Socrate, « homme érotique » (erôtikos anèr) ?

• Published in: Kentron
• Main Author: Jean-Luc Périllié
• Format: Article
• Language: French
• Published: Presses universitaires de Caen 2015-11-01
• Subjects: Socrates; Plato; Xenophon; Aeschines; Eros; erotikos
• Online Access: http://journals.openedition.org/kentron/333
• ISSN: 0765-0590; 2264-1459

This article attempts first to re-examine the Socratic question on the basis of an analysis of the pattern of Socrates’ amorous behaviour, taking into account the parallelisms and cross-linkages to be discovered in the dialogues composed by Plato, Xenophon and Aeschines. Every time, Socrates seems to fulfil the ancient classification of erōtikos, indeed the concept of erōtikos anēr involving a natural characteristic, as defined in Plato’s Republic, even though Socrates applies it to Glaucon rather than to himself. The analysis, without being biased by disciples’ accounts, suggests that Socrates’ erōtika cannot be reduced to a mere intellectualised practice of love but involved rites of initiation based on the model of the corybantic thiasoi, implying phenomena of possession. We then show that Xenophon’s disconcerting book, the Symposium, follows in fact a ritual organisation, similar to the rite of the Corybantic enthronement. The theme of Corybantic rites is also to be found in Plato’s Symposium. As for the erotic (in the antique meaning) and ritual behaviour of Socrates and his disciples, the article aims to show that the accounts in the two works entitled Symposium are, in fact, of crucial importance. It is with respect to this fact that one version can be considered to be more suitable or more complete than the other. The portrait of Socrates as Silenus, drawn by Plato, is certainly linked more closely to the Socrates of the 5th century. In any event, it was above all the duty of Socrates’ disciples to describe, to portray and to promote a better understanding of the actions of a man particularly disparaged. They had to show that, in spite of appearances, the behaviour of their master was beyond reproach. This is precisely because, according to the disciples, by means of the rite of initiation devoted to Erōs sōphrōn, Socrates managed to convert sexual attraction into chaste love. Finally, the purpose of this article is to understand why Socrates in the Republic excludes himself from the definition of erōtikos anēr which suits him perfectly. Evidently, in the central books of the Republic, he is no longer the same person.