Apology: Two-pronged Critique: Upstaging Athenian Democracy & Homer

    A. Socrates the new hero (written ca 390 a)
        1. Oracle from Delphi (perhaps ca 440 BCE): 'noone is wiser than S.':
            utterance from the god Apollo that S. sets out to refute (heroic quest, cf. Oedipus)
        2. Quest to Refute the Oracle: S. cross-examines cross-section of Athenian society
            a. Politicians (sc. Pericles): exposed as thinking he knows more than he does.
            b. Poets (sc. Sophocles, 441 Antigone): exposed as unable to explain what he writes.
            c. Craftsmen: each good at one craft (speciality) but exposed for imagining they can
                take part in state.
                [Rejects democratic idea that every citizen takes part in government,
                as expressed by Pericles, "Funeral Oration" (Thucydides).
                In effect Plato wipes clean the political slate, leaving need to discover & define
                "the right way" to organize human society: hint of new quest.]
    B. Socrates (tragic hero) in relation to Homer
        1. Socrates like Achilles (Apology 28c,d; cf. Iliad 18):
            prefers honor without regard for risk of death.
        2. BUT Socrates morally & ethically superior to Achilles:
            because unlike Achilles, Socrates obeyed his commanders in wartime
            (Apology 28e, 29a)
        3. Socrates imagined in underworld:
            meeting Minos, questioning Homer, Hesiod & poets,
            but also questioning characters from poetry, e.g. Odysseus:
            what, we ask ourselves, would be the result of an encounter between Socrates &
            Odysseus? Who would emerge superior, which hero, Homer's or Plato's?

Republic: In Quest for "The Right Way"
           [critique of  Athenian (democratic) & recourse to Spartan (oligarchic) model;
            fictional symposium, set perhaps ca 431 BCE?)
    A. Piecing together a model society [sections 367-403: pp. 53-94]
        1. Basic city: Shelter, food, clothing
            [cf. models of culture in Iliad 18, Odyssey 9, Antigone, Thucydides, Prometheus]
        2. Swollen city (metaphor of civic disease, inflamed by luxury, cf. modern cities):
            need for military force (external/internal): guardians proposed.
        3. Guardians' Education: Training an elite: Poetry must be censored (e. g. Homer).
    B. Selecting Rulers: a Cure for the Ills of Politics as Usual
        [sections 412-421, 445-469: pp. 102-111, 144-172]
        1. Ruling Fiction: The Allegory of Metals in human souls
           [hierarchy, from superior to inferior: Gold down through Silver, to Bronze & Iron]
        2. Role for Women: equal to men but all subordinated to Common Good
            [sexuality taken from individual & controlled for sake of state]
        3. Common Good as highest goal ("the right way" = justice: p 110).
 
under construction: Hierarchy of Knowledge as Rationale for Power
           Imagination of Images (fictions & figments, poetry) as lowest,
            yet Plato a master of image making (cf. Metals above, Cave below: indeed whole
            Republic a fiction)
Cave as Master Illustration of Hierarchy
    Quest Plot (cf. Socrates' quest):
        struggle to move up & see light
        temptation to stay & enjoy the light
        obligation to return home to share knowledge for sake of whole community
            (cf. Odysseus' return home)
        risk of being killed on return
Final Fiction: Underworld (cf. Odyssey, book 11)
        Plato's final shot at Homer: Odysseus opts out of Homer's plot, prefers a life quiet &
        unsung, not suitable for epic.

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