Podcast episode
June 3, 2018
Episode 35: Mystery and Immortality: Plato’s Phædo
Plato’s Phædo is one of the great works of the western tradition. It has convinced many a great mind through history that their true nature is that of a soul, distinct from their body, immaterial, immortal, and destined for existence after death. But it is more the way in which Plato delivers his message than the message itself which interests us as students of western esotericism.
Socrates’ discourses on immortality consist in a fascinating fusion of rigorous dialectic and appeals to the authority of unnamed mystic rituals and teachings. Logos and mythos interweave in the dialogue. The Pythagorean and Orphic traditions furnish many of the stage settings for an exploration, not only of immortality, but of initiation, transformed philosophically.
Recommended Reading
- Dorter, K. (1972). ‘Equality, Recollection, and Purification’, Phronesis 17 : 198-218.
- McMinn, J. (1960). ‘Plato as a Philosophical Theologian’, Phronesis 5 : 23-31.
- McPherran, M. L., 1996. The Religion of Socrates. Penn State Press, University Park, PA.
- Morgan, K. A. (2010). ‘The Voice of Authority: Divination and Plato’s “Phædo”‘, The Classical Quarterly 60 : 63-81.
- Morgan, M., 1990. Platonic Piety: Philosophy and Ritual in Fourth-Century Athens. Yale University Press, New Haven, CT. esp. pp. 64, 75
- Parker, R., 1983. Miasma: Pollution and Purification in Early Greek Religion. Clarendon Press, Oxford.
Themes
Cosmology, Esoteric Tradition, Initiation, Mystery-Cult, Orphic Tradition, Philosophy, Plato, Pythagoras, Pythagoreanism, Reincarnation, Soul
Johannes Drever
September 19, 2019
Hi Earl,
at around 24:00 you say that Sokrates views the heavenly bodies as a “clockwork”. Where clockworks already around at this time? The wikipedia article on the history of timekeeping says that there were only water-clocks. So, would this be rather an etic ascription than a emic description?
Best,
Johannes
Earl Fontainelle
September 19, 2019
Dear Johannes,
No, geared clocks were totally not around at this time. This is me using an anachronistic simile; probably ‘interconnected system’ or something like that would have been more just. Note, though, that I did at least put this in the mouth of Plato, not of Socrates: how much of Plato’s astral religion was from Socrates is an open question, and my feeling (for what it’s worth) is that this was very much Plato’s own thing which he put into the mouth of his master.
However, it would not be long before the Hellenes did begin to model the celestial bodies using clockwork – we have no way of knowing how early the experiments which led up to the creation of the Antikythera Mechanism went, but you can bet the tinkering started some time in the third century BCE.
For anyone who hasn’t checked out the Antikythera Mechanism: it will blow your mind.
Johannes Drever
September 19, 2019
Dear Earl,
Thanks for the reply. That totally changes my perception of the ancient Greeks! For some reason I was wondering if someone has thought about Greek steampunk. Of course someone did: https://www.reddit.com/r/rpg/comments/270elg/ancient_greek_steampunk/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app
Cheers,
Johannes