| Abstract [eng] |
Plato’s dialogue Ion, not often discussed by philosophers, is analyzed in the paper. This dialogue presents a conversation between Socrates and the rhapsode Ion. Following the advice of a Delphic oracle, Socrates is trying to find out whether there is anyone who is wiser than he, and, consequently, inquires Ion about the ways of rhapsodic telling. It is presumed that Plato deals with rhapsodic telling because of a probable affinity between the way in which Socrates “provokes birth” to his companions and the ways of rhapsodic telling. It is shown here that the manner in which Socrates puts his questions imposes on Ion an alien premise, namely a premise that a rhapsode must be aware of what he is telling. Further in the conversation, Socrates easily demonstrates that it is not the knowledge of Homer but rather a divine power that makes Ion to speak well on Homer. Nevertheless, Ion manages to reveal to Socrates, and to the readers of the dialogue, the phenomenology of the rhapsodic telling which, in turn, is theoretically explicated here using the ideas of Martin Buber and Eemanuel Levinas on time, the offering, and the nonexistent life. It is shown that because of a specific spiritual constitution, it is quite possible that the antique man could experience rhapsodic telling not only as a kind of aesthetical catharsis, but rather as an existential initiation to cosmos as a whole. The paper concludes with a consideration which regards the inferences of Xenophanes, Parmenides and Plato on the being as a result of a theoretical assimilation of rhapsodic telling. |
