Cebes of Thebes (, gen.: Κέβητος; ) was an Ancient Greek philosopher from Thebes remembered as a disciple of Socrates.

Life

Cebes was a disciple of Socrates and Philolaus, and a friend of Simmias of Thebes. He is one of the speakers in the Phaedo of Plato, in which he is represented as an earnest seeker after virtue and truth, keen in argument and cautious in decision. Xenophon says he was a member of Socrates' inner circle, and a frequent visitor to the hetaera, Theodote, in Athens.

The Tablet of Cebes

thumb|Title page with the Tablet of Cebes, by [[Hans Holbein the Younger, 1521. Metalcut by Jacob Faber.]]

The Tablet of Cebes is probably by a pseudonymous author of the 1st or 2nd century. The work professes to be an interpretation of an allegorical picture of a tablet on which the whole of human life with its dangers and temptations was symbolically represented, and which is said to have been dedicated by someone in the temple of Cronus at Athens or Thebes. The author introduces some youths contemplating the tablet, and an old man who steps among them undertakes to explain its meaning. An English translation and commentary by John T. Fitzgerald and L. Michael White was published in 1983.

See also

  • List of speakers in Plato's dialogues

References

  • The Greek Pilgrim's progress. Generally known as the Picture, by Kebes. Translated by Kenneth Sylvan Guthrie, 1910, at the Internet Archive.
  • Cebes' tablet, with introduction, notes, vocabulary, and grammatical questions. Greek, by Richard Parsons, 1904, at the Internet Archive.
  • The Table of Cebes, or, The Picture of Human Life. Translated by Thomas Scott, 1754.
  • An edition of the Tablet of Cebes by John Opsopaus, Ph.D.