MYTH - THE FINAL PHASE OF PLATONIC EDUCATION

Tim Addey, Chairman, Prometheus Trust and Editor of `Thomas Taylor Series', on 5 February 2002

The lecture began by re-examining the common misconception that Plato disapproved of poetic myth: it was suggested that this misconception arose from a too narrow reading of a passage in the second and third books of Republic (377c fl) in which Socrates condemns Homer and other poets. The lecture suggested that closer inspection of this condemnation shows that it can be seen to be applicable only to those instances where such myths might be taken literally rather than symbolically. In sharp contrast several other passages of his writings were quoted to show that Plato was an admirer of myth and its power once the hearer had undergone an extensive philosophical training.

A brief analysis of the structure of Platonic dialogues showed that most move through three distinct phases: -

Firstly, there is a statement of accepted truth - a formula which encapsulates the best view of the subject from a traditional perspective, or an opinion held by a protagonist: this corresponds to the lowest level of knowledge, that of opinion or doxa, which receives knowledge from external sources - it can affirm that something is, but cannot say why a thing is. It may also be seen as corresponding to the first stage of the mysteries, that of telete, which was open to all who wished to attend the rites at Eleusis.

Secondly, there is a rational examination of the original thesis: this usually constitutes the bulk of the dialogue. Here various positions undergo a dialectical process which reveals the `why' of a thing; it is a separating out process which overcomes the misleading appearance of concepts by division, definition, demonstration and analysis. This level may be seen as corresponding to the second level of initiation into the mysteries, muesis, literally the `closing of the eyes' which indicates that the reception of external data ceases and truths are discovered by a more inward process.

Thirdly, after the exercise of reason comes the third phase of Platonic dialogue: the telling of a myth and the exercise of intuition. Here the divide between external truth and internal truth is bridged by the power of story, which always invites the listener to identify with its characters and actions. The third stage of the Eleusinian mysteries, to which this corresponds, was called Epoptia literally `to inspect' - meaning to contemplate in the most mystical manner; that is to say, it indicates those states described by eastern mystics in which the self is seen as an indivisible part of the great sweep of the universe.

Thus, embedded in the dialogues of Plato is the very pattern that he upholds, and myth can be seen as the proper field for those who have previously developed their reasoning faculties.

The last part of the lecture looked at three types of myth - philosophic, Orphic and traditional. The myth of Er (at the end of the tenth book of the Republic) was given as an example of the philosophic myth which is least misleading but allows a general quickening of the truths emerging from the previous passages of the dialogue. The myth of the dismemberment of Dionysus was given as an example of Plato's use of Orphic myth: some of the symbology of this myth was explored, using ideas from the writings of the neoplatonists. Finally an overview of the symbology of the Iliad and Odyssey was discussed as an example of tradtional Greek myth: the two ten year epics were identified as stories showing the descent of the intellectual human soul into material life (in the Iliad) and its re- ascent to its true homeland (in the Odyssey).

The lecture ended by quoting from Plato's Seventh Epistle -"For a thing of this kind cannot be expressed by words like other disciplines, but by long familiarity, and living in conjunction with the thing itself, a light as it were leaping from a fire will on a sudden be enkindled in the soul, and there itself nourish itself."

Tim Addey