Plato’s Phaedrus and Symposium in the Pseudo-Clementine Homilies

Abstract

Abstract The presence of Plato and Platonic philosophy in the late antique Christian novel, the Pseudo-Clementine Homilies, has been underexamined. The present article takes a twofold approach: first, it discusses Platonic references and allusions in the disputes between Appion the grammarian and Clement, a follower of the apostle Peter (Homiliae Clementinae 4–6), and links them to the rest of the Homilistic narrative. Plato’s dialogues of the Symposium and, in particular, the Phaedrus turn out to be insightful philosophical and literary frameworks by means of which the Homilist reflects on the value of eros, paideia, rhetoric and philosophy, the value of written discourse, and truth. Secondly, this article also compares the Pseudo-Clementine Homilies with (other) novels and narratives from the Second Sophistic that intertextually engage with similar Platonic motifs and passages. My analysis reveals how the Homilist, as a Christian novelist with strong philosophical (and one might say Sophistic) interests, is a remarkable member of the late antique, cultural dialogue, in which the reception of Plato’s dialogues took place.