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The ''Lovers'' ( grc-gre, Ἐρασταί, Erastai; la, Amatores) is a Socratic dialogue included in the traditional corpus of
Plato Plato ( ; grc-gre, Πλάτων ; 428/427 or 424/423 – 348/347 BC) was a Greek philosopher born in Athens during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. He founded the Platonist school of thought and the Academy, the first institution ...
's works, though its authenticity has been doubted.


Title

The Greek title ''Erastai'' is the plural form of the term ''erastēs'', which refers to the older partner in a pederastic relationship. Since in Classical Greek terms such a relationship consists of an ''erastēs'' and an ''erōmenos'', the title ''Lovers'', sometimes used for this dialogue, makes sense only if understood in the technical sense of "lover" versus "beloved" but is misleading if taken to refer to two people in a love relationship. Ancient manuscript marginalia suggest that the title might have been ''Anterastai'' (), which specifically means "Rival ''erastai''." This term, used in the dialogue itself (132c5, 133b3), is mentioned as the dialogue's title (together with a subtitle, ''On Philosophy'') in Diogenes Laërtius' listing of the Thrasyllan tetralogies (3.59). The Latin translations ''Amatores'' and ''Rivales'' have also been used as the dialogue's title.


Synopsis

The rival lovers (''erastai'') of the title are an athlete, and a young man devoted to the humanities, ''mousikē'' (music) in the original text, a term that in ancient times included music, poetry, and philosophy. The dialogue opens with
Socrates Socrates (; ; –399 BC) was a Greek philosopher from Athens who is credited as the founder of Western philosophy and among the first moral philosophers of the ethical tradition of thought. An enigmatic figure, Socrates authored no te ...
entering a grammar school, as a couple of young boys were quarrelling about something related to learning. Socrates asks the person next to him, who happened to be one of the boys lover, to tell him whether their quarrel was about an important issue in philosophy. Judging by his reply, Socrates gets the impression that this man is rather dismissive of philosophy altogether, a view that is immediately reinforced by the second interlocutor who interrupts to explain that his rival specialises in "
chokeholds A chokehold, choke, stranglehold or, in Judo, shime-waza ( ja, 絞技, translation=constriction technique) is a general term for a grappling hold that critically reduces or prevents either air (choking)''The New Oxford Dictionary of English'' ( ...
" (''τραχηλιζόμενος''), rather than philosophy. Socrates decides to interrogate both over the question whether philosophising is noble and admirable (''kalon''). The cultivated man replies that it is, and Socrates proceeds to ask him whether he actually knows what philosophy is in the first place (133c). He claims to know and answers that philosophy is essentially
polymath A polymath ( el, πολυμαθής, , "having learned much"; la, homo universalis, "universal human") is an individual whose knowledge spans a substantial number of subjects, known to draw on complex bodies of knowledge to solve specific pro ...
y. With the help of his athletic rival, who knows that the good of exercise depends on being done in the right amount, not the maximum amount (134b-c), Socrates points out that the same is true of most good things, and turns to asking what kind of things the one who philosophizes (loves wisdom) ought to learn, if the object is not simply to know all or many things (135a). The cultivated rival suggests that the philosopher, while not needing to bother himself with the hands-on practicalities (''cheirourgia'', 135b), should aspire to a level of understanding in all the arts (''technai'') such that he is second only to the expert in that particular field—still a kind of polymathy. Socrates challenges this suggestion by forcing him to admit that, in any conceivable particular circumstance, the philosopher would be useless in comparison to a true expert on the matter. For example, a doctor would always be preferable to the philosopher in case of sickness, as would a pilot when in need to stir a ship. Socrates then proceeds by developing an alternative account of the philosopher's proper interest, based on the premise that goodness (which the interlocutors have agreed in ascribing to philosophy) depends critically on the knowledge of how to tell good men from bad, and train the bad to become better, which is also the knowledge needed to deal out punishments. This knowledge, the cultivated lover agrees, is the knowledge of the one who serves as judge (''hē dikastikē epistēmē'', 137d). Socrates goes on to argue that this knowledge can be identified with justice, self-control, and self-knowledge, and with the arts practiced by the statesman, the king (or tyrant), and the head of a household (or master). The conclusion is that these are all in fact just one art (138c), one of paramount importance, in which the philosopher must be supreme. When Socrates first met the rival lovers, he put little hope in conversation with the athletics enthusiast, who professed experience "in deeds (''erga'') and not in words (''logoi'')" (132d). But at the end he wins the crowd's applause by having shut up the "wiser" young man, so that it is the athletic rival who agrees with Socrates' conclusions (139a). The entire story of the discussion is told in the first person by Socrates, without any interruption or indication what audience he addresses. At just over seven Stephanus pages, ''Lovers'' is one of the shortest dialogues in the Thrasyllan canon of Plato's works (about the same length as ''
Hipparchus Hipparchus (; el, Ἵππαρχος, ''Hipparkhos'';  BC) was a Greek astronomer, geographer, and mathematician. He is considered the founder of trigonometry, but is most famous for his incidental discovery of the precession of the equi ...
'', with only '' Clitophon'' being shorter).


Criticism


Question of authenticity

It is generally agreed that the dialogue was written in the second half of the fourth century BC and expresses the philosophical views, if not of Plato, then at least of an
Academic An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, ...
writer of this period. Stallbaum's verdict is typical of a long-held scholarly consensus: the language and style are irreproachable and worthy of Plato or
Xenophon Xenophon of Athens (; grc, Ξενοφῶν ; – probably 355 or 354 BC) was a Greek military leader, philosopher, and historian, born in Athens. At the age of 30, Xenophon was elected commander of one of the biggest Greek mercenary armies o ...
, but the material is not developed in a way worthy of Plato's philosophical mind. Gerard Ledger's
stylometric Stylometry is the application of the study of linguistic style, usually to written language. It has also been applied successfully to music and to fine-art paintings as well. Argamon, Shlomo, Kevin Burns, and Shlomo Dubnov, eds. The structure o ...
analysis of Plato's works did not find the expected statistical similarities between the Greek of ''Lovers'' and that of Plato's acknowledged works, instead showing a closer statistical match between this dialogue (as also '' Hippias Minor'') and the works of Xenophon. If the dialogue is post-Platonic, then perhaps it argues against
Aristotle Aristotle (; grc-gre, Ἀριστοτέλης ''Aristotélēs'', ; 384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Peripatetic school of ph ...
's insistence that the kinds of authority wielded by a king, a politician, and a master are multiple and essentially separate from each other. (On the other hand, it is possible that Aristotle refers in his works to ''Lovers'').


Rehabilitation

In a 1985 article, Julia Annas made a notable defense of the dialogue's possible value as an authentically Platonic production. Annas disagrees that the burden of proof need be on the proponent of the work's authenticity and proceeds from the premise that ''Lovers'' "contain no decisive indications either for or against authenticity" and that the most any investigation can accomplish is to "make it plausible that the ''Lovers'' is an early work by Plato."Annas, pp. 111–112. Her several arguments that this is plausible center on the claim that, if ''Lovers'' and ''
First Alcibiades The ''First Alcibiades'', also referred to as ''Alcibiades Major'' and abbreviated as ''Alcibiades I'' ( el, Ἀλκιβιάδης αʹ), is a dialogue depicting Socrates in conversation with Alcibiades. It is ascribed to Plato, although scholars ...
'' are genuine, they provide an otherwise missing background in Plato's thinking against which to understand his treatment of self-knowledge in '' Charmides''.


Notes


References

* Julia Annas, "Self-knowledge in Early Plato." In ''Platonic Investigations'', ed. Dominic J. O'Meara, pp. 111–138. Washington:
Catholic University of America Press The Catholic University of America Press, also known as CUA Press, is the publishing division of The Catholic University of America. Founded on November 14, 1939, and incorporated on July 16, 1941,Roy J. Deferrari ''Memoirs of the Catholic Unive ...
, 1985. * D.S. Hutchinson, introduction to ''Rival Lovers''. In ''Plato: Complete Works'', ed. John M. Cooper, pp. 618–619. Indianapolis: Hackett, 1997. * Gottfried Stallbaum, "Prolegomena in ''Rivales''." In ''Platonis opera omnia'', vol. 6, sect. 2, pp. 265–267. Gotha and Erfurt: Hennings, 1836.


External links


Plato, ''Rival Lovers''
at the
Perseus Project The Perseus Project is a digital library project of Tufts University, which assembles digital collections of humanities resources. Version 4.0 is also known as the "Perseus Hopper", and it is hosted by the Department of Classical Studies. The proj ...
(Greek text in Burnet's 1901
Oxford Classical Text Oxford Classical Texts (OCT), or Scriptorum Classicorum Bibliotheca Oxoniensis, is a series of books published by Oxford University Press. It contains texts of ancient Greek and Latin literature, such as Homer's ''Odyssey'' and Virgil's ''Aeneid'', ...
edition; English translation in W.R.M. Lamb's Loeb Classical Library version, revised edition of 1955)
Free public domain audiobook version of ''Rival Lovers
translated by George Burges * . Collection includes Rival Lovers.
George Burges George Burges (; 1786 – 11 January 1864) was an English classical scholar who published translations of the works of Euripides, Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Plato. Biography Burges was born in Bengal, India, and was probably the son of Thomas B ...
, translator (1855). {{Authority control Dialogues of Plato