This volume contains papers and commentaries presented at the 13th annual Boston Area Colloquium in Ancient Philosophy during the academic year 1990-1991. Along with a preface and introduction by the editor, it features the following major contributions: Harold Attridge, Gnostic Platonism ; Richard Kraut, Return to the Cave: Republic 519-521 ; Elizabeth Asmis, Epicurean Ethics ; Jaap Mansfield, The Concept of Will in Posidonius and Galen ; Christopher Rowe, Philosophy and Literature: The Arguments of Plato’s Phaedo ; Richard Patterson, The Ascent in Plato’s Sympostum ; and Richard Janko, Philodemus Restatus .