One of Plato's most controversial dialogues, Hippias Minor details Socrates's confounding arguments that there is no difference between a person who tells the truth and one who lies, and that the good man is the one who willingly makes mistakes and does wrong and unjust things. But what if Socrates wasn't championing the act of lying-as it has been traditionally interpreted-but, rather, advocating for a novel way of understanding the power of the creative act? In this exceptional translation by Sarah Ruden, Hippias Minor is rendered anew as a provocative dialogue about how art is a form of wrongdoing, and that understanding it makes life more ethical by paradoxically teaching one to be more cunning. An introduction by artist Paul Chan situates Hippias Minor in a wider philosophical and historical context, and an essay by classicist Richard Fletcher grapples with the radical implications of this new translation in light of Chan's work and contemporary art today.

Rich in drama and humour, they include the controversial Ion, a debate on poetic inspiration; Laches, in which Socrates seeks to define bravery; and Euthydemus, which considers the relationship between philosophy and politics. Together, these dialogues provide a definitive portrait of the real Socrates and raise issues still keenly debated by philosophers, forming an incisive overview of Plato's philosophy.

The Greek satirist Lucian was a brilliantly entertaining writer who invented the comic dialogue as a vehicle for satiric comment. This lively new translation is both accurate and idiomatic, and the introduction highlights Lucian's importance in his own and later times.

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