6 5 Apophthegmata Patrum, P G 6 5 , 1 73A-B.
66 Dorotheus of Gaza, Ditlasltaliai, §60, 27, p. 120 Wheeler.
67 Ibid, §69, 2, p. 1 3 1 Wheeler.
68 Ibid, § 1 89, 4-5.
69 Ibid, §60, 30, pp. 1 20-1 Wheeler.
70 See above.
71 Origen, Commentary on the Song of Songs, pp. 143, 27ff. Baehrens = pp. 1 28ff Lawson.
72 [Again, while the King James Bible reads "If thou know not, 0 thou fairest among women", the Greek Septuagint version gives "Unless you know yourself"
(Ean me gnois seauten) - Trans.]
73 See the references in I. Hadot, Seneca und die griechisch-romische Tradition tier Seelenleitung, Berlin 1969, pp. 66-7 1 .
74 John Chrysostom, Non esse ad gratiam concionandum, PG SO, 659-60.
75 Dorotheus of Gaza, Didasltaliai, §§1 1 1 , 13; 1 1 7, 7, pp. 170; 1 75 Wheeler.
76 Cf. I. Hadot, Seneca, p. 70.
77 Athanasius, Life of Antony, PG 26, 924B, p. 73 Gregg/Clebsch.
78 Dorotheus of Gaza, Ditlasltaliai, §25, 1 1 , p. 91 Wheeler.
79 Sec above.
80 Evagrius of Pontis, Praktikos, §§54-6, p. 3 1 Bamberger. Cf. F. Refoule, "Reves et vie spirituelle d'apres Evagre le Pontique," Supplement d.e la Vie Spirituelle 59
( 196 1 ), pp. 470-5 16.
81 Diadochus of Photice, Kephalaia Gnostica, 37, p. 106 Des Places.
82 Dorotheus of Gaza, Didskaliai, §20, p. 89 Wheeler. L. Rcgnault and J. de Preville, editors of the Sources Chretiem1es edition, cite as a parallel Epictetus, Discourses, I, 18, 1 8.
83 Ibid, §120, p. 1 78 Wheeler. Regnault and de Preville compare Epictetus, Discourses, 2, 18.
84 Evagrius of Pontis, Praktikos, §58, p. 32 Bamberger. In their Sources Chretiennes edition, A. and C. Guillaumont cite as a parallel Cicero, Tusculan Disputations, 4, 75.
85 Dorotheus of Gaza, Didaskaliai, §202, 12.
86 Epictetus, Manual, 8.
87 Dorotheus of Gaza, Didaskaliai, §20, 1 1-13, p. 88 Wheeler.
88 Plutarch, On Curiosity, 520Dff.
89 Dorotheus of Gaza, Didaskaliai, 20, pp. 88-9 Wheeler.
90 Evagrius of Pontis, Praktiltos, 2, p. 1 5 Bamberger.
91 See the texts cited by A. and C. Guillaumont in the notes to their commentary on the Praktikos (SC 1 7 1 ), p. 499, n. 2; p. 50 1 , n. 3.
92 1�:vngrius of Pontis, Prt1ktik11s, §§2--3, pp. 1 5-16 Bamberger.
1J3 Cf. P. llndot, "1 .11 division dcK parties de la philosophic dans l'Antiquite,"
MuMcum l·lelvc1in1111 .lf1 ( 1 11711), l'I'· 20 1 23.
144
Spiritual Exercises
94 Cf. I. Hadot, Lt probltme du niop/atonisme alexandrin, Hiirodis el Simplicus, Paris 1 978, pp. 1 52-8.
95 Porphyry, Sentences, p. 27, 9, Lamberz.
96 Cf. the note in A. and C. Guillaumont, 1 97 1 , p. 500.
97 Evagrius of Pontis, Praletikos, §I, p. 1 5 Bamberger.
98 On amtrimnia, see Diadochus of Photice, Kephalaia Gnostica, 25, p. 97, 7; 30, p.
100, 19; 65, p. 1 25, 1 2; 67, p. 127, 22 Des Places. For Dorotheus of Gaza, see, inter alia, Didaskaliai, §68, 2.
99 For occurrences of tranquillitas, cf. John Cassian, Conferences, I, 7, vol. I, p. 85
Pichery = p. 42 Luibheid; 1 9, 1 1 , vol. 3, p. 48 Pichery.
100 Dorotheus of Gaza, Didaskaliai, §§58-60, pp. 1 1 8-20 Wheeler.
1 0 1 In the treatises of Plutarch and Seneca, for instance.
1 02 See above.
1 03 Maximus Confessor, Commentary on the Our Father, PG 90, 900A = p. 1 14
Berthold.
1 04 Clement of Alexandria, Stromata, 5, 1 1 , 67, 1 , pp. 370-1 Stiihlin.
1 05 Gregory Nazianzen, Epistula 3 1 , vol. I , p. 39 Gallay.
106 Evagrius of Pontis Praktikos,
,
§52, p. 30 Bamberger. Compare Porphyry,
Sentences, 8, p. 3, 6 Lamberz: "What nature has bound together, she also unbinds, but that which the soul binds, the soul likewise unbinds. It was nature that bound the body within the soul, but it was the soul which bound itself within the body. Therefore, while it is nature that unbinds the body from the soul, it is the soul which unbinds itself from the body."
I 07 Cf. above.
1 08 Athanasius, life of Antony, 873C, p. 47 Gregg/Clebsch.
109 Ibid, 924A, p. 72 Gregg/Clcbsch.
1 1 0 Ibid, 872A, p. 45 Gregg/Clebsch.
1 1 1 Dorotheus of Ga7.a, Didaskaliai, § 1 5 1 , 47.
1 1 2 Dorotheus of Gaza, life 1if Dositheus, §§5-9, edited among Dorotheus' Spiritual Works in Regnault/de Preville 1963, pp. 129ff.
1 13 Cf. A. Voobus, A History of Asceticism in the Syrian Orient (= CSCO vol. 184, Subsidia 14, vol. 197, Subsidia 17), Louvain 1 958-60.
Part III
Figures
5
The Figure of Socrates
Since the dawn of Greek thought, the sage has functioned as a living, concrete model. Aristotle testifies to this in a passage from his Protrepticus: "What more accurate standard or measure of good things do we have than the Sage?" 1
There were several reasons for the fact that my research on the sage as a model gradually became fixed upon Socrates. In the first place, I found in him a figure who had exercised a widespread influence of the greatest importance on the entire Western tradition. Secondly, and most importantly, the figure of Socrates - as sketched by Plato, at any rate - had, it seemed to me, one unique advantage. It is the portrait of a mediator between the transcendent ideal of wisdom and concrete human reality. It is a paradox of highly Socratic irony that Socrates was not a sage, but a "philo-sopher": that is, a lover of wisdom.
To speak about Socrates is, of course, to expose oneself to all sorts of historical difficulties. The accounts we have of him by Plato and by Xenophon have transformed, idealized, and deformed the historical Socrates.2
I shall not attempt here to uncover or reconstruct the historical Socrates.
Instead, what I shall try to set forth is the figure of Socrates, as it has influenced our Western tradition. Since this is a phenomenon of immense proportions, however, I shall restrict myself to two of its aspects: the figure of Socrates as depicted in Plato's Symposium, and as it was perceived by those two great Socratics, Kierkegaard3 and Nietzsche. 4
1 Silenus
Socrates thus functions as a mediator between ideal norms and human reality.
The concepts of "mediation" and "intermediate" call to mind the ideas of equilibrium and the Golden Mean. We should therefore expect to see in Socrates a harmonious figure, combining divine and human characteristics in llclicutc nu1mccN.
148
Figures
Nothing could be further from the truth. The figure of Socrates is ambiguous, troubling, and strangely disconcerting. The first surprise in store for us is his physical ugliness, which is well attested by the testimony of Plato, Xenophon, and Aristophanes.5 "It is significant," wrote Nietzsche, "that Socrates was the first great Hellene to be ugly." 6 "Everything in him is exaggerated, bujfo, a caricature." 7 Nietzsche goes on to evoke his "crab-like eyes, puffed-up lips, and hanging belly," 8 and he takes pleasure in telling the story of how the physiognomist Zopyrus once told Socrates he was a monster, keeping hidden within himself the worst vices and appetites. Socrates, says Nietzsche, simply replied: "How well you know me! " 9 If Socrates really did resemble a Silenus, as he is depicted in Plato's Symposium,10 such suspicions were quite understandable. In popular imagination, Sileni and satyrs were hybrid demons, half-animal, half-men, who made up the escort of Dionysos.
These impudent, ribald buffoons also constituted the chorus of satyr-plays, a literary genre of which Euripides' Cyclops is one of the few remaining examples.