Critias (; grc-gre, Κριτίας, ''Kritias''; c. 460 – 403 BC) was an ancient Athenian political figure and author. Born in Athens, Critias was the son of Callaeschrus and a first cousin of

Plato Plato ( ; grc-gre, Πλάτων ; 428/427 or 424/423 – 348/347 BC) was a Greek philosopher born in Athens during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. He founded the Platonist school of thought and the Academy, the first institution ...

's mother

Perictione Perictione ( grc-gre, Περικτιόνη ''Periktiónē''; fl. 5th century BC) was the mother of the Greek philosopher Plato. She was a descendant of Solon, the Athenian lawgiver. Her illustrious family goes back to Dropides, archon of the yea ...

. He became a leading and violent member of the

Thirty Tyrants The Thirty Tyrants ( grc, οἱ τριάκοντα τύραννοι, ''hoi triákonta týrannoi'') were a pro-Spartan oligarchy installed in Athens after its defeat in the Peloponnesian War in 404 BC. Upon Lysander's request, the Thirty were elec ...

. He also was an associate of

Socrates Socrates (; ; –399 BC) was a Greek philosopher from Athens who is credited as the founder of Western philosophy and among the first moral philosophers of the ethical tradition of thought. An enigmatic figure, Socrates authored no t ...

, a fact that did not endear Socrates to the Athenian public. Critias was noted in his day for his tragedies, elegies, and prose works.

Sextus Empiricus Sextus Empiricus ( grc-gre, Σέξτος Ἐμπειρικός, ; ) was a Greek Pyrrhonist philosopher and Empiric school physician. His philosophical works are the most complete surviving account of ancient Greek and Roman Pyrrhonism, and ...

attributed the ''

Sisyphus fragment The Sisyphus fragment is a fragment from Classical Attic drama which is thought to contain an early argument for atheism, claiming that a clever man invented "the fear of the gods" in order to frighten people into behaving morally. The fragment ...

'' to Critias; others, however, attribute it to

Euripides Euripides (; grc, Εὐριπίδης, Eurīpídēs, ; ) was a tragedian of classical Athens. Along with Aeschylus and Sophocles, he is one of the three ancient Greek tragedians for whom any plays have survived in full. Some ancient scholars ...

. His only known play is ''Peirithous.'' In addition, eight shorter quotations from unidentified plays have come down to us.

Life

Critias gave an account of his ancestry which was later recorded in Plato's '' Timaeus''. Critias's great-grandfather, Dropidas, was an intimate friend of

Solon Solon ( grc-gre, Σόλων; BC) was an Athenian statesman, constitutional lawmaker and poet. He is remembered particularly for his efforts to legislate against political, economic and moral decline in Archaic Athens.Aristotle ''Politic ...

. Dropidas's son, also named Critias, was the grandfather and namesake of the author Critias. Critias was once a student of Socrates. The two had a strained relationship. However, it is said that Critias was the one who saved Socrates from persecution during the terror of the Thirty Tyrants. However, Critias was very greedy, something that Socrates did not approve of. After the fall of Athens to the

Sparta Sparta ( Doric Greek: Σπάρτα, ''Spártā''; Attic Greek: Σπάρτη, ''Spártē'') was a prominent city-state in Laconia, in ancient Greece. In antiquity, the city-state was known as Lacedaemon (, ), while the name Sparta referr ...

ns, Critias, as one of the

, blacklisted many of its citizens. Most of his prisoners were executed and their wealth confiscated. Critias was killed in a battle near

Piraeus Piraeus ( ; el, Πειραιάς ; grc, Πειραιεύς ) is a port city within the Athens urban area ("Greater Athens"), in the Attica region of Greece. It is located southwest of Athens' city centre, along the east coast of the Saro ...

, the port of Athens, between a band of pro-democracy Athenian exiles led by Thrasybulus and members and supporters of the Thirty, aided by the Spartan garrison. In the battle, the exiles put the oligarchic forces to flight, ending the rule of the Thirty. According to the Pyrrhonist philosopher,

, Critias denied that the gods existed. Critias also asserted that "a shrewd and clever-minded man invented for mortals a fear of the gods, so that there might be a deterrent for the wicked..." The text from which this excerpt originates is known both as the "Critias fragment" and the "

." Its origins are disputed. Some scholars attribute the quotation to the character of Sisyphus in a play by

, but Sextus Empiricus attributed it to Critias.

Plato's description

Critias appears as a character in

's dialogues ''

Charmides Charmides (; grc-gre, Χαρμίδης), son of Glaucon, was an Athenian statesman who flourished during the 5th century BC.Debra Nails, ''The People of Plato'' (Indianapolis: Hackett, 2002), 90–94. An uncle of Plato, Charmides appears i ...

'' and ''

Protagoras Protagoras (; el, Πρωταγόρας; )Guthrie, p. 262–263. was a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher and rhetorical theorist. He is numbered as one of the sophists by Plato. In his dialogue '' Protagoras'', Plato credits him with inventing t ...

'', and, according to

Diogenes Laërtius Diogenes Laërtius ( ; grc-gre, Διογένης Λαέρτιος, ; ) was a biographer of the Greek philosophers. Nothing is definitively known about his life, but his surviving ''Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers'' is a principal sour ...

, was Plato's great-uncle. In the ''

'', Plato implies that Critias' philosophy was that

temperance Temperance may refer to: Moderation *Temperance movement, movement to reduce the amount of alcohol consumed *Temperance (virtue), habitual moderation in the indulgence of a natural appetite or passion Culture * Temperance (group), Canadian dan ...

was the art of "doing our own business." Socrates spends the rest of the dialogue challenging this definition as vague and meaningless. The Critias character in Plato's dialogues '' Timaeus'' and '' Critias'' is often identified as the son of Callaeschrus – but not by Plato. Given the old age of the Critias in these two dialogues, he may be the grandfather of the son of Callaeschrus.

In popular culture

* A generally unflattering portrait of Critias is provided in Mary Renault's historical novel ''

The Last of the Wine ''The Last of the Wine'' is Mary Renault's first novel set in ancient Greece, the setting that would become her most important arena. The novel was published in 1956 and is the second of her works to feature male homosexuality as a major them ...

'', a retelling of Athens' last years in the

Peloponnesian War The Peloponnesian War (431–404 BC) was an ancient Greek war fought between Athens and Sparta and their respective allies for the hegemony of the Greek world. The war remained undecided for a long time until the decisive intervention of ...

and its immediate aftermath. * Likewise in

Alessandro Barbero Alessandro Barbero (born April 30, 1959) is an Italian historian, novelist and essayist. Barbero was born in Turin. He attended the University of Turin, where he studied literature and Medieval history. He won the 1996 Strega Prize, Italy's m ...

's historical novel ''Le Ateniesi'', another tale set in the latter years of the

Citations

General references

* * *

External links