The Republic

One of the key works of world philosophy, Plato’s The Republic sets out to consider the principles behind an ideal city state. This is the first audio recording of Plato’s great classic in a new translation by the Greek scholar Tom Griffith.

This new translation by Tom Griffith was prepared for Cambridge University Press. “I started translating because I found that when I was teaching, and read from existing translations, I could see the interest fade from my pupils’ eyes,” explained Griffith. “But I know this can capture the imagination and thoughts of young people, and so I started translating passages in language which was as contemporary as the original would have been in the fifth century BC.” The Republic is one of a number of Griffith’s translations.

No sooner had narrator Bruce Alexander left the studio after recording Thomas Hardy than he was back at his Oxfordshire home studying hard, preparing for Plato’s The Republic. He said, “There couldn’t have been a greater contrast—the deeply emotional Hardy and the rationalist character of Socrates.”