This book attempts to bridge the gulf that still exists between 'literary' and 'philosophical' interpreters of Plato by looking at his use of characterization. Characterization is intrinsic to dramatic form and a concern with human character in an ethical sense pervades the dialogues on the discursive level. Form and content are further reciprocally related through Plato's discursive preoccupation with literary characterization. Two opening chapters examine the methodological issues involved in reading Plato 'as drama' and a set of questions surrounding Greek 'character' words (especially ethos), including ancient Greek views about the influence of dramatic character on an audience. The figure of Sokrates qua Platonic 'hero' also receives preliminary discussion. The remaining chapters offer close readings of select dialogues, chosen to show the wide range of ways in which Plato uses his characters, with special emphasis on the kaleidoscopic figure of Sokrates and on Plato's own relationship to his 'dramatic' hero.

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In the Iliad , Helen is objectified by the male characters in ways that excuse her from male blame and thus serve the heroic agenda. Yet her self-blame is an implicit assertion of agency on her part. It not only disarms male reproach by characterizing her as a "good" woman, but affirms her responsibility (and thus agency) in her original elopement. Her erotic subjectivity is also shown in the Aphrodite scene, where Helen both takes responsibility for her transgression and implies that the impulse prompting it has not been quenched.

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The supreme beauty of Helen of Troy makes her the most dangerous of all women. Most Greek authors react to the threat she poses by limiting her power, often in the guise of defending her. Thus in the Iliad, Achilles' story displaces hers, and male characters excuse her from blame by denying her agency. Yet, she remains a real cause of the war and an emblem of the heroic enterprise as such. Wolfgang Petersen 's Troy (2004), which draws on the Iliad, places a new emphasis on heterosexual pair-bonding. Yet, the film extends the Greek project of disempowering Helen in the guise of defending her. The movie does not celebrate the dangerous power of female beauty but denies it by means of an array of strategies, some of which echo ancient texts and some of which are specific to contemporary ideology and the cinematic medium. Helen is presented as a hapless victim, cast as an adolescent everygirl and contrasted with the feisty Briseis. Finally, her beauty is displaced in favour of the star power and charisma of Brad Pitt's spectacular body. Once again, Helen is displaced by Achilles.Female power poses notorious problems for ancient Greek culture. Because Greek ideology and cultural practice both place severe restrictions on female agency, it is difficult for women to exercise power without transgressing the norms constituted to regulate their behaviour. Since the control of female sexuality lies at the heart of these norms, sex -more specifically, the active female pursuit of an object of desire -is typically implicated in women's transgressions and hence in the danger posed by the female as such. Insofar as female danger is wrapped up with sexual transgression, then, so is female power. And insofar as sex is bound up with beauty, Helen of Troy -by definition the most beautiful woman of all time -is also the most dangerous of women. Her godlike beauty grants her supreme erotic power over men, a power that resulted in what was, in Greek eyes, the most devastating war of all time. Other women, such as Helen's half-sister Clytemnestra, may be more violent, but none is more destructive.Helen's destructive power matches that of Achilles, the mightiest of the Greek warriors at Troy, with whom she is linked as a (potential) sexual partner in several strands of the tradition. 1 The connection is a fitting one, for these two represent the gendered body at its most glorious: they are the apogee of female beauty and male strength, respectively. 2