Documenti di Didattica
Documenti di Professioni
Documenti di Cultura
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content
in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship.
For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.
The Johns Hopkins University Press and American Philological Association are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize,
preserve and extend access to Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association.
http://www.jstor.org
This content downloaded from 132.248.9.8 on Mon, 02 Mar 2015 22:30:23 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
282
Eric AlfredHavelock
[1934
ALFRED
HAVELOCK
VICTORIA COLLEGE
Dramatizedconversationwas a traditionalmethodofrenderingabstract
ideas, as examplesfromthe poets and historiansshow. Hence the "SocraticLogoi," whetherof Xenophon or Plato, owe their formto literary
reasons,and not to a desireto representthe historicSocrates. It is only
modernprejudiceand literaryfashionwhichpreventsthe fact frombeing
appreciated.
If these logoi are eliminatedas primaryevidence,we are leftwith the
Apologyand Clouds,whichare likelyto be historicalin a sense in which
none of the othermaterialis. These two sourcesyield a simpleand consistentset of ideas whichcan safelybe labelled "Socratic."
283
This content downloaded from 132.248.9.8 on Mon, 02 Mar 2015 22:30:23 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
[1934
Eric AlfredHavelock
284
pr7TOpLK77P
L.
pe?V,
i,
viii,
13b, 1 f.).
57, 'ApLuToTriX7s
Z7'rwpa
Ue
3LaXEKTLK7'P
4Oil'
7wp TOP
'E7rew3KXEta
Parmenides 135d.
This content downloaded from 132.248.9.8 on Mon, 02 Mar 2015 22:30:23 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
285
Hdt. I, 86.
Thuc. v, 85.
This content downloaded from 132.248.9.8 on Mon, 02 Mar 2015 22:30:23 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
286
Eric AlfredHavelock
[1934
This content downloaded from 132.248.9.8 on Mon, 02 Mar 2015 22:30:23 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Vol. lxv]
287
Ka &XXv 7roXAX7v
Ovaplav cOvapouvJTa, W'VEycWov6ev oTre ,ttiya oTre /tKpJv 7rEpt
eiraltw(Apol. 19c) as "I can make neitherhead nor tail of this nonsense,"when
This content downloaded from 132.248.9.8 on Mon, 02 Mar 2015 22:30:23 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
288
Eric AlfredHavelock
[1934
This content downloaded from 132.248.9.8 on Mon, 02 Mar 2015 22:30:23 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
289
a hundredand thirtypages are devoted to the life,and fortyfour to the thought of the philosopher. This proportionis
the exact reverse of the one observed by the disciples of
Socrates. To amass enough biographicalmaterial to fillthe
record,a desperate use has to be made of what authoritieswe
have.
Plato was not interestedin men, but in ideas. He constructs dramatic situations which will allow him to expose
throughthe mediumof a conversationsome abstractproblem.
He projects this conversationinto the past, oftentaking care
to underlinethe fact, as for example in the introductionsto
the Symposiumand Phaedo.16 This projectionhas the same
effectas that achieved by the tragic dramatist who used a
conventionalizedcharacterdrawn frommythology:it enabled
Plato to subordinatecharacterto ideas, expressinghis ideas
throughthe mouths of historicfigureswho were just remote
enough to avoid intrudingas a distractionin his educative
mime. By way of contrast,one may compare the modern
attitudeas it is illustratedby the techniqueofLyttonStrachey,
the writerwho perhaps has developed the art of biographyto
its logical conclusion. He deliberatelyexposes the private
life and inneremotionsof his subject, ratherthan the public
career which everyoneknows. He is interested,forexample,
to let us see Queen Victorialess as a queen and moreas a lover
of her husband, or Florence Nightingaleless as the "lady with
the lamp" than as an imperiousinvalid on a couch, ordering
ArthurHugh Clough to tie up brown paper parcels for her.
If we are in sympathywiththe modernmood, we applaud the
method because we feel that it is in the minuterevelationof
individualcharacterthat truthand meaningis to be found. I
cannot imagine an attitude more alien to that of Greece, as
long as the city state still retainedsignificance;and Plato is a
child ofthe citystate, remotein spiritfromthat individualism
16Symp. 172c, iravrabraotv
aoL OV&ev
6 &t77yov'yevos,
EOCKE
EL
&t77yEZoOaL oaac/s
veco-rc -)y r')v o-vvovoLav -ye-yovevaLraVr77v 7'V CpWr,as, WorTEKaL e lrapa-yEv4aoaL:
Phaedo 57a . . . ovre rcs tfvos 4c/LKTaL xp6vov avXvoV &KELOEV O6ars av 7'7yzv vaa/es
Tt
a-y-yeLXaLo0tosr'v
ro6rwv.
7rept
This content downloaded from 132.248.9.8 on Mon, 02 Mar 2015 22:30:23 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
290
Eric AlfredHaveloclc
[1934
291
59b.
This content downloaded from 132.248.9.8 on Mon, 02 Mar 2015 22:30:23 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Eric AlfredHavelock
292
[1934
34b,
y4 eaTrL
Tp
2wKpa?r1 bLa'epEt
rLvTWTrv
7roXXWCP&
YavOpwc7rwY.
This content downloaded from 132.248.9.8 on Mon, 02 Mar 2015 22:30:23 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
293
Apol. 19 c-d, 26 d, 33 b.
See note 11.
22 "The
Socratic Conception of the Soul," in the Proceedings of the British
Academy VIII, 235-260, and article "Soul" (Greek) in Hastings, Enc. Rel. and
Eth. xi, 741.
This content downloaded from 132.248.9.8 on Mon, 02 Mar 2015 22:30:23 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Eric AlfredHavelock
294
[1934
Ma.
Mor.
i,
This content downloaded from 132.248.9.8 on Mon, 02 Mar 2015 22:30:23 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
295
This content downloaded from 132.248.9.8 on Mon, 02 Mar 2015 22:30:23 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions