This wonderful week in the Harvardx online class called “The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours” Gregory Nagy led us in dialogue on another book concerning the death of Socrates; The Phaedon.
The
plot of Phaedon consists of a dialogue between two characters, Phaedo a
disciple of Socrates and Echecrates of the town of Philius. Echecrates ask about the death of Socrates
and why it took place so long after his conviction. He says no one visited Athens anymore and
that “has been a long time since any
guest from there has visited here.” (57b)
It is an interesting phrase used in conjunction with Death because
lately in class we’ve been discussing the esoteric nature of “there” compared
to the here and now of “here”.
Eschecrates is right, not too many people from there come back to visit
here.
Phaedon
explains that the “ship of state” must sail to Delos every year for the great
celebration and that the ship was “garlanded” that day. In the textbook at “23§16 Nagy explains that “… the garlanding
of objects or of persons is a way of delineating a ritual framework.” (That
explains why tourists in Hawaii and people at Marti Gras wear leis and beads.)
Phaedon explains that during this ritual period “they have a custom at this
time of the year to purify the city and to refrain from publicly executing anybody
before the ship goes to Delos and then comes back from there.”
Nagy
reminds us that Socrates good friend (Can we say therapon?) Chaerephon went to Delphi as a private person to
determine, “whether there existed anyone more sophos or ‘wise’ than Socrates.” I was about say that Socrates wasn’t too wise
in the spiritual sense if he didn’t know that such hubris (vanity) was a big Bozo no no according to the gods. Then
I recalled other heroes that got the lightning bolt for their vanity; Capaneus
upon the walls of Thebes, saying that not even Zeus could stop him from
conquering the city now and Salmoneus who trailed bronze pots behind his
chariot and threw firebrands at his subject. ) Both of whom got blasted and
instant immortality. So maybe Socrates
lack of sensitive is just further evidence of his effort to go out with a
bang. See The Apology of Socrates” and 22.CB22.1x
Phaedo
tells how all the disciples came to the prison and spent long days discussing philosophy. Many topics are debated in grand style
considering their host circumstance. The
day arrives when the boat has returned, so Socrates downs the hemlock.
As
to that final moment Echecrates ask if Plato (the author of this two-man play)
was in attendance, to which Phaedo replies; “.As for Plato, I think he was not feeling up to it.” (59b). Off-handedly
I thought about Peter denying the Lord three times for the cock crowed. (Matthew 26:75) At which point I began noticing odd
correlations with Jesus and his disciples.
Hey, speaking of which, at the very end Socrates asks one of his disciples
to sacrifice a cock on his behalf.
As
my Lord had four gospels written about him, so Socrates had two disciples write
about his end; The Apology. One
by Xenophon and the other by Plato. “Then
he (Socrates) smiled and said, “It seems just now that I am speaking as an
author of some piece of writing Still, what I am saying does hold, I think.”
Plato Phaedo 102d. But in reference to Socrates comment, Nagy
concludes, at 23.24 “So, the dialogues
that Socrates is having with his students in Plato’s Phaedo, for example, are really mediated by the
writings of Plato. That is why Plato has to suppress himself as a writer. ”
So should we assume that the red text in the Gospels are really the words of
the Gospel writers rather than the Lord?
{Phaedo:} I
will tell you. You see, I happened to be seated close to him, at his right
hand. I was sitting on a kind of stool, while he was lying on a couch that was
quite a bit higher than where I was. So then he stroked my head and fondled the
locks of hair along my neck - he had this way of playing with my hair whenever
he had a chance. So this scene,
the favorite seated on the right, the honored leader demonstrating his
affection for his favorite sort of reminded of
the last Supper with Chris and the Apostle John. John wrote of
himself in the third person, I wonder if Plato did too. In his Memorabilia Xenophon does not include
Phaedon as one of the "true companions" of Socrates. I wonder if “Phaedon” isn’t just a literary
device as was St. John’s “the one whom Jesus loved best”. (John 13:23)
We’ve
talked in this class about some of the requirements to attain the status of “Hero” in order to
attain heroic honors and the Isle of the Blest after death. There’s one!
You got to be dead. You have to be larger-than-life, your existence has
to have cosmic significance, it helps to have a little ichor in your veins and
a god/hero antagonistic relationship with a god that is real similar to
you. In the New Testament Jesus does odd
little things now and again in order to fulfill prophecy in the Old Testament,
in other words to fulfill the requirement to be the Messiah to the Jewish
People. Maybe at the same time he is consciously
fulfilling the requirement listed in The
Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours in order to be the Savior of the Greeks too.
