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* CastFullOfGay: Shades of it, especially in ''Phryne's Symposium''. Its FrameStory, too, is rather suggestive about the relationship between the storyteller and her lady friend.
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* EveryoneIsGay: Shades of it, especially in ''Phryne's Symposium''. Its FrameStory, too, is rather suggestive about the relationship between the storyteller and her lady friend.
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* EveryoneIsGay: Shades of it, especially in 'Phryne's Symposium''. Its FrameStory, too, is rather suggestive about the relationship between the storyteller and her lady friend.
to:
* EveryoneIsGay: Shades of it, especially in 'Phryne's ''Phryne's Symposium''. Its FrameStory, too, is rather suggestive about the relationship between the storyteller and her lady friend.
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* {{Foreshadowing}}: Periktione foresees and criticizes ''Hegel and Marx'' over two thousand years before either is born. Xanthippe seems to anticipate some things Creator/{{Aristotle}} would later say ([[Creator/{{Socrates}} her husband]] says she's [[LampshadeHanging ahead of her time]], and sure enough, when Aristotle appears, she offers to teach him). There's also a footnote mentioning that the really great poets' influence stretches [[TemporalParadox backwards in time]], citing [[TheZerothLawOfTropeExamples/WilliamShakespeare Shakespearean quotations]] in Athenian plays.
to:
* {{Foreshadowing}}: Periktione foresees and criticizes ''Hegel and Marx'' over two thousand years before either is born. Xanthippe seems to anticipate some things Creator/{{Aristotle}} would later say ([[Creator/{{Socrates}} her husband]] says she's [[LampshadeHanging ahead of her time]], and sure enough, when Aristotle appears, she offers to teach him). There's also a footnote mentioning that the really great poets' influence stretches [[TemporalParadox backwards in time]], citing [[TheZerothLawOfTropeExamples/WilliamShakespeare [[JustForFun/TheZerothLawOfTropeExamples Shakespearean quotations]] in Athenian plays.
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* PromotedFanboy: Plato founds his own school in Socrates's honor.
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* ArtisticLicenseEconomics: Xanthippe [[DiscussedTrope explains]] to Plato why his ideal state would fail due to its economic structure.
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* DiscussedTrope: Xanthippe explains to Plato why his ideal state would [[ArtisticLicenseEconomics fail economics forever]].
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* {{Foreshadowing}}: Periktione foresees and criticizes ''Hegel and Marx'' over two thousand years before either is born. Xanthippe seems to anticipate some things Creator/{{Aristotle}} would later say ([[Creator/{{Socrates}} her husband]] says she's [[LampshadeHanging ahead of her time]], and sure enough, when Aristotle appears, she offers to teach him). There's also a footnote mentioning that the really great poets' influence stretches [[TemporalParadox backwards in time]], citing [[TheZerothLawOfTropeExamples/WilliamShakespeare shakespearean quotations]] in Athenian plays.
to:
* {{Foreshadowing}}: Periktione foresees and criticizes ''Hegel and Marx'' over two thousand years before either is born. Xanthippe seems to anticipate some things Creator/{{Aristotle}} would later say ([[Creator/{{Socrates}} her husband]] says she's [[LampshadeHanging ahead of her time]], and sure enough, when Aristotle appears, she offers to teach him). There's also a footnote mentioning that the really great poets' influence stretches [[TemporalParadox backwards in time]], citing [[TheZerothLawOfTropeExamples/WilliamShakespeare shakespearean Shakespearean quotations]] in Athenian plays.
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* HistoricalInJoke: [[spoiler: A book-length one to platonic dialogues, complete with a story of how Scruton found these previously unknown writings in Alexandria.]]
to:
* HistoricalInJoke: [[spoiler: A book-length one to platonic Platonic dialogues, complete with a story of how Scruton found these previously unknown writings in Alexandria.]]
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* ImprobablyFemaleCast: Phryne's symposium is ladies-only. All the existant sources from the era only mention exclusively male symposia, although...
* InstructionalDialogue: In the vein of the classical platonic dialogues. [[spoiler: Except matters addressed are quite modern - or maybe just timeless?]]
* MeasuringTheMarigolds: Both the main speakers think this is where the philosophers go wrong, disregarding the concrete (including love, which is always particular) in favour of the general and abstract. They deem this especially bad in ethics and politics.
* InstructionalDialogue: In the vein of the classical platonic dialogues. [[spoiler: Except matters addressed are quite modern - or maybe just timeless?]]
* MeasuringTheMarigolds: Both the main speakers think this is where the philosophers go wrong, disregarding the concrete (including love, which is always particular) in favour of the general and abstract. They deem this especially bad in ethics and politics.
to:
* ImprobablyFemaleCast: Phryne's symposium is ladies-only. All the existant existent sources from the era only mention exclusively male symposia, although...
* InstructionalDialogue: In the vein of the classicalplatonic Platonic dialogues. [[spoiler: Except matters addressed are quite modern - or maybe just timeless?]]
* MeasuringTheMarigolds: Both the main speakers think this is where the philosophers go wrong, disregarding the concrete (including love, which is always particular) infavour favor of the general and abstract. They deem this especially bad in ethics and politics.
* InstructionalDialogue: In the vein of the classical
* MeasuringTheMarigolds: Both the main speakers think this is where the philosophers go wrong, disregarding the concrete (including love, which is always particular) in
Changed line(s) 34 (click to see context) from:
* MotherNatureFatherScience: The men, especially Plato and Parmenides, are singlemindedly after their vision of truth, neglecting everything else. The women know better.
to:
* MotherNatureFatherScience: The men, especially Plato and Parmenides, are singlemindedly single-mindedly after their vision of truth, neglecting everything else. The women know better.
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* PoliceState: Plato's ideal (see ''Literature/TheRepublic''), criticised by Xanthippe, who seems to be an adherent of UsefulNotes/TheCommonLaw.
* PromotedFanboy: Plato founds his own school in Socrates's honour.
* PromotedFanboy: Plato founds his own school in Socrates's honour.
to:
* PoliceState: Plato's ideal (see ''Literature/TheRepublic''), criticised criticized by Xanthippe, who seems to be an adherent of UsefulNotes/TheCommonLaw.
* PromotedFanboy: Plato founds his own school in Socrates'shonour.honor.
* PromotedFanboy: Plato founds his own school in Socrates's
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** ''Literature/TheRepublic'', especially Plato's vision of a perfect political entity gets thoroughly discussed and reinterpreted from woman's point of view.
to:
** ''Literature/TheRepublic'', especially Plato's vision of a perfect political entity gets thoroughly discussed and reinterpreted from a woman's point of view.
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* WomenAreWiser: Xanthippe and Periktione are consistently portrayed as more practical, far-seeing and manganimous than their men.
to:
* WomenAreWiser: Xanthippe and Periktione are consistently portrayed as more practical, far-seeing and manganimous magnanimous than their men.
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* AncientGreece: Athens, to be precise.
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* WineIsClassy: Yes and no - everyone drinks wine, because it's AncientGreece. Plato complains about the horse piss they have in Sicily, though, so there's at least some elitism about it.
to:
* WineIsClassy: Yes and no - everyone drinks wine, because it's AncientGreece.UsefulNotes/AncientGreece. Plato complains about the horse piss they have in Sicily, though, so there's at least some elitism about it.
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* BrickJoke: Young Plato's horrible poetry. We think he grew out of it, but [[spoiler: in ''Phryne's Symposion'' it turns out he, not his eponymous playwright, wrote that ghastly poem to Archeanassa.]]
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* Elopement: In Phryne's backstory. [[spoiler: But her lover Peleus turned out to be a lying bastard. And a rapist.]]
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* Elopement: {{Elopement}}: In Phryne's backstory. [[spoiler: But her lover Peleus turned out to be a lying bastard. And a rapist.]]
Changed line(s) 20 (click to see context) from:
* Foreshadowing: Periktione foresees and criticizes ''Hegel and Marx'' over two thousand years before either is born. Xanthippe seems to anticipate some things Creator/{{Aristotle}} would later say ([[Creator/{{Socrates}} her husband]] says she's [[LampshadeHanging ahead of her time]], and sure enough, when Aristotle appears, she offers to teach him). There's also a footnote mentioning that the really great poets' influence stretches [[TemporalParadox backwards in time]], citing [[TheZerothLawOfTropeExamples/WilliamShakespeare shakespearean quotations]] in Athenian plays.
to:
* Foreshadowing: {{Foreshadowing}}: Periktione foresees and criticizes ''Hegel and Marx'' over two thousand years before either is born. Xanthippe seems to anticipate some things Creator/{{Aristotle}} would later say ([[Creator/{{Socrates}} her husband]] says she's [[LampshadeHanging ahead of her time]], and sure enough, when Aristotle appears, she offers to teach him). There's also a footnote mentioning that the really great poets' influence stretches [[TemporalParadox backwards in time]], citing [[TheZerothLawOfTropeExamples/WilliamShakespeare shakespearean quotations]] in Athenian plays.
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making the page - I'll link the links later, but feel free to do so, if you like
Added DiffLines:
''Xanthippic Dialogues'' are the MissingEpisode of philosophy - before Roger Scruton unearthed them during his travels in a little tea-shop in Alexandria, we only had very slight mentions of these invaluable philosophical works by women. Consequently, our classical tradition had been one-sided. Now, the words of Xanthippe and her friend Periktione speak to us through time, revealing the much neglected point of view on being, learning and law.
Some time later, Scruton was sent the text of ''Phryne's Symposium'', a long work about love that can be seen as analogous to Plato's Literature/{{Symposium}}, by an anonymous Turkish lady. It has apparently been read and preserved by women in harems. He decided to publish it along his earlier findings - due to the sheer amount of time spent discussing sex, this part of the book should probably be withheld from the minors (and some majors, as well).
[[spoiler: Or so the FramingDevice says - in reality, this PhilosophicalNovel slash {{Mockumentary}} has been written by Scruton himself. But it's still an uproariously funny (if you [[GeniusBonus know enough philosophy]], that is, and excepting Phryne's RapeAsDrama backstory, which is straight-out sad) critique of what we've done wrong with our civilisation by focusing on one side of things and neglecting the other.]]
!!You will observe the following tropes in it:
* AllMenArePerverts: Parmenides in Periktione's [[{{Flashback}} story]] was a DirtyOldMan, although he tried very hard not to show it. His student, Zeno, was much more at ease with ogling the dancer.
* AncientGreece: Athens, to be precise.
* BehindEveryGreatMan: Xanthippe turns out to have been behind Socrates, although he, and especially Plato, tended to change or misunderstand her words.
* BreakingTheFourthWall: When Periktione chastises her son for not showing proper decorum, she mentions "the audience" a couple of times.
* BrokenBird: You wouldn't see it if she didn't let you, and she probably wouldn't let you, but Phryne [[spoiler: has been conned out of an agreeable marriage, hence DefiledForever, then actually raped, abandoned like a used tissue, finally had to leave her ChildByRape in a temple, which ''broke her heart'']], and due to all this, gradually learned to treat men the way they treated her, as means to her own ends.
* ConversationalTroping: Periktione, being an educated lady. See the Shout-outs entry. Also, the ''Phryne's Symposium'' is a discussion of love, constructed just like [[Literature/{{Symposium}} the one Plato wrote]], with a similar FrameStory, except it's the ladies partying and talking.
* DisappearedDad: Plato's dad is dead, fuelling his youthful angst.
* DiscussedTrope: Xanthippe explains to Plato why his ideal state would [[ArtisticLicenseEconomics fail economics forever]].
* Elopement: In Phryne's backstory. [[spoiler: But her lover Peleus turned out to be a lying bastard. And a rapist.]]
* EmoTeen: When he first appears, Plato is just eighteen and very, very emo. Including bad poetry, [[TrashOfTheTitans messy room]], blaming his mom for ParentalNeglect and being [[AmazinglyEmbarrassingParents terribly embarrassed by her]]. Also, his name is not Aristocles, it's Plato, get it right, mom!
* EveryoneIsGay: Shades of it, especially in 'Phryne's Symposium''. Its FrameStory, too, is rather suggestive about the relationship between the storyteller and her lady friend.
* FanBoy: Young Plato, for Socrates, which really, really annoys him. Especially when the kid [[MisaimedFandom misunderstands]] what Socrates said. Young Aristotle seems more of an innocently smartass teenager than starstruck, though.
* Foreshadowing: Periktione foresees and criticizes ''Hegel and Marx'' over two thousand years before either is born. Xanthippe seems to anticipate some things Creator/{{Aristotle}} would later say ([[Creator/{{Socrates}} her husband]] says she's [[LampshadeHanging ahead of her time]], and sure enough, when Aristotle appears, she offers to teach him). There's also a footnote mentioning that the really great poets' influence stretches [[TemporalParadox backwards in time]], citing [[TheZerothLawOfTropeExamples/WilliamShakespeare shakespearean quotations]] in Athenian plays.
* FootnoteFever: Since this is a NonFiction work [[spoiler: or rather, a facsimile of one]] it has a fair share of footnotes, often displaying subtle TextbookHumor and quoting many other works [[spoiler:both fictional and real]].
* GreenEyedMonster: Discussed and demonstrated during the symposium, when Lastanea thinks Fryne's Plato is the philosopher Plato, and when Archeanassa admits to being in love with Plato [[spoiler: the philosopher, not that horrible playwright - cue CatFight]].
* HappilyMarried: Xanthippe says she and Socrates were, all their lives, unlike what the cynics claimed.
* HighClassCallGirl: Phryne and her friend, Archeanassa.
* HistoricalDomainCharacter: Pretty much everyone, obviously.
* HistoricalInJoke: [[spoiler: A book-length one to platonic dialogues, complete with a story of how Scruton found these previously unknown writings in Alexandria.]]
* HystericalWoman: Inverted - it turns out Socrates's ''male students'' were the ones to get overwhelmed by emotion and needing to be led out of the room, while Xanthippe [[StayWithMeUntilIDie stays with him to the end]].
* TheIngenue: Phryne, at seventeen, was a naive country girl, overwhelmed by her mother's death, the big city and the perspective of an ArrangedMarriage to a (supposedly...) terrible man.
* IgnoredEnamoredUnderling: Everyone can tell Lastenea is starstruck with Plato, her teacher, who, as far as we know, pretends not to notice her. Possibly because she's [[SweetPollyOliver pretending to be a boy]] so she can attend his lectures.
* ImprobablyFemaleCast: Phryne's symposium is ladies-only. All the existant sources from the era only mention exclusively male symposia, although...
* InstructionalDialogue: In the vein of the classical platonic dialogues. [[spoiler: Except matters addressed are quite modern - or maybe just timeless?]]
* MeasuringTheMarigolds: Both the main speakers think this is where the philosophers go wrong, disregarding the concrete (including love, which is always particular) in favour of the general and abstract. They deem this especially bad in ethics and politics.
* MenAreBetterThanWomen: Lastenea claims men love better than women - from Doylist perspective, she's obviously recounting Plato's views, so they can be picked apart later. From Watsonian perspective, she's just as obviously head over heels with the philosopher.
* MotherNatureFatherScience: The men, especially Plato and Parmenides, are singlemindedly after their vision of truth, neglecting everything else. The women know better.
* LibationForTheDead: Xanthippe is reminded to make one. [[spoiler: By the dearly departed, her husband's, ghost himself.]]
* LoveHurts: Discussed during Phryne's symposium. Phryne herself describes how she desperately loved Peleus, all the while hating him for what he did.
* OneSteveLimit: Averted in Athens - Phryne's latest conquest is Plato the playwright, not Plato the philosopher.
* PlatonicCave: Xanthippe reinterprets it: the person who goes out of the cave won't be able to help those remaining when he comes back, because [[DayHurtsDarkAdjustedEyes he's blinded by the light]]. The real life is back in the cave, or in a house ([[DarkIsNotEvil houses were rather dark back then]]).
* ParentWithNewParamour: Periktione having remarried is a constant source of ParentalSexualitySquick and shame for her son, Plato.
* ThePhilosopher: Everyone! More or less successfully.
* PoliticallyCorrectHistory: It appears that our vision of history is sadly incomplete, in parts even plain wrong (more than we thought it was), having neglected the women's opinions.
* PoliceState: Plato's ideal (see ''Literature/TheRepublic''), criticised by Xanthippe, who seems to be an adherent of UsefulNotes/TheCommonLaw.
* PromotedFanboy: Plato founds his own school in Socrates's honour.
* PromiscuityAfterRape: Phryne's road from a naive country girl to the most famous courtesan in Athens begins with [[spoiler: her rape by a man she was in love with and would have slept with willingly if he hadn't forced himself on her.]]
* StacysMom: Plato's mom Periktione is stated to look much younger than she really is.
* {{Socialite}}: Periktione, the classy, somewhat self-absorbed and flighty, but generally friendly lady.
* ShoutOut:
** Creator/{{Aristophanes}} is mentioned along with his ''Theatre/TheClouds'' (the one that ridicules Socrates) and ''Theatre/TheFrogs''.
** Creator/{{Socrates}} [[spoiler: also, his ghost]] and Creator/{{Plato}} are speaking characters. Parmenides as well, although we see him through Periktione's eyes. Creator/{{Aristotle}} appears briefly as a [[YoungFutureFamousPeople student]].
** ''Literature/TheRepublic'', especially Plato's vision of a perfect political entity gets thoroughly discussed and reinterpreted from woman's point of view.
** Several Greek playwrights and poets like Pindar, Creator/{{Sappho}} or Corinna are mentioned by the ever classy Periktione. Sappho's hymn to [[LoveGoddess Aphrodite]] is also sung by Periktione's granddaughter during Phryne's symposium.
** [[spoiler: Xanthippe quotes the future (to her) philosopher Hegel's famous saying: the owl of Minerva spreads its wings only with the falling of the dusk.]]
* SweetPollyOliver: How Lastenea and Arete get around town (Lastenea disguises herself to study in the Academy). Phryne has also used a male disguise in the past.
* TextbookHumor: The index has a recursion joke. [[spoiler: It's also full of shout-outs, Author's tongue-in-cheek opinions, and has nothing to do with the book at all. It's hilarious.]]
* TextileWorkIsFeminine: Xanthippe, when she's widowed, makes her living this way. She teaches Plato a little, but he's no good at it.
* WineIsClassy: Yes and no - everyone drinks wine, because it's AncientGreece. Plato complains about the horse piss they have in Sicily, though, so there's at least some elitism about it.
* WomenAreWiser: Xanthippe and Periktione are consistently portrayed as more practical, far-seeing and manganimous than their men.
Some time later, Scruton was sent the text of ''Phryne's Symposium'', a long work about love that can be seen as analogous to Plato's Literature/{{Symposium}}, by an anonymous Turkish lady. It has apparently been read and preserved by women in harems. He decided to publish it along his earlier findings - due to the sheer amount of time spent discussing sex, this part of the book should probably be withheld from the minors (and some majors, as well).
[[spoiler: Or so the FramingDevice says - in reality, this PhilosophicalNovel slash {{Mockumentary}} has been written by Scruton himself. But it's still an uproariously funny (if you [[GeniusBonus know enough philosophy]], that is, and excepting Phryne's RapeAsDrama backstory, which is straight-out sad) critique of what we've done wrong with our civilisation by focusing on one side of things and neglecting the other.]]
!!You will observe the following tropes in it:
* AllMenArePerverts: Parmenides in Periktione's [[{{Flashback}} story]] was a DirtyOldMan, although he tried very hard not to show it. His student, Zeno, was much more at ease with ogling the dancer.
* AncientGreece: Athens, to be precise.
* BehindEveryGreatMan: Xanthippe turns out to have been behind Socrates, although he, and especially Plato, tended to change or misunderstand her words.
* BreakingTheFourthWall: When Periktione chastises her son for not showing proper decorum, she mentions "the audience" a couple of times.
* BrokenBird: You wouldn't see it if she didn't let you, and she probably wouldn't let you, but Phryne [[spoiler: has been conned out of an agreeable marriage, hence DefiledForever, then actually raped, abandoned like a used tissue, finally had to leave her ChildByRape in a temple, which ''broke her heart'']], and due to all this, gradually learned to treat men the way they treated her, as means to her own ends.
* ConversationalTroping: Periktione, being an educated lady. See the Shout-outs entry. Also, the ''Phryne's Symposium'' is a discussion of love, constructed just like [[Literature/{{Symposium}} the one Plato wrote]], with a similar FrameStory, except it's the ladies partying and talking.
* DisappearedDad: Plato's dad is dead, fuelling his youthful angst.
* DiscussedTrope: Xanthippe explains to Plato why his ideal state would [[ArtisticLicenseEconomics fail economics forever]].
* Elopement: In Phryne's backstory. [[spoiler: But her lover Peleus turned out to be a lying bastard. And a rapist.]]
* EmoTeen: When he first appears, Plato is just eighteen and very, very emo. Including bad poetry, [[TrashOfTheTitans messy room]], blaming his mom for ParentalNeglect and being [[AmazinglyEmbarrassingParents terribly embarrassed by her]]. Also, his name is not Aristocles, it's Plato, get it right, mom!
* EveryoneIsGay: Shades of it, especially in 'Phryne's Symposium''. Its FrameStory, too, is rather suggestive about the relationship between the storyteller and her lady friend.
* FanBoy: Young Plato, for Socrates, which really, really annoys him. Especially when the kid [[MisaimedFandom misunderstands]] what Socrates said. Young Aristotle seems more of an innocently smartass teenager than starstruck, though.
* Foreshadowing: Periktione foresees and criticizes ''Hegel and Marx'' over two thousand years before either is born. Xanthippe seems to anticipate some things Creator/{{Aristotle}} would later say ([[Creator/{{Socrates}} her husband]] says she's [[LampshadeHanging ahead of her time]], and sure enough, when Aristotle appears, she offers to teach him). There's also a footnote mentioning that the really great poets' influence stretches [[TemporalParadox backwards in time]], citing [[TheZerothLawOfTropeExamples/WilliamShakespeare shakespearean quotations]] in Athenian plays.
* FootnoteFever: Since this is a NonFiction work [[spoiler: or rather, a facsimile of one]] it has a fair share of footnotes, often displaying subtle TextbookHumor and quoting many other works [[spoiler:both fictional and real]].
* GreenEyedMonster: Discussed and demonstrated during the symposium, when Lastanea thinks Fryne's Plato is the philosopher Plato, and when Archeanassa admits to being in love with Plato [[spoiler: the philosopher, not that horrible playwright - cue CatFight]].
* HappilyMarried: Xanthippe says she and Socrates were, all their lives, unlike what the cynics claimed.
* HighClassCallGirl: Phryne and her friend, Archeanassa.
* HistoricalDomainCharacter: Pretty much everyone, obviously.
* HistoricalInJoke: [[spoiler: A book-length one to platonic dialogues, complete with a story of how Scruton found these previously unknown writings in Alexandria.]]
* HystericalWoman: Inverted - it turns out Socrates's ''male students'' were the ones to get overwhelmed by emotion and needing to be led out of the room, while Xanthippe [[StayWithMeUntilIDie stays with him to the end]].
* TheIngenue: Phryne, at seventeen, was a naive country girl, overwhelmed by her mother's death, the big city and the perspective of an ArrangedMarriage to a (supposedly...) terrible man.
* IgnoredEnamoredUnderling: Everyone can tell Lastenea is starstruck with Plato, her teacher, who, as far as we know, pretends not to notice her. Possibly because she's [[SweetPollyOliver pretending to be a boy]] so she can attend his lectures.
* ImprobablyFemaleCast: Phryne's symposium is ladies-only. All the existant sources from the era only mention exclusively male symposia, although...
* InstructionalDialogue: In the vein of the classical platonic dialogues. [[spoiler: Except matters addressed are quite modern - or maybe just timeless?]]
* MeasuringTheMarigolds: Both the main speakers think this is where the philosophers go wrong, disregarding the concrete (including love, which is always particular) in favour of the general and abstract. They deem this especially bad in ethics and politics.
* MenAreBetterThanWomen: Lastenea claims men love better than women - from Doylist perspective, she's obviously recounting Plato's views, so they can be picked apart later. From Watsonian perspective, she's just as obviously head over heels with the philosopher.
* MotherNatureFatherScience: The men, especially Plato and Parmenides, are singlemindedly after their vision of truth, neglecting everything else. The women know better.
* LibationForTheDead: Xanthippe is reminded to make one. [[spoiler: By the dearly departed, her husband's, ghost himself.]]
* LoveHurts: Discussed during Phryne's symposium. Phryne herself describes how she desperately loved Peleus, all the while hating him for what he did.
* OneSteveLimit: Averted in Athens - Phryne's latest conquest is Plato the playwright, not Plato the philosopher.
* PlatonicCave: Xanthippe reinterprets it: the person who goes out of the cave won't be able to help those remaining when he comes back, because [[DayHurtsDarkAdjustedEyes he's blinded by the light]]. The real life is back in the cave, or in a house ([[DarkIsNotEvil houses were rather dark back then]]).
* ParentWithNewParamour: Periktione having remarried is a constant source of ParentalSexualitySquick and shame for her son, Plato.
* ThePhilosopher: Everyone! More or less successfully.
* PoliticallyCorrectHistory: It appears that our vision of history is sadly incomplete, in parts even plain wrong (more than we thought it was), having neglected the women's opinions.
* PoliceState: Plato's ideal (see ''Literature/TheRepublic''), criticised by Xanthippe, who seems to be an adherent of UsefulNotes/TheCommonLaw.
* PromotedFanboy: Plato founds his own school in Socrates's honour.
* PromiscuityAfterRape: Phryne's road from a naive country girl to the most famous courtesan in Athens begins with [[spoiler: her rape by a man she was in love with and would have slept with willingly if he hadn't forced himself on her.]]
* StacysMom: Plato's mom Periktione is stated to look much younger than she really is.
* {{Socialite}}: Periktione, the classy, somewhat self-absorbed and flighty, but generally friendly lady.
* ShoutOut:
** Creator/{{Aristophanes}} is mentioned along with his ''Theatre/TheClouds'' (the one that ridicules Socrates) and ''Theatre/TheFrogs''.
** Creator/{{Socrates}} [[spoiler: also, his ghost]] and Creator/{{Plato}} are speaking characters. Parmenides as well, although we see him through Periktione's eyes. Creator/{{Aristotle}} appears briefly as a [[YoungFutureFamousPeople student]].
** ''Literature/TheRepublic'', especially Plato's vision of a perfect political entity gets thoroughly discussed and reinterpreted from woman's point of view.
** Several Greek playwrights and poets like Pindar, Creator/{{Sappho}} or Corinna are mentioned by the ever classy Periktione. Sappho's hymn to [[LoveGoddess Aphrodite]] is also sung by Periktione's granddaughter during Phryne's symposium.
** [[spoiler: Xanthippe quotes the future (to her) philosopher Hegel's famous saying: the owl of Minerva spreads its wings only with the falling of the dusk.]]
* SweetPollyOliver: How Lastenea and Arete get around town (Lastenea disguises herself to study in the Academy). Phryne has also used a male disguise in the past.
* TextbookHumor: The index has a recursion joke. [[spoiler: It's also full of shout-outs, Author's tongue-in-cheek opinions, and has nothing to do with the book at all. It's hilarious.]]
* TextileWorkIsFeminine: Xanthippe, when she's widowed, makes her living this way. She teaches Plato a little, but he's no good at it.
* WineIsClassy: Yes and no - everyone drinks wine, because it's AncientGreece. Plato complains about the horse piss they have in Sicily, though, so there's at least some elitism about it.
* WomenAreWiser: Xanthippe and Periktione are consistently portrayed as more practical, far-seeing and manganimous than their men.
