Of Pots and Plato’s Aesthetics

Abstract What role should examples play in aesthetic inquiry? This essay brings a neglected early episode in the history of aesthetics to bear on this question. Asked 'What is beauty?' in Plato's Hippias Major, Hippias first cites a beautiful maiden. Surprisingly, before refuting this answer, Socrates asks about other examples: a beautiful mare, lyre, and pot (chytra). These widely ignored examples, I show, work to contest an association between beauty and aristocratic class. By beginning the inquiry in this way, Plato emphasizes the need to critique and not rely on cultural examples that incline reflection on beauty.