#Alcibiades

[kebriones]

I FORGOT to say a very important thing about the play last night:

When it finished and we started getting up (there were about 20 people in the audience), two old ladies sitting in front of me started talking.

"you know what this reminded me?"

"what?"

"Alcibiades' story"

"Alcibiades? What story, he was a spoiled brat"

"No, I'll tell you, he was Pericles' nephew, and he was gorgeous (κουκλος, the male form of "doll" was the word used) and he..."

I didn't get to hear the rest of the discussion, she started saying about the Peloponnesian war, but I was fighting every muscle in my face not to smile.

[girlcatilina]

alcibiades

[nateconnolly]

Alcibiades, you absolutely don't have time to mope about not being in old man yaoi. The heads of the gods have been fucking mutilated.

[aca-sonia]

[aniitahhhah]

I desperately wanted to use this audio and the symposium has been on my mind recently 😭

Just Alcibiades over sharing ❤️‍🩹

[shortace]

Just on a whim, because I know that Alcibiades is one of the weirdest and funniest characters in ancient Greek history, I asked ChatGPT "What's the weirdest thing Alcibiades ever did?"

ChatGPT came back with the details of something Alcibiades (henceforth referred to as 'Alci' so I don't have to keep typing it out) was accused of, but acquitted of.

When I pointed out that he had been acquitted and may not have actually done this thing, Chat GPT apologised and said, "yes, he was acquitted", and then went on to tell me that, nonetheless, the event was significant because it made Alci flee the city.

Alci did not flee the city, he was sent away on a military expedition, which was exactly what he'd wanted and asked for. When I pointed that out, ChatGPT apologised again for being wrong.

I asked again for weird things he might actually have done, and was told one version of a story I've heard before about how Alci stole some stuff from a friend. ChatGPT's version was different from what I'd heard, though, so I mentioned that, and only then did ChatGPT acknowledge that there were different versions of the story. As part of its apology and correction, ChatGPT said that it did not always have access to all information - but then proceeded to provide details of the version of the story I'd heard before, showing that it did, in fact, have access to that information.

I asked again, what is the weirdest thing Alcibiades ever did? ChatGPT gave me an answer, which was a story I'd never heard before, so I asked for a source. ChatGPT told me it was in Plutarch's Lives, and I presumed it was in his Life of Alcibiades, so that's where I looked. When I said I couldn't find it there, ChatGPT told me, sorry for not being specific, it was actually in Plutarch's Life of Nicias. So I went and read Plutarch's Life of Nicias and couldn't find it.

So I told ChatGPT that I couldn't find the story in that book, could it please be more specific? What I was hoping for was a chapter or page number or something, I just presumed I'd missed it.

ChatGPT came back with "no, actually it's not in that book, it may be a later invention, there is no concrete evidence for this story."

TL;DR: ChatGPT cannot be trusted. Even when it does give you a source, it can be wrong. It has no capacity to evaluate the accuracy or likely accuracy of the information it gives you. It will present you with wrong or debatable information and give you absolutely no indication that it may not be correct, or that other versions or interpretations are possible.

[beluosus]

[thoodleoo]

the rest of us can only hope to be so accomplished someday

[dearlavenderbear]

Alcibiades 🍷

[soc-star-mass]

Taking care of Al

[kebriones]

Cut out photos from some news articles to show you guys from the play. This above is Alcibiades.

This is Agathon (he was wearing this long fur scarf thing that made his outfit and silluette super elegant, doesn't really show here but all he was missing was a champagne glass or something.) ft the ladder. I think his speech was great towards the end but because he was mostly just standing in that one spot delivering it all i kinda lost him through most of it.

Eryximachus who I feel like was a great great actor but the translation of his speech was in mock-katharevousa and I did not like it very much. He delivered it really fast and animatedly and his presence on stage was amazing but yeah. The translation.

Another one of Alcibiades suffering. I was kinda put off when he entered because he started off speaking in this high weird falsetto voice and twirling around but when he started getting upset and stuff he would change his voice to either very small and flat or straight up growling while he was clawing at his clothes and the floor so that was great 10/10. He also ate syllables off of his words sometimes and didn't quite finish some sentences properly which did support the being drunk thing

[slettlune]

wait so the dryden translation of plutarch says that in sparta, alcibiades was seen

wearing his hair close cut, bathing in cold water, eating coarse meal, and dining on black broth

while the perrin translation says he was

with his hair untrimmed, taking cold baths, on terms of intimacy with their coarse bread, and supping on black porridge

were people shocked that he cut his hair or that he didn't cut his hair??? i need to know

[grumfield]

everyone says enkidu and Gilgamesh is the world’s first yaoi but like. They’re the world’s first romance novel. I’m afraid the first yaoi, like specifically YAOI is Socrates and Alcibiades

[softestaries]

no one i know irl would appreciate this

[scribl1ta]

Bro look at my general😭🤦we are NOT making it to Sicily

[ditoob]

Happy pride y’all