HOMERIC Mevqodo~ IN PLATO’S SOCRATIC DIALOGUESon this topic, and quotes Homer approvingly on the need of a partner
in searching out and testing what one believes to have discovered. Al-
though subsequent praise of Protagoras may seem merely ironic (“You
are not only good yourself, but also able to make others good”; 348e),
his urging of a joint philosophical search could not be more sincere.
The enemy here is not Troy nor is the battle with Hector and the
Trojans. Rather, Socrates has relocated the poetic fi gure into the activ-
ity of philosophy, where “two going together” are dialogical partners
(whether friendly or not) and the enemy in the darkness is blind igno-
rance and falsehood concerning the most important matters for human
life. Socratic sincerity in this search with Protagoras is proven in the out-
come of the dialogue: although Socrates has clearly “won” the argument,
the two men have switched positions on the teachability of virtue, so the
matter must be left as unsettled despite the victory. Here, the Homeric
exploration by which two go together yields ajporiva, that great philo-
sophical gain whereby one is divested of confi dence in formerly held
opinions that do not stand up to scrutiny. Such “beheading” is a benefi t!
I will treat the Symposium quotation at much greater length, be-
cause the employment of “two going together” is much subtler here
and because that analysis opens the way to the further methodologi-
cal concerns that will be elaborated in the next section of this paper.
These concerns, adumbrated in this analysis, address the “underlying
meaning” (uJpovnoia) of the Homeric images. Unlike in Protagoras, Plato
has Socrates take only part of the line, and he further alters it by add-
ing a “path.” In so doing he seems merely to be making the quotation
more fi tting to its context. But looking more critically, one can make an-
other observation. The Homeric line in the Symposium occurs in a comic
context. In Apollodorus’ recollection that is many times removed from
the event of the symposium, Socrates has gone to the baths “so that
beauty might match beauty” (174a). But Socrates’ famously misshapen
face could be no match for Agathon’s youthful beauty—although the
seriousness to which Platonic comedy is always given over is this: to the
beauty of poetry, Socrates will match the beauty of philosophy.
Further, Socrates encounters the uninvited Aristodemus, who
agrees to accompany Socrates on the understanding that Socrates has
invited him along—but the latter arrives at Agathon’s without Socrates,
who “drew his thoughts [nou'n] into himself” (174d5) and stands still on
the porch of his neighbor. Nothing whatsoever was discussed on the
topic agreed upon, namely what the two would say to Agathon upon
their arrival. In other words, the two did not literally “go together” to
Agathon’s. Nor did their pathways at the symposium seem to intersect.
On account of the large quantities of wine he consumed, Aristodemus
remembered some of the speeches on e[rw~ entirely, some partially, and