Robinson, Steven. 1998's Drama, dialogue and dialectic: Dionysos and the dionysiac in PDF

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Additional info for Drama, dialogue and dialectic: Dionysos and the dionysiac in Plato's Symposium

Sample text

Socrates, who is merely humaa. can be tebom only symboücally, dming this Me and before bis acnial death- Socrates, then, unüke Dionysos, mut be portrayed as both "dying" and "reviving" at one and the same tirne. The problem with such an account (as with Bacon's, which makes the dialogues into a juxtaposition or mixture of the tragic and comic) is that it makes Plato out to be quite favourabIy disposed towards dramatic poetry as an art form. There is, of course, an ancient tradition that Plato had originally intended to be a tragedian, and had even composed tragedies More he met Socrates; these two commentators see the mature Plato as once again giving rein to his youthful ambitions.

It is even possible that this is itself set during the Lmaion dionysia. Though drama and svmwsia have littie or nothing to do with each other, both are closely connected to the figure of Dionysos. Plato has thus created a doubly-dionysiac context by combining them in this way. 4) Eros A third dionysiac aspect is the topic of discussion: Eros, the god of erotic love. Here we m u t tread carefdy; eros (sexual desire) holds a prominent place in generally, but this was not necessarily on account of Dionysos.

Another problem with Krllger's nading is that it seems to imply that Plato is openly declaring in the that both he himself and Socrates are guilty of the The fact that Aiki'biades gives this praise grudgingly, and even declans, There can be no teconciliation between you and met' m the context of references to violence (213d6), might appear to support Kr(iger's reading, but only if tbis is tbe god speakhg and not Aikibiades penonaiiy. This threat of violence is inconsisrcnt with the nature of the praise Aiikbiades gives, and while such inccmsistency is understandable in the case of a human sou1 being puiied in opposite directions (precisely AUo'bades' chunstance here), it does not seem understandable in the case of the god Dionysos himself.

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