Remembering Pericles: The Political and Theoretical Import of Plato's Menexenus Author(s): S.

Sara Monoson Source: Political Theory, Vol. 26, No. 4 (Aug., 1998), pp. 489-513 Published by: Sage Publications, Inc. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/192201 Accessed: 27/10/2010 07:10
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REMEMBERING

PERICLES

The Political and Theoretical Import of Plato's Menexenus

S. SARAMONOSON NorthwesternUniversity

is a farmoreinterestingdialoguethanis usually supHE MENEXENUS In it Plato has Socrates recitea funeralorationpurportedly composed posed.1 to advance his well-knowncritiqueof rhetoricbutalso to not only by Aspasia engage the Thucydideanconstructionof Pericles' significance for Athens and for us. In this dialogue, Plato considersthe enduringmeaningof the life in the Menexenus In particular, of Pericles. At stake is "an act of memory."2 venerationof Pericles,rejectsthe model of Plato attackshis contemporaries' democratic citizenship based on erotic relations attributedto Pericles in Thucydides'Historyof the PeloponnesianWarin favorof one based on family relations,and considers the theoreticalimportof a key strategyof Athenian democraticdiscourse at which Pericles reportedlyexcelled-the epitaphios logos (eulogy spoken at the public funeral for war dead). The Menexenus also shows how far Plato's thought is indebted to practices of Atheniandemocracyeven as it delivers a critiqueof that city's politics. For for philosophy at instance, we find in the MenexenusPlato appropriating least part of the intellectualmission that the Atheniansassociated with the practiceof the funeraloration.3

PLATO'SOPPOSITION TO THE VENERATION OF PERICLES We mustfirstrecallThucydides'explicitjudgmentof Periclesbeforetracing the conversationwith this view sustainedin the Menexenus.Thoughthe of the warsuggests thatthe historian'sfinal progressof Thucydides'narrative not on Pericles is entirely glowing, when he pauses at the end of judgment
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Pericles' thirdspeech (II.65) to commenton the leaderin his own voice, he delivers strong praise.4Thucydides notes that Pericles did not live much to imaginetheenormity of thisloss fortheAthenians. longerandasksthereader reveals that Pericles been most had the thoughtfulleader of the Hindsight Athenians.The policies he advocatedseem, in retrospect,to have been truly in the best interestof the city. At this moment,Thucydideseven comes close to lamentingthe Athenians'inabilityto stay on the course Pericles had recommended.Had he lived, he invites readersto speculate,Athens might have won the war. He also specifies the personal and intellectualqualities that He not only could see whatwas best, buthe could made Periclesoutstanding. also controlthe demos, thatis, he could "leadthem [themultitude]insteadof being led by them" (11.65.8).As a result, underhis leadershipdemocracy was, in Thucydides' judgment, "in words" (logoi) a democracy but "in action" (ergoi) the "rule of the first man" (hupo tou protou andros arche 11.65.9).Underthe leadershipof Pericles,the Atheniansavertedthe difficulties usually associatedwith democraticpolitics. ThucydidespraisesPericles as a model statesman,a leaderwho appearsto have keptdemocraticpolitics into factionaldisputes and the pursuitof personalambifrom deteriorating tion. All the leaders who came afterhim, Thucydidesstates, sought only to gratify themselves and theirhearers,and politics took a turnfor the worse. It is not hardto imagine this explicit evaluationof Pericles gaining some Waryears,despite the subtle efforts of popularityin the post-Peloponnesian the historian to raise questions about the truthof this preliminaryassessment.5This view vindicatesimperialaspirations(which were far fromdead) and lays the blamefor Athens'sufferingin the latteryearsof the waron a set of "bad"advisors.This view also affirmsthatthe warcould have turnedout differently,thattherewas nothinginevitableaboutAthens' defeat. Veneratas well. His memorywas not miredin coning Pericles had otherattractions tinuingfactionaldisputes,andhe was a championof democraticinstitutions. He could be a fitting symbol for a restored democracy struggling to reestablishsome civic solidarityacrosssocial andeconomic divisions thathad recentlyeruptedin civil war.As Aristotlereports(AthPol28.1), thoughPericles was a "leaderof the people"(prostatestou demou), he was also held in Periclesin the post-War period good reputeby the elite at Athens.Venerating could be a strategyfor assertingthe continuityof the democracyof the years with the vibrantdemocracyof the following the rule of "TheThirtyTyrants" with the imperialglory,comrestored the democracy period,linking pre-War andcivil peace thatdismercialsuccess, artisticvitality,excellentreputation, the earlier period. tinguished From Plato's point of view, the stakes involved in the struggle to attach symbolic meaningto the memoryof Pericles must have been great. Plato's

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writingsaim to unsettletheirreaders'confidencein the adequacyof the moral andpolitical outlookthata venerationof Pericles seems designed to solidify. of humanflourishThey questionwhetherthe (soul-ignoring)understanding is attractive. But while manydiaPericlean Athens that represents really ing induce aim to discomfort, aporia (intellectual uncertainty), the logues Menexenus begins with a mild version of it. The dramaticsetting of the Menexenus indicates that this work assumes that the matterof whom the Atheniansshould admire-that is, whatis praiseworthy and,by implication, an At the start behavior-is of the dialogue, open question. blameworthy Menexenus tells Socratesthathe has just come from the agora after having gone thereto see whom would be chosen to deliverthe eulogy at the upcoming public funeral rites. But, he reports, no choice was made today.6The action of this dialogue continues under the assumptionthat the question, "Whomshould we choose?"remainsopen. Plato articulatesthe political stakes in properlyassessing Pericles most HerePlatocriticizesthe tendencyof his contemporarclearlyin the Gorgias.7 ies to veneratethe memoryof Periclesby settingup a rivalrybetweenPericles and Socrates for the title most politikos8citizen. He attacksPericles, along with Cimon, Themistocles,and Miltiades,for "feasting"the Athenians,that thanmaking is, for "indulgingthemwith whattheyhadan appetitefor"rather the citizens "better."9 The appetitehe has in mind is for empireand material riches. Several times the text identifies the delicacies distributedat the feast-"docks, shipyardsandwalls"-structures necessaryfor andsymbolic of empire. Plato portraysPericles as stuffing the demos with tasty,but ultimately unhealthy,treats. He does not stand up to the demos; he does not articulatepainful truths.Rather,he cleverly pandersto them. The Gorgias arguesthat all these highly regardedleaders-and Pericles is singled out for special disdain-did not make the citizens better, only "wilder"(516d2). This is familiarterritory: here we see Plato's critiqueof democraticpolitics for its relianceon rhetoricthatbreedsonly panderers ratherthanleaders,that is, men who caterto the city's desiresratherthanseek to modify them in significant ways.10Yet the specific way in which the Menexenusfurthersthe argumentof the Gorgias is not familiarat all. Precisely how does the Menexenus take on Thucydides' evaluation of Pericles?" The allusions in the Menexenusto Thucydides,to Pericles, and specifically to Thucydides' construction of Pericles' significance are not veiled or hidden, nor are they few. The allusions to Thucydidesbegin with Plato's adoptionof some language that his contemporarieswould probably have recognized as peculiarto Thucydides'writings.'2Socrates is made to use the term "Peloponnesians" (236d)-language only Thucydides uses to referto the people of this geographicalregion. Otherauthorsas well as all of

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Plato's otherdialogues consistentlyuse terms such as "Spartans" or "Lacadaimonians."'3 Otherallusionsquicklyfocus on Thucydides'constructionof Pericles. Menexenusgoads Socratesby askinghim if he could put togethera funeralspeech on shortnotice were he to be elected orator.Socratessays in response that he could do as well as Pericles because they share a teacher (235e). My teacher,he continues,"hasmademanyotherpeople good orators, one of whom surpassesall the Greeks,Periclesson of Xanthippus" (235e).14 Menexenus immediatelyrecognizes the teacher as Aspasia, Pericles' mistress. Socrates attributesauthorshipof the speech he recites in this text to fromthe one she had Aspasia:it was "piecedtogether"out of the "leftovers" writtenfor Pericles some time ago (236b), an obvious referenceto Pericles' funeraloration. Socrates'speech exhibits many more links with Pericles and specifically with Thucydides'constructionof Pericles' significance. For example, there are textual parallelsbetween the speech Socrates recites and the Periclean oration as found in Thucydides'text. These parallelsinclude the use of the logos/ergon antithesisat the startand a directquote from the ending of Pericles' orationat the close of the Aspasianspeech.15 In addition,by presenting the exhortationto the survivorsthatcloses Socrates'speech as a reportof the actualwordsonce spokenby the dead soldiers, Plato alludes to Thucydides' insertion of speeches into his narrative. Thucydidesuses literaryartistryto prompthis readerto treathis reconstructedspeeches in the same way that Socrates asks his listeners to treathis impersonationof the dead: as if they were "the very voices of the men themselves" (246c). Moreover, Plato's inclusion of a passage in which Socratesreflects on the methodused to compose this portionof his speech sustains a powerful allusion to Thucydides' accountof his method.Plato has Socratessay, "I shall tell you what I heard from these men, andwhatthingsthey wouldbe glad now to say to you if they had the power, as indicated by what they said then" (246c). This recalls Thucydides'commentat 1.22.1:"withreferenceto the speeches ..., some I it was in all cases difficultto heardmyself, othersI got fromvariousquarters; carrythem wordfor wordin one's memory,so my habithas been to makethe speakerssay whatwas in my opiniondemandedof themby the variousoccasions, of course adheringas closely as possible to the general sense of what they really said."16 Socrates' funeral speech also suggests-and questions-Thucydides' explicit judgment of Periclean leadership. For example, when Socrates moves to describethe constitutionthatnourishedthe men of Athens, he uses languagethatechoes Thucydides'contentionthatPericlesruledat Athens as "firstman"and that the resultingpolitical orderwas a democracyin name only (11.65.9).Let me cite the Menexenuspassage in full.

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and underthis we dwell as citiThe same constitutionexisted then as now, aristocracy, zens now .... Onemancalls it democracy,anotherwhathepleases. But in truthit is aristocracywith the approvalof the multitude... While the multitudehas controlover most andruleto those they believe arethe best, andno one thingsin the city,they give authority is excluded by reasonof physicalweakness nor povertynorignoranceof his fathersnor, he as in other cities, esteemed by reasons of their opposites. There is but one standard: who seems to be wise or good is to rule and govern. (238c-d, emphasis added)

The Socratic/Aspasianorationcontinues:
in nothing is equality of birth.... Wedeferto eachother thecauseof ourconstitution exceptthe of virtueandwisdom.(238e-239a,emphasisadded) appearance

Socrates'hesitationaboutthe propername of the regime he lauds in this fictive eulogy of a fictive city may have theoreticalimport.Derridaproposes thatit pointsto the gapbetweenthe nameandthe conceptof a thing,signaling that it is precisely in this space-the gap-that Plato's thoughtoperates.He then readsPlato'shesitanteffortto affix, howeverloosely, the name"democracy"to the imaginedAthensof the funeralorationas an effortto stressan abof the greatest stractaspect of an idealizedregime:"therequiredapprobation number."17 My proposalthatthe phrasingengages Thucydides'evaluationof Pericleanleadershipsupportshis reading.Referringto PericleanAthens as a democracy "in name"and yet also (in concept) the "ruleof the first man," Thucydidesstresses thatPericles enjoyed the approvalof the many. Thucydideshadreasonedthatdemocraticinstitutionsprevailedat Athens, but by the force of his oratoryandthe intelligence of his vision, Pericles was able to lead. In the case of Pericles, he maintains,the people deferredto one who was wise and good-or at least was the closest thing to wise and good that any had encountered.By contrast, the prevalence of the language of appearances(doksa) in the Menexenuspassage cited above questions that of virtue judgment:On whatbasis did anddoes Periclesenjoy the appearance andwisdom? Shouldhe reallyhavebeen so respectedandshouldhe continue today to be lauded above all others? Was he really wise and good? The Menexenusdoes not answer these questions but it does stress their importance.In particular, theMenexenusquestionsthe core of Thucydides'case for the exceptional excellence of Pericles voiced at 11.65. The Menexenus engages the subtle critique of the Athenian tendency unreflectively to embracethe exampleof PericlesthatThucydideshimself advancesin the rest of his narrative."8 Plato in the Menexenuschallenges a crucial assumption uponwhich reststhe view thatthe memoryof Pericles shouldserve as a symbol of Athenian aspirationsin the post-Waryears: the belief that Pericles bears no responsibility for the painful course of events that led up to the Atheniandefeat,thatis, forthecourseof thewarafterhis death.How does it do

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this? Plato advancesthis issue throughthe accountof Athenianhistory that forms the next partof the funeralorationrecitedby Socrates. Two thingsstandout aboutthis accountof Athenianhistory.First,the text Socratesrecountseventsthathappenedlong containsa blatantanachronism. serves to link Pericles to the course of the afterhis death.This anachronism warafterhis death.Socrateseven speaksof Periclesat one point as if he were still alive (235e,)'9 yet Pericles had died some thirtyyears earlier.The other thingthatstandsout aboutthis accountof Athenianhistoryis the thicknessof its irony.The significance of this featurerequireslengthierconsideration. birthof the The accountof Athenianhistoryfocuses on the autochthonous then the of over the Persian and Wars, amassing empire, presentsa skips city War down to the the the events of of satirical account Peloponnesian highly falsificationsof some extraordinary War.The accountperpetrates Corinthian againstPersia history.It contends,for example,thatAthensstoodwith Sparta with stood Persia in Athens War when fact the Corinthian against during in Athenian tradition to the funeral oration we must While any expect Sparta. the account Socrates indeed Athenian generously, history selectively, portray recitesis strikingfor the numberandenormityof its falsifications.In part,the ironic featuresof the orationcritiquerhetoricin generaland funeraloratory in particular. They ridiculethese formsof public speech for theirrelianceon manipulationsof fact and outrightuntruthsin orderto inflate the citizens' patrioticpride. The Menexenusunmasksthe funeralspeech. Thucydides'own text, however, had alreadyunmaskedthe bravadoand self-deceptionin the Periclean funeralspeech. Thucydides'telling of the war'shistoryrevealsthatAthensin the flesh did not so closely resemblethe image constructed by Pericles in his oration-an image of perfect unity, tolerance,prudence,and intelligence. The sanitized account of the PeloponnesianWarin the Menexenusand its Warstandin starkcontrastto Thucydides' gross distortionsof the Corinthian own accountof the Peloponnesian War,bothin its detailsandin its methodology. The erroneoushistory in the Menexenussuggests, in my view, that to describe recent Athenianhistoryin a manneranalogousto the way Pericles describeddemocracyat Athens in his famous speech is to disregard,paper over, indeed wish away,real vulnerabilitiesandreal causes of adversity.To veneratePericles is to praise someone who would act in such an irresponsible way. So far I have arguedthatthe Menexenusunsettlesthe glowing evaluation of Pericles voiced at one point in Thucydides'writings(11.65)and disturbs the Athenianpractice of taking Pericles to exemplify the kind of virtue to which citizens should aspire.The Menexenusdoes not itself make the case that Pericles indulged Athenians' appetites for advantage and made the

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citizens "wilder" instead of "better"(as does the Gorgias). Nor does it directly make the case that Pericles' "best vision" produced the horrible course of the war after his death. But the Menexenushints at these conclusions, conclusions thatI havearguedelsewhereThucydideshimself also considered.20Its attack on the veneration of Pericles perhaps also links the Menexenusto anotherdrivingaim of both the Gorgias andRepublic,thatis, the apparent attraction of tyrannical power.We mustremember undermining that Thucydides depicts Pericles in his third speech explicitly referringto Athens' possession of empireas being like a "tyranny" (I.122.3) and recomhold onto it. mending they

OF PERICLES' EROTIC RELATIONS PLATO'SREJECTION IN FAVOR CITIZENSHIP MODELOF DEMOCRATIC RELATIONS OF ONE BASEDON FAMILIAL The Menexenusengages the specific content of the Periclean vision of citizenshipimplicitin Thucydides'reportof Pericles'funeraloration.In particular, the Menexenus opposes Pericles' use of the erastes (lover)/citizen metaphorin his celebratedcomment:"gaze,day afterday,uponthe powerof the city and become her [the city's] lovers (erastai)" (11.43.1). Pericles' the demandsof Atheerastes metaphor proposedthatindividualsunderstand nian citizenship to involve reciprocalrelationsof mutualexchange between The Menexenus,I will argue,also favorsa reciprothemselves andthe city.21 cal model of citizenship but proposes that family obligations, not conventional erotic attachments,best capturethe dynamics of the exchange. The Menexenusdoes not explicitly argueagainst the appropriateness of the erastes metaphorproposedby Pericles. Rather,the dramaticstructure of the Menexenussuggests that a rejectionof this metaphorframes the entire evidence for this is discussion thatconstitutesthis text. The most important the role of Menexenus,the young manafterwhom Platotitles the text, as significant interlocutorin the Lysis. The Menexenusalludes to the text of the Lysis. The subject of the Lysis and the role of the young Menexenusin that dialogue provide some account of the reasons for the rejection of the Periclean erastes metaphorthatinformsthe text of the Menexenus. The Lysis provides, as one commentatorobserves, "two contrastingpicSocrates first encounters Hippothales, an tures of love and friendship."22 adultman in love with a young boy, Lysis. The men assembledtease Hippothales for behaving in a ridiculousfashion in his attemptto win the boy's affection. For example, he sings excessively flatteringpoetry aboutthe boy

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and his family. Socrates comments that this is not the right way to behave towarda beloved. A lover should not try to win a beloved like a trophy.The company then asks Socrates to explain what the right way to express love would be. Socratesoffers only to give an example,not to providean explanation. He then leads the men inside the nearbywrestlingschool to contriveto engage Lysis in a conversationintendedto exemplify the properapproach. Plato portraysHippothalesas so thoroughlyinfatuatedwith the boy that he cannotface him in this settingbutmusthide,hearingthe exemplaryconversation only by eavesdropping.23 As Socratesbegins to speak with Lysis, it becomes clear that his discussion will not be flatteringbut rathereducativein tone and purpose. It also does not treatthe boy as a passive receptacleof the wisdom impartedby a teacheror mentor.He is not a vessel to be filled. Socratesengages him in a philosophic inquiry,asking him to explain the natureof friendship(philia) since he appearsto know all aboutit judging from the exceptionalrelationship he has with anotherboy his age, Menexenus.The conversationrequires that the boy himself (and laterMenexenuswhen he too entersthe conversation) be an active, energeticinquirerratherthanpassive listener.In fact, the example of how one ought to treat a beloved youth that Socrates develops approximates the equal, reciprocal friendship between the two boys-Menexenus and Lysis. It suggests that both parties,Socratesand his must be active lovers of the inquiryat handand thatsexyoung interlocutor, ual involvementis an impedimentto thatend. This model contrastssharplywith the lover/belovedparadigmordinarily andexemplifiedby Hippothales'attitude associatedwith erotic attachments in its educational towardLysis. Conventional tone, the Lysisis highly unconThis active/activemodel of active/active model.24 an ventionalin its proposal when the interlocutors of the the end toward affirmed is explicitly agree Lysis must be loved by his boy" the fake not that "the genuine lover, though one, (222a-b). This was a radicalview of erotic relationshipsduringPlato's lifetime. The norms governing conventional relations between lovers and beloveds detailedprecisely how men andboys shouldact so as to protectthe boy from behaving in a servile and thereforedishonorablefashion. Plato's stance deprivesthese carefullydefined codes of conduct of their moral significance.Ratherthanacceptthe conventionsnormallyassociatedwith negotiationsof relationsbetweenloving men andbelovedboys, Socratessuggests in the Lysis-and later argues strenuously in the Symposiumand Phaedrus-that the distinctionbetweenlover andbeloved oughtto be erasedaltogether.Trueeros seeks not an honorableway to the physical possession of a beautiful object (sexual gratification)but rathereach lover's possession of can arouseone to this pursuit the Good.The eroticdesireone feels for another

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such conduct(philosophy)-unlike pederasticsexual conand, importantly, ForPlato tact-is somethingbothpartiescan pursueactivelysimultaneously. it is in philosophicalcommunity,and not sexual union, thaterotic passion is most fully experienced. In a dialogic partnership,there is "mutualerotic ratherthan a carefully orchestratedbarterrelationship(wisinspiration,"25 dom for sexual favors). In the Lysis, Plato has Socrates arguefor a radical, new understanding of erotic experienceand links it to philosophic activity. Plato sustainsthis critiqueof conventionalerotic relationsthroughout the The of relations active/active to paradigm consistentlyapplies the dialogues. that to the erotic attachments is, community, among the memphilosophical bers of the Socraticcircle. Plato also stresses the centralityof an active posof trueeroticismin his accountof the philosopher's tureto an understanding relation to the object of his desire-Truth, the Forms, knowledge. He even in the conventionallove relationto borrowsthe languageof the activepartner describe the philosopher'sdisposition.At Republic501d, Socratessays philosophers are "lovers (erastai) of being and truth."He can do this without maligning the objects of desire (thatis, likening them to a passive beloved) because in Plato'stheoryof eros, thereareno passiveparties.His view champions the active role and, divorcingerotic expression from sexual conduct, makes it possible to eradicatethe passive role altogether.26 The Menexenusalludes to the critiqueof the conventionalunderstanding in the diaof eros developedin theLysis.Menexenus'role as lone interlocutor logue thatbearshis name implies a reasonfor rejectingthe Pericleanerastes Pericles'metaphor reinforcesthe conventionalnotionof eroticism metaphor. and love relations because it relies precisely on normalnegotiationsof the active and passive roles in a pederasticlove relationshipto illuminate the demandsof democraticcitizenship. The Menexenusalso alludesto the eroticthemesin theLysisin the account with Socrates.This conversation of Menexenus'conversation sustainsa playful parody of the language of gratitude(charis) and gratification(charizoof sexual acts in the context of mai) thattypically expressedthe performance an honorablepederastic relationship.Let me offer some examples. When Socrates hesitates a little before reciting the speech, Menexenus urges him on, "Deliver it and you will greatly oblige me" (panu moi chariei, 236c6). Socratesrespondsthatperhapsyou, Menexenus,will laugh at me, at which point Menexenusurgeshim on again.This is followed by a strikingcomment by Socratesthatis clearly sexually suggestive (butnot exactly arousing).He says, "Imust surely oblige (dei charizesthai).Even if you told me to take off my clothes anddancefor you, I could scarcelyrefuse(charisaimenan), especially since the two of us arealone"(236c10-d3). This commentparodiesthe kind of humiliating action an infatuatedlover (like Hippothales from the

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Lysis) mightperform.Menexenus,whom we know fromthe Lysisto be quite bright, and who was said to have been present at Socrates'death (Phaedo listens to the funeralspeech. At the end, when the two 59b), then "passively" resume their conversation,the vocabularyof gratitudeagain is quite apparent. Socratesasks, "Areyou gratefulto her [Aspasia]for her speech?(charin echeis tou logou autei 249dl0-11). Menexenus confirms that sentiment emphatically: "Ohto be sure, Socrates-that is, gratefulto her (charin exo toutou 249d12) or whoeverit was who recitedit to you. And of course, I'm gratefulto the manwho recitedit to me (charinecho toi eiponti249e2)."The the recitationof the speech thus parodiesthe convendialogue surrounding tional model of appropriatebehavior between an active adult lover, who gives, and his passive beloved boy, who expresses gratitude.27 The figure of Aspasia is anotherindicationof Plato's interestin the critique of Pericles'eroticmodel of citizenship.Before exploringthis point, we must of courserecall thatSocrates'attribution of his funeralspeech to Aspasia links the text to Pericles and to the critique of rhetoric(the art she is In reputedto have taughtmanyAtheniansincludingSocratesandPericles.)28 recallsthe "chronological fantasies"29 thatmarkthis addition,this attribution dateof the dialogue,now we haveAspasia text. Keepingin mindthe dramatic and Socratesconversingtogetherlong afterboth were deadaboutevents that the genderof Aspasiamay signal happenedlong aftertheirdeaths.Moreover, Plato's delivery of a challenge to conventional Greek understandingsof eros.30In the context of the implicit commentaryon Thucydidesthat runs throughhis text, suggestingthata womandrafteda funeralorationmay also of the politibe a way of questioningThucydides'effortsto fix theboundaries of an account the from cal by excluding city's political history its religious of lives and the women, presenceof philosophyandphilosophers, practices, if I in am for example.31 But, right stressingthatthe memoryof Pericles is the should of the force dialogue,thenPlato'sstrikinguse of this character driving be puttingin play some aspectof the conspicuouseroticrelationsthatmarked the legendaryrelationshipbetween these two historicalfigures.32 Aspasia was perhapsthe most famous woman in fifth-centuryAthens.33 for considerShe was not Athenianbornbuta foreignerandhad a reputation able intellectualcapability(andas a teacherof rhetoric).The erotic relationship between Pericles and Aspasia appearsto have been one of citizen and courtesan(hetaira), that is, she was a prostitutewith whom Pericles develShe lived with him afterhe divorcedhis oped a long-termerotic attachment. legal wife. Their son, excluded from Atheniancitizenshipby Pericles' own law of 451/0, was legitimated by decree after his two sons by his former (legal) wife bothperishedin the plague.Butthis son also died beforethe close of the PeloponnesianWar,having been one of the unfortunategenerals at

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Arginousae.After Pericles'death,Aspasia lived with anotherman and,if we thateducatedyoung areto believe Plutarch's account,set up an establishment women to be courtesans. Aspasia's standingas a famous hetaira was valuablefor Plato. A hetaira was "at the highest end of the scale of commerciallyavailable sexual partners"in ancientAthens.34 But, as Leslie Kurkeargues,whatdistinguishedthe was not simply the statusand hetaira from theporne (commonstreetwalker) education of the woman or even the length of time of the pair's sexual involvement,but the kind of exchange thatthe partiesimaginedto be taking place between them. Quite routinely the male party to this commercial exchange wishfully viewed it as if it were a formof gift exchange,thatis, as if it were a charis relation.As Kurkepoints out, one ancientsourceeven makes this explicit. "The fourth century comic poet Anaxilas observed [that] the hetaira gratifies her patron pros charin, 'as a favor.' "35Reviewing the iconographic evidence in which a hetaira'srelationto the male symposiastis highly idealized, Kurke concludes that the inequality of their relation is "completelymystified as one of mutuallycomfortableand willing companTurningback to the case of Aspasia and Pericles, we can observe ionship."36 that the mystificationof their exchange was so thoroughthat it was nearly assimilated to legal marriageand nearly modeled an exceptional case of male/femaleeroticrelations:sexual, emotional,andintellectualpartners and confidants. Throughthe figure of Aspasia, Plato focuses the reader'sattentionon the precise targetof his concernin the Menexenus:the enduringsignificance of the Thucydidean of Periclesas symbol. The presenceof Aspasia construction importantlycalls attentionto the centralimage of Thucydides'renderingof Pericles'funeraloration,thatis, to his urgingof citizens to conceive of themselves as "lovers(erastai) of the city" (11.43.1).In Aspasia's dramaticpresence, precisely what erotic relationshipPericles intends citizens to consult for some help in thinking throughthe demands of democraticcitizenship becomes unclear.Are they to imagine themselves lovers of the city on the model of loversof male citizen youths(eromenoi)or on the model of loversof female courtesans(hetairai)?Whatkindof relationshipof exchangeis being invokedandlauded?Cana model of eroticexchangereally signal the kind of The presence of reciprocitythatought to obtainbetween city andcitizens?37 renders Pericles' unstable and therefore Aspasia metaphor problematic,prying open space for Socratesto proposeinsteada familial relationsmetaphor for understanding citizenship. Plato rejects the erastes metaphor in the Menexenus, implying that Pericles is wrong to suggest, as he did in his funeraloration (11.43.1),that Athenians should turn to their understandingof norms regarding erotic

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attachmentsfor some guidancein thinkingaboutthe relationsbetween city and citizen. The metaphorPlato offers in its place furtherclarifies his substantive objections to the Periclean model of citizenship. The Menexenus proposesthatrelationsamongcitizens as well as betweencitizens andcity be understoodon the patternof (idealized) relations among family members. The text invokes qualities associated with the exemplaryexecution of the roles of parent(both motherand father)and of son to createideal images of relationsbetween the city andcitizens. Socratesdoes not, however,dramatically announcethis metaphoras Pericles had done when he introducedthe erastes metaphor.Rather, Socrates' speech develops the family relations the metaphorin the generallanguageandset of images employedthroughout Socratic/Aspasianoration.For example, in its account of Athenianhistory, the speech identifiesthe land (chora) andconstitution(politeia) as nurturers of citizens on the model of parents,andespecially on the model of the fertile The speech also makesconsiderableuse of the image and creativemother.38 a myth thatsymbolicallyassertsall Athenianmen of Athenianautochthony, (Otherextantorations,with the exception of possess a common ancestry.39 Pericles', appealto this myth,butthe Menexenusdwells on it.) Most intriguingly, this orationemploys a strikingliterarydevice in the exhortationand thattraditionally close this genreof publicoratory. Socraconsoling remarks tes impersonatesthe dead soldiers (246c), thus enabling him to addressthe gathered survivors, the assembled citizens, as family (e.g., as "sons" [O paides] at 246d1).40 What does Plato's extendeduse of the metaphorof family relationssuggest? In what way does it offer a substantiveview of citizenshipdiscontinuous with the Pericleanview? The family relationsmetaphorof the Menexenus suggests that the bonds among citizens as well as between citizens and city arerootedin materialnecessity and nature.Pericles'view urges, in contrast, that the bonds between citizens and the city be understoodas selfconsciously and voluntarilypursuedby both parties.The erastes metaphor implies thatcitizens mustbe thoughtof as freely choosing to enterinto a relation with a city afterhavingbeen attracted by its charmsandvirtues,opportufurther free choice This and nities implies that citizens have a strengths. The citizens' the to relation unmediated direct, equalitywith one another city. is understoodas rootedin the recognitionof the abilityof each independently (indeed autonomously)to sustainsome significantrelationwith the city. In this way, Pericles' speech both praises equality and manages to assert that by intense democracyat Athensamountedto the ruleof the whole untroubled civil strife. All, albeit in possession of differentwealth, skills, or special talents, can performbenefactionsfor the city and in this way contributeto its

Monoson / REMEMBERING PERICLES 501 excellence. Men of significantmeanscan assume a liturgy(producea play or outfit a trireme).Men of modest means can attendthe assembly, serve as a juror,and fight in battle. Pericles' funeralorationequates elaborateacts of munificence with modest acts of participation (11.37.1). The family relationsmodel implicitly developedthroughout the Menexenus offers a differentview of how a city sustainsunityamongits citizens, how concretecity, and how individuindividualsbecome attachedto a particular, als can care for theirnativecity's well-being. Its perspectiveis clearestin the As was often the way Socrates'speech works with the myth of autochthony. case in this genre,an accountof this mythbeginsthe recitationof an idealized account of Athenianhistory.In the version recited here, the myth holds that the first Atheniansdid not descend from foreign migrantsto Attica but were borneand nursedby the very earthherself.Athenianancestors,therefore,are identified as the original inhabitants of the land of Attica and, most important, all Athenians as having a common ancestry. The ideological importanceof this myth is easy to recognize. The exaltationof ancestorsand aristocratic modes of asserting focus on the nobility of birthwere traditional the special claims of certainindividuals.The varietyandinequalityof family groups were, moreover,majorsources of disunity in the polis. The myth of for the whole communityand for every citizen an autochthonyappropriates argumentfor special excellence based on origins and ties to land. It turnsan thathadbeen used to defendexclusive privilegesinto ajustification argument of inclusiveness. We can observe this transformation in the speech Socratesrecites in the Menexenus.This speech first ties the achievementof political equality and unity to the recognitionof common ancestry.For example, Socrates begins eulogizing the dead soldiers by praisingthe nobility of their birth.He does not distinguish each individual on this basis but traces the nobility of the mass of fallen soldiers to theircommon autochthonousoriundifferentiated He focuses on praising "theirmother herself' (237c), by which he gins. meansthe earth.In so doing, he casts the citizens as brothers andhis eulogy as one of "fraternal The he democracy."4' earth, continues,providedthe original a rich landthatyields extraordinary in the form with nourishment generation of opportunitiesfor agriculture and wheat, barley, olives). The (particularly, earthis also the original giver of paideia in the form of the guidance of the gods, and throughthem,technai(the arts).Only when these individualshave fromthe eartharethey,in this tale, able to estabreceived sufficientnurturing lish a constitution(politeia). Socrates then explicitly ties the ability of the Athenians to sustain democraticinstitutionsto the seriousness with which they regardtheir common origins. Let me cite the relevantpassage in full:

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The cause of our constitutionis equality of birth(isou genesis). Othercities are compoundedof variedand unequalconditionsof men, thereforetheirconstitutionsare also unequal in their diversity-they are tyranniesand oligarchies. And thereforethey live acknowledgingone anothereitheras slaves or as masters.But we andthose who belong to us, do not thinkit fit to be eitherslave or master to each other:ourequal birthaccording to nature(he isogonia hemas he kataphusin) compels us to seek equal rightsunderthe law (isonomian ... kata nomon). (238e-239a)

The myth of autochthonythus locates the source of unity in the polis in its differencesamong citizens.42 ability to reduce, ratherthan incorporate, for citizenshipin the The Menexenusalso uses a familyrelationsmetaphor exhortationto the living thatcloses the oration(246a-249c). While in other places the Menexenusreviles the practiceof funeraloratoryas cheapflattery, here it appearsto make sincere use of this form of discourse and this public occasion. Using the rhetorical tropeofprosopeia, speakingin the voice of the dead and in this instance specifically the voice of recent casualties of war, Socrates brings about the change of tone that characterizesthis section.43 From this point on in the speech, we find considerablyless stinging satire, and apparentlyheartfelt argument, and the direct more straightforward of moral ideals. For example, this section draws on Socratic expression of the responsibilitiesof a parent-and of surviving adults understanding towardwar orphans-to promotea view of the demandsof citizenshipvery muchlike thatin theApology.It suggeststhattheseresponsibilitiesareanalogous to the ones Socrates assumed by accepting the gadfly role. Socrates begins this section announcing,"Allrememberingthese men should exhort theirchildren,as in war,do not desertthe station(ten taksin)of [your]forefathers, nor retreatand give way throughvice" (246b-c). Socrateshad earlier to perseverein this role of (Apology28d7) explainedhis own determination be politikos) on the analof in the face and (to danger challenging exhorting the ordealsof war.Socrastation at one's of during remaining steadfastly ogy tes suggests thatbothroles (being a good son andbeing a gadfly) areways of strivingto be trulypolitikos.44 to the deaddrawon the family relationsmetaphorto The wordsattributed develop a case for the Socraticview of political obligationandcitizenshipas defended in the Apology. The exhortationto the family members(children unit (family or polis) as the natural andparents,246d-248c) does not portray memof a particular loss rightfullydemandingan allegiancethatenduresthe the call and of the survival ber. It does not exalt the upon living to be group when sacrifices similar to make necessary.Rather,it (or appropriate) willing of each remainingcitizen's continuingstruggleindistressesthe importance viduallyto live virtuouslyin the face of personalloss. The speech urgessurvivors not to mourn excessively but to honor the memory of loved ones by

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voices explainthatparentswho "beartheirmisliving well. The otherworldly fortune with a heavy heart"will dishonor the dead because they thereby "behavebadly towardsthemselves." Parentswho "bearit lightly andmoderately . . . thereby live lives more beautiful, more upright(zoen kallion kai orthoteron)andmore pleasing to us" (248c-d). The speech admonisheschildren not to be deterredin their own struggle for virtue (arete 247a) by the extraordinary reputationof theirfathers.Rather,they are to striveto surpass their fathersin virtue. The speech suggests virtue is meant in a broadsense and not simply as a stand-infor valor.Even though the genre of the speech requiresthe extensive use of militaryvocabularyandreferenceto the future militaryexploits of survivors,the Socratic/Aspasian speech managesto suggest thatthe dead should inspirethe survivorsnot only to greatacts of valor on the battlefieldbutalso to living well. The languageat times seems a mix of famouslines fromtheApologyandRepublic."Webelieve,"the deadpropose, "thatlife is not worth living for a man who bringsshame to what is his own" (246d). The otherworldlyvoices continue:"practice[yourown] with virtue, knowing that without this, all pursuits and possessions are shameful and bad.... All knowledge, when separatedfromjustice and the other virtues, appearsas unscrupulous,not as wisdom"(247a). The dead then urge thatin surpassingtheirfathersin virtue,survivingsons can come to be acceptedby their fathers "as friends"(philoi para philous hemas aphiksesthe,247cl). This referenceto philoi revealsPlatohas in minda way for a young orphanto achieve equality with his fathernow thatthe usual democraticroute,joining him in the ranksof full citizens, is no longer a possibility. This funeraloration's exhortationto childrenandparentscollapses responsibilitiesto others and to the city into responsibilitiesto one's self. The Socratic/Aspasian speech also quotes the proverb, "Nothing in excess" (247e) and urges survivors to practice self-reliance. The speech explainsthatdependingon oneself is the bestrouteto happiness.Be temperate (sophron)as well as courageousand wise (andreioskaiphronimos)it counsels (248a). Depending on others to augmentone's powers is risky as their fortunesmay rise or fall. This insertionis a hauntingresponseto a lesson we could drawfrom Thucydides'narrative as a whole. So much of Thucydides' of the war shows how an escalation of violence springsfromindividuals story and factions, indeed whole cities, hangingtheir hopes on the expectationof or Athenians).The Melians have help from others(the approaching Spartans such false hopes. The entire story of the Corcyreancollapse into civil war begins by recountinghow both factionsbecameincreasinglybold (andcruel towardrivals) as each came to expect reinforcementsfrom either Spartaor Athens. The Atheniannavy at Syracusewas also emboldenedby the expectation of reinforcements. Counselingthe citizens to resist such imaginings,the

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funeralspeech in the Menexenussuggests a way to avoid pursuingthe same disastrouscourse of action thatthe Athenians(and others)had, Thucydides reports,alreadysufferedthroughonce. The reciprocal character of ideal city/citizen relations appears most to the clearly in the Menexenusin the closing lines of the words attributed dead soldiers. Citizens who have died to protectthe well-being of their nurturing "parents"-the land and constitution (freedom)-now matter-offactly declare that they expect, indeed are entitled to, somethingquite specific in return:"Webid the city care for our parentsand our sons, fittingly educating the one, worthily tending the other" (248d). The terms of the The dead do not even amplify the exchange are treatedas noncontroversial. point but say only: "Weknow thatthis will be sufficientlycaredfor without of the dead ourbidding"(248d). Withthiscomment,Socrates'impersonation ends and he begins once again to speak in his own (Aspasia's) voice. But of Socrates'Aspasiancontinuation while the deaddo notdwell on this matter, the speech leaves none of the implications of this comment unexposed. of the orationaredevotedto explicatingthose the concludingremarks Rather, last lines. The city reciprocatesits fallen heroes' actions throughthe workings of These laws, however,do not cast the city unrelaw, Socrates emphasizes.45 lentingly in the role of surrogateparent.Rather,the city returnsthe citizens' actions (deaths)by performingmultiplefamilialroles. The city must "stand of son andheir,andto theirsons as a father, to the fallen in the apportionment and to theirparentsas guardian,allowing all aid at all times" (249c). At this point, the speech emphasizesthe practicalthings thatthe city is requiredby law to do. Forexample,the city mustassumethejob of educatingthe sons of the city must sponsor these boys' militarytraining the fallen; in particular, and outfitting.Towardsthe fallen themselves, however,the city must act as dutifulson andattendto the burialandpropereulogy. Thecity also fulfills the role of upstandingmale adultby assumingthe responsibilityof caringfor the elderly parentsof the fallen. This section repeatedlyemphasizes the lavish ways in which the city fulfills each of these roles (249a-c). The city nurtures the orphan boys earnestly, Socrates reports, so that "their orphanhood [should] be as little before their minds as possible."When they reach manIf they shoulddie in batin full armor." hood, the city sends themout "arrayed tle, not only will the city perform"forall in commonthe customary[funeral] rites,"but will addthe conductof "gymnasticcontests andhorseraces andall sortsof music"to the ceremony.The Menexenusthus suggests thatAthenian norms of family obligations can best guide one in understandinghow to maintainhonorable,reciprocalrelationsbetween the city and citizens.46

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IN THE INTEREST PLATO'STHEORETICAL INTELLECTUAL MISSIONOF FUNERALORATORY ThoughPlatois consistentlysuspiciousof the abilityof oratoryto teach or Plato has a theoretieven to sustainan inquiry,the Menexenusdemonstrates The primaryfunctionof the offical interestin the projectof funeraloratory. cial funeralspeech was to give public expressionto an orthodoxconception of the potential excellence of the democraticpolis. Its performancearticulated civic and personal virtues to which the Athenians could aspire and imagine themselves to exhibit. It was an occasion on which Athens "invented"and "reinvented" itself in narrativeform,47 a collective effort to define a specifically Athenian conception of a "good city" and display its achievement.The practiceof funeraloratoryof this sort was, moreover,an innovationunique to democraticAthens. Loraux succinctly states the case for treatingthe Menexenusas criticalto the interpretation of Plato's rootedness in the Atheniandemocratictradition:"If [Plato]has chosen the funeral orationas his target,it is because in the epitaphioi [funeralorations]the city recognizes itself as it wishes to be.... The Menexenus,then, is a minordiaas civic logue only for those who fail to see in the funeralorationits character discourse."48 Plato's writings explicitly engage the concerns of funeral oratory.For example, two of the most outstandingfeaturesof the ideal city of the Republic-perfect unity of the whole citizenryand complete absenceof civic troubles-echo the centralpatrioticclaims of the orthodoxportrayal of Athensin the Periclean funeral speech as well as other extant epitaphioi (those of Lysias, Demosthenes, Hyperides).In the Pericleanoration,for instance, the rule of the whole demos and the avoidanceof civil conflict form the central organizingprinciplesof much of the speech. In additionto these substantive similarities, the structureof the Republic parallels the structureof all the extantepitaphioi.Each one sets out to constructa "city in speech"for public display. The epitaphioi and the Republic both offer images that selfconsciously aim not to describeAthenianlife accuratelybutto illuminatethe political andpersonalvirtuesto which people shouldaspire,thatis, to illuminate the possibilities for the city. Loraux has noticed this. She writes, for example:
in its essence and in its history,the Platoniccity irresistiblysuggests the [idealized]city of the epitaphioi. Characterized like it by unity,the polis of the philosopher,like thatof the orators[andespecially Pericles],knows none of the mistakesand difficulties of earlier humanity.49

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Lorauxhere assertsa link between the discourseof a seriousfuneraloration andthatof the Republic.Both ideally inventa polis thatis imaginedsuccessfully to avertcorrosivecivil conflict andachieveextraordinary happinessand honor. On the occasion of the funeral speech, the Athenians assembled were imploredto performthe mental act of imaginingthemselves membersof a fictional, idealized city and to take their cues regardinghow they ought to behavein the messy real worldfrom the crisplydefinedresponsibilitiesthey bear as membersof this symbolic community.Plato's understanding of the of is much of like that the (bothspeakpractice philosophy very practitioners ers and hearers)of funeraloratory.Considerthe discussion of the philosopher'sprojectof foundinga regime "withinoneself' at Republic591e-592b (end of Book IX). The philosopheris someone who can thinkhis way out of his historicalsituation,thatis, someone who throughthe force of his intellect can choose membershipin a fine, imaginedcommunity,thatis, the ideal city. This membershipilluminatesfor him the requirements ofjustice. This membership guides his decisions regardingthe conduct of his own life in the messy materialworld.This ideal city does not, of course,"existanywhereon earth." Rather, Socrates stresses, "In heaven . . . [is laid] a pattern [paradeigma]for the man who wantsto see and found a city within himself on the basis of what he sees. It doesn't make any differencewhetherit is or will be somewhere.Forhe would mindthe thingsof this city alone, andof no in other"(Republic592b). The philosopher'swillful embraceof membership his affectiveattachments to the city of this imaginedcity does not undermine his physical birth.Like imaginingoneself into the ideal city of funeraloratory, the philosopher'sembrace of a heavenly patternfunctions to inform ordinaryconduct, guiding it, infusing it with meaning and purposebeyond the mundane.Membershipin this imaginedcommunityis an act of intellect and choice. Both Plato's writings and funeral oratory are designed to resolve to perseverein the pursuitof (what strengthentheirreaders'/hearers' each takesto be) virtueundeterred by mournfulfeaturesof ordinarylife. For Pericles,these featuresaremortalityandloss. ForPlato,theyarethe powerful of things. allure of pleasures,the misleading appearances The Timaeusand Critias also alludeto the discourseof a funeraloration. In the Timaeus,for example,Socratesasks if someone can give an accountof what the ideal city might look like "in motion ... that is, engaged in some The companyurgesCritiasto do so because he struggleor conflict" (19c.)50 knows of an old tale of a greatAthenian war that he once heard from his to haveheardit from Solon. Critiasagreesthat who is purported grandfather, this storycan providea useful model of the kindof actionthe ideal city would take. He then tells the myth of the conflict between ancient Athens and the

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greatislandcity of Atlantis.Thedescriptionof the Platoniccity "inhistory"51 thus takes the form of a eulogy of Athenianancestors,which displays many parallels to the concerns of a funeral oration.Loraux writes, for example: "[When Plato] brings to life the city of the Republic and compares it with otherstates with a view to testing its paideia,the eulogy of it is evidence of a complex relationwith the funeraloration[as a practice]and with the [image Plato drawsuponthe funeralorationunderof the] polis of the epitaphioi."52 stood as a strategyof discourseto elaboratethe possibilities associatedwith the city of the Republic. of epideictic oratorysuggests anotherway in Aristotle's understanding which Plato's workis indebtedto this Athenianpractice.Funeraloratoryis a species of epideictic oratory.Such speech, Aristotleexplainsin the Rhetoric, is not concernedto persuadeajury (as is forensicoratory)or advancea policy alternative (as is deliberativeoratory)butto deliverpraiseor blame. Its "end" is the artfuldisplay of the honorableand disgraceful(1358b3-5) in the interThe Pericleanfuneralorationglorifies the orthoests of arousingaspirations. dox Athenianconceptionof excellence. It assumesthe audienceknows what In contrast,Plato's funeraloration are truly praiseworthyand blameworthy. the orthodoxview. Nevertheless,Platodoes not abandonthe end interrogates of epideictic oratorynorthe specific civic goals of funeraloratory. Rather,he this projectfor philosophy.The entirecorpusof dialogues conappropriates of an alternative view of what is trulypraiseworthy tains the full articulation as well as repeatedattemptsto induce readersto take up philosophy and to aspire to a certainkind of virtue. Aristotle'scurioussuggestionthatepideicticis suitedto writtencomposition (Rhetoric 1414a6) indicates the link between orthodoxepideictic and Plato's workI am proposing.Aristotleadvises practitioners of epideictic not of facts butto presentthe evidence (actionsthat to compose a linearnarrative fashion: "fromsome facts a man illustratethe honorable)in a "disjointed" This can be shown to be courageous,from otherswise orjust" (1416b1-2).53 of not only clearly to display the honorablebut, strategy presentationworks Aristotlenotes, also happensto renderit suitablefor reading.This strategyof composition recommendedby Aristotle recalls the structureof the Platonic corpus, that is, the containedsubstantivefocus of each dialogue's presentation of Socratesin action(e.g., whatis courage,whatis justice, etc.). The dialogues offer not only a display (epideiksis) of the honorable but also an The point I wish to stressis thatPlato appropriates account(logos) of it.54 for at least of the intellectual mission that the Athenians associpart philosophy ated with the most celebrated-and uniquelydemocratic-form of epideictic, that is, funeraloratory.

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I have argued that the Menexenus develops two concerns that propel Plato's political writings. First, it sustains a critical commentary on the Thucydidean myth of Pericles, showing Plato to be deeply involved in the practical politics of city. Second, it wrestles with the funeral oration as a species of public discourse, appropriating some of its features for philosophy. This text is not a curious, marginal piece of Platonic writing. It is a key part of Plato's exploration of the relationship between aspects of Athenian democratic culture and the practice of philosophy.

NOTES
1. The Menexenushas receivedlittle sustainedattentionin largepartowing to the difficulty of fitting Socrates'recitationof a funeralorationinto a traditional view of Plato'spolitical concerns. Scholars a generationago even treatedthe text as spuriousdespite the compelling evidence for its genuineness-Aristotle twice cites it (Rhetoric 1367b8, 1415b3). Accepting it as authentic,scholarstoday focus on explainingwhy Plato uses this genre of oratory.On how the Menexenusadvancesa critiqueof rhetoric,see E. F. Bloedrow,"Aspasiaandthe Mysteryof the Menexenus,"WienerStudien 9 (1975): 32-48; RobertClavaud,Le Menexene de Platon et la andRhetoricin the Menexe(Paris,1980);L. J. Coventry, Rhetoriquede son Temps "Philosophy nus,"The Journalof Hellenic Studies 109 (1989): 1-15;E. R. Dodds, Gorgias:A Revised Greek andNotes (New York: OxfordUniversityPress, 1959);M. M. Henderson, Textwith Introduction Acta Classica (Cape Town) 18 (1975): "Plato's Menexenusand the Distortions of History," Classical Phi25-46; CharlesKahn,"Plato'sFuneralOration:The Motive of the Menexenus," lology 58 (1963): 220-34; Nicole Loraux,The Inventionof Athens:The Funeral Orationin the Classical City (Cambridge,MA: HarvardUniversityPress, 1986); Donald J. Maletz, "Plato's Menexenosandthe FuneralOrationof Pericles"(Ph.D.diss., CornellUniversity,1975); Stephen "Socrates' ThePlayof Philosophy andPoliticsin Plato'sMenexenus," Salkever, AspasianOration: AmericanPolitical Science Review87 (1993): 133-46; Arlene W. Saxonhouse,Fear of Diversity: Political Science in AncientGreekThought(Chicago:Universityof Chicago Press, 1992), and notes (Oxford: 111-22; J. A. Shawyer,TheMenexenusof Plato, edited with an introduction Clarendon,1903). Fordiscussionof the text as a "poorlyexecutedspoof' of funeraloratory,see PaulShorey,WhatPlato Said (Berkeley:Universityof CaliforniaPress, 1933), 185-8, andA. E. Taylor, Plato: the Man and His Work(London: Methuen, 1949). For discussion of how the Menexenusmight addressspecific policies pursuedby the Athenians,see PamelaHuby, "The MenexenusReconsidered," Phronesis2, no. 2 (1957): 104-14; Kahn,"Plato'sFuneralOration"; and Maletz, Plato's Menexenos.For discussion of the Menexenusas an "ironicindictmentof Athens," see Rosenstock, "Socrates as Revenant: A Reading of the Menexenus,"Phoenix 48:331-47. For an overview of the issues in earlierscholarship,chiefly the contrastingviews of Fora reviewof the issues in the morerecent StallbaumandGrote,see Shawyer,TheMenexenus. in The Diaand Commentary," scholarship,see R. E. Allen, "Plato'sMenexenus,Translation logues of Plato, vol. 1 (New Haven, CT: Yale UniversityPress, 1985), 319-43. 2. JacquesDerrida,Politics of Friendship,trans.GeorgeCollins (New York:Verso, 1997), 95. He is explicitly commentingon Plato's Menexenus. 3. Only Salkeveralso considerswhetherin the MenexenusPlatoinvestigatesthe possibilihe suggests thatthe ties raisedby democraticlife andpolitics. In "Socrates'AspasianOration,"

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Menexenusexplores the possibility that philosophycan utilize rhetoricaltechniquesand ritual occasions in an effortto communicatewith the demos. The contentof thatcommunicationis not to be found in advocatingspecific substantiveideas, butin insistingon placingcertainquestions to political speech). I find on the agendaof public debate(e.g., the kind of languageappropriate this argumentinsightfuland plausible.But it does not explore how much of a debt Plato's texts owe to the traditionthey criticize. Salkeverconsidershow far philosophycan deign to take the itself or its message. form of ordinarypolitics without corrupting 4. Thucydides does not consistently confirm the positive evaluation voiced at 11.65but rathersubjects it to considerablescrutinyas the narrative proceeds. See S. Sara Monoson and Michael Loriaux,"TheIllusion of Powerandthe Disruptionof MoralNorms:Thucydides'Critique of PericleanPolicy,"AmericanPolitical Science Review92 no. 2 (June 1998): 285-297. 5. Writingtwo generationsafterThucydides,Aristotleoffers an assessmentof Periclesthat andwhich indicatesthatthe evaluationvoiced at Thucydides11.65 he treatsas noncontroversial Aristotlewrites:"Aslong as Pericleswas the leaderof the peohadindeedgainedsome currency. ple, the state (politeia) was still in fairly good condition,but afterhis deatheverythingbecame much worse" (AthPol28.1). Translationsfrom the AthPol are from Kurtvon Fritz and Ernst Kapp, Aristotle's Constitutionand Related Texts,trans. with an introductionand notes (New York:Hafner, 1950). 6. Menexenus playfully mentions that perhapstomorrowthey will choose Archinus or Dion. Of courseneitherwas a realpossibility,andhe knows it. Archinuswas too brutal,andDion was not an Athenian. So why does Plato have Menexenus ironically mention these names? I think it is to develop Menexenus' characterization,specifically to indicate he is a capable interlocutor. By having Menexenus mention Archinus Plato lets us know that Menexenus will see the irony in Socrates'outrageousaccountof Athenianhistoryin the orationhe is aboutto recite. In it suggests that he can see throughits accountof one key episode-the periodof the particular, restorationof democracyafterthe defeat of the Thirty.In Socrates/Aspasia'stelling, the returnof oligarchywere so fabulouslygentle towardone ing exiled democratsandthe formerpartisans anotherthat men everywherepoint to Athens as a model of how to conduct civil war (243e244b). As Fine suggests, the restraintshowed by the people and in particular by the returning exiles (partisansof democracy)duringthis period was extraordinary given the violence of the oligarchic domination. (See John V. A. Fine, The Ancient Greeks:A Critical History [CamUniversityPress, 1983], 523). The Athenianshadreasonto be proudof the bridge,MA: Harvard reconciliation they achieved. But, as Aristotle stresses (AthPol40), only the harsh measures advocatedby Archinusenabledthe Atheniansto live up to the terms of the amnesty-not each party'sfriendlinessandreadiness(oikeios andasmenos)towardeach as suggestedatMenexenus 243e. Archinusattackedthe leadingdemocrat'sproposalto enfranchisenoncitizenmen (metics, contrivedillegally to terminateearlierthanexpected slaves) who had fought for the restoration, the periodin which elite citizens were permitted to migratethusforcingsome to stay againsttheir will, and recommendedusing brutal measures (including the death penalty) to enforce the immunityfrom prosecutionfor those citizens who wished to stay butwho hadbeen membersor supportersof The Thirty.(On Archinus,see Fine, TheAncient Greeks,523-5.) Having Menexenussuggest thatthe Atheniansmight choose Dion, a foreignerwhose intelunderstands lect Plato admired,Plato indicatesthatthis interlocutor thatthe spatialboundaries of a particular polis cannotcontainthe questionat hand.The issue in questionin this dialogue is not simply who amongourlocal citizens shouldget this honor,butbroadlyspeaking,what is the natureof admirableconductandto whatformof excellence shouldwe aspire?Dion was a member of the Syracusanroyal family who was personallylinked to Plato and who led a force of exiles to depose a brutaltyrant.He proved an incompetentruler and was assassinatedby an

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associate. For Plato'saccountof his intellectualandpersonalrelationshipwith Dion, see his letters addressedto Dion's grieving friendsafter his murder(LettersVIIand VIII). 7. Translationsfrom the Gorgias are from T. Irwin, Plato. Gorgias, trans. with notes (Oxford:Clarendon,1979). 8. Especially Gorgias 515c-519c, but also 455d-e, 472b, and 503c. "Politikos"refers to a man who is "political"in the sense of being "polis-minded." 9. Socrates also challenges Pericles' reputationfor greatness by way of questioning whetherhe ever "improved" an associate, includinghis sons, fellow citizens, foreigners,even slaves in the Protagoras319e3, 320-a5 andAlcibiades1 118d-e,119a.(TheAlcibiadesIis available in Thomas Pangle, ed., The Roots of Political Philosophy: Ten ForgottenSocratic Diastudies [Ithaca,NY: Cornell UniversityPress, 1987]. logues, trans.with interpretative 10. Plato names Pericles as an exemplary oratorin several dialogues: Symposium215e5; Phaedrus269a6, 269e1, 270a3; Gorgias472b2, 503c2; and Theages(availablein Pangle,Roots thusalso link this text of Political Philosophy)126a9.The allusionsto Periclesin the Menexenus to the general Platoniccritiqueof rhetoric. 11. Allen ("Plato's Menexenus"),Kahn ("Plato's FuneralOration"),and Maletz (Plato's Menexenos)see Thucydidesas the targetof Plato'scriticismin the Menexenusbut miss the tarof Pericles'significance.Similarly,two commentaget's more specific mark-the construction torshaveobservedthatin this text, "Platoforcesthe comparisonbetweenhis own funeraloration and Pericles" (Rosenstock, "Socratesas Revenant,"333; Saxonhouse, Fear of Diversity, 117 ff.), butthey assumethatPlato'saim is to engage the substantive arguments putforwardby Pericles. While this is a partof the projectof the Menexenus,it is only a part.I show thatthe Menexenus includes directand sustainedallusionnotjust to the historicalfigureand his policy but specifically to Thucydides'assessmentof his lasting symbolic import. 12. Maletz, Plato's Menexenos,38. 13. Plato ordinarilyuses the term "Lacadaimonians" to denote the people of the PeloponA Word Indexto Plato (Leeds,U.K.:W. S. Maney& Sons, 1976), nese. See LeonardBrandwood, on the patternof Plato's word use. from the Menexenusare from Allen, Dialogues of Plato (vol. 1). 14. Translations 15. See Kahn,"Plato'sFuneralOration," 222-3, and Rosenstock, "Socratesas Revenant," 333-4. A Comprehensive 16. Translation from RobertB. Strassler, ed., TheLandmark Thucydides. Guide to the PeloponnesianWar(New York:Free Press, 1996). 17. Derrida,Politics of Friendship,101. 18. See Monoson and Loriaux,"TheIllusion of Power." 19. See Allen, Dialogues of Plato (vol. 1), 319. 20. Monoson and Loriaux,"TheIllusion of Power." 21. I argue for this view in Monoson, "Citizenas Erasfes:Erotic Imageryand the Idea of Political Theory22, no. 2 (May 1994): 253-76. Reciprocityin the PericleanFuneralOration," in Plato: EarlySocraticDiaandIntroduction," 22. DonaldWatt,"Plato'sLysis,Translation logues, ed. TrevorSaunders(New York:Penguin, 1987), 131. Translationsfrom the Lysis are from this edition. 23. We can readthis as suggestingthatthe kindof eros he experiencesis an obstacleto membershipin a philosophic community. 24. On conventionalGreeknotionsof erotic relations,see K. J. Dover,GreekHomosexuality (Cambridge,MA: HarvardUniversity Press, 1978); David Halperin,One Hundred Yearsof Homosexualityand OtherEssays on GreekLove (New York:Routledge, 1990) and "Platoand ClassicalAntiquity5 (1986): 60-80; J. Winkler,The Constraintsof Desire. EroticReciprocity," The Anthropologyof Sex and Gender in Ancient Greece (New York:Routledge, 1990); and

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II: The Use of Pleasure, trans.RibertHurley Michel Foucault,TheHistory of Sexuality,Volume on Foucault'sreading (New York:Vintage, 1990). Thereis a growingbody of criticalliterature of Greek texts in his three volumes of History of Sexuality. See, for example, David H. J. Larmour, Paul Allen Miller, and Charles Platter(eds.), RethinkingSexuality: Foucault and ClassicalAntiquity(Princeton,NJ:PrincetonUniversityPress, 1998), and Simon Goldhill,Foucault's Virginity:Ancient Erotic Fiction and the History of Sexuality (New York:Cambridge University Press, 1995). 70. 25. Halperin,"Platoand Erotic Reciprocity," 26. How far Plato imagines an individualphilosopher'serotic passion for an idea might be is unclear.Thereis an enormousbody of literature on Plato'stheoryof eros. In prereciprocated paringthis article, I found Halperin's"Platoand Erotic Reciprocity"most helpful. Halperin's article also contains useful notes reviewing the scholarship. of Callicles in the Gorgias 27. The opening passage of the Protagorasand the introduction also parody the dynamics of gratificationin the conventional love relation. The Protagoras opens with an unnamed friend teasing Socrates about his relation with the alluring young Alcibiades and prying, how is he treatingyou? Socrates says just fine judging from the way he But then Socratesreportsthatoddly spoke up for Socratesduringa discussion with Protagoras. he nearly forgot Alcibiades' presence altogether during his conversation with Protagoras-something the infatuatedlover of the Lysiscould not possibly accomplish.The friendgets all excited and asks Socratesto tell him aboutthe conversation.Socratessays he will be "grateful" (owe charis, 310a5) to him for listening, and the friend says "andI to you for your story." Socratesresponds,"thatmeansmutual(double)gratitude" (diplean eie he charis, 310a). Mutual gratitude,of course, was not possible on the conventional model. Most importantto notice, expression of intensely felt erotic passion and mockery of orthodoxerotic practicesframe the lively portrayalof the initiationof philosophicactivity in the Protagoras. In the Gorgias (481c-e), Socratessuggests that Callicles behaves like the ridiculousinfatuated lover of the Lysis towardboth his two beloveds, the boy Demos and the Atheniandemos. That is, Callicles is unable to oppose their whims and rushes aroundin an effort to win their affections. Socratessays thathe may look similarlyridiculouswhen he respondsto the demands of one of his beloveds, philosophy. Interestingly,though he names Alcibiades as his other him. Rather, thereis beloved, thereis no explicit mentionof Socrates'famedabilityto contradict at most the implicationthatlove for philosophygives Socratesthe strengthto oppose Alcibiades when necessary.To changeCallicles' behavior,Socratesindicates,it would be necessaryto stop his beloveds (Demos and demos) from saying what they do. Similarly, to change Socrates' behavior,it would be necessary to make his beloved, philosophy,say something different(to make a philosophical argument).The advantageof having philosophy as a beloved, we can speculate,is thatshe is not fickle. She "alwayssays the same thing."Insofaras philosophymight reciprocateSocrates'eros, perhapsit is in providingthis measureof stabilityandcalm to its practitioner,enablinghim to sustaina responsibleerotic relation(intellectualand nonsexual)with a humanbeloved. 28. Plutarch,Life of Pericles 34.3-6. 29. PierreVidal-Naquet, in his PoliticsAncientand Modern, "Plato,HistoryandHistorians," UK: Polity, 1995), 26. Vidal-Naquet trans.,JanetLloyd (Cambridge, suggeststhatPlatopresents a confused historicaltimeline deliberatelyas partof his effort as a philosopherto "breakout of the chronologicalframeworkwhich was thatof the city."He notes thatthe Gorgias blurstimelines as well (pp. 26-7). Fordiscussionof the politicalimportof representations of time in Greek thought,see PierreL6vequand PierreVidal-Naquet,Cleisthenesthe Athenian.An Essay on the Representationof Space and Timein GreekPolitical Thoughtfromthe Endof the SixthCentury to the Death of Plato, trans. David Ames Curtis(AtlanticHighlands,NJ: Humanities,1996).

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30. This interpretation would readAspasia'ssignificanceon the modelof Halperin'sreading of the significanceof Diotima in the Symposium in his One Hun("Whyis Diotimaa Woman?" dred Yearsof Homosexuality). Halperinseems to invitesuch a parallelbutdoes not pursueit (pp. 122-4; also see n. 32 below). Salkever("Socrates' 25, n. 48) says thatthe parAspasianOration," allel of Aspasia with Diotimaas interpreted by Halperinis compelling,butdoes not specify furtherwhatthatparallelmightsignify. Othercommentators interpret Aspasia'sgenderby classifying it as one more sign of the ironic nature of the speech. Saxonhouse (Fear of Diversity) considersits significancemorefully, arguingthatthe female figuregives voice to the view of the mother,emphasizingthe speech's interestin the contrastbetween the unityof the public sphere and of family.She also notes thatAspasia's speech focuses on the issue of origins and offers an unusualview of autochthony. See WendyBrown, "SupposingTruthWerea Woman... Plato's Subversionof MasculineDiscourse,"Political Theory16 (1988): 594-616, for anotherperspecAthenianattitudeson tive on Plato'suse of the femalegenderto signal a subversionof traditional a varietyof subjects.Brown does not mentionthe Menexenusor Aspasia's partin it at all. 31. On the presenceor absence of philosophersin Greekhistoricaltexts, see Vidal-Naquet, "Plato,History and Historians." of Aspasia observesthatPlato'sportrait 32. Halperin(OneHundredYears of Homosexuality) exhibits "less interestin her thanin her relationswith Pericles"(p. 122). But while he sees that the figure of Aspasia in the work of other Socraticwritersaccompaniesthe treatmentof erotic themes (pp. 123-4, note thatreferencesto now lost worksby otherSocraticauthorsinclude diahe concludesthatin Plato'sMenexenus,she does not signal attention logues entitled,"Aspasia"), thatis, political takesto be "thetopic of thatdialogue," to eroticthemesbutonly to whatHalperin into thatdialoguebecause she "hada reputation rhetoric.He assertsthat she "fitscomfortably" for makingloversinto successfulpoliticians[i.e., orators]" (p. 124). Halperin'sacceptanceof the usual,limitedview of whatis at stakein the Menexenus(thatI challengehere)preventshim from seeing the way the figure of Aspasia works in that Platonictext. in Classical 33. SarahPomeroynotes this (Goddesses, Whores,Wivesand Slaves: Women Antiquity[New York:Schoken, 1975], 89). The brief summaryof whatwe know of her life that follows is drawn from The Oxford Classical Dictionary, ed. N.G.L. Hammond and H. H. Scullard(Oxford:Clarendon,1970), 131-2. 34. Halperin,One HundredYearsof Homosexuality,111. the Hetaira:Sex, Politics, and DiscursiveConflict in Archaic 35. Leslie Kurke,"Inventing Greece,"Classical Antiquity18, no. 1 (April 1997): 112. 36. Ibid., 115. 37. Pericles' relationswith Aspasia were mockedin comedy, and perhapsPlato is counting on that background.For example, Aristophanescasts Aspasia as a whore and a madamwhose behaviorincited Pericles to startthe PeloponnesianWar(Acharnians520-30). 38. Saxonhouse, Fear of Diversity, 113-22. see Derrida,Politicsof 39. Fordiscussion of Plato'sdeploymentof the mythof autochthony, and Friendship,94-5; Nicole Loraux,TheChildrenofAthena:AthenianIdeas about Citizenship the Division between the Sexes, trans. Caroline Levine (Princeton,NJ: PrincetonUniversity Press, 1993); and Arlene W. Saxonhouse, "Mythsand the Origin of Cities: Reflections on the AutochthonyTheme in Euripides'Ion,"in Greek Tragedyand Political Theory,ed. J. Peter Euben (Berkeley:Universityof CaliforniaPress, 1986), 252-73. 40. Rosenstock ("Socratesas Revenant")goes so far as to argue that Plato uses literary devices to depictthe resuscitationof a dead Socratesin orderto portraySocratesaddressingnot only the Menexenusof the Lysis but a differentMenexenusas well. "Thisother Menexenusis one of Socrates'sons."He offers Diogenes Laertius2.26 as evidence for the nameof one of the historicalSocrates'biological sons. This son, "tooyoung to havebeen taughtby Socratesduring

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his lifetime, [is] now, as he is coming of age, very muchin need of his father'scounsel"(p. 339). Whatwould heeding his father'scounsel entail?Rosenstockexplainsthata trueheir of Socrates the funeralorationdeliveredby Socratesin the following way: "The would be able to interpret idealizationof Athens,which on the surfaceseems mereflattery,now becomes, when it is readas the words of the executed Socratesto his son, both a condemnationof the city and an appealto the readerto live in accordancewith the ideals of virtue that guided Socrates'life" (p. 341). I here. Socrates'relawould object to Rosenstock'sunreflectiveuse of the term"condemnation" tion to his city-even when awaitingexecutionas detailedin the Crito-is farmoretexturedand complex. Two recenteffortsto detailthe links betweenSocraticpracticeandthe democraticcity Youth areJ. PeterEuben,Corrupting (Princeton,NJ:PrincetonUniversityPress, 1997), andGerald Mara,Socrates'DiscursiveDemocracy(Albany:StateUniversityof New YorkPress, 1997). 41. Derrida,Politics of Friendship,93. 42. Saxonhouse develops a similarpoint in chapter2 of Fear of Diversity. 43. ComparePlato's use of the rhetoricaltrope of prosopeiain Letter VIII.Plato impersonates Dion's voice from the graveto addressDion's grieving and confuses friendsespecially as they attemptto be "heirs"to Dion's projects. 44. See Rosenstock, "Socratesas Revenant,"344-7, for anotherview of the relationship between the Menexenusand the Apology. 45. Pericles' model had assumed reciprocityis accomplishedthroughthe performanceof serial benefactions.While some of these are mandatedby law, even these retainthe appearance Forexample,a citizen who is called uponto performa liturgy(e.g., sponsora of being voluntary. chorus)because he is deemedwealthyenoughto owe this service to the polis can refuseby initiating a legal procedureknown as antidosis. Socratesfocuses, in contrast,on definite,uncontestable responsibilitiesoutlined in law, ones that citizens and city must perform. of the Laws in the Crito. 46. CompareSocrates'impersonation 47. Loraux, The Inventionof Athens. 48. Ibid., 312. 49. Ibid., 301. from the Timaeusis from EdithHamiltonand HuntingtonCairns,The Col50. Translation lected Dialogues of Plato (Princeton,NJ: PrincetonUniversityPress, 1961). 51. Loraux, The Inventionof Athens, 301. 52. Ibid., 296. 53. Translationfrom John Henry Freese, Aristotle's Rhetoric (Cambridge,MA: Harvard University Press [Loeb], 1982). 54. See Euben, CorruptingYouth (chap. 4) for discussion of the affinitiesbetween Socratic philosophy and Athenianpracticesof accountability.

S. Sara Monoson is assistantprofessor of political science at NorthwesternUniversity. She is the author of Plato's DemocraticEntanglements(forthcoming).