He was an associate of Socrates, a fact that did not endear Socrates to the Athenian public. He was noted in his day for his tragedies, elegies and prose works. Some, like Sextus Empiricus, believe that Critias authored the Sisyphus fragment; others, however, attribute it to Euripides.

Critias appears as a character in Plato's dialogues Charmides and Protagoras, and according to Diogenes Laërtius, he was Plato's great-uncle (Diogenes Laërtius, Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers, III:1). The Critias character in Plato's dialogues Timaeus and Critias is often identified as the son of Callaeschrus - but not by Plato; and given the old age of the Critias in these two dialogues, he may be the grandfather of the son of Callaeschrus.

Critias was a very dark person in Athenian history. After the fall of Athens to the Spartans, he blacklisted many of its citizens as a leading member of the Thirty Tyrants. Most of his prisoners were executed and their wealth was confiscated. He proved to be a tormented personality, displaying many complexes and much hatred (in contrast to the Platonic figure described as the student of Socrates).

References

• Davies, J. K. (1971). Athenian propertied families 600-300 BC. London: Oxford University Press.
• Rosenmeyer, Thomas G. (1949). "The family of Critias". American Journal of Philology 70 404–410.

External links

• Article "Critias" in the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.