Minae and plethra · Lexicon

From the book

Alcibiades I

Plato · Diotimos Editions · 2026

Orientation

At a Glance

The wordMinae are monetary units in the comparison; plethra are measures of land area here.
In Alcibiades ISocrates says each named pupil paid Zeno one hundred minae.
In this editionThe edition’s note explains a mina as a hundred drachmas and a land plethron as a hundred-foot square, adding an approximate acreage.
A place to readEach Zeno pupil is said to have paid a hundred minae.

Meaning

Minae are monetary units in the comparison; plethra are measures of land area here. The figures mark a paid education, the value of adornments, and the size of an estate, not interchangeable quantities.

Use in the book

Socrates says each named pupil paid Zeno one hundred minae. Later Deinomache’s adornment is valued at perhaps fifty minae, at the very most, while Alcibiades’ land at Erchia is not even three hundred plethra. The qualifications are part of the point: the second amount is a generous upper estimate, and the third is an upper bound, not an exact valuation or survey. The educational example supplies named evidence of investment; the property examples show how even large local resources fall short on a royal scale. The juxtaposition also warns against a simplistic equation of all payment with knowledge: Socrates reports the pupils’ improvement as well as the fee.

Places to read

119aEach Zeno pupil is said to have paid a hundred minae.
123cMaternal adornment and the Erchia estate receive qualified upper limits.

Translation in this edition

The edition’s note explains a mina as a hundred drachmas and a land plethron as a hundred-foot square, adding an approximate acreage. Modern monetary equivalents would import unstable and misleading comparisons; none is needed to understand the contrast.

γῆ

Attested: γῆς (gēs; 123c). Land, quantified in plethra in the estate comparison. Lexical identification: lemma: γῆ. See Minae and plethra.

ἑκατόν

Attested: ἑκατὸν (hekaton; 119a). One hundred, the number of minae each named pupil paid Zeno. Lexical identification: lemma: ἑκατόν. See Minae and plethra.

μνᾶ

Attested: ἑκατὸν μνᾶς (hekaton mnas; 119a); μνῶν πεντήκοντα (mnōn pentēkonta; 123c). Mina, a monetary unit in the educational fee and the valuation of adornments. Lexical identification: lemma: μνᾶ. See Minae and plethra.

πεντήκοντα

Attested: πεντήκοντα (pentēkonta; 123c). Fifty, the generous upper estimate of minae for Deinomache’s ornaments. Lexical identification: lemma: πεντήκοντα. See Minae and plethra.

πλέθρον

Attested: γῆς πλέθρα (gēs plethra; 123c). Plethron, here a land-area measure rather than merely a linear distance. Lexical identification: lemma: πλέθρον. See Minae and plethra.

τριακόσιοι

Attested: τριακόσια (triakosia; 123c). Three hundred; Alcibiades’ landed area is stated to fall below this number of plethra. Lexical identification: lemma: τριακόσιοι. See Minae and plethra.