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Secondary sourcePainting1780

Socrates Teaching Pericles

Nicolas Guibal · 1780

An 18th-century painting imagining Pericles receiving instruction from the philosopher Socrates.

Imagines Pericles receiving philosophical teaching, reflecting his reputation for intellectual leadership.

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Oil painting of a bearded man in a white robe, gesturing upward, speaking to a helmeted figure in red drapery and plumed helmet, with other men seated and standing around a table with fruit under a dark draped canopy.
Nicolas Guibal, Socrates Teaching Pericles, 1780.

About this source

What it is

This 1780 painting by Nicolas Guibal shows a bearded man in a white robe, representing Socrates, speaking to a helmeted figure identified with Pericles, surrounded by other seated and standing men. It is an imagined scene created long after both men lived.

Why it matters

Pericles is often associated with the intellectual life of classical Athens, including philosophers like Socrates, even though their direct relationship is debated by historians. This painting reflects 18th-century fascination with ancient Greek philosophy and leadership.

Look closer

  • What does the gesture of pointing upward usually symbolize in classical art?
  • Why might the artist have placed Pericles in military dress among philosophers?
  • What assumptions about ancient Athens does this painting reveal, true or not?

This painting is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Pericles on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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Parthenon

447-432 BCE

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Kresilas · Roman copy, from a Greek original near Pericles' lifetime

Facsimile page of Greek manuscript handwriting in minuscule script, nine lines of dark ink on white, headed 'Facsimile No. 57', with a transcription and caption 'Thucydides.—Tenth Century' below.Book

Primary source

History of the Peloponnesian War

Thucydides · 5th century BCE

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Life of Pericles

Plutarch

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