Abstract

Why did Plato choose the word εδος as a technical term for his ›Forms‹? εδος and δéα were used synonymously in the common Greek language of the fi fthand fourth centuries, meaning in the fi rst place ›appearance, guise‹ of a person or of a thing, and then also ›type‹ of something, animate or inanimate, and ›wise,way‹ of doing something. None of these common meanings of the word εδος prepares for the application of the term which is encountered in the last part ofPlato’s Phaedo. In this essay, an attempt is made to show that the usage of εδος as it is applied in the Phaedo, as distinct from that of δéα, can only be understood against the background of the Pythagorean Philolaus; in a wholly different way, though, from what earlier scholars thought they had identifi ed as a Pythagorean background to Plato’s ›Theory of Forms‹.