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This study, a 1999 Ph.D. dissertation from the University of Texas at Austin, explores the way that Plato uses images and themes from the Mystery Religions in explaining his theory of knowledge in the Republic, Symposium, and Phaedrus. Themes of 'purification' from the Lesser Mysteries reflect psychic purification via Socratic cross-examination and other methods necessary in order to acquire knowledge, while themes of revelation and the unveiling of the Mysteries reflect the unmediated contact that constitutes knowledge of a Form.
A survey of Plato's myths and their "rationale" within the context of the esoteric tradition underpinning his philosophy
Cambridge Companion to Plato, 2nd ed. Ed. D. Ebrey and R. Kraut, 2022
This chapter aims to explore Plato's reflections on Greek religion, as it was lived and practiced by his contemporaries. My focus is on mystery cults, which constituted a particularly intense form of religious experience, and were conceived by many as the highest form of piety. I try to show that Plato's engagement with these rites is deeply connected to, and can help to illuminate, such centrally important topics as his conception of the philosophical life, its relation to the human good, the role of memory in the knowledge of the Forms, and the soul's kinship to the divine. Public rituals, codified in the sacred laws and festival calendars of cities, were the principal occasions for communities to reaffirm and channel their relationship to gods, and to express their civic identity and unity. Although primary in importance, "polis religion" 1 did not cover important aspects of the religious life of Plato's contemporaries: there were also institutions, sanctuaries, festivals, and cults that transcended the level of individual cities. Most important, all cities and individuals could turn to the oracle of Apollo at Delphi, which enjoyed unparalleled authority in the Greek world. 2 There were other forms of religious activities, often referred to collectively as mustēria (the origin of our word "mystery") or as teletai, "(initiatory) rites," which were less strongly integrated in the institutions of the polisalthough the level of integration and acceptance varied to a considerable extent. The term mustēria originally referred to the festival of Demeter and her daughter Kore in Eleusis, but gradually came to cover a set of other religious activities, including Bacchic rites, rites conducted by itinerant I would like to thank Richard Kraut,
Unpublished (Seminário Archai 2022), 2022
ABSTRACT: On this paper we formulate a few preliminary questions on initiation in both the Eleusinian Mysteries and on Plato's Symposium, with the idea of transposition as the groundwork for our work, in an attempt to identify a few elements of the Eleusinian Mysteries supposedly transposed in the dialogue between the 'young' Socrates and Diotima. Thus, our paper is divided in two central parts: the first one, the longest one, in which we analyze what initiation could have been in the Eleusinian Mysteries, having as our goal a better understanding of the Eleusinian initiation and what transposition this initiation might carry on to the case of the 'young Socrates'; the second one, the short one, we'll focus on Plato's Symposium, trying to identify signs and hints of elements from the Eleusinian Mysteries, centrally focused on the transposition of 'vision', with the goal of formulating our hypothesis that there are transpositions made by Plato from the Eleusinian Mysteries. In other words, here on this paper we will focus mainly on the element of vision and, hopefully, expand this scope of view to envelop all of the transpositions supposedly made by Plato from the Eleusinian Mysteries during the dialogue between young Socrates and Diotima on our PhD thesis.
Plato's work, which has always played a central role in the history of Western esotericism, has recently attracted the attention of the Tübin-gen-Milan School for the so-called " unwritten doctrines " , to which an esoteric nature has been attributed. However, the scholars of esoteric Plato have not always been fully aware of the true meaning of eso-tericism in the past. In this essay, after a presentation of this theme in the light of the most up-to-date research, I have analysed the sense in which esotericism concerns Plato. I have argued that Platonic esoteri-cism cannot be interpreted as a kind of protological doctrine of the first principles, but should be seen in a symbolic-anagogical way that in fact retrieves the experience of traditional mystery-cults, which in Plato is framed and governed within a philosophical discourse. Finally, I conclude that Plato is central to European culture because he linked together three fundamental aspects: the dialectical-argumentative dimension , thereby establishing the Western canon of philosophy; the allegorical-narrative aspect, expressed in the narrative of the myth in the popular dimension of religiosity; and finally the esoteric-initiatory one, found in the oral teaching of the unwritten doctrines and which is typical of Gnosis, aiming at a spiritual elevation and contemplation of the True, understood as absolutely ineffable.
MOUSEION-CALGARY-, 2006
In this paper, I defend that the historiographical category of eclecticism is a correct way to describe the epistemology and the exegetical activity of the Anonymous commentator on Plato's Theaetetus. In addition, I show that the interpretation of the platonic philosophy presented in this text not only presupposes an eclectic philosophical attitude, but also offers a conscious defense of a
2017
In Pedagogy in Early Judaism and Early Christianity (Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature Press, 2017), 243-282. https://books.google.com/books?id=C0IoDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA243&dq=mysteries+of+paideia&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiMhJTzkerbAhUvnq0KHQlDD14Q6AEILzAB#v=onepage&q=mysteries%20of%20paideia&f=false Three texts from antiquity demonstrate the various ways that ancient authors could employ particular conceptions of “mystery” as a tool for establishing their own esoteric forms of paideia: Plato’s Symposium, 4QInstruction, and 1 Corinthians. These texts utilize the language of mystery in order to set apart their pedagogical systems from other dominant forms of education. To be sure, these texts have varying definitions of “mystery” and disparate ends to which their mystery points. Plato’s Symposium used the concept of “mystery” to describe an ascent into the heights of philosophical contemplation, in which the goal was an ultimate vision of the Platonic world of Forms. For 4QInstruction, “the mystery that is to be” referred to the cosmic plan of God, which had both immediate and eschatological implications for the addressee. Paul used “mystery” to explain how the crucifixion of Christ should shape the lives and attitudes of the Corinthian assembly. While the meanings of “mystery” differ for each text, the usage of “mystery” language has three similar functions in these texts: to establish authority and legitimacy for the instructor, to point the pupil toward a path for understanding esoteric teaching, and to direct the pupil to an extraordinary, transformative vision. In the juxtaposition of these disparate texts we will garner a clearer understanding of the role that conceptions of “mystery” played in ancient, alternative forms of paideia.
What the ancient Greeks—at least in the archaic phase of their civilization —called muthos was quite different from what we and the media nowadays call " myth ". For them a muthos was a true story, a story that unveils the true origin of the world and human beings. For us a myth is something to be " debunked " : a widespread, popular belief that is in fact false. In archaic Greece the memorable was transmitted orally through poetry, which often relied on myth. However, starting with the beginning of the seventh century BC two types of discourse emerged that were set in opposition to poetry: history (as shaped by, most notably, Thucydides) and philosophy (as shaped by the peri phuseōs tradition of the sixth and fifth centuries BC). These two types of discourse were naturalistic alternatives to the poetic accounts of things. Plato broke to some extent from the philosophical tradition of the sixth and fifth centuries in that he uses both traditional myths and myths he invents and gives them some role to play in his philosophical endeavor. He thus seems to attempt to overcome the traditional opposition between muthos and logos. There are many myths in Plato's dialogues: traditional myths, which he sometimes modifies, as well as myths that he invents, although many of these contain mythical elements from various traditions. Plato is both a myth teller and a myth maker. In general, he uses myth to inculcate in his less philosophical readers noble beliefs and/or teach them various philosophical matters that may be too difficult for them to follow if expounded in a blunt, philosophical discourse. More and more scholars have argued in recent years that in Plato myth and philosophy are tightly bound together, in spite of his occasional claim that they are opposed modes of discourse.
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