From the book
Alcibiades I
Plato · Diotimos Editions · 2026
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At a Glance
- The wordArgos is named with Lacedaemon as a realm of the royal genealogy traced back to Zeus.
- In Alcibiades IThe geographical name supports Socrates’ distinction between a remote heroic ancestor and a line of ancestors who actually held kingship.
- In this editionThe passage supplies no independent chronology of Argive kings; details of heroic genealogy from other sources should not be inserted into its single comparative claim.
- A place to readArgos belongs to the account of continuing royal succession.
Meaning
Argos is named with Lacedaemon as a realm of the royal genealogy traced back to Zeus.
Use in the book
The geographical name supports Socrates’ distinction between a remote heroic ancestor and a line of ancestors who actually held kingship. The Spartans’ predecessors are said to be kings of Argos and Lacedaemon, while the Persian line ruled Persia and often Asia. Argos does not serve as the scene of the conversation or as a current policy question. Its local argumentative role is to attach rule over named places to pedigree, thereby making continuity of political standing more substantial than Alcibiades’ bare assertion that his family too descends from Zeus.
Places to read
- 121aArgos belongs to the account of continuing royal succession.
Translation in this edition
The passage supplies no independent chronology of Argive kings; details of heroic genealogy from other sources should not be inserted into its single comparative claim.
Ἄργος
Attested: Ἄργους (argous; 121a). Argos, a realm named in the Spartan royal genealogy. Lexical identification: lemma: Ἄργος. See Argos.