Plato and the Other Companions of Sokrates, 3rd ed. Volume 3

PLATO, AND THE OTHER COMPANIONS OF SOKRATES.




PLATO,

AND THE

OTHER COMPANIONS OF SOKRATES.



BY

GEORGE GROTE

AUTHOR OF THE 'HISTORY OF GREECE'.



_A NEW EDITION._

IN FOUR VOLUMES.

VOL. III.

LONDON:

JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET.

1888.

_The right of Translation is reserved._




CONTENTS.

CHAPTER XXVI.

PHÆDRUS--SYMPOSION.


These two are the two erotic dialogues of Plato. Phædrus is the
originator of both   1

Eros as conceived by Plato. Different sentiment prevalent in
Hellenic antiquity and in modern times. Position of women in
Greece   _ib._

Eros, considered as the great stimulus to improving philosophical
communion. Personal Beauty, the great point of approximation
between the world of sense and the world of Ideas. Gradual
generalisation of the sentiment   4

All men love Good, as the means of Happiness, but they pursue it
by various means. The name _Eros_ is confined to one special case
of this large variety   5

Desire of mental copulation and procreation, as the only
attainable likeness of immortality, requires the sight of personal
beauty as an originating stimulus   6

Highest exaltation of the erotic impulse in a few privileged
minds, when it ascends gradually to the love of Beauty in general.
This is the most absorbing sentiment of all   7

Purpose of the Symposion, to contrast this Platonic view of Eros
with several different views of it previously enunciated by the
other speakers; closing with a panegyric on Sokrates, by the
drunken Alkibiades   8

Views of Eros presented by Phædrus, Pausanias, Eryximachus,
Aristophanes, Agathon   9

Discourse of Sokrates from revelation of Diotima. He describes
Eros as not a God, but an intermediate Dæmon between Gods and men,
constantly aspiring to divinity, but not attaining it   9

Analogy of the erotic aspiration with that of the philosopher, who
knows his own ignorance and thirsts for knowledge   10

Eros as presented in the Phædrus--Discourse of Lysias, and
counter-discourse of Sokrates, adverse to Eros--Sokrates is seized
with remorse, and recants in a high-flown panegyric on Eros   11

Panegyric--Sokrates admits that the influence of Eros is a variety
of madness, but distinguishes good and bad varieties of madness,
both coming from the Gods. Good madness is far better than
sobriety   _ib._

Poetical mythe delivered by Sokrates, describing the immortality
and pre-existence of the soul, and its pre-natal condition of
partial companionship with
Gods and eternal Ideas   12

Operation of such pre-natal experience upon the Intellectual
faculties of man--Comparison and combination of particular
sensations indispensable--Reminiscence   13

Reminiscence is kindled up in the soul of the philosopher by the
aspect of visible Beauty, which is the great link between the
world of sense and the world of Ideas   14

Elevating influence ascribed, both in Phædrus and Symposion, to
Eros Philosophus. Mixture in the mind of Plato, of poetical fancy
and religious mysticism, with dialectic theory   15

Differences between Symposion and Phædrus. In-dwelling conceptions
assumed by the former, pre-natal experiences by the latter   17

Nothing but metaphorical immortality recognised in Symposion _ib._

Form or Idea of Beauty presented singly and exclusively in
Symposion   18

Eros recognised, both in Phædrus and Symposion, as affording the
initiatory stimulus to philosophy--Not so recognised in Phædon,
Theætêtus, and elsewhere   _ib._

Concluding scene and speech of Alkibiades in the
Symposion--Behaviour of Sokrates to Alkibiades and other handsome
youths   19

Perfect self-command of Sokrates--proof against every sort of
trial   20

Drunkenness of others at the close of the Symposion--Sokrates is
not affected by it, but continues his dialectic process   21

Symposion and Phædon--each is the antithesis and complement of the
other   22

Symposion of Plato compared with that of Xenophon    _ib._

Small proportion of the serious, in the Xenophontic Symposion   24

Platonic Symposion more ideal and transcendental than the
Xenophontic   25

Second half of the Phædrus--passes into a debate on Rhetoric. Eros
is considered as a subject for rhetorical exercise   26

Lysias is called a logographer by active politicians. Contempt
conveyed by the word. Sokrates declares that the only question is,
Whether a man writes well or ill   27

Question about teaching the art of writing well or speaking well.
Can it be taught upon system or principle? Or does the successful
Rhetor succeed only by unsystematic knack?   28

Theory of Sokrates--that all art of persuasion must be founded
upon a knowledge of the truth, and of gradations of resemblance to
the truth _ib._

Comparison made by Sokrates between the discourse of Lysias and
his own. Eros is differently understood: Sokrates defined what he
meant by it: Lysias did not define