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Who Did Forbid Suicide at Phaedo 62b?1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

J. C. G. Strachan
J. C. G. Strachan
Affiliation:
University of Hull
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Extract

In his discussion of the ethics of suicide (Phaedo 61 c ff.) Plato alludes to more than one traditional injunction against it:indicates a fairly general acceptance of its wickedness. Cebes has heard the Pythagorean Philolaus, among others, saying that suicide was immoral, but has gathered no satisfactory explanation as to why this should be so. One reason, impressive, but, Socrates admits, difficult is to be found

Type
Research Article
Information
The Classical Quarterly , Volume 20 , Issue 2 , December 1970 , pp. 216 - 220
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1970

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References

page 216 note 2 Burnet, J., Plato's Phaedo (1911), Notes,pp. 22 f.Google Scholar

page 216 note 3 Revue de Philologie, xxxvii (1963), 7 ff.Google Scholar

page 216 note 4 Ibid. xxxv (1961), 207 ff.

page 217 note 1 cf. Plato Latinus, ii (ed. Minio-Paluello, ), ii.Google Scholar

page 217 note 2 Hackforth, R., Plato's Phaedo (1955), 38.Google Scholar

page 217 note 3 Deipn. 4. 157 c ═ DK i. 414, cited below, p. 220.

page 218 note 1 Plato's Gorgias( 1959), 300.

page 218 note 2 Guthrie, W. K. C., A History of Greek Philosophy (1962), i. 310.Google Scholar

page 218 note 3 The translation and commentary of Bluck, R. S. [Plato's Phaedo (1955), 195 ff.)Google Scholar, which provides the best discussion of Orphic influences in the Phaedo to be found in any comparable work on the dialogue, follows Dodds (The Greeks and the Irrational (1951), 147 ff.) in rejecting the contentions of those (Thomas, Linforth) who deny the presence of any Orphic influence, and accepts the strong possibility that the references to the body-prison doctrine at 62 b and 67 d, together with those to purifications at 67 d and 69 e, imply pervasive allusion to Orphism. The question of suicide in this connection is not, however, specifically dealt with.

page 218 note 4 Op. cit. 44.

page 218 note 5 Ed. W. Norvin, igi3, p. 85.

page 219 note 1 Dodds (op. cit. 156) finds the conclusion that the complete story of Dionysus and the Titans was known to Plato and his public hard to resist; and in view of the evidence he is able to adduce from Plato and elsewhere (cf. Heinze, R., Xenocrates (1892), 150 if.)Google Scholar it is difficult to see what other conclusion there can be. Boyancé, P. (‘Xénocrate et les Orphiques’, REA 1948, 219 fr.)Google Scholar uses the association of Xenocrates with the Titan myth in establishing the early currency of much of the account given by Olympiodorus.

page 219 note 2 Guthrie, W. K. C., Orpheus and Greek Religion (1935), 107 ff.Google Scholar

page 219 note 3 Op. cit. (ed. Norvin), p. 2.

page 219 note 4 Firmicus Maternus (De Errore Prof. Relig. 6. 4) adds to his own largely similar version that the Titans were subjected to all manner of tortures by way of retribution.

page 220 note 1 Ap. Athen. 4. 157 c, referred to above, p. 217.