As the first article in its March 1889 issue, The Classical Review published a short piece jointly authored by Henry Sidgwick and John Grote: a dialogue between Socrates and friends and John’s brother, George Grote. This brief but complex and playful dialogue is a microcosm of a broader discussion between a group of friends, colleagues, and relatives in the third quarter of the nineteenth century about individual happiness, justice and the good of the community. This article introduces the dialogue and places it in the context of two important wider debates in order to show how this brief dialogue illuminates the intellectual milieu of the time and the personalities involved. The first is a debate about how to read and engage with Plato’s philosophical dialogues. The second is a debate about utilitarianism, the nature of happiness, and the correct end of human actions.

Although the evidence is limited, examples of professional female poets who composed public songs for their communities, commissioned by wealthy families and women patrons, suggest that female performance activated the same economic dynamics as the work of male poets in relation to their patrons. Thus, women contributed to the economic life of their communities through their poetic voices, and were able to express their views on social, political and economic matters.

Discussion of several words whose treatment by LSJ is found defective, and a new emendation in Demosthenes 35.17.