The following bibliographical references list only works available in English. An extensive bibliography on Plato scholarship is available in R. Kraut, ed., The Cambridge Companion to Plato (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992), 493-529.
Plato’s complete works are now available in several editions:
The Dialogues of Plato, translated into English with analyses and introductions by B. Jowett, 4th edn., revised by order of the Jowett Copyright Trustees (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1953).
Plato, Complete Works, edited with an introduction and notes by J. M. Cooper, with D. S. Hutchinson (Indianapolis: Hackett, 1997).
Plato, The Collected Dialogues, edited by E. Hamilton and H. Cairns (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1989) (which includes seven dialogues in Jowett’s translation).
Although no general consensus has been reached among scholars as to the chronology of Plato’s works, the prevailing view is that Protagoras, Gorgias, Symposium, Phaedo, Republic, Phaedrus, Statesman, Timaeus, and Critias (from which the myths collected in this volume have been taken) were written in this order. For a brief review of the vast scholarship on the chronology of Plato’s works see C. Kahn, ‘Questions of Chronology’, in Plato and the Socratic Dialogue: The Philosophical Use of a Literary Form (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998), 42–8.
A selection of Plato’s myths is available in J. A. Stewart, The Myths of Plato, translated with introductory and other observations by J. A. Stewart (London and New York: Macmillan, 1905); 2nd edn. (London: Centaurus Press, 1960); 3rd edn. (New York: Barnes and Noble, 1970).
A good starting point is R. M. Hare, Plato (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1982). A rather brief but clear introduction to Plato’s philsophy as a whole is B. Williams, Plato (New York: Routledge, 1999). Also very useful is R. Kraut, ‘Introduction to the Study of Plato’, in R. Kraut, ed., The Cambridge Companion to Plato (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992), 1–50. A more detailed introduction to Plato that pays special attention to Plato’s literary art and his myths is R. B. Rutherford, The Art of Plato (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1995).
A good short overall account of Plato’s use of myth is P. Murray, ‘What Is a Muthos for Plato?’, in R. Buxton, ed., From Myth to Reason? Studies in the Development of Greek Thought (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), 251–62.
A comprehensive treatment of the subject is Luc Brisson’s Plato the Myth Maker [Platon, les mots et les mythes], translated, edited, and with an introduction by Gerard Naddaf (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998). Brisson’s book includes extensive bibliographical references, several indexes, and a section (135–9) that briefly discusses Marcel Detienne’s influential The Creation of Mythology [L’Invention de la mythologie], translated from the French by M. Cook (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1986).
A valuable study of the use of myth by the Greek philosophers from Xenophanes to Plato is Kathryn A. Morgan, Myth and Philosophy from the Pre-Socratics to Plato (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000), which also has many references to Detienne’s and Brisson’s books (see above).
On the relation between muthos and logos especially useful is Christopher Rowe, ‘Myth, History, and Dialectic in Plato’s Republic and Timaeus–Critias’, in R. Buxton, ed., From Myth to Reason? Studies in the Development of Greek Thought (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), 251–62.
On the distinction between myth, falsehood, and fiction in Plato one can benefit by reading Christopher Gill, ‘Plato on Falsehood–Not Fiction’, in Christopher Gill and T. P. Wiseman, eds., Lies and Fiction in the Ancient World (Exeter: University of Exeter Press, 1993), 38–87.
1. The Origin of Virtue (Protagoras 320c–323a)
O. Balaban, ‘The Myth of Protagoras and Plato’s Theory of Measurement’, History of Philosophy Quarterly, 4 (1987), 371–84.
S. Kofman, ‘Prometheus, the First Philosopher’, Sub-stance, 15/50 (1986), 26–35.
H. G. Wolz, ‘The Protagoras Myth and the Philosopher-Kings’, Review of Metaphysics, 17 (1963–4), 214–34.
2. The Judgement of Souls (Gorgias 523a–527a)
D. L. Blank, ‘The Fate of the Ignorant in Plato’s Gorgias’, Hermes, 119 (1991), 22–36.
Ch. B. Daniels, ‘The Afterlife Myth in Plato’s Gorgias’, Journal of Value Inquiry, 26 (1992), 271–279.
D. Kaatmann, ‘The Role of the Myth in Plato’s Gorgias’, Dialogue (ΦΣT), 38 (1995), 15–20.
3. The Androgyne (Symposium 189c–193e)
K. J. Dover, ‘Aristophanes’ Speech in Plato’s Symposium’, Journal of Hellenic Studies, 86 (1966), 41–50.
Ch. E. Salman, ‘The Wisdom of Plato’s Aristophanes’, Interpretation, 18 (1990–1), 233–50.
A. W. Saxonhouse, ‘The Net of Hephaestus: Aristophanes’ Speech in the Symposium’, Interpretation, 13 (1985), 15–32.
4. The Birth of Love (Symposium 201d–212c)
A. Bloom, ‘The Ladder of Love’, in Plato’s Symposium, tr. S. Bernadete (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001), 55–177.
L. Irigaray, ‘Sorcerer Love: A Reading of Plato’s Symposium, Diotima’s Speech’, Hypatia, 3 (1989), 32–44.
A. Nye, ‘The Subject of Love: Diotima and Her Critics’, Journal of Value Inquiry, 24 (1990), 135–53.
5. The Other World (Phaedo 107c–115a)
K. Dorter, ‘The Myth of Afterlife (107c1–115a3)’, in Plato’s Phaedo: An Introduction (Toronto: Toronto University Press, 1982), 162–75.
A. Mendelson, ‘Plato’s Phaedo and the Fragility of Human Nature’, Dionysius, 5 (1981), 29–39.
P. C. Santilli, ‘Socrates and Asclepius: The Final Words’, International Studies in Philosophy, 22 (1990), 29–39.
D. Sedley, ‘Theology and Myth in the Phaedo’, in J. J. Cleary, ed., Boston Area Colloquium in Ancient Philosophy, vol. v (Lanham, Md.: University of America Press, 1991), 359–83; commentary by G. Fine, 384–98.
6. The Cave (Republic, 514a–517a)
R. K. Elliot, ‘Socrates and Plato’s Cave’, Kant-Studien, 58 (1967), 137–57.
J. Ferguson, ‘Sun, Line and Cave Again’, Classical Quarterly, 13 (1963), 188–93.
J. Malcolm, ‘The Cave Revisited’, Classical Quarterly, 31 (1981) 60–8.
C. Strang, ‘Plato’s Analogy of the Cave’, Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy, 4 (1986), 19–34.
7. Er’s Journey into the Other World (Republic, 614b–621d)
G. Schills, ‘Plato’s Myth of Er: The Light and the Spindle’, Antiquité Classique, 62 (1993), 101–14.
I. C. Lieb, ‘Philosophy as Spiritual Formation: Plato’s Myth of Er’, Philosophical Quarterly, 3 (1963), 271–85.
H. S. Thayer, ‘The Myth of Er’, History of Philosophy Quarterly, 5 (1988), 369–84.
8. The Winged Soul (Phaedrus, 246a–257a)
R. Bett, ‘Immortality and the Nature of the Soul in the Phaedrus’, Phronesis, 31 (1986), 1–26.
M. Dyson, ‘Zeus and Philosophy in the Myth of Plato’s Phaedrus’, Classical Quarterly, 32 (1982), 307–11.
D. D. McGibbon, ‘The Fall of the Soul in Plato’s Phaedrus’, Classical Quarterly, 14 (1964), 56–63.
M. Nussbaum, ‘“This Story Isn’t True”: Madness, Reason, and Recantation in the Phaedrus’, in The Fragility of the Goodness. Luck and Ethics in Greek Tragedy and Philosophy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986), 200–33.
9. The Two Cosmic Eras (Statesman 268d–274e)
R. D. Mohr, ‘The Formation of the Cosmos in the Statesman Myth’, Phoenix, 32 (1978), 250–2.
A. W. Nightingale, ‘Plato on the Origins of Evil: The Statesman Myth Reconsidered’, Ancient Philosophy, 16 (1996), 65–91.
T. M. Robinson, ‘Demiurge and World Soul in Plato’s Politicus’, American Journal of Philosophy, 88 (1967), 57–66.
P. Vidal-Naquet, ‘Plato’s Myth of the Statesman: The Ambiguities of the Golden Age and of History’, Journal of Hellenic Studies, 98 (1978), 132–41.
10. Atlantis and the Ancient City of Athens (Timaeus 20d–25d;Critias 108e–121c)
C. Gill, ‘The Genre of the Atlantis Story’, Classical Philology, 72 (1977), 287–304.
———‘Plato’s Atlantis Story and the Birth of Fiction’, Philosophy and Literature, 3 (1979), 64–78.
——— Plato: The Atlantis Story (Bristol: Bristol Classical Press. 1980).
K. A. Morgan, ‘Designer History: Plato’s Atlantis Story and Fourth-Century Ideology’, Journal of Hellenic Studies, 118 (1998), 101–18.
G. Nadaff, ‘The Atlantis Myth: An Introduction to Plato’s Later Philosophy of History’, Phoenix, 48 (1994), 189–209.
E. S. Ramage, ed., Atlantis: Fact or Fiction? (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1978).
For the rich and complex development of Platonism the following books by John Dillon are extremely useful: The Golden Chain: Studies in the Development of Platonism and Christianity (Aldershot: Gower, 1990); The Great Tradition: Further Studies in the Development of Platonism and Early Christianity (Aldershot: Ashgate, 1997); and The Heirs of Plato (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003). The following collection of essays is also helpful: John J. Cleary, ed., Traditions of Platonism. Essays in Honour of John Dillon (Aldershot: Ashgate, 1999).
Walter Friedrich Otto’s classic study on Greek mythology and religion is particularly useful: The Homeric Gods: The Spiritual Significance of Greek Religion [Die Götter Griechenlands], translated by Moses Hadas (New York: Pantheon, 1954).
Also useful are J. P. Vernant, The Universe, the Gods, and Men: Ancient Greek Myths [L’Univers, les dieux, les hommes: récits grecs des origines], translated from the French by L. Asher (New York: HarperCollins, 2001); and P. Vidal-Naquet, The Black Hunter: Forms of Thought and Forms of Society in the Greek World [Le Chasseur noir], translated by A. Szegedy-Maszak, with a foreword by B. Knox (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1986).
Of the vast literature on myth a very good introduction to the subject is Mircea Eliade, Myth and Reality [Aspects du mythe], translated from the French by W. R. Trask (New York and Evanston: Harper and Row, 1963); it contains a basic bibliography.