Kebes

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Kebes of Thebes was an ancient Greek philosopher of the late 5th and early 4th centuries BC. Chr.

Life

According to Plato , Kebes and his companion Simmias took part in the lessons of the Pythagorean Philolaos when he was in Thebes. Later the two went to Athens and became a pupil of Socrates . After Socrates' arrest, Kebes and Simmias offered to provide money for an escape, but Socrates refused to flee. When Socrates died in prison, Kebes was present. In Plato's dialogue Phaedo he is one of Socrates' interlocutors. Even Xenophon mentions him as a pupil of Socrates.

In the Phaedo it turns out in conversation that Cebes and Simmias did not receive any satisfactory information from Philolaos about the appropriate relationship between a philosopher and his death. Therefore, this question is now being taken up and subjected to an in-depth investigation. Socrates makes arguments for the pre-existence and immortality of the soul . Kebes objects and is difficult to convince, but in the end he is satisfied with Socrates' arguments.

Because of the lessons he received from Philolaos, Kebes is often referred to as a Pythagorean. However, the correctness of this assumption has not been proven; participation in the class does not necessarily imply that he shared the teacher's philosophical views. It is possible that he was only a brief student of Philolaus. In conversation with Socrates, Kebes and Simmias express doubts about Pythagorean teachings.

Works

The doxographer Diogenes Laertios , who treats Kebes only briefly, ascribes three dialogues to him: Pínax ('The Painting', 'The Panel'), Hebdómē ('The Seventh') and Phrýnichos . The “seventh” means the seventh day of the month of Thargelion (May / June), the birthday of the god Apollo and, according to tradition, also the birthday of Plato. All the writings of Kebes are lost today. Only one dialogue has survived called Pínax , which is known by its Latin title Tabula Cebetis (The Tablet of Kebes) and was considered the work of the Theban philosopher in antiquity. However, it is certainly not a writing by the Socrates pupil, rather this Pínax was not created until the 1st or early 2nd century. The unknown author is called Pseudo-Kebes .

iconography

A floor mosaic from the late 3rd or 4th century found in Mytilene, now in the Archaeological Museum of Mytilene , shows Socrates in conversation with Simmias and Kebes. Apparently a scene from Plato's Phaedo is depicted.

literature

Remarks

  1. ^ Plato, Crito 45b – c.
  2. ↑ Michael Erler : Platon (= Hellmut Flashar (Ed.): Outline of the history of philosophy . The philosophy of antiquity , Volume 2/2), Basel 2007, p. 176; Luc Brisson: Cébès de Thèbes . In: Richard Goulet (ed.): Dictionnaire des philosophes antiques , Volume 2, Paris 1994, pp. 246–248, here: 247.
  3. ↑ Diogenes Laertios 2,125.
  4. ↑ See also Heinz-Günther Nesselrath : From Kebes to Pseudo-Kebes. In: Rainer Hirsch-Luipold et al. (Hrsg.): Die Bildtafel des Kebes. Allegory of Life (= Sapere , Volume 8), Darmstadt 2005, pp. 38–66.
  5. ^ Constantinos Macris: Simmias de Thèbes. In: Richard Goulet (ed.): Dictionnaire des philosophes antiques , Volume 7, Paris 2018, pp. 904–933, here: 918 f.
personal data
SURNAME Kebes
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Disciple of the Pythagorean Philolaus and Socrates
DATE OF BIRTH 5th century BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH 4th century BC Chr.