This, the sequel to the same author’s much-acclaimed Xanthippic Dialogues, is a multi-faceted commentary on the post-modern condition, which takes the form of a part- Hellenistic, part-Arabian fairy tale. Archeanassa of Colophon, subject of a poem attributed by Diogenes Laertius to Plato, has returned to her birthplace in search of the lost manuscripts of another ex-lover, the poet Antimachus. There she encounters Perictione, Plato’s niece, who lives alone in the ruined and brutalized city amid memories and dreams. Perictione tells the strange story of Merope of Sardis, the Nietzschean philosopher who both made and destroyed her life. Little by little Archeanassa comes to recognize that Perictione’s story is also her own story, and that the mystery of Colophon is the mystery of modernity itself. Through dialogues, stories, and fantasies, the narrative explores the aesthetic way of life, and the possibilities of meaning in an age of inverted commas.
As original in form as it is inspired in content, Perictione in Colophon will take its place as one of the major philosophical statements of our time, and one which gives a moving and memorable account of two women seek, and finding, consolation.
This is how philosophy was meant to be learned.
