Abstract: This article is dedicated to the history of education in Ancient Greece of the VII-IV BC; however, unlike the majority of researchers of this topic, the author focuses primarily on its “pragmatic” aspect – availability of education for various social classes and strata. Despite the “democratization” of education which coincided with the attainment of civil character, the full scope of the existed at the certain historical period knowledge was accessible only to a limited circle of educatees. If practically any citizen and even slaves could receive elementary education (in many poleis it was either cheap or free), the so-called “higher education” was reserved only for the propertied classes. The author analyzes the prices for education at the various stages of education and in various philosophical schools, as well as the level of popularization of book publishing, as well as emphasizes that the question of class affiliation and social background of certain ancient scholars is very important for reconstruction of their creative evolution, as it allows concluding on the “starting” scope their knowledge.

Abstract: The subject of this research is the "white spots" in Plato's biography. Despite the thousand-year history of studying this subject, there are quite a few of these "spots". The author notes that the number of not only reliable but even merely available sources on the life of Plato is very small. This, however, never hindered biographers of the philosopher in constructing a complete and consistent picture of his life, filling-in gaps arbitrarily at their own will. One of the better-known facts of Plato's biography is his noble origins. Ancient authors traced Plato's family to the legendary king Codrus, and record Solon and Anacreon as among his relatives. In writing this article the author conducted a critical analysis of historical written sources, a hermeneutic analysis of the texts, as well as a comparative analysis. The study's novelty lies in the author's detailed analysis of the prosopography of the Codri and of the origins and family ties of Plato's ancestors, on the basis of which the author comes to the conclusion of the incorrectness of the unquestioned attribution of Plato to this ancient Athenian clan. The author also uncovered the philosopher's motives and methods of persuading his circle of his belonging to the aristocratic elite, as well as the problem of Plato's real name. Additionally, the author analyzes two hypotheses according to which the philosopher could either have chosen for himself the pseudonym of Plato in order to highlight the breadth of his word and thought, or, indeed, could have been called Plato from his birth. The legend of the Aristocles name was invented later, during the period of Hellenism. The author is certain that the reconstruction of Plato's biography has significant heuristic value and that this topic deserves further painstaking research.

Abstract: This article gives special attention to Anacharsis – one of the most mysterious and contradictory persona of the Ancient Greek history. Despite many surviving testimonies on the life of a remarkable Scythian and fragments of his doctrine, many researchers still have doubts about the historicity of this character. The popular in Antiquity image of Anacharsis as a “Wiseman-savage” who avoided the decaying influence of civilization is being formed in the works of Ephorus and the Cynics, and later in the works of Diodorus, Plutarch, Aelian, and Lucian. Ephorus made Anacharsis one of the Seven Sages, which endows him with the status of one of the founders of philosophy. Perhaps the image of Anacharsis was used for the purpose of allegorical propaganda, namely to magnify the Athens. The author concludes that Anacharsis’ philosophy differs from the contemporary to him Greek philosophy and reveals him as an alien from a different civilization; it demonstrates the motives characteristic to Indo-European mentality and mythology. It is also important to understand that Anacharsis influence upon the Greek philosophy was highly significant; and reflected in the works of Cynics, Sophists, Plato, and Aristotle. Thus we can conclude that directly or indirectly, Anacharsis’ doctrine compiles the foundation of the Greek, as well as the Western philosophy, and due to this fact it requires a more detailed attention of the researchers.

Abstract: The article discusses the peculiarities of transformation of the image of Abaris the Hyperborean in connection with the more general question of the cult of newcomers from distant lands who brought into the Hellenic world wisdom that was before unknown. Analysis of historical sources about the life and work of Abaris demonstrates that while it is a quite rational and easy to understand figure in the work of the ancient writers (Pindar, Herodotus, Plato and others), during the Hellenism it had acquired absolutely fantastic features that can be attributed to the general state of public consciousness, characterized by interest in mysticism, irrationalism and exotic cults, and also to the departure in the historical memory of thought, traditions, and metaphysical invariants introduced to Greece in the pre-homeric culture by Indo-European tribes who invaded the Mediterranean-Balkan region. Therefore, the problem placed in front of the researcher is de-mythologization of Abaris' image, which would clear him from the later accretions and reveal his true sides. De-mythologization of image of Abaris not only provides the key to the explanation of the "dark places" of our knowledge of his personality and activity, but also leads us to a broader problem - reception by the ancient Greeks of the Indo-European mental matrix as the most important condition for formation of the modern Western civilization.

Abstract: A Special attention in this article is given to the study of the Ancient Greek sophistry established by the XIX-XX century. The author underlines that there is a consensus of indifference and neglect within the historical-philosophical science with regards to the sophists. The two different ways of reconstruction of the “systems” and outlooks, existed at that time in philosophy, are being proposed. The first way consists in the reconstruction of the teacher “system” through the follower; and the second way consists in the in-depth interpretation of the present fragments, which tries to leave the vulgar interpretations, emerging from the initial orientation on the primitivism of the Greeks, outside the framework. Thus, we can build a genealogical tree of the early Greek philosophers. The main conclusion lies in the fact that over the last decades the attempts were made in rehabilitation of the sophists. In particular, such attempt was made by Barbara Cassin, but her post-modernist approach cannot be fully recognized as satisfactory, because she rejects the ontology of the sophists in favor of the rhetoric. The author comes to an understanding that the sophists give us a so-called “ontology of imagination”, a more initial ontology, than the ontology of traditional metaphysics with its millenary separation into “visible and invisible”, into the “world of senses and world of ideas”.

Abstract: Particular attention is paid to the author's attempts to find the key to explaining “dark places” in our knowledge about the personality and doctrine of the legendary Orpheus. Since the days of Aristotle, scientists began to express doubts about the historical reality of Orpheus. He was too heterogenous to the Greek world to be recognized as really lived among the Greeks. Many elements of the Orphic doctrine were so uncommon for the ancient Greek thought that since the time of Herodotus they were believed to be imported (from Egypt, Iran, Phoenicia, Asia Minor, Hittite Empire). Some researchers of the XXth century were inclined to seek the origins of Orphism even further, to the north of the Eurasian continent, in the territories of shamanism. Either way, the Orphic doctrine is likely to be of northern origin which can be indirectly proved by the non-Greek (north-Balkan) origin of the name of Orpheus. In his research the author has used the methods of drawing analogies, parallels and conducting a dialogue to describe the similarities and differences of philosophical cultures as well as the mechanism of their interaction. The novelty of the research is caused by the fact that the author has attempted to draw parallels between the figure of Orpheus and archetypal ancient Russian Grand Guslar embodied in the images of Sadko, Bojan and the hero of “The Book of Doves”, tsar David Evseevich. All these figures have the following features in common: their ability to influence nature and natural forces with their music, cosmological nature of their activity, magical nature of their instruments (lyre and gusli), traditionally recognized syncretism of the images of the sage and musician. The researcher also draws the parallels between the epics of Sadko, hymn of Varuna and Vasistha of the Rigveda and Argonautica by Apollonius of Rhodes. The proximity of plots, similarity of the figures of wizard singers may prove that they originate from the same source, in particular, the tradition of the times of the Indo-European community. The main conclusion of the study is that there are reasonable grounds to speak about the origin of the Indo-European image of Orpheus and his doctrine (if we cannot yet speak of him as a real historical figure) and put forward a hypothesis about their invasion into Greece in the second half of the 2d millennium BC.