Mystery Terminology in Aristophanes and Plato Author(s): G. J. de Vries Reviewed work(s): Source: Mnemosyne, Fourth Series, Vol.

26, Fasc. 1 (1973), pp. 1-8 Published by: BRILL Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4430172 . Accessed: 16/02/2013 12:42
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MYSTERY IN ARISTOPHANES

TERMINOLOGY AND BY G. J. de VRIES PLATO

Momus the noble

is not art

the

most

attractive

character

Yet glamour. to exercise it. But urged to criticize not

of writing adversaria has lost there do occur moments when playing Momus?no: a publication

much one

in mythology, and its of former feels compelled time I feel

if for the second

certainly The first

prompted time was

A. W. H. Adkins, I am by Professor lack of of his by appreciation scholarship. when Merit and Responsibility appeared

an impressive and an important book, and (i960). Undoubtedly as an allusion to the parts of it are excellent (this is not meant curate's egg!). But occasionally it sacrifices exact interpretation to construction. In Hermeneus ff. De 210 der 31 (1959-60), (= zang Sirenen, Groningen of values" which distribution 1969, 85 ff.) I argued Adkins in detected the ''hopeless Homer's account that tangle of the

of prizes after the chariot-race in Iliad XXIII existed in his he because failed to notice that only imagination a?et? in v. 571 has not the same import as it has in v. 578 (cp. the penetrating criticisms 3, 1971, 349 ff.)? by H. W. Pleket in Lampas The present case is comparable. In Antichthon of the (Journal Australian Adkins has for Class. Studies) 13 ft., Professor 4 (1970), an interesting published paper under the title Clouds, Socrates and Plato. I will discuss it under three heads, to Society

in Aristophanes, b) Plato's silence upon the main Plato's against Socrates, c) mystery terminology. a) Adkins starts from the often observed fact that in Aristophanes' Clouds admission to the phrontisterion is likened to initiation into the mysteries. He quotes the choral song vv. 298-313, and argues accusation that the explicit mention of (Eleusinian) cults made in this mystery serves to to the desecration which Socrates' song point bogus must have for meant the for the presentation mysteries spectators, Mnemosyne XXVI 1

Mysteries, wit a) mysteries

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2 of these

MYSTERY TERMINOLOGY IN ARISTOPHANES AND PLATO

"would have been regarded not as (bogus) mysteries but as and "historical are amusing blasphemous", parallels always but this seems to me to approach a man, in a dangerous, accusing different of holding the Black Mass". society, (vv. the black mass would be more imholding more had been seen on the stage than these the mystery rites, which are, after all, only preparatory. Imitating was an unforgivable rites themselves sacrilege ; that we know. Some with comparison if pressive, something the acts used such were performed in the What by Andocides). a nature that As to the import of the choral it as a foil to Socrates' regarding ode, I think that 'initiation rites' Adkins is right in 254 ff.). But

p??e?? is the term mysteries (??st???a of we do not but hardly acts, know; the pranks which are executed in Clouds could them. Moreover

immediately

it is not necessary to think : there more were mystery mysteries ones It the what too. cults, private spectators happenreally regarded a mystery as resembling ed in the phrontisterion cult, they may have of a crank performing initiation rites of his own. thought be thought to imitate of the Eleusinian I do not think in it. Would the blasphemy which Adkins that this implies the spectators have been shocked by Dicaeopolis' to Or by Trygaeus' promise (Ach. 747, 764)? in honour included, to be hastily initiated of Hermes (ibid. 375) ? in comedy? that

finds

'mystical celebrate

(Peace Were jocular Adkins thinks Old doubt which a deity Comedy this". deities

piggies' all festivals, mysteries or by his desire 413-420) allusions they can mock He were to the not:

admissible mysteries "It is sometimes maintained of Greek

any aspect the fact that acknowledges attributes and perfections, have ethical

life; but I religious in "even in societies jokes about belief in the

deep unquestioning accompany of this applies to the mysteries", and he "cannot over bogus as presiding of Socrates that the presentation a in He would as regards the alleged comedy". pass joke mysteries there true mysteries as "the with the unconvincing: parallel Frogs deity", believe frequently but "none themselves mocked zusae". 'Mocked' is the crucial word. If mockery is the same as insult, are not mocked.Nor or parodied, or its secrets is the Thesmophoria profaned, in the Thesmophoriarevealed

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MYSTERY TERMINOLOGY IN ARISTOPHANES AND PLATO Adkins just that build

admits is right. But it is not, as he himself (cp. the words evidence shows a The . . "... about deity ."). quoted, jokes in order to of the mysteries could use elements Greek comedy There rites is indeed of Eleusis Therefore : exception is not to be found. This one notable the difference between

up a comical situation. actual parody of the sacred the hand

proves exception Clouds on the one

'rule'.

on the and Frogs and Thesmophoriazusae other hand is not as great as Adkins will have it. Is the prayer in in the than what is presented Thesm. 286 ff. really less 'sacrilegious' and about "the True, the hilarious mysts of Frogs 316 ff. "mock others", But what true mysteries are not mocked". themselves all it is to the ? After reactions solemn invocation Dionysus' who

Clouds?

he himself

is being invoked! And what about ??????da- ???e? is used in a of the mysteries ?e?? in v. 479, where a ritual formula rather undignified situation ? to According at rebuttal. attempt b) means. It may an in the Euthydemus makes Plato Adkins, clear what Adkins Of what ? It is not entirely as presiding over be 1) the presentation of Socrates

as an Anaxagorean bogus mysteries, 2) his presentation philosopher, or 3) his use of initiation-language It is an for philosophic training. which is attempted. does Plato indirect rebuttal not attempt "Why of Plato's asks Adkins, direct rebuttal?", adding: "My reading to truth in matters such as these, as opposed to the pursuit attitude of philosophic that Plato would truth, does not lead me to suppose have been deterred from 'rearranging he the facts', had he thought could get away with it". This is fine Popperian prose; occasionally Adkins a supalso the Master's habit of first proposing adopts position and certainty acting as ??at?????st?? As to 2), the mention 97bff. will 'rearranging Adkins that probably the facts'. "Socrates casually (it is only to it in the next paragraph as a referring fair to add that Popper does so only when his argument is severely logical). ; ordinarily not of Anaxagoras in Apol. 26 d and Phaedo he may regard it as Adkins; satisfy But even if one is willing to concede to at one

point of his career been much more of an Anaxagorean than Plato wishes us to believe", is the The important points are 1) and 3). question really very relevant? In Apol. 19 c Plato has Socrates his ?e???ate?? in the mention

had

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4 Clouds

MYSTERY TERMINOLOGY IN ARISTOPHANES AND PLATO and allude

to the 'natural which there he is philosophy' as Not a word about the performance represented teaching. single of initiation rites. Now one might argue that Plato's method here is candidness he is supposed to mention extremely sly: with apparent some points, to draw the reader's attention thereby hoping away from not the Socrates. But crime does important charge against if the accusation of was pay; grave sacrilege really implied in in Socrates the it of would have been Clouds, representation the most

to mention the play at all ; this would immediately remind of that accusation. But Socrates everybody says that people have seen him ?? t? ???st?f????? "in the well-known ????d?a, play by how even an attempt One wonders could be made Aristophanes". clumsy to hush be that Dover phanes up the nobody says about the and the Socrates name supposedly had been accusation. The answer must implied aware of it. Here one may quote what difference between the Socrates of Aristo-

of Plato and Xenophon (by the way, in is absent Adkins' "If Plato Xenophon's entirely paper): are to be regarded as engaged in a conspiracy and Xenophon to conceal the truth, it was a conspiracy of exceptional audacity." (pref. c) to the Clouds, ed. 1968, p. XLVI). rebuttal' could (b 3) The 'indirect It was Greeks.to instruction". "not merely ... also bear on the use of in of

initiation-language. the eyes of many reputable

absurd, shocking, use initiation-language used it in this

but

(though irony makes that "the degree ness in doing so is?and to estimate"). always has been?difficult Now "Aristophanes was aware that Socrates used such language,

philosophic his notorious

Socrates

way of his serious-

and certainly used it as one himself, may well have been shocked in his Clouds". more weapon against Socrates and the New Thought several hundreds or thousands of Athenians were as well Probably aware 'indirect his of it as Aristophanes was, and long before he attempted it in a like Crito Plato 'revealed' rebuttal', 54 d passage with (the comparison Cory bants). musters a collection of Platonic However this may be, Adkins

in order to show that "there seem to be" (to wit, in Plato) passages "three different treating ways of using initiation-language.: not Socrates, it into the it as characteristic of sophists, putting

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MYSTERY TERMINOLOGY IN ARISTOPHANES AND PLATO mouth

of Socrates, but with safeguards, and putting it openly into the mouth of Socrates or the Athenian and these attitudes Stranger; which most scholars would hold to belong to appear in dialogues groups The in sequence". is Euthyd. passage quoted by Adkins 277 d. Socrates Clinias who is bemused consoles the tricks of and by Euthydemus : ?? ?a??a?e, e? s?? fa????ta? ???e?? ?? ?????, ?s?? Dionysodorus first ?a? ???? p??e?t?? t? ???? pe?? s?? p??e?t?? d? ta?t?? ?? dta? t?? ?????s?? p???s?? pe?? ?? dpe? t? te?et? t?? ???????t??, t??t?? d? ?? ?????s? te?e??. ?a? ?a? e?e? ???e?a t?? ?st? ?a? pa?d??, ?a? ??? t??t? ??d?? ???? ? ???e?et?? pe?? s? ?a? e? ??a ?a? tet??esa?* ??? a?s???e? ???? ???e?s??? pa????te, ??? ??? ????s?? ta ?? ?et? t??t? te????te. t?? ????e?? t?? ?e??? p??ta s?f?st????, p??t?? ???, ?? f?s? ???de?. this passage d????, pe?? ?????t?? d???t?t?? ?a?e?? Obviously can be used to illustrate Clouds 254 ff. ; Adkins, thinks however, that "perhaps we may go further: may it not perhaps be evoked by Clouds so far as concerns the last sentence 254 ff. (and possibly, in Socrates' of education for programme Strepsiades quoted, by and of is ?". This, course, 658 ff.) 634 ff., especially pure guess-work nevertheless Adkins and twice, "perhaps", (cp. "possibly"); continues would to "If this were the case, it (with due caution, indeed): indicate that Plato, for some reason or other, was anxious into shift to the sophists the idea of teaching as initiation Five .... which can be placed

mysteries". clude that still

"I conone reads: on, however, pages further as Plato is using Euthydemus and Dionysodorus to deflect the odium which from Socrates lightning-conductors, attached to him as a result an initiator into bogus

of Aristophanes' picture of him as in the Clouds". mysteries The Homeric used in tag (Od. 11, 601) t?? d? ??t' e?se???sa, is it is that where linked with Clouds suggested Protag. 315 b, 94, has with where the the overtone of and 184 ff., ????? 'ghosts'?, of the phrontisterion wraithstudents appear as "pallid, emaciated, like creatures" the other sends ; further "possibly 194 ff., in which the student be a inmates of the phrontisterion indoors, may joke not the with about the indoor life of students contrasted tacitly existence ghosts, may of others, but an allusion from the to the belief world, that but occasionally escape nether

only outdoor ???a?,

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6 cannot drawn

MYSTERY TERMINOLOGY IN ARISTOPHANES AND PLATO remain in the

The conclusion upper aii for very long". the jokes of the Clouds .... rankled sufficiently for him (= Plato) to wish to displace the slur from Socrates and his to the sophists, adherents from Socrates". sharply distinguished is that "even Callicles Gorgias 497 c is the next passage quoted. grudgingly to to answer Socrates' about ta questions s????? te ?a? agrees ? ste?? ta?ta, and Socrates ?a?????e??, dt? ta replies: e?da???? e?, ? d' ??? ta ??? ???? ?e??td? e??a?. Adkins ?e???a ?e???sa? p??? s????? comments: the mysteries "What .... of Callicles Now Socrates' has learnt wished is likened to draw to initiation rigorously conclude that out into the if one

all one would words, implications was like not but the natural initiation; Callicles', learning, merely way to read the passage once again is simply to compare sophistic a word is to initiation". How easy and how dangerous teaching 'natural'! but before Callicles desires so Socrates to discuss doing which Callicles wants big Weltanschauungsfragen, to do some preliminary logical Rather than

analysis strained

seeking surmise the existence explanations reasonably for desiring what is of a semi-proverbial locution (or the coinage) has is before one what mastered smaller and easier. and difficult big of a 'tragic' definition Meno 76 e is comparable. Meno admires despises one might (he does philosophical as much not express analysis", to 'natural Meno "a preference for natural philosophy of form in 74 b ff. for the definition

as quibbles.

colour over

as the one of colour). philosophy' to come reject it, e? ??, ?spe? ??e? says ???' e? pe???e??a?? te s?? ?p???a? t?? p?? ??st?????, ??e?e?, ??a??a??? one will take the whole of ?a? ????e???. It does not matter whether of Meno's words or not, nor as a quotation ??st????? ??a??a??? .... reis used literally "Socrates or metaphorically. whether ??st????? belongs Socrates that would as merely taking up a metaphor used himself presents not the faintest There is anyhow is Adkins' comment. sophistic teaching. specifically In Theaetetus 155 e materialists are called by Meno", allusion to

is used for the doctrine 156 a ??st???a Adkins in the universe to movement. want to reduce everything well with the first harmonizes "The second seems playful; writes: written before the Theaetetus". other uses which appear in dialogues

in whereas a???t??, of those philosophers who

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MYSTERY TERMINOLOGY IN ARISTOPHANES AND PLATO This is sheer And arbitrariness; when Adkins what levels is against the

playful? even contrived

both uses as taking at Plato that "he reproach

materialists to identify with the uninitiated in the he is the evidence after ideas Theaetetus", and, shaping preconceived himself in the Clouds is remoreover, contradicting (if Socrates as an Anaxagorean the audience is expected presented philosopher, to regard him as a materialist). In the meantime we have fully entered Adkins' second he Plato's where puts initiation-language development mouth stage in into the

"but with safeguards". of Socrates, Adkins quotes Symp. 209 e 5 ff. and Phaedo 81 a: in both passages mystery terminology is clearly used to indicate views held by Socrates-Plato. In the first the 'safeguard' consists in the fact that it is Diotima, passage not Socrates, who is speaking that she is said to speak ?spe? (and o? t??e?? s?f?sta?, 2?8 c, which in my opinion bears on another in the Phaedo passage it is the fact that with ?spe? d? aspect); simile is introduced. ???eta? an explicit For the third stage, that of uninhibited use of mystery terAdkins to refers Phaedrus 250 b (and Epinomis minology, 986 c ; this I regard as a spurious work). dialogue The include list could cognate terms be easily expanded, if one as ?a?a??e??, ?a?te?es?a? would be willing to (?a?t???), ?a??e?e??,

?p(?de??, (?????s???e??), ???e??, ap????t??, These Plato uses as freely as mystery terms proper, ???s??de??. without and in early dialogues, too (Crito 54 d has al'safeguards', ready been mentioned). ?????a?t???, Two Adkins fails are always 'safeguards' working, has tried to take Socrates' irony irony and transposition. into account, he though is Nor however, neglected.

?????s???

the felicitous transposition, Platonic by which Dies enriched scholarship (his famous in which he showed how paper on La transposition platonicienne, Plato transposes and rhetoric, eroticism, Orphism literary mysticism, is easily accessible in Autour de Platon, 1927, 400 ff. ; cp. also E. des concept Places, Platon et la langue interesting des myst?res, Ann. Fac. Lettres d'Aix 38, 1964,9 ft.). It is especially

to do justice to it; Plato's irony, does he seem to be conscious of Plato's

to find this transposition

foreshadowed

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MYSTERY TERMINOLOGY IN ARISTOPHANES AND PLATO terms are used. In

in a passage of Aristophanes in which mystery ff. the chorus of Frogs 354 mysts sings:

t??? ??et????s? ?????s??, e?f??e?? ??? ????stas?a? t????de dst?? ?pe???? ????? ? ?????? ?? ?a?a?e?e?, ? ?e??a??? d???a ???s?? ??t' e?de? ??t* ????e?se?, ??d? ??at???? t?? ta???f???? ???tt?? ?a??eG ?te??s??. For whom, one is tempted ? into to ask, is Cratinus Plato's his here "used as a light-

ning-conductor"

By fully taking reader is enabled terms. of Then

account

to understand

of 516 d, the unfavourable import te???????? in Rep. 560 e, the humour o? Phil. 67 c (cp. G. R. Morrow, in Plato's Cretan State, i960, 429), the festive play on purification of Theaet. 180 c. Crat. 396 e and Phaedr. 242 c, the mockery One believed final remark must be added. Adkins thinks that "Plato that a real philosophical truth was enshrined in such a use even "that such of language" (to wit, of mystery terminology), contained This would make him a kind of true insight". language Plato has forerunner to Martin Heidegger, but with this philosopher as the one which held a view of language (nor should his occasional play with etymology in this sense; cp. my note on Phaedr. 230 a 4-5). to him Wolfheze, Duitsekampweg 28 c very Httle never have in common. The man who wrote Crat. could 435-440 Adkins ascribes be explained

one can grasp in Rep. ?p??a?te??????

the irony and transposition, use of mystery and cognate the half-pitying, use half-contemptuous

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