IS THERE METHOD IN THIS MADNESS?among these dialogues insofar as it is received through the recollec-
tion of not one, but two fanatical disciples of Socrates: Aristodemus and
Apollodorus.^7 Although this could be a sign, as Bury suggests, of the
reliable accuracy of the accounts—for the disciple learns the words of
the master by rote—it also implicitly calls into question the very objec-
tivity of the story itself; for the fanatic is an unstable character with an
ulterior motive: to cultivate the reputation and authority of the master.^8
By having the original conversation mediated by not one, but two, fa-
natical disciples of Socrates, Plato at once distances his audience from
the original conversation and forces us to consider the contingencies of
its provenance.
This distancing strategy is part of an implicit critique of zeal that
compels us to be on guard against the very speeches we are about to
encounter. In the opening passages of the Symposium, Apollodorus is the
very paradigm of a zealot whose life is miserable precisely because he is
only able to mimic the words of his master, not live the life he idealizes.
This is shown at the beginning of the dialogue. In an echo of the open-
ing passage of the Republic in which Polemarchus, “catching sight [of
Socrates] from afar” (katidw;n ou\n povrrwqen), sends his slave to order
Socrates to stop as he is headed homeward from Piraeus, the Symposium
begins with Glaucon “catching sight of me [Apollodorus] from afar”
(katidwvn me povrrwqen) as Apollodorus was going up to town from his
home in Phalerum.^9 Glaucon calls out to Apollodorus, saying, “Phal-
erian, you, Apollodorus, will you not wait?” (172a4). Apollodorus tells
us explicitly that in addressing him this way, Glaucon is making a joke.^10
Whatever the specifi c nature of the joke, there is play in it and a little
restraint.^11 Of course, restraint here does not rise to the level of the play-
ful coercion found at the beginning of the Republic, for Apollodorus,
unlike his master, is quite willing, if not downright eager, to remain and
satisfy Glaucon’s desire to hear about the words spoken at Agathon’s that
evening in 416 b.c.e.
Phalerum is a port city just east of Piraeus. So the path Apollodo-
rus takes at the start of the Symposium mimics that of Socrates in the
Republic—they are both going up to Athens. Symbolically, however, they
move in opposite directions, for Socrates is homeward bound (oi[kade,
Republic 327b1), whereas Apollodorus is moving away from his home
(oi[koqen, Symposium 172a2), or, perhaps more signifi cantly, from his own
nature. The superfi cial similarity between Socrates and Apollodorus
eclipses a deeper difference. While Socrates responds with playful irony
to Polemarchus, Apollodorus earnestly seeks to set the record straight
fi rst with Glaucon and then with a group of unnamed businessmen, for