Plato's final hours 'revealed': Ancient scroll buried by Mount Vesuvius claims the Greek philosopher spent his last night listening to music - and blasting the slave-girl flautist's 'lack of rhythm

Daily Mail ^ | 29 April 2024 | Sam Lawley

[mairdie]

The papyrus had been buried under metres of ash at the house, believed to have belonged to Julius Caesar’s father-in-law, after Vesuvius erupted in AD79 and scholars have spent the last 250 years painstakingly trying to find a way to read its contents, The Times reports.

Now Professor Graziano Ranocchia of the University of Pisa and his colleagues have used techniques, including shortwave infrared hyperspectral imaging, which picks up variations in the way light bounces off the black ink on the papyrus, to decipher the document.

Professor Ranocchia described the scroll as 'the oldest history of Greek philosophy in our possession'.

The professor said that Plato welcoming his visitor, referred to in the writings as the 'Chaldean guest', showed that the great philosopher 'exercised his duties', adding that 'hospitality was sacred for the Greeks'.

The scroll also helped to confirm that Plato was buried at the Academy of Athens, which he founded, but adds the detail that the ancient thinker's resting place was in a designated garden within the university grounds.

[mairdie]

It was a popular opinion of the times.

I assume you also remember the passage in Symposium of how original humans were cut in two and forced to search the world for their other half and, when the two would meet, they would attempt to remeld themselves together. Straight or gay, it’s a beautiful way to explain the joy of being in the arms of your “other half.”