Critias

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

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Critias, 460-403 BC, was the uncle of Plato, 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. From his Sisyphus a fragment has been preserved in which he declares faith in the gods to be merely a clever device for holding the masses in check; but as no one would dare to make such a statement before an Athenian audience, the piece was probably intended only for private reading — unless the quote was dialogue for the notoriously impious Sisyphus himself.

Related Topics:
Plato - Thirty Tyrants - Socrates - Sisyphus

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