Dramatic Dialogues

Chapter 3 The Implicit Narrator: Dramatic Dialogues

1 Introducing the Dramatic Dialogues

Of the three groups of Plato’s dialogues, the dramatic dialogues form the larg- est and the most heterogeneous one. It comprises the earliest and the latest dialogues, the shortest and the longest pieces in the corpus, the most elaborate and the least elaborate, and not a few dramatic dialogues are spurious. Small wonder, then, that Plato’s dramatic dialogues exhibit a great variety of forms. This becomes immediately obvious from their openings. The short and simply structured “Socratic” dialogues normally open with a concise and efficient “zooming-in” in the course of which Socrates or another character establishes for the reader’s benefit his interlocutor’s identity and social and professional standing, as well as the immediate circumstances of the encounter: − In the Euthyphro, Euthyphro questions Socrates as to the reasons for his arrival at the Porch of the King Archon. − In the Crito, Socrates questions Crito as to the reasons for his arrival in the prison early in the morning. − In the Ion and Hippias Maior, Socrates questions the foreigners Ion and Hip- pias, respectively, as to the reasons for their arrival in Athens. − In the Hippias Minor, Eudicus questions Socrates as to the reasons for his silence after Hippias’ display of his art. − In the Menexenus, Socrates questions Menexenus as to the outcome of the proceedings at the meeting of the Athenian Council. Of the dialogues whose authenticity has been questioned, only the Hippias Maior functions as a regular Platonic dialogue in this respect. Alcibiades ii opens with a single question (quoted above, p. 10) rather than a series of questions necessary for producing the zooming-in effect; in the Theages, the ques- tioning is preceded by a long speech by the as yet unidentified Demodocus (121b-122b), which is sharply at variance with the usual procedure. There is no zooming-in in the spurious Cleitophon, Hipparchus and Minos nor, significantly, in Alcibiades i.1

1 Cf. Friedländer 1964: 232: “While the dialogue corresponds, in this general situation, to others like the Charmides and the Lysis, there are no secondary figures in the Alcibiades nor is there any setting full of charm or symbolic meaning.”

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In the longer and more complex dialogues the introductory zooming-in is enhanced into an elaborate two-stage opening closely resembling the openings of the narrated dialogues. As in the latter, the transition from one stage to another involves a spatial change and/or modification in the cast of characters. − In the Laches, (i) the opening conversation between Lysimachus and Me- lesias on the one hand and Nicias and Laches on the other does not include Socrates, (ii) who joins the initial interlocutors only at a later stage (below, pp. 64–65). − In the Gorgias, (i) Callicles, Socrates, and Chaerephon meet in the street, apparently before Callicles’ house, (ii) and only at a later stage do they enter the house, where they meet Gorgias and Polus.2 − In the Phaedrus, (i) Socrates meets Phaedrus in the city, (ii) and they walk together to a shady spot on the banks of the Ilissus, where the conversation takes place; no change in the cast of characters is involved. − In the Laws, (i) the interlocutors meet in Cnosus, and, (ii) on their way to the cave and temple of Cretan Zeus, they arrive at a grove of cypresses, where most of their conversation apparently takes place; no change in the cast of characters is involved (625b8–c2, cf, 229a9–b2). It is hard to avoid the impression that the transition from one stage to another, as well as the changes in the setting and/or the cast of characters that accom- pany the transition, are modeled on the narrated dialogues, where they form a standard and well-developed pattern (above, pp. 27–28). This can be taken as an additional indication of Plato treating the dramatic dialogues as a form of narrative.3 The same pattern, albeit in reduced form, is present in the Sophist-Statesman and Timaeus-Critias: in these dialogues, Plato economizes on the first stage of the exposition by creating the impression that it had taken place just before the dialogue began. This is obviously because all the dialogues of this group are set as sequels (above, p. 7). A similar strategy is applied in the

2 Cf. Dodds 1959: 188: “A similar change of scene from outdoors to indoors is explicitly indi- cated at Lysis 206de and in the prelude to the Theaetetus, 143b”; in Dodds’ opinion, however, the action takes place at the entrance to a public building. On the two-stage opening of the Gorgias and its similarity to the settings of narrated dialogues see also Thesleff 2003: 552–53. 3 Cf. de Jong 2004: 7–8: “In the case of the dramatic dialogues of Plato and Lucian, that is to say, those dialogues which lack a narrative frame and consist solely of speeches, it seems most sensible – in view of their close similarity to the dialogues with a narrative frame – to see them as narratives with a suppressed primary narrator and suppressed primary narratees” (original emphasis); cf. also de Jong 2014a: 17 and above, Chapter 1 with nn. 16 and 20. On Lu- cian see Whitmarsh 2004: 468; on parallels between the narrated and the dramatic dialogues see also Tarrant 1996: 143–46.