Pindar's charioteer in Plato's phaedrus (227B9-10)

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Abstract

In his second question of the Phaedrus, Socrates asks Phaedrus how he spent (διατριβ®) his morning with Lysias. Phaedrus answers: 'You'll learn, should you have the leisure (σχολ®) to walk and listen.' Socrates responds: What? Don't you think I would judge it, as Pindar puts it, a thing 'surpassing even lack of leisure' (καá áσχολ»ας áπ-ρτρον), to hear how you and Lysias spent your time? (227b6-10) Socrates quotes from First Isthmian 2. In this victory ode, Pindar celebrates, uniquely in his extant oeuvre, a charioteer winner who has driven his own team. The epinician poem and the dialogue, especially the myth in Socrates' second speech, have remarkable systematic parallels. This suggests that Pindar's victor serves as model for the palinode's philosophical lover, and Pindar's song for Socrates' conversation.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)525-532
Number of pages8
JournalClassical Quarterly
Volume64
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Nov 20 2014

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Classics
  • History
  • Philosophy
  • Literature and Literary Theory

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