HOMERIC Mevqodo~ IN PLATO’S SOCRATIC DIALOGUESis much more to think about in connection with the Greek word
mevqodo~.
Mevqodo~ is never employed in connection with Homeric imagery
in the Platonic dialogues. Yet I will argue that in addition to the more
prosaic understanding spoken of above, there resides a more thorough-
going and deeper sense of mevqodo~ that echoes in its original Greek as-
sociation. This original sense of mevqodeiva, of which mevqodo~ in the sense
of a way of inquiry or a systematic procedure is an indirect etymological
offshoot, fi nds it associated with “craftiness” or “wiliness.” As is the case
w ith many of our philosophical words that come from Greek, the earlier
openness of mevqodeiva gradually became rendered more technical. The
gain in precision comes at the cost, in my view, of not being able to read
the Platonic dialogues in the manner that they present themselves to us.
That is to say, the image of Socrates presents neither a harbinger nor an
exemplar of a more rational philosophical method, but rather that of a
wily friend who invites us to enter into the aporetic activity of philoso-
phy, who insinu ates a need in u s to submit ou r selves to it s ever- su r pr ising
rigors and pleasures. Nowhere, perhaps, is this confusion and seduction
more evident and more fruitful than in Plato’s attachment of Homeric
language to the voice of this image. Socrates speaking Homer: What
about it?
In this paper, I will suggest that Plato has at least this one philo-
sophical mevqodo~ in connection with Homeric imagery: he treats many
of the key images in very much the way he has Socrates praise poetry
in the Ion (as will be discussed more fully below). Genuine poets like
Homer produce works that bring great goods to humankind. These
works are the products not of intellect, but of inspiration. The proper
philosophical approach to these works can therefore not be a literal treat-
ment of their content, such as the disparity in the exchange of armor be-
tween Diomedes and Glaucus, but must treat the images as opening out
into these underlying great goods, such as friendship (filiva) and the
clash between family and political (tribal) identity.^5 One major task of
the poet is to sing of these great goods through poetic images inspired
by the Muses. One major task of the philosopher is to interpret these
images for the sake of the human search for wisdom.
Two Going Together
The Homeric citation beginning “suvn te duv’” (two together) will serve as
the paradigm for my treatment of the Plato-Homer philosophical rela-