65 Socrates' will to die posed a grave problem for Nietzsche; we shall return to this point later.
66 Kierkegaard, ConduJing Unscientific Postscript, pp. 82fT Lowrie.
67 Kierkegaard, Point of Vie111, Part II, ch. 2, B p. 61 Lowrie.
68 Cf. Wahl, Etudes Kierkegaardiennes, pp. 281 ff; and especially the author's remarks on the relationship between the divine incognito and the incognito of the writer, p. 285, n. I .
69 Nietsche, Posthumous Fragments, April-June 1 885, 3 4 ( 1 48), vol. 1 1 , p . 470
Colli/Montinari.
70 Cf. Plato, Apology, 23b: "The wisest [sophotatos] of you men is he who has realized, like Socrates, that in respect of wisdom [sophia] he is really worthless."
71 Cf. Wahl, Etudes ltierkegaardiennes, pp. 387, 409 n. I (on Kierkegaard's negative theology).
72 Sercn Kierkegaard, Der Augenbliek ( The Instant ), IO, GW 34, pp. 330-1 .
73 Friedlander, Plato, p. 1 53 .
74 Werner Jaeger, Paideia, vol. 2 , Berlin 1 954, p . 64 .
75 Kierkegaard, Point of Vie111, GW 3 3 , p. 64 = p. 61 Lowrie.
76 Plato, Symposium, 2 1 Sa; Phaedrus, 229-30; Alcibiades, 106a.
77 Plato, Theaetetus, 149a.
78 Plato, Symposium, 22 1c-d.
79 Kierkegaard, Point of Vie111, GW 33, p. 1 13 = p. 102 Lowrie.
80 On Socrates and Eros, see J. Hillman, "On psychological creativity," Eranos
Jahrbuch 35 ( 1 966), pp. 370-98. The author emphasizes the demonic aspect of Socratic Eros, and I believe our investigations are mutually complementary.
8 1 Cf. H.-1. Marrou, Histoirt de l'tducation dans l'Antiquite, 6th edn, Paris 197 1 , ch. 3: "De la pederastie comme education" ["On pederasty as education" -
Trans.].
82 Plato, Symposium, 2 1 7- 1 8.
83 Ibid, 2 1 8a, 21 5e, 222b.
84 Kierkegaard, Concept of Irony, ch. 2, GW 3 1 , p. 1 94 = p. 2 1 3 Capel.
85 Plato, Symposium, 200-1 .
86 See, above all, Leon Robin, "Introduction," in Platon, Le Banquet (Bude), Paris 1 95 1 , pp. Cl-CIX; Robin, La theorie platot1iciennt tlt /'amour, Paris 1 933, p. 1 95; Friedlander, Plato, ch. 2: "Demon and Eros."
87 ["Every lover is a soldier." - Trans.]
88 On the genealogy of Eros, see M. Detienne and J.-P. Vernant, Les ruses de / 'intelligence. La mitis des Crees, Paris 1974, p. 140; A. Spies, Mi/ital omnis amans. Ein Beitrag zur Biltlerspraehe tier antiken Erotik, Tilbingen 1 930. On Eros as a good-for-nothing, see the Anthnlogia Palatina, Book 5, Epigrams 176-80.
89 Plato, Symposium, 203c-d, 220b. On Socrates and Eros, Rec JankC:IC:vitch,
/. '/r011it, pp. 1 22-5; T. Gould, l'/atonic l.nt•t, London 11Jti3, p. 57.
The Figure of Socrates
1 75
90 Plato, Symposium, 174a.
91 See the passages quoted by Diogenes Laertius, Lives, 2, 27-8 ..
92 On the life-style of Diogenes the Cynic, see Diogenes Laertius, Lives, 61 20
ff. The passage containing the definition of Diogenes as a "furious Socrates"
(6, 54) is poorly attested textually, but is nevertheless not lacking in psychological verisimilitude.
93 Friedlander, Plato, p. 368, n. 6.
94 The Greek words chosen by Plato are intentionally ambiguous: Eros lusts after phronesis, that is, wisdom; he is "resourceful" (porimos); and he "philosophizes"
(philosophon) all through his life.
95 Plato, Symposium, 203d.
96 Aristophanes, Clouds, 445ff.
97 Plato, Symposium, 22 le.
98 ["Insolent, outrageous" - Trans.] Ibid, 1 7Se.
99 Ibid, 21 5c; cf. Meno, 80a3; Charmides, 1 S5e; Phaedo, 77e.
100 Ibid, 2 1 8a-b.
101 Ibid, 220a-d.
102 Aristophanes, Clouds, 362-3. Cf. Plato, Symposium, 221 b.
103 Cf. Plato, Symposium, 203--4. On the philosophical significance of these simultaneous negations, cf. H.-J . Kramer, Platonismus u11d hellenistische Philosophie, Berlin/New York 197 1 , pp. 1 74--5, 229-30.
104 Plato, Symposium, 2 1 5b.
1 05 Ibid, 2 1 8e.
106 At Symposium, 2 1 7-2 1 , Alcibiades insists on Socrates' temperance and strength.
1 07 Cf. Soren Kierkegaard, Christliche Reden (Cliristian Speeches), 1848, GW 20, p. 260: "When, in the course of my readings, I ran across Socrates, my hean began to pound like that of the young men who held discus.11ions with him. The thought of Socrates inspired my entire youth, and filled my soul to overflowing."
See also Goethe's comment, below.
1 08 Gregory Thaumaturgus, Speech in Praise of Origen, 6, 83; 7, 97.
1 09 E. Bertram, Nietzsthe. Versuch einer Mythologie, Berlin 1 9 1 8, repr. Bonn, 8th edn, 1965, pp. 3 1 8ff. Friedlander, Plato, p. 50, also alludes to this section of Bertram's work.
1 10 Nietzsche, "Introduction to the Study of Classical Philology," in Niet:r.dies Werke, vol. 17: Philologita, Leipzig 1910, p. 333.
1 1 1 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Conversations with Eikermatm, trans. John Oxenford, 2 vols, 1 850, May 12, 1825.
1 1 2 Friedrich Holderlin, The Death of Empedotles, First Version, Act 2, Scene 4.
1 13 Hillman, "Psychological creativity," p. 380.
1 14 Hamann, Sokratische Denkwurdigkeite11, pp. 1 49ff Hamann s Socratit Memorabilia, A Translation and Commentary, trans. James C. O'Flaherty, Baltimore 1967
(hereafter O'Flaherty), pp. 1 69ff.
1 1 5 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, letter to Herder, July 1 772: "War' ich einen Tag und cine Nacht Alzibiades und dann wollt'ich sterben."
1 1 6 Johann Wolfgang vcm Goethe, Poetry and Tr11th, Hamburger Ausgabe (hereafter HA), vol. IO, 11. 1 75.
176
Figures
1 1 7 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, "Urworte, Orphisch. The Demon," HA, vol. 1 , p . 359, lines 5-8 : "So musst d u sein, dir kannst du nicht entfliehen . . ./und keine Zeit und keine Macht zerstilckelt/Geprigte Form die lebena sich entwickelt."
1 18 On Mignon's aspirations, cf. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship and Travels, From the Gennan of Goethe, trans. Thomas Carlyle, 2
vols, 2nd edn, 1 839, vol. 2, p. 89:
Such let me seem, till such I be;
Take not my snow-white dress away! Soon from this dusk of earth I flee
Up to the glittering lands of day.
There first a little space I rest,
Then wake so glad, to scenes so kind
In earthly robes no longer drest,
This band, this girdle left behind.
And those calm shining sons of mom,
They ask not who is maid or boy;
No robes, no garments there are worn,
Our body pure from sin's alloy.
[So lasst mich scheinen, bis ich werde,
Zieht mir das weisse Kleid nicht ausl
Ich eile von der schoncn Erde
Hinab in jenes feste Haus.
Dort ruh' ich, cine kleine Stille,
Dann t>fTnet sich der frische Blick;
Ich lasse dann die reine Hillie,
Den Gurtel und den Kranz zuriick.
Und jene himmlische Gestalten
Sic fragen nicht nach Mann und Weib
Und keine Kleider, keinc Falten
Umgeben den verkliirten Leib.
Cf. M. Delcourt, "Ultrumquc-neutrum," in Melanges 11.-Ch. Puech, Paris 1 974, p. 1 22: "A stolen child, unhappy, dressed as a boy and hiding her sex, Mignon is depicted as a ZIPillerhafles Wesen ["hybrid being" - Trans.). Finally reconciled with herself, she plays the role of an angel in a children's celebration and sings a Lied in which she foretells her imminent death: /ch eile von der sd1onen Erde . . . "I am leaving the lovely earth in haste I for that solid home . . . and the heavenly Forms who live there I do not a.o;k if one is man or woman I and no clothing, no veils I surround one's transfigured body." On the figure of Mignon, cf. also W. Emrich, Die Symbolik von Faust fl, Frankfurt 1957, pp. 1 72, 459, with further bibliography.