Phronesis Volume 16 Issue 1 1971 [Doi 10.2307%2F4181854] B. Darrell Jackson -- The Prayers of Socrates

The Prayers of SocratesAuthor(s): B. Darrell JacksonSource: Phronesis, Vol. 16, No. 1 (1971), pp. 14-37Published by: BRILLStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4181854 .Accessed: 20/08/2013 20:52

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The Prayers of Socrates* B. DARRELL JACKSON

FIRST I must say whom I mean by "Socrates." I shall use that name to refer to the main protagonist of Plato's authentic dialogues. Hence the prayers examined in this article are literary pheno-

mena. They belong to the second of Friedrich Heiler's two classes of prayers - "prayed" prayers and literary prayers.' In a sense they are also prayed prayers, for the Socrates of the dialogues is not just a product of Plato's poetic genius. Plato had known Socrates well. and it seems reasonable to assume that he would not have written prayers incongruous with Socrates' character. Still these prayers are more the product of art than of spontaneous piety.3

I have located twelve prayers of Socrates in the dialogues.4 These

* I wish to thank those whose comments have aided me, Elizabeth Wright, Douglas Gunn, and critics who have asked good questions at two readings of this paper, one before the Hellenistic Religions section of the American Academy of Religion (October 1968), the other before a meeting of the North Carolina Teachers of Religion. 1 Friedrich Heiler, Prayer: a study in the history and psychology of religion, trans. by Samuel McComb (New York: Oxford University Press, 1932), pp. xvii-xxiv. 2 Cf. Ap. 34 a, 38 b, Ep. VII 324 d-325 c, and A. E. Taylor, Plato: the Man and His Work (New York: Meridian Books, 6th edn. 1952), pp. 3 f. 3 I call Socrates' prayers "literary" without intending to agree with Heiler, p. xviii, that ". . formal, literary prayers are merely the weak reflection of the original, simple prayer of the heart." This evaluation is based on a view of literary art foreign to Greeks of the classical period. For them art and religion were not necessarily separate provinces. The best example of the close connection of art and religion is tragic poetry, which originated and flourished as part of the festivals of Dionysus. Cf. R. C. Flickinger, The Greek Theater and Its Drama (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 4th edn., 1936), pp. 119-132. In any case, Heiler does not hold to his view; he admits that poets may write prayers which reflect the simple piety of naive people (p. xxiv). ' Most of the prayers and references to prayer in Plato have been located by use of Ast's Lexicon Platonicum entries for ekt, 6XoAx=, and 7poaeuxo?-L. Others, including prayers in other Greek authors, have been discovered by search or through the references of secondary sources. Of the latter, two are most important: Heinrich Greeven's article on $Xo,tLXL, esX, in Kittel's Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, Vol. II (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1964), pp. 775 ff., and H. Schmidt's Veteres philosophi quomodo iudicaverint de precibus (Religionsgeschichtliche Versuche und Vorarbeiten, vol. IV, no. 1, Giessen, 1906).

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twelve can be classified into three groups - biographical prayers, literary prayers, and philosophical prayers. A fourth group of prayers is made up of those which Plato puts in the mouths of other characters. I shall consider the four groups, inquiring into the occasion of each prayer, its addressee(s), content, and function in the dialogue. Cultic background will be noted, as will similarities and contrasts with prayers in other Greek authors. In addition, the relation of Socrates' prayers to what is said in the dialogues about prayer will receive attention.

For ease of reference I now list and summarize the prayers which I know of in Plato. They are in approximate chronological order of composition. 5

1. Euthyd. 275 d - Socrates, to the Muses and Memory, for aid in remembering a conversation.

2. Phaedo 117 c - Socrates, to the gods, as he takes the hemlock, for a happy rnigration.

3. Symp. 220 d - Socrates, to the sun, after the twenty-four hour "trance" at Potidaia.

4. Phaedr. 237 a-b - Socrates, to the Muses, for aid in his first speech on love. 5. Ibid. 257 a-b - Socrates, to Eros, at the close of his second speech on

love, for forgiveness, success in love, and intercession. 6. Ibid. 278 b - Socrates prays to be a philosopher. 7. Ibid. 279 b-c - Socrates, to Pan and others, for inner beauty, wisdom,

temperance, and harmony. 8. Rep. I 327 a-b - Socrates tells of having prayed at the festival of Bendis. 9. Ibid. IV 432 c - Socrates prays for success in discovering the nature of

justice. 10. Ibid. VIII 545 d-e - Socrates, to the Muses, for information on the origin

of political dissension. 11. Tim. 27 b-d - Timaeus, to gods and goddesses, for a discourse pleasing

to gods and men. 12. Ibid. 48 d-e - Timaeus, to a god, for success in the second part of the

discourse. 13. Critias 106 a-b - Timaeus, to the cosmos, as he ends his discourse, for

truth and knowledge. 14. Ibid. 108 c-d - Critias, to Paean, the Muses, the gods. and especially

Memory, as he begins his discourse. 15. Phil. 25 b - Socrates, to a god, for aid in the argument.

6 I follow the order given by Robert S. Brumbaugh, Plato for the Modern Age (New York: Corier Books, 1964), p. 225. The order of dramatic dates is quite different. The prayers will sometimes be referred to by number later in the article.

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16. Ibid. 61 b-c - Socrates, to Dionysus and Hephaestus, for success in the argument.

17. Laws IV 712 b - the Athenian, to a god, for aid in the discourse. 18, 19. Ibid. VII 823 d, X 887 c - the Athenian speaks as though praying. 20. Ibid. X 893 b - the Athenian, to a god and the gods, for assistance in

proving the existence of the gods. 21. Epin. 980 b-c - the Athenian, to the gods and the god, for a beautiful

and excellent discourse.

1. Biographical prayers

The two prayers having the earliest and latest dramatic dates of the twelve of Socrates occur in biographical contexts. Whatever the historical accuracy of the dialogues in which they occur,6 both are explicitly presented as actual datable events in Socrates' life.

a. Symposium 220 d The first such prayer occurs in Alcibiades' Symposium speech in praise of Socrates. He tells how during the Potidaian campaign of 431-4307 Socrates stood one day thinking from sunrise to sunrise (220 c-d). And then, at the end of twenty-four hours, Socrates "... offered a prayer to the sun and walked away."8 There seems no other reason for Socrates having prayed to the sun than that it happened to be sunrise when his thinking was completed. Worship of Helios was not an important part of the state cults at this time and Plato

6 Plato indicates plainly that he does not guarantee the accuracy of the Sym- posium. Although it is narrated by Apollodorus, a friend of Socrates who even checked some of the details with Socrates (172 c 4-6, 173 b 2-3 - references to Plato are to Burnet's Oxford edn.), it is a secondhand account of an event several years past (172 b 8-c 4). In contrast, we may conclude that Plato intends the Phaedo to be a true account of Socrates' last day. It is narrated by Phaedo, who was present and takes pleasure in recalling the memory of Socrates (57 a 1-4, 58 d 4-6). There is evidence, moreover, that Plato spent time after Socrates' death with Euclides and Terpsion of Megara, who were also present. Taylor, p. 176. 7 Taylor, p. 233. 8,, xaxl fiLoq vaxccev &7?tX xeT a7Ls rpOanD&X?cvo5 i ,Eca. Trans. by W. H. D. Rouse, Great Dialogues of Plato (New York: The New American Library, 1956), p. 114.

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was innovating when he made it so in the Laws,9 but prayers to him at his rising and setting were not unusual.'0 That Socrates thought the sun to be divine is clear,"L although unlike the ordinary Greek he also had a scientific interest in the sun and moon.12

Alcibiades says nothing of what Socrates prayed on this occasion. There are grounds for assuming that it was not an ordinary prayer. Burnet and Taylor have suggested that these twenty-four hours may have been the outstanding ecstasy of Socrates' life.'3 Indeed he may at this time have had the vision of Beauty itself praised so highly in his Symposium speech (211 d). If so, this prayer to the sun occurs at a crucial point in Socrates' career. This, of course, is con- jecture. But there need be no doubt concerning the biographical importance of the occasion of the Phaedo prayer.

b. Phaedo 117 c After receiving the cup of poison and instructions on how to take it, Socrates asked if he could pour a libation from the drink. When the jailor told him that there was no poison to spare for such an offering Socrates said,

(2) I understand, but at least, I suppose, it is allowed to offer a prayer to the gods and that must be done, for good luck in the migration from here to there. Then that is my prayer, and so may it be!14

* Glenn R. Morrow, Plato's Cretan City (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1960), pp. 446-448. 10 For evidence on the cult of Helios cf. Lewis Richard Farnell, The Cults of the Greek States, Vol. V, pp. 417-420, 449-453, and especially 450 n. 18. Through- out this study I have relied heavily on Farnell's great five volume study (Ox- ford, 1896-1909) for information on Greek cults. - For a literary prayer addressed to Helios cf. Soph. Ajax 823 ff. esp. 846 and 857. " Ap. 26 d 1-3, Rep. VI 508 a 4 and 9. 1 Phaedo 98 a. In Laws VII 821 a-d Plato connects astronomy with piety. Knowledge of the sun, moon, and planets will insure pious language in sacrifices and prayers (eUxat&) to these gods. 1a Taylor, p. 233. Kurt von Fritz, "Greek Prayers," Review of Religion X (1945), pp. 7 and 35, says that the prayer to Helios is in no way part of the meditation. I do not see that there are grounds in the text for saying whether it was. 1M MavA&veo, ff 8' &?X e15XeaGod y1 tiou n oto rolgt 1?arL -r xa XPTh qV 0LeOtwnaLV .v LV-V8e kxe:Ta e0TuXn yev&T4av & 80 xacl 6yx eo[ocE -re xct ykvoLro rct&rn. Trans. by Rouse, pp. 520 f. For another, far more elaborate, prayer at death cf. the prayer in Sophocles cited in n. 9.

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Socrates addresses his prayer simply to the gods. This is not characteristic of him, although he does it one other time.'5 I shall reserve comment on prayers to unnamed gods until later (section 4).

The important thing about the prayer is its content. Socrates prays for a lucky migration (rrv EtvrotzaLv '-~v ... evruTx-) from this world to the next. This migration has been the subject under discussion in the dialogue.'6 Now that it is upon him, Socrates prays for good luck, a frequent subject in Greek prayers, for example, in the Homeric Hymn to Athena.17 By praying for luck Socrates implies that there were things about the migration of his soul which were outside of his control and in the control of the gods. To use a scheme later expressed by Plato in the Laws (IV 709 b-d), we can say that Socrates had developed the requisite skill for his journey, namely, philosophy'8; now as death comes he prays for good fortune in the conjunction of circumstances with his skill, just as a skilled navigator prays for good weather before setting sail.'9 There may be a touch of irony in this prayer, as in Socrates' last words about offering a cock to Aesculapius (118 a), but this seems to me a moment of great seriousness even, or perhaps I should say most of all, for Socrates. For he is about to be freed from all that distracts a man from love of wisdom.

2. Prayers with a literary function

I have termed a second group of six prayers "literary prayers." All of the Platonic prayers of Socrates are literary in origin, but these six are literary in function as well. They are of two types.

15 At Philebus 25 b, no, 15. 14 Cf. esp. Phaedo 107 c-d and 114 d-115 a. In these passages Plato uses TropEocz, joumey, instead of * CvoExat, migration. Cf. also Rep. X 621 d 1-3: 7TOpcEqC ... E5 7tp"r(cteV. 17 Hymn. Hom. 11,5: the goddess is asked for srxnv C u8LLOVtjv 're. Cf. Cratylus 397 b 4-5 where the proper name ETuXE8Ns is said to be the expression of a prayer, and Eth. Nic. V 1129 b 1-7 where Aristotle says that men pray concerning ?onTX[m xxt &-ruExo. 18 Phaedo 62 a-69 e. "Laws 709 d 1-3. In light of the later development of a cult of Tyche (Farnell, V 447 and 481-3), it is worth emphasizing that Socrates prays to the gods, not to the personification of luck. This, too, is in accordance with the Laws IV scheme, where skill, chance, and circumstance are all under god (erc &eo5, 709 b 7).

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One prayer provides the dramatic opening for a dialogue; the other five are stylistic devices to signal points of transition and to provide dramatic relief. First I shall take up the single example of a dramatic opening.

a. Republic I 327 a-b

The Republic opens with Socrates as the narrator.

(8) I went down yesterday to the Piraeus with Glaucon, the son of Ariston, to pay my devotions to the goddess (7poaeu06[Leoq 'rt TX ?, a 1), and also I wished to see how they would conduct the festival since this was its inauguration. I thought the procession of the citizens very fine, but it was no better than the show made by the marching of the Thracian con- tingent.

After we had said our prayers (npoaeut&Levot, b 1) and seen the spectacle we were starting for town when Polemarchus, the son of Cephalus, caught sight of us ... (I 327 a 1-b 3)20

Polemarchus hailed Socrates and Glaucon and persuaded them to stay in the Piraeus to see the remainder of the festival, a torch race on horseback at night (328 a). In the meantime they went to Pole- marchus' house and the discussion which constitutes the Republic took place there.

Towards the end of Book I we learn that the festival attended by Socrates was in honor of Bendis.2' She was a Thracian goddess received into Greek religion chiefly as the Thracian form of Artemis.22 Her festival was observed in the Piraeus, where foreign cults were often introduced into Attica.23 If Plato's information is accurate, this festival was begun around 420, the dramatic date of the Republic.24 Socrates. attendance at the festival indicates that he had some interest in new cults. He apparently did not visit the Piraeus often (328 c 6-7). In fact he rarely left Athens, preferring the market-

20 Trans. by Paul Shorey in The Collected Dialogues of Plato, ed. by Edith Ha- milton and Huntington Cairns (New York: Pantheon Books, 1961), p. 576. 21 354 a 10 f.: &v srots Bcv8L8(oto. 'n Farnell, II 474. n Ibid., p. 475. "4 Taylor, pp. 263 f. In his Commentary on Plato's Timaeus (Oxford, 1928), p. 46, Taylor notes that Proclus dated the Bendidea on the 19th of Thargelion, i.e., in May or June.

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place to the countryside.25 Although he may have left the city this time out of curiosity (327 a 2-3), this was not his only motive, for he not only observed but also prayed.

There is no indication of what Socrates prayed for on this occasion. In the absence of such information and of any obvious relevance of Artemis-Bendis to the subject of the dialogue (justice), there seems to be no particular reason for Plato's having opened the Republic with Socrates praying at a festival.26 It is noteworthy, however, that both of Plato's longest works, the Republic and the Laws,27 have their dramatic setting in a religious context.

b. Euthydemus 275 d, Republic IV 432 c, VIII 545 d-e, Philebus 25 b, 61 b-c.

The other literary prayers occur at points of lesser importance than the opening of a dialogue. The most significant places are given to the Euthydemus prayer and the second Philebus prayer. The former stands at the beginning of the body of the dialogue, after the introduction is out of the way. The latter occurs just as the dialogue begins to draw to its conclusion. The other three are found at points of lesser importance where subtopics are taken up.

The content of all five prayers is the same. In each place Socrates prays for some sort of aid in the argument, either for memory or for dialectical skill. But the tone suggests that Plato includes the prayers more for variety of expression than as indications that Socrates yearned for divine aid. This seems especially clear in the Philebus. About a quarter way into the dialogue the following exchange takes place:

(15) Socrates: AU right. Now what description are we going to give of number three, the mixture of these two [viz. the classes of the finite and the infinite]?

Protarchus: That, I think, will be for you to tell me. Socrates: Or rather for a god to tell us, if one comes to listen to my

prayers. Protarchus: Then offer your prayer, and look to see if he does.

25 Phaedr. 230 c-d. 2 Artemis (= Bendis), as a goddess of the hills and forests, seems most in- appropriate for a dialogue on the ideal polis. But cf. Crat. 406 b where one of the etymologies of "Artemis" is that it comes from &pe ', virtue. 37 Laws I 625 b 1-2.

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Socrates: I am looking, and I fancy, Protarchus, that one of them has befriended us for some little time. (25 b 5-12)28

This lighthearted banter occurs in the midst of nrgorous argument. By its contrast with the rigor of that argument it provides momentary relief from the tension. It is a brief interlude and as is usually the case with interludes in Plato it indicates that a new point is being taken up. A prayer towards the end of the dialogue has the same function. The mixed life has been determined to be the good for man.

(16) Socrates: Then let us mingle our ingredients, Protarchus, with a prayer to the gods, to Dionysus or Hephaestus or whichever god has been assigned this function of mingling. (61 b 11-c 2)29

The brief prayer in Republic IV plays the same role as the Philebus prayers, although not so conspicuously.

(9) Offer up a prayer with me, I [Socrates] said, and follow. That I will do, only lead on, he said. (432 c 5-6)30

The use of prayers as interludes in philosophical contexts may be Plato's invention, but in two other prayers he acknowledges de- pendence on the poets. Both are prayers to the Muses. In the Euthy- demus Socrates must recall a complicated sophistical conversation of the day before.

(1) What followed, Crito, how could I describe properly? It is not a small business to recall and repeat wisdom ineffably great! So I must begin my description as the poets do, by invoking the Muses and Memory herself I (275 c 5-d 2)81

2 l E. 06; .Liv o5v, &V7Ep ye k{Lotlt euXaL4 k ^xoo4 yEy"mi n; ft&v. fIPl. E6Xou 8t& xOcc Gx6c. ED. Zxonr7- xOCL t.OL 8O0XC TL; ... aUC@v 9(DO4 ~tiV VUVt yeyovkvOCL. Trans. by R. Hackforth in Hamilton and Cairns, pp. 1101 f. 29 Tolc 80 tcotl. ( llp&rxpXe, uX6evot x?pavv e, efte A(ovuaoq etTe `Hc xtror er' a'rtg &e&iv 'rm'v TrV v

-n[LV v f),)X s-7 auyxpIacrg. Trans. by Hackforth in Hamilton and Cairns, p. 1143. 30 tE7roU, ^V 8' Iy6, Cu'0Xpr5o lie-r 4LO5. I-ot,aco TXC59T, &Xo tl6vov, ff 8' 6q, hYO5. The trans. is a composite of Shorey's and Jowett's. I"

... 8ios.aLL &.pX6fLevOq rq kLqy~ae& Mo5aoc; re xod Mv oa6vnv &Inxe!aXL. Trans. by Rouse in Hamilton and Cairns, p. 389.

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Then again in Republic VIII.

(10) Shall we, like Homer, invoke the Muses to tell 'how faction first fell upon them,' and say that these goddesses playing with us and teasing us as if we were children address us in lofty, mock-senrous tragic style? (545 d 5-e 3)82

This last prayer introduces a section in which the Muses are sup- posedly the speakers. It gives Plato an opportunity to write in a different style from that used in the dialogue so far (546 a ff.). Thus in this instance he combines poetic convention (invocation of the Muses) with the provision of relief (by variety of expression).

So far I have commented on the content and function of these prayers. It remains to comment on their addressees. The two just quoted are addressed to the Muses, who are invoked more often in the dialogues (four times) than any other named deity.33 As noted already, prayers to the Muses are a poetic convention. Socrates says he is imitating Homer, who does indeed frequently invoke the Muses.3 Two of the prayers to the Muses are conjoined with another poetic convention, the invocation of Memory, who is their mother according to Hesiod.35 In each case what is needed is recall of a great deal of material - a complex conversation and the history of Atlantis and Athens.

Socrates prays to the Muses because it is conventional to do so when one needs information or the recall of information. His Philebus prayer to Dionysus and Hephaestus appears to have a similar close

p3ou')m, &a7rep 'O0mnpoq, CeUX Lcf r&tL Mot5aau rcbrtv tL!v 67rcoq 80 7rpov at5 aL; 4pae. . . ;Trans. by Shorey in Hamilton and Cairns, p. 775. 3 The other two prayers to the Muses are at Phaedrus 237 a-b (no. 4) and Crilias 108c-d (no. 13). 8' II. I 1, I 484, X 218, XIV 508, XVI 112, Od. I 1. The Homeric formula is usually lanreTr v5v [Lot, Mouat'x, "tell me now Muses" (II. II 484). Cf. also Solon, fr. 1 (on wealth) and Sappho, frs. 101 and 129 (in the Loeb Lyra Graeca I). At Phaedrus 245 a and 265 b Plato says that the Muses are the source of the divine Fxovto which produces poetry. 36 Theog. 50 ff. Plato agrees(Theaet. 191 d). For an invocation of Memory cf. Pindar, Fragment of a Paean VII B, in Farnell, The Works of Pindar (London: Macmillan, 1930), pp. 313 f.

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relation to what is prayed for. These gods, he says, are in charge of mingling or mixing (atUyxpUaLq, xZpvvu4li) and his argument is moving toward a conclusion by mixing components defined thus far. Socrates expresses some uncertainty about which god is in charge of mixing. This may indicate that he is innovating in making a specific assignment of this function. Dionysus and Hephaestus are, however, easily associated with mixing, namely, the mixing of wine and the combining of metals.36 Of the other two prayers, one is addressed to "a god" (Phil. 25 b) and the other has no addressee (Rep. IV).

3. Philosophical prayers - the Phaedrus

In the Phaedrus are found four prayers which may be distinguished from those considered so far because of their content. I call them "philosophical prayers." They occur in a dialogue with the latest dramatic date (as late as 40437) of all others containing Socratic prayers except the Phaedo. Whether Plato intended to, therefore, he has placed the richest prayers of the dialogues on the lips of Socrates as a man of seasoned maturity.

a. Phaedrus 237 a-b Because of the many issues presented by each prayer, I shall consider them individually. The first one occurs at the beginning of Socrates' first speech on love (237 b-241 d).38 (4) Come then, ye clear-voiced Muses, whether it be from the nature of your

song, or from the musical people of Liguria that ye came to be so styled, 'assist the tale I tell' under compulsion by my good friend here, to the end that he may think yet more highly of one dear to him, whom he already accounts a man of wisdom. (237 a 7-b 1)89

86 I have located specific evidence for Dionysus and the mixing of wine. Farnell, V 282 n. 17, quotes a passage from Athenaeus in which Dionysus is said to have taught the Athenians about 'hv 'ro5 otvou xp&mLV. Cf. also Walter F. Otto, Dionysus: Myth and Cult, pp. 86 and 100. I know of nothing comparable for Hephaestus, but the smith-god would naturally be associated with making bronze by combining copper and tin, etc. 87 Taylor, p. 301. 88 A prayer at the beginning of an oration was apparently not unusual. Cf. Demosthenes, On the Crown 1. 3a . 'AyeT? 84, X Mo5aot, teVe 84& J6 el8oq Xtyeto0t, &cr 8t& ykvo5 ,LOUaLx6V ?r6 Aty65ov ro'rNv laXeX' kneavilwV, "!,. p ot )&3 d ? coe" 'roi 5 tou, 6v ,ue 0VayXKcet 6 PwAXtnsroq ouroal 'Xyv, '' o 6 ctZpos ac&ro5, xml np6repov 8oxc7v aOor pO6k cva;, v4v 1.'t ,ux0ov 86oEn. Trans. by Hackforth in Hamilton and Cairns, pp. 484 f.

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This prayer to the Muses, like those in the Euthydemus and the Re- public, asks for aid in the discourse to follow. It differs from them, however, in two important respects.

In the first place, there is a more complex invocation of the Muses. In fact this prayer contains the longest invocation of any in the dialogues. The deities addressed in all the other prayers are merely named. Here the Muses are not only named, their name is dwelt on. The comparative infrequency of this in Plato's prayers contrasts with normal literary and cultic practice. For example, the prayer of Achilles for Patroclus begins:

High Zeus, lord of Dodona, Pelasgian, living afar off, brooding over wintry Dodona, your prophets about you living, the Selloi who sleep on the ground with feet unwashed. Hear me.'0

But in this one case Socrates does offer a prayer with a longer invocation. His concern here is for the origin of the epithet "clear-voiced."41

The second difference between this prayer and the others to the Muses is that here Socrates prays for more than aid in the discourse. The real object of his prayer is that he may through the eloquence of his speech be even more highly regarded by one who already thinks him wise. Although this is a prayer for increased reputation, it is for reputation in virtue.

b. Phaedrus 257 a-b Socrates was temporarily unhappy with the speech on love which follows his prayer to the Muses (242 b-243 d). But he later views it in connection with his second speech and finds that it had its appropriateness (264e-266 b). In effect, the two speeches are two parts of one speech (266 a). Thus a prayer to the Muses opens that 40 II. XVI 233 ff. Trans. by Richmond Lattimore, The Iliad of Homer (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1951), p. 336. For other long invocations cf. the Prayer to the Fates in C. M. Bowra, Greek Lyric Poetry (Oxford: At the Claren- don Press, 2nd edn., 1961), p. 404 (found in Stob. Ecl. 5.10-12), Sappho's famed Prayer to Aphrodite (fr. 1), and Aesch. Choeph. 123 ff. Farnell, I 26, notes the importance of cult-titles in public prayer and sacrifice. Cf. also von Fritz, pp. 16f. 4" Hackforth, Plato's Phaedrus (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1952), p. 36, n. 1, regards Plato's suggestion that ),EyeLmL (clear-voiced) is connected with the Li- gurian people as an etymological jest. Farnell, V 469-471 on the Muses, notes no such connection. Perhaps Socrates is thinking of the northern origin of the Muses (Liguria is on the Italian Riviera). Another puzzle about this prayer is the source of the quotation ivA ,uoL )X:&caf. In Liddell and Scott, Greek-English Lexicon, p. 1691, it is referred to merely as"a poetical passage ap. P1. Phdr. 237 a."

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one speech and a prayer to Eros closes it.42 The latter is a remarkable prayer in many respects. For one thing it is the longest prayer in Plato's dialogues. (5) Thus then, dear Eros, I havy offered the fairest recantation and fullest

atonement that my powers co-ild compass; some of its language, in particular, was perforce poetical, to please Phaedrus. Grant me thy pardon for what went before, and thy favor for what ensued; be merciful and gracious, and take not from me the lover's talent wherewith thou hast blessed me; neither let it wither by reason of thy displeasure, but grant me still to increase in the esteem of the fair. And if anything that Phaedrus and I said earlier sounded discordant to thy ear, set it down to Lysias, the only begetter of that discourse, and staying him from discourses after this fashion turn him toward the love of wisdom, even as his brother Polemarchus has been turned. Then will his loving disciple here present no longer halt between two opinions, as now he does, but live for love in singleness of purpose with the aid of philosophical discourse. (257 a 3-b 6)4

This is the only prayer to Eros in Plato. Eros was the subject of much poetry44 but fewer prayers.45 In Plato his status is ambiguous. According to the Phaedrus46 Eros is a god; according to the Sympo- sium47 he is not a god but a great daimon, mediating between gods and mortals. As a daimon Eros would carry prayers to the gods and return with answers for men.4" But even daimons should be prayed to, according to Plato, so that they will transmit our prayers to the gods well.49 This notion is at least as old as the Iliad, where prayer itself is personified as the AlroL, who entreat Zeus in behalf of or against

42 The second speech or part contains the famous myth of the charioteer. ' A5rq OOL, J) cp? "EpCa4, et(; 0hLvpOmV 8 Svoc4Ltv 6*tL XWaT- xad &p'at7 8 8o'o( 'c xod LX'ir-7LaaL 7MXLvC8(C, 'x 're &; XM x rxl 6Ov6[aCaLv Ivxyxaas&iv) irOL7qTLXOt5 TLCSLV 8L& 4bOaL8pOV etpTa,ML. M&X T&V 7rpOTipCiV TC CKyp )vOCL X )v8e XXPLV IX LCV, eU'[Lv+ XaL DxCq AV kpcIwXmV [LOL 'xv)V fV 98Oxaq o Lc F iOc9i) X Lr'-r 7TT pc i)a 8L' 6pymV, M8OU T' I?Lt LDX?OV % V5V 7racp& roLq X00o,0 'r(LLOV e1VXL. kV 'rp 7tp6aov 8' et rt X6yw aot &.rw-xkq ef7roiev ODt8p6q -re xod &y6, Auatav -r6v 105 XO6you MX7 pa OCt=?Vo0 7rmUC -v 'rLou'Gv )o6ycv, &iri qtXoaocp(mv 8k, 6anep &8eX,?6q a9u'ou flo\)4apxoq r&XpX7r-0, Tpk4GV, tVM cxal 6 IpaMaAq 688e cUrTo5 p?-Xk'rL kapoTCp(Zn xOt&x7rp v5v, dcX' &7Tr)X& 7rp6q 'Epvro pX cpL0oa6qv X6ywv -69v rEov 7r%LVl. Trans. by Hackforth in Hamilton and Cairns, p. 502. 4" Cf. Bowra, pp. 70, 235, 263, 283-6, 292 f. and 305 for Eros in poetry by Alc- man, Sappho, Ibycus, and Anacreon. ' Cf. Eur. Hipp. 525 ff. "242 d 8, 242 e 2-3. 47 202 d 13: 8odat.Lv 4kyo;. 48 Symp. 202 e 3-7. 49 Laws 801 e: 8cx(ov&q -re xoc tpc5... eXact; Epin. 984 e 1-3.

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a man depending on his veneration of them.50 Since Eros is viewed as a god in the Phaedrus, Socrates is probably praying to him as a deity and not as a mediator. A daimon does, however, function as a messenger in the dialogue, namely, Socrates' own famed daimonic voice. It forbids him to leave before making atonement for his offence against Eros.51 That the voice brings a communication from Eros or another god is not stated in the Phaedrus, but in other dialogues Plato makes this role of Socrates' daimon explicit.52 On the other hand, he does not, so far as I know, ever have Socrates pray to his own daimon or address it in any way.53 It brings messages to him from the gods but is never said to carry prayers to the gods.

The most remarkable feature of the prayer to Eros is its rich content. It contains three petitions. Socrates asks for pardon, for success in love, and for the conversion of Lysias and Phaedrus to philosophy. As to the first, there are prayers for pardon (aUyv(uvn) in the Greek literary tradition,54 but such seems out of place in Plato. In both the Republic and the Laws he argues against those who say that the gods may be made to ignore sin by prayer and sacrifice.55 His view is that prayer is profitable only to a good man.5s Hence one should not pray unless he is already good. This rule leaves little room for a petition to be forgiven. Socrates' prayer to Eros does not, however, violate this rule. In relation to Eros Socrates had become good before he prayed. He had purified himself by a new speech, praising love instead of blaming him. Socrates' prayer conforms to another Platonic notion, namely, that the goal of prayer and of all worship is to become like god.57 His petition to Eros for success in love is a prayer to be like that god. The third petition of the prayer

60 II. IX 500 ff. 61 Phaedr. 242 b 8-c 3. 52 Apol. 31 c 8-d 1 and 40 a 2-c 3, esp. 40 b 1: 'r6 -ro5 coi3 a- cLov. " Cf. Paul Friedlander, Plato: An Introduction (New York: Harper & Row, 1958), pp. 32-36, for a brief but informative account of Socrates' daimonic voice. 4 Eur. Hipp. 113 ff.: auyyvca.ov; Xen. Mem. II.ii.14: auyyvs,ovaCq.

6' In the Rep. (364-366 a) this view is attributed to the poets. In Laws X 885 b and 905 d-907 b it is the third form of impiety and is attributed to no special group. I' Laws IV 716 d. Morrow, p. 400, comments on the reinterpretation of traditional practices which Plato makes in this passage. At Phaedrus 244 e Plato gives a non-critical account of these practices. '7 Laws IV 716 c-d and Theaet. 176 b.

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is intercessory. Prayers on behalf of others are not hard to find. They are in Homer, in later poets, and are mentioned by Plato himself.58 But Plato certainly does not accept the Pythagorean injunction against praying for oneself.59 Only in the prayer to Eros does Socrates pray for someone else.60 He prays for Lysias, who is not present, and for Phaedrus, who is. He intercedes for them that they might turn to philosophy and thereby avoid such speeches on love as Lysias' (read by Phaedrus earlier, 230 e-234 c) or Socrates' first speech. c. Phaedrus 278 b Shortly after the prayer to Eros Socrates begins discussion of the nature of good and bad writing and speaking (258 d ff.). This is the main topic of the dialogue, the speeches on love being illustrations of good and bad discourse. Socrates concludes that good speech is spoken not written, that it uses the methods of collection and division to gain knowledge of its subject matter, and that it presupposes knowledge of the soul.61 He then observes,

(6) ... the man ... who believes this, and disdains all manner of discourse other than this, is, I would venture to affirm, the man whose example you and I would pray that we might follow. (278 b 2-4)82

Phaedrus replies, "My own wishes and prayers are most certainly to that effect." A moment later such a man as they pray to be is named a "lover of wisdom," a philosopher (278 d 4). Socrates had prayed earlier that Lysias and Phaedrus might be philosophers; he now prays the same thing for himself and Phaedrus.

d. Phaedrus 279 b-c The final prayer in the Phaedrus and the most famous prayer in Plato63

68 Hom. II. VI 476 ff., XVI 233 ff.; Sappho, Fragment 5 (Lobel and Page); Plato, Phaedr. 233 e, Laws 887 d-e. 69 Diog. Laert. VIII 9. 60 Of course he often prays together with another person. Cf. below p. 36 n. 109. "Summarized at 277 b-c. * o&ro; ai 6 'oLo 04o (v?p xAUVeUL, X1 048pC, etvxL otoV Iy6 T'e xexL a,Z xEm[Ltc clv &exa yeviaoc. Trans. by Hackforth in Hamilton and Cairns, p. 523. 0 Some sample comments: Farnell, V 434, calls it a "strange and spiritual prayer"; Heiler, p. 79, says it is "the ripest prayer of the Greek spirit"; Greeven, p. 781, sees it as the supreme culmination of Greek prayer in moral depth and inwardness.

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comes at the close of the dialogue. The conversation has taken place under a tree outside the city during the heat of the day (227 a, 229 a-b). It has cooled off and Phaedrus suggests that they be going.

(7) Socrates: Oughtn't we first to offer a prayer to the divinities here? Phaedrus: To be sure. Socrates: Dear Pan, and all ye other gods that dwell in this place,

grant that I may become fair within, and that such outward things as I have may not war against the spirit within me. May I count him rich who is wise, and as for gold, may I possess so much of it as only a temperate man might bear and carry with him.

Is there anything more we can ask for, Phaedrus? The prayer contents me. (279 b 6-c 5)64

This prayer is addressed to Pan because Socrates is praying to gods "in this place." He and Phaedrus are in the countryside, the haunt of Pan the rustic pasture-god.65 There appears to be nothing more special about the location which would make a prayer to Pan appropriate. The Athenian cult of Pan was centered, according to Farnell, on the acropolis and included a torch race which originated at the Academia, north-west of the city.66 But the Phaedrus takes place south of the city on the River Illissus (229 c). There may be another reason why a prayer to Pan is fitting at the end of the Phaedrus. According to the Cratylus Pan's name signifies an association with speech (X6yoq). He is the son of Hermes, the inventor of language, and his name comes about because language signifies all things (7rzv),

64 DAI. Tot&3' C'YOCv &XX& tLV, &i7CLS xMI T6 7CVtyoq LrCepov yiyovev. ELI. OiJXoi)V EU'ka0AW 7rpi7r TGIaC8 7rOPC6T&OaL; CDAI. Tl ILtv; 27Q. Qf 9LXcE II&V -g xoa l OL &70L Tt& -&cOt, 8OWnTt LOL XOC),C yCVkOa&O r&v8oO&cV

I(COO?V 8i 6 IX W TOL4 &Vt6a I L; IOL cPDLM. 70)o LOV 8 Vo%.doL;LL r6v ao96v T6 8i XPUG0V waOq Ctn ~LOL 6GOV 11T? F9?LV 0mTC &yCLV 86VO'TO &XX0o i O @ap&v.

"E'-' &ou r ToU e T&%, Ja t pe; &tol v yip pt.ept(g 7ix7TXL. OAI. Kati &[oi 'roc auvcuXou nxoLv& yxp nO 'Erv (pDwv. Er. "Icol,ev.

Trans. by Hackforth in Hamilton and Cairns, p. 525. " Farnell, V 432. For a literary presentation of Pan's rustic character cf. Hymn. Hom. 19 (to Pan). 66 Farnell, V 379 and 381 f.

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both the true and the false.67 Hence a prayer to him is particularly apt in a dialogue on good and bad speech (XOyos).68

The prayer's fame rests no doubt on its content.69 Briefly put, it is a petition for virtue. First, Socrates asks for inner beauty (xMOX). If granted this he would be worthy of the esteem of the fair (xocXo!q, 257 a 9) which he asked from Eros earlier. Second, he prays for harmony of his outer life with his inner, clearly indicating the Socratic subordination of the former to the latter. Third, he asks not to seem wise or to be wise but to value the wise man. Earlier he had rejected the title a64po; for the man he wished to be; he preferred 9L?6aocpoo (278 d 3-6). Thus the prayer to Pan states in another way the prayer to be a philosopher. Finally, Socrates entreats Pan for as much gold as a temperate man (ac'ppov) may have. He has already prayed that he may regard wisdom as wealth,70 but Socrates is not an ascetic. Extemal possessions are fine if possessed temperately. Concern with temperance places the prayer to Pan in the very center of Greek piety. 7'Plato values this virtue highly in his statements on religion and prayer. In the Laws he lists temperance first when he specifies how men can become like god, who is the measure (0trpov) of all things.72 And in Republic III the Phrygian mode of music is retained

*7 Crat. 408 b 8-c 3: ... 6 ?,6yo5 'r6 n&v was xEdveL... This etymology is of course wrong. According to Farnell, V 431, IL&v is a contraction of llov, "the feeder," "the grazier." 68 A6yoq for speech or discourse occurs throughout the Phaedrus, e.g., at 257 d 2, 262 c 5, 270 e 3, 271 d 4, 274 b 3, 277 d 1-2 and e 5. I' The prayer nearest it in content which I have found is a portion of Pindar's Eight Nemean Ode, lines 35 ff. (in Farnell, Works of Pindar, pp. 212 f.):

Oh! Father Zeus, may my nature be never such as this but may I cleave to the guileless paths of life!

So that after death I may attach to my children a reputation untouched by evil word.

Men pray for gold, others for boundless land; My prayer is that I may give pleasure to my fellowcitizens, Praising what menteth praise, and on sinners strewing blame, Until I wrap my limbs in earth.

70 The most famous prayer concerning wealth (n)Xo6rog) is Solon's prayer to the Muses. (Fr. 1; no. 15 in IIANOEION: Religi6se Texte des Griechentums, ed. by H. Kleinknecht (Tubingen, 1965), pp. 11 f.) 71 Heiler, p. 76. Temperance is a frequent theme of Greek prayers. Cf. Aesch. Suppl. 1059 ff., Choeph. 123 ff., Eur. Med. 635 ff., Xen. Mem. II. ii. 14. 7" IV 716 c 4-d 2. He must also be just, etc.

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for the ideal state because it enables one to pray modestly and in a measured fashion (awcpp6vw4 -re xoL [?ep[w4, 399 a-c). Socrates' closing words in the Phaedrus indicate that the prayer to Pan is itself temperate, measured. He says that he can ask no more than he has asked. For him the prayer suffices (,uepCowq).

One thing more should be noted about the prayer to Pan. It is beautifully structured and not by accident, for its structure conforms to one of the main rules of good speech - the rule to divide one's subject matter into its proper parts (277 b 7-8). The prayer divides into a petition concerning the inner man, for beauty, and three petitions concerning the outer man, first in relation to his inward self, for harmony, second in relation to other persons, for veneration of the wise, and third in relation to possessions, for temperance. The speeches earlier in the dialogue are meant to illustrate good speaking. We may infer that the prayer to Pan illustrates good praying, in form as well as content.

At the beginning of this section I labelled the Phaedrus prayers of Socrates "philosophical." It should now be clear why. These four prayers have literary functions - opening and closing speeches and giving the dramatic ending - but in content they differ from the prayers which are merely literary. All contain references to wisdom or love of wisdom (philosophy). This makes their content literally philosophical. In addition, their petitions for beauty, success in love, and temperance clearly refer to that inner beauty of soul and harmony of life which is the mark of the philosopher.73

4. Prayers by others: Timaeus, Critias, Laws, Epinomis

Plato puts prayers in the mouths of three other characters - Timaeus, Critias, and the anonymous Athenian. These non-Socratic prayers occur at the opening and closing of discourses (the Tim.-Crit. sequence, no. 11-14) or at crucial points in the argument (Laws X, Epin., no. 17 and 20).7 All are petitions for success in the discourse to

7a Phaedo 61 e-69 e gives this picture of the philosopher, as does Symp. 210 d- 211 d. Von Fritz, p. 35, regards the prayer to Pan as "almost the only example of its kind" and explains this uniqueness by reference to the Greek view that a man has to work out his own salvation. But it seems to me that the prayer to Pan is not unique. It stands in unity with at least three other prayers, namely, the three which precede it in the Phaedrus. 74 The exceptions are not so much prayers as indications of the religious tone of certain parts of the Laws, notably of Book Ten (no. 18 and 19).

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follow or have some reference to the discourse or argument. They function more as markers of transition than as dramatic interludes. Two prayers will suffice to illustrate their nature. Just before Timaeus begins his discourse, Socrates speaks. 75

(11) Socrates: ... And now, Timaeus, you, I suppose, should speak next, after duly calling upon the gods.

Timaeus: All men, Socrates, who have any degree of right feeling, at the beginning of every enterprise, whether small or great, always call upon a god. And we, too, who are going to discourse of the nature of the universe, how created or how existing without creation, if we be not altogether out of our wits, must invoke gods and goddesses with a prayer that our words may be above all acceptable to them and in consequence to ourselves. Let this, then, be our invocation of the gods, to which I add an exhortation of myself to speak in such manner as will be more intelligible to you, and will most accord with my own intent. (Tim. 27 b 8-d 4)76

And in Laws X, immediately preceding the proof of the existence of the gods (893 c-899 d), the Athenian prays. (20) To the work, then, and if we are ever to beseech a god's help, let it be

done now. Let us take it as understood that the gods have, of course, been invoked in all earnest to assist our proof of their own being, and plunge into the waters of the argument before us with the prayer as a sure guiding rope for our support. (893 b 1-4)77

76 Socrates is present mainly as an auditor in the Tim. and the Crit. These two dialogues take place on the day after Socrates has narrated the Rep. (Tim. 17 a-c). 76 EQ. TeX&.a re xal L7vpwq goLxaxt dcaxoXJCeaL 'riv '&v 6ycov &at(tcav. 6v o5v lpyov X&yc6v &v, (I T(pUXLe, 'r6 ,Lrr& DroSo, 45 lOwev, E?n xamXaxv'rM xKO'M

VOSLOV ftO64. TI. Axx,, ( F@XPOtTc, To5T ye 8yc r&"V?E COL XMX XaTr& APPaMXy aWPPOa6VY;

FLtiXOUOLV, k7dI 7XV-6q 6pJ xCX asLLxpo05 xal pey&Xou 7Tp&ypao,o; ?e6v &eE nou XMoc?O5aLV [A,U& 8g tOk 7TrPl TOU 7rCV'r6q ),6yOUq 7=oLela &St X)-n FAOVTOtq, f ykyovev e xacl iyev &aTLV, ?l L 1raVrdC7raaL xO(pa T e &v&iyxW?) ftou5 te xXI ?&a6 inwXX- XCo'U4VOU4 e5xeCtt VTa KxOr& Vo5V &Xg(VOLq .LkV ,LdtX,LaTCX, ro,LgVcGv 8i .LTLV d7rcTV. XOXI T& ,UV 7repl OV T'-n 7rapOMex)da4- *or 8' i' Lpov r&xpmx?xynrkov, f xar' (IV U4Leq * [FL&kovL', ky& a& t 8LaVOOU;.UXL .L&Lar' &IV =Pt 'r&V 7CpOXeL,Lk&VcWV &VMELU,XC4V. Trans. by Jowett in Hamilton and Cairns, p. 1161, altered by reference to Cornford's trans. "7 AE. 'Ayc 8, t6v et 7ro're mpox?qrjov t4jv, vi;v lTom 'roZo o'UT yeV6IJvOV - ye 7 iN68?Y1 CiV 6 daea v aTX'r6v MTout 7r&afn Tpxxexxa\v - &X6?eVOL 8& &' TLVOq &MP0,ois 7MteaCLaO4 k7resdLaodM)FEV etl 'r6v v5v X6yov. Trans. by Taylor in Hamilton and Cairns, p. 1448.

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I have two observations to make about the non-Socratic prayers. The first concerns the background for beginning discourse with prayer. Taylor, commenting on the prayer with which Timaeus begins his discourse, says that this is recognized Pythagorean practice.778 The evidence he cites for this is, however, weak, and I have been unable to locate any Pythagorean teaching on when to pray.79 Of course, Pythagoras, even if he did not lay down specific rules on prayer, could still be in the background of Plato's thinking about prayer. Pythagoras is a prime precedent for the union of philosophical discourse with religious sentiment. 80 But we need not refer to an esoteric tradition to explain the beginning of a discourse with prayer. In the Timaeus passage which Taylor thinks Pythagorean, Socrates says that a prayer before speaking is customary (xocrr& vo,uv). According to Xenophon Socrates advised men to worship in conformity with the custom of the city (v6[cy -6o?Xe).8" This included prayer at the beginning of an endeavor.82 Hence when Socrates and others begin discourses with prayer we need think of them only as doing what any Greek would do, that which it was customary to do.

The second observation concerns the addressees of the non-Socratic prayers. One of them, a prayer by Critias (no. 14), is addressed to 78 Commentary on Plato's Timaeus, p. 59. Although Plato does not say so, there is little doubt that he intends Timaeus to be a Pythagorean. Taylor,Plato, p. 436, and John Bumnet, Early Greek Philosophy (London: A. & C. Black, 4th edn., 1930), p. 85. 79 Taylor cites only lamblichus, Vita Pyth. 137, which may be based on a fourth century B. C. life of Pythagoras by Aristoxenus. But in late sources it is difficult to know what to assign to the various periods of Pythagoreanism. Cf. Burnet, 84 if., 276 ff., and G. S. Kirk and J. E. Raven, The Presocratic Philosophers (Cambridge University Press, 1957), pp. 217 ff. Moreover, Iamblichus does not even mention prayer in the passage quoted. The only references to prayer in connection with Pythagoras which I have located are also in late sources. According to Diogenes Laertius, Vit. VIII 9, Pythagoras "... forbids us to pray for ourselves, because we do not know what will help us." (Trans. by R. D. Hicks in Loeb edn., Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1925, p. 329.) By Diodorus Siculus Pythagoras is represented as teaching that men should pray simply for good things (a'tnX &q xw 'iya&, X 9, 8), and only wise men (ro6q ypovt?ouq) can so pray because only they know what is good (X 9, 7). 80 Cf. Kirk and Raven, p. 227. 81 ,Mem. I. iii. 1 and IV. iii. 16. 8' Xen. Oec. V 19-20 and Anab. III. ii. 4-7. Plato himself, if the eighth epistle is genuine, says that we should always offer prayer (e6X%) to the gods when we begin to speak or think (&pX6j1.vov &Clt ?iyCLV Tr xmd voctv, Ep. VIII 353 a 1-2). Cf. also Heiler, p. 77, and Greeven, p. 781.

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H L&v, a cult-title for Apollo.83 It is the only cult-title in the prayers, an indication of their literary character.84 A more arresting fact about the prayer of Critias is that it is the only prayer to Apollo in the dialogues. Knowing the importance of Apollo to Socrates and Plato, we would expect more prayers to this god.85 Even more surprising, however, is the apparent absence of any prayers to Zeus. Instead of Zeus or Apollo, the prayers in Plato are most often addressed to unnamed gods and goddesses.868 Prayers to unnamed gods are unheard of in cultic practice at this time,87 and I find no such prayers even in literature before Plato.88 Although most of Socrates' prayers are to named deities, he may be the inspiration for these prayers to unnamed gods. He expressed scepticism concerning human knowledge of divine names and a disinterest in such matters.89 Another explanation may be possible for the prayers by the Athenian addressed to "a god" or "the god."90 These are probably addressed to Zeus.9' The dramatic setting of the Laws supports this interpretation. It is to the cave and shrine of Zeus on Mount Ida that the three old men are walking.92

5. Conclusions I wish now to make some general observations about (a) the notion of prayer in the dialogues and (b) the place of this notion in the Platonic portrait of Socrates.

Farnell, IV 234 and 408 n. 208 a. 84 "Paean" occurs also at Laws 664 c 7 but not in a prayer. 8 The oracle at Delphi apparently played some role in Socrates' career. (Ap. 21 a) While in prison awaiting execution he composed a Prelude to Apollo (,r 'rs r6v 'A7T6XXw npooowv, Phaedo 60 d-61 b) and describes himself as dedi- cated to Apollo (tep6qbo 'oi -uro5 ok& [sc. 'Anr6Xwc], 85 b 5). On Socrates 'composition cf. Hackforth, Plato's Phaedo (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1955), p. 33 n. 4, and C. S. Stanford, Plato's Apology of Socrates, Crito, and Phaedo (Dublin: At the University Press, 1834), p. 126. Cf. also Rep. IV 427 b and, on Apollo in the Laws, Morrow, pp. 438-440. M Prayers 12, 15, and 17 are to &c6q or 6 e6q; 2 and 14 are to so(; and 11, 20, and 21 contain both the singular and plural of ft6q. 87 FarneU, I 26. 88 My search has not been exhaustive. 89 Crat. 400 e-401 a, Phaedr. 229 c-230 a. " Laws IV 712 b 4-5: O6e, 6[l&6q; X 893 b 1: ft6v; Epin. 980 c 4: 6o &e6q. 91 Farnell, I 85. " Laws I 625 b 1-2. Cf. Morrow, pp. 27 f., for evidence that the pilgrimage is to the Idaean Cave of Zeus. Cf. also Farnell, I 153 n. 73 and 140 n. 3.

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a. The notion of prayer Plato apparently regards the content of prayers as more important than to whom they are addressed. Although he follows literary tradition in writing several prayers to the Muses, he departs from literary as well as cultic practice in writing brief invocations to often unspecified or minor deities. In addition to an emphasis on content, this may also indicate a strong element of non-traditionalism in Socratic and Platonic spirituality. Socrates is pious but not always in the customary way. 93 Of course Plato was not anti-Olympian. There are prayers by Socrates to Hephaestus, Dionysus, and Artemis (as Bendis) and by others to Apollo (Paean) and Zeus (as the god).

The absence of long invocations from Platonic prayers is paralleled by the absence of what C. M. Bowra calls the Sanction. 94 In a sanction reference is made to services rendered the god which qualify one to receive what he is praying for. A good example is found in Agamem- non's prayer to Zeus:

For I say that never did I pass by your fairwrought altar in my benched ships when I came here on this desperate journey; but on all altars I burned the fat and the thighs of oxen in my desire to sack the strong-walled city o- the Trojans.95

The only thing even remotely like this is Socrates' reference to his second speech in the prayer to Eros and there he does not refer to a sacrifice, the most common form of serving the gods,96 but to a speech. In fact Plato never has a character pray in connection with a sacrifice,97 even though he retains sacrifice in his model

" This contrasts sharply with Xenophon, who views Socrates as traditional in every way. 14 Bowra, p. 200. 95 Hom. II. VIII 237 ff. Trans. by Lattimore, p. 188. For other examples cf. Aesch. Choeph. 247 ff., 479 ff., and Soph. El. 1376 ff. 96 Cf. Jane Harrison, Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion (New York: Meridian Books, 3rd edn., 1955, first pub. in 1922), pp. 1-7, 10, and 55-78 on this notion of sacrifice and its contrast with the more primitive notion of chthon- ian ritual. Cf. also Greeven, p. 779, and Schmidt, p. 2. Von Fritz, pp. 18 f, notes that this was not the only view of sacrifice even in Homer. 97 It should be noted that shortly after his Phaedo prayer Socrates instructs Crito to offer a cock to Aesculapius (118 a 7-8). It is possible that Socrates sacrificed at the Bendidea (Rep. I), but only prayer is mentioned. Xenophon, in contrast to Plato, says that Socrates sacrificed often. Mem. I. i. 2. Cf. also

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states'8 and often discusses prayer and sacrifice together.99 I would argue that this separation of prayers from sacrifice and the related absence of sanctions results from Plato's wishing to avoid even the suggestion that in prayer one asks for payment on a service rendered. For him worship is not, in the words of Morrow, "... an exchange of services between gods and men, but (a) fellowship in which the human worshipper models himself after the divinity he worships."'00

As to content, most of the Platonic prayer are for divine aid in discourse. In this Plato follows a venerable literary tradition. But he writes prayers of consistently higher moral quality than do many members of that tradition. Homer's characters pray for victory in war or physical safety.101 The tragic poets move toward greater moral concern102 but prayers for vengeance, safety, and material prosperity also are common in their works.'03 This does not mean that the tragedians were less interested than Plato in moral values. It means that they portrayed prayers by all sorts of characters, both the just and the unjust. Plato, in contrast, chose to portray Socrates, who was, among his contemporaries, judged "the wisest, and justest and best."'04 Yet he did not go to the extreme of contemporary and later philosophers who said that men should merely pray for unspecified good things.'05 Although Plato spoke of praying for rayociya,016 he wrote prayers with specific content, for wisdom, temperance, beauty,

I. iii. 1 and 3. - Heiler, p. 105, says that a separation of prayer from sacrifice is a characteristic which distinguishes personal prayer from primitive prayer, but he does not say why this separation arises. 98 Rep. V 461 a, Laws VII 809 d, XII 949 d, and others. 99 Euth. 14 c, Menex. 244 a, Rep. V 461 a-b, Statesman 290 c-d, Laws IV 716 d, VII 801 a, 821 c-d, X 885 b, 887 d-e, 909 e, XII 955 e, 956 b. 100 Morrow, p. 469. This 6[LoicoaSt IkCp doctrine is most clearly stated at Laws IV 716 c-e. 101 Cf. Greeven, pp. 778 f. on Homer. 109 Ibid. p. 780. 109 Cf. Aesch. Choeph. 123 ff., Suppl. 625 ff., Soph. El. 110 ff., 635 ff., 1376 ff., Eur. Cycl. 353 ff. 1" Phaedo 118 a 16-17, Jowett trans. If Plato had wished to write prayers of less virtue, he could have found personae in his dialogues to pray them, e.g., Euthyphro. 105 Xen. Mem. I. iii. 2 on Socrates (!), Aristotle Eth. Nic. V 1129 b 1-7, Pseudo- Plato, Alc. II 143 a 1-3, Diog. L. VI 42 on Diogenes the Cynic, and Diod. Sicul. X 9, 7-8 on Pythagoras (quoted in n. 79 above). 106 Phaedr. 233 e 5, Statesman 290 d 1-2, Laws VII 801 b 1, XI 931 c 6, d 2, Ep. VII 331 d 5.

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and knowledge. Knowing Plato's view of these things, we can say that for him the primary motive of prayer is not gratitude, awe, or praise, but need.107 Platonic prayers do not, however, express need in the language of struggle and uncertainty as, for example, do the prayers of Jeremiah.108 Instead they have a tone of confidence, even serenity, modified perhaps only by Socratic irony.

Further characteristics of Platonic prayers can be noted. Plato obviously finds prayer appropriate in a variety of places (city or countryside, at home or on foreign soil, in a house or outside) and on a variety of occasions (conversations, festivals, rising of the sun, at death). Normally prayers are said when one is in a group.109 The only solitary prayer is the one recorded in the Symposium. This social emphasis is just what we would expect in someone for whom philosophy consists in shared inquiry. Although the typical posture in prayer was to stand with hands uplifted,'10 we may infer that Socrates prayed while standing, lying down, or sitting.11'

Plato doubtless thought of prayer in these ways at least in part because Socrates himself so prayed. It remains to draw some conclusions concerning the place of prayer in Plato's portrait of that man.

b. Socrates andprayer First, some observations about development in the Socratic prayers. Most of them (nine) occur in the so-called middle dialogues, those expressing Plato's whole speculative vision. This may weaken their claim to any historical accuracy,"12 but it places them at the very heart of Plato's mature philosophy. In his later dialogues Plato wrote prayers for other characters. These later prayers are, in my opinion, inferior both in literary and philosophical qualities. They lack the charn and dramatic traits of Socrates' prayers. They are mechanical (especially the Timaeus-Critias sequence) and monotonous. It could be argued that Plato relaxed his literary efforts in his later works 107 Heiler, pp. 3-8, lists these as the various motives for prayer. 108 Cf. Jeremiah 15 :10-21. The contrast may be one that holds in general between classical Greek and Hebrew prayers. 109 Euv o6X.act, "to pray with," is used frequently. e.g. at Phaedr. 279 c 6, 257 b 7, Laws X 909 e 1-2, XI 931 e 2-3, Epin. 980 c 5. 110 Heiler, p. 84; Harrison, p. 63. 111 Symp. 220 d 3, Phaedr. 230 e 3, Phaedo 116 b 7 for these three positions. 112 Most interpreters would regard the early dialogues as giving a more accurate portrait of the historical Socrates. Cf. Laszlo Vers6nyi, Socratic Humanism (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1963), pp. 177-184.

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and that this is reflected in the prayers. I would suggest that a better explanation is that Plato is no longer portraying Socrates. Plato's memory of Socrates inspires the Socratic prayers. Without that inspiration it would seem that Plato wrote prayers of less beauty and interest.

In regard to the dramatic dates of Socrates' prayers, I have already called attention to the late dramatic date of the Phaedrus, where the prayers richest in content occur. Those prayers earlier than this are literary prayers, neither as serious nor as complex as the Phaedrus prayers. At the beginning and end of the dramatic sequence stand the two biographical prayers, a prayer at sunrise after a great vision (?) and a prayer near sunset before the final journey. Only Plato could tell us if this sequence was intended. In an artist of his stature, however, we would do well not to attribute such things purely to chance.

There is one final question. What was Plato's strategy in writing the prayers of Socrates? He had, I believe, at least three things in mind. First, as a skilled writer he intended to make the dialogues lively and hence interesting to read. He used prayers as one of many techniques to do this. In addition, and this is a second motive, he wrote Socrates' prayers to exemplify in dramatic form views which he held important. This applies especially to the Phaedrus prayers which assuredly portray a man asking for what he needs, as prayer is defined in the Euthyphro (14d), and asking in a temperate manner, the ideal in prayer and all worship according to the Republic (III 399 b). They show us a man whose wishes conform to wisdom and who is becoming like the divine, the goals of prayer which Plato stressed in his last work.113

Beyond the literary and philosophical uses of Socrates' prayers there may be a further motive. Plato's career as a philosopher received its original impetus and direction from his desire to defend Socrates. Not only in the Apology but in all of his early dialogues this was his strategy.114 He wrote to demonstrate that Socrates was not, as charged, a corrupter of youth, a sophist, or guilty of impiety. Could not the prayers of Socrates be a part of this defence? Socrates praying to the sun at sunrise, to Artemis at her festival, to Eros when he had offended him, to the gods as his death came, this Socrates cannot be judged guilty of impiety. Wesleyan University.

I' Laws III 687 d-688 b and IV 716 c-d. 114 Here I follow Brumbaugh, pp. 34-74.

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Article Contentsp. 14p. 15p. 16p. 17p. 18p. 19p. 20p. 21p. 22p. 23p. 24p. 25p. 26p. 27p. 28p. 29p. 30p. 31p. 32p. 33p. 34p. 35p. 36p. 37

Issue Table of ContentsPhronesis, Vol. 16, No. 1 (1971), pp. 1-96Front MatterThe Ideas as Aitiai in the "Phaedo" [pp. 1-13]The Prayers of Socrates [pp. 14-37]Plato's Separation of Reason from Desire [pp. 38-48]Thophraste, "Metaphysica" 6 a 23 ss. [pp. 49-64]Theophrasts Kritik am unbewegten Beweger des Aristoteles [pp. 65-79]Epicurus' Doctrine of the Soul [pp. 80-96]Back Matter

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Phronesis Volume 16 Issue 1 1971 [Doi 10.2307%2F4181854] B. Darrell Jackson -- The Prayers of Socrates