Socrates and Aristophanes

The relationship between Socrates and the comic playwright Aristophanes is central to Leo Strauss' reading of Plato. His view that the "secret" or "esoteric" doctrine of Plato was nihilistic atheism is confirmed for him in Aristophanes' depiction of Socrates as a scientific god-denier in the play The Clouds. I am slowly reading my way into these particular strata of Platonic philosophy, but my interests and direction are very different to those of Mr Strauss. My work on Plato has involved exposing a quite different "secret tradition", but I am led, nevertheless, to the same passages and the same dialogues as is Mr Strauss. It's an intriguing thing, and it is a very tangled tale, but I hope to get to the bottom of it.

Here is an example:

The speech of Aristophanes in the Symposium describes how originally human beings were spherical creatures of three types corresponding to Sun, Moon and Earth. As a punishment, Zeus then slices these spheres in two and at length mankind is reduced to his current shape.

I read this famous speech cosmologically and I regard it as a key text in what I take to be the "secret tradition" of Plato, namely an esoteric exposition of the gods and cultus of Athens, and the cultus of the Acropolis in particular and the goddess Athena in particular. I take the Timaeus as the central Platonic text and see it as having a cultic background that concerns the great festival, the Panathenaea. Further, this "secret tradition" has a distinct mythology and symbolism that stretches back to Egypt and forwards through alchemical and related traditions. A key symbol of this esoteric Plato is the metal gold. The mythology concerns the (Athenian) doctrine of autochthony and the birth of the "golden race".

Strauss reads the speech of Aristophanes in a very different way. He regards it as paradoxical. For him, the passage presents a contrast between the cosmic gods and the Olympians. The cosmic gods are spherical - Earth, Moon, Sun. But the Olympian deities are anthropomorphic. It is paradoxical that when Zeus punishes mankind, he transforms them from the form of the cosmic gods into the form of the Olympian gods. In punishing mankind, Zeus makes mankind more like the Olympians. That is, he punishes man by making him more theomorphic.

At this point Mr Strauss directs our attention to the play called 'Peace' by Aristophanes. He believes that the speech in Plato alludes to a particular passage in 'Peace'. In this passage, the playwright makes exactly the distinction between cosmic and Olympian deities. Mr Strauss maintains that the Greeks commonly drew the contrast and maintained that the Olympian gods are superior because they are anthropomorphic. Herodotus draws the distinction. The Persians, he says, worship the Sun and Moon and cosmic spheres, but the Greeks worship gods who have human form - and the Greek gods are superior therefore.

Mr Strauss has a strong argument. It is difficult to suppose that Aristophanes' speech in Plato does not allude to the distinction the real Aristophanes makes in 'Peace'.

Here is the passage from that play:

* * * 

TRYGAEUS [To HERMES]

And I shall reveal to you a great and terrible plot that is being hatched against the gods.

HERMES

Hah! speak and perchance I shall let myself be softened.

TRYGAEUS

Know then, that the Moon and that infamous Sun are plotting against you, and want to deliver Greece into the hands of the barbarians.

HERMES

What for?

TRYGAEUS

Because it is to you that we sacrifice, whereas the barbarians worship them; hence they would like to see you destroyed, that they alonemight receive the offerings.

HERMES

Is it then for this reason that these untrustworthy charioteers have for so long been defrauding us, one of them robbing us of daylightand the other nibbling away at the other's disk?

TRYGAEUS

Yes, certainly. So therefore, Hermes, my friend, help us with your whole heart to find and deliver the captive and we will celebrate the great Panathenaea in your honour as well as all the festivals of the other gods; for Hermes shall be the Mysteries. the Dipolia, the Adonia; everywhere the towns, freed from their miseries, will sacrifice to Hermes the Liberator; you will be loaded with benefits of every kind, and to start with, I offer you this cup for libations as your first present.

HERMES

Ah! how golden cups do influence me! Come, friends. get to work. To the pit quickly, pick in hand, and drag away the stones.

* * *

Notice, then, that the barbarians (non-Greeks) worship the spherical cosmic gods and these gods, says Trygaeus, are plotting against the Greeks. Such gods are the gods of foreigners, non-Greeks, barbarians, and they threaten the Olympian gods.

For Mr Strauss, the speech of Aristophanes in the Symposium swings on this passage from 'Peace'. He uses this passage in 'Peace' to illuminate the strange symbolism of Aristophanes' account of the creation of (or fall of) man. He sees irony. It is ironic that, in punishing man, Zeus makes man more god-like.

The passage from the play is highly suggestive to me, though, and is very interesting in view of my exposition of the esoteric Plato. I make a couple of observations:

*Trygaeus specifically mentions the festival of the Panathenaea here.

*There is specific mention of the metal gold. the golden cup. Hermes says 'Ah, how golden cups do influence me.'

*There is a discrepancy: in Plato the spheres are three: Moon, Sun and Earth. It is essential to Aristophanes whole speech that there be three spheres, not two. In 'Peace' there is only the Sun and the Moon, but not the Earth. I regard this discrepancy as very significant here.

I think Mr Strauss is, yet again, drawing attention to the right passages and the right connections between texts, but he is drawing the wrong conclusions. For me, the passage in 'Peace' further confirms that the symbolism of Aristophanes' speech in the Symposium concerns an esoteric doctrine about the cultus of Athens that specifically concerns the festival of the Panathenaea.

Regarding The Clouds, I draw attention to references to changes in the Athenian calendar that forms the background to the play. (The theme of debt concerns this too, because debts were settled at particular phases of the lunar month.) There is a whole configuration of references running through Plato concerning the festivals of Athens and the Panathenaea in particular. The 'coulds' in the play concern Athena as goddess of clouds and air.