Socrates: Performer and Critic

Abstract: In this paper we argue that Plato construes the image of Socrates on the poetic archetype of the divinely inspired, infallible bard of the epic and lyric traditions. We begin with an examination of the Homeric misquotations in the Ion , that, we argue, place Socrates firmly within that tradition and proceed to show that by further casting Socrates in the role of the poet, e.g. in the Symposium and the Phaedrus , Plato fashions a new poetic hero as it were, to be revered as such in the Academy, thus aligning him to the long-standing cultic tradition that includes earlier composers and storytellers such as Archilochus and Homeric Odysseus himself.