{"title":"Medea’s Platonic Soul Takes Flight (Ap. Rhod. Argon. 3.1150–54)","authors":"A. C. Ficklin","doi":"10.1086/722355","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Commentators have long recognized a pair of Homeric allusions following Medea’s meeting with Jason (Argon. 3.1150–54), but they have overlooked an additional intertext that goes to the heart of her psychological state. I here argue that Plato’s Phaedrus, specifically the “winged chariot” simile of Socrates’ second speech (Phdr. 246a–56e), helps clarify the upward flight of Medea’s soul and (as already noted by Apollonian scholia) her loss of mental capacity. Homeric and Platonic contexts then interact, particularly around comparisons between Medea and Nausicaa, to produce a subtle, multilayered image of love’s madness.","PeriodicalId":46255,"journal":{"name":"CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.7000,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1086/722355","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"0","JCRName":"CLASSICS","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Commentators have long recognized a pair of Homeric allusions following Medea’s meeting with Jason (Argon. 3.1150–54), but they have overlooked an additional intertext that goes to the heart of her psychological state. I here argue that Plato’s Phaedrus, specifically the “winged chariot” simile of Socrates’ second speech (Phdr. 246a–56e), helps clarify the upward flight of Medea’s soul and (as already noted by Apollonian scholia) her loss of mental capacity. Homeric and Platonic contexts then interact, particularly around comparisons between Medea and Nausicaa, to produce a subtle, multilayered image of love’s madness.
期刊介绍:
Classical Philology has been an internationally respected journal for the study of the life, languages, and thought of the Ancient Greek and Roman world since 1906. CP covers a broad range of topics from a variety of interpretative points of view. CP welcomes both longer articles and short notes or discussions that make a significant contribution to the study of Greek and Roman antiquity. Any field of classical studies may be treated, separately or in relation to other disciplines, ancient or modern. In particular, we invite studies that illuminate aspects of the languages, literatures, history, art, philosophy, social life, and religion of ancient Greece and Rome. Innovative approaches and originality are encouraged as a necessary part of good scholarship.