Plato and the Language of Mysteries: Orphic/Pythagorean and Eleusinian Motifs and Register in Ten Dialogues.
Despite Plato's repeated criticism of both µῦθοι and mystery cults, Orphism/Pythagoreanism and the Eleusinian Mysteries feature frequently in his dialogues. This paper uncovers the reason why, and the context in which, Plato employs motifs and language associated with these cults. Prevailing explana...
| Published in: | Mnemosyne Vol. 73; no. 1; pp. 36 - 63 |
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| Format: | Article |
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Brill Academic Publishers
2020
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| Online Access: | View this record in EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=141698325&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: hlh uiTerm: 141698325 longDbName: Humanities International Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 00267074 MNM jtl: Mnemosyne issn: 00267074 maglogo: Y pubinfo: dt: 2020 vid: 73 iid: 1 pid: 639 pub: Brill Academic Publishers artinfo: ui: 141698325 10.1163/1568525X-12342654 ppf: 36 ppct: 27 formats: fmt: – @attributes: type: T – @attributes: type: P size: 911KB tig: atl: Plato and the Language of Mysteries: Orphic/Pythagorean and Eleusinian Motifs and Register in Ten Dialogues. aug: au: Dinkelaar, Bianca M. affil: University of Oxford, Faculty of Classics, Balliol College su: Language & languages Pythagoras & Pythagorean school Scholarships Religious dialogues Philosophy sug: subj: Language & languages Pythagoras & Pythagorean school Scholarships Religious dialogues Philosophy keyword: Eleusis mystery cult Orphism Plato Pythagoreanism ab: Despite Plato's repeated criticism of both µῦθοι and mystery cults, Orphism/Pythagoreanism and the Eleusinian Mysteries feature frequently in his dialogues. This paper uncovers the reason why, and the context in which, Plato employs motifs and language associated with these cults. Prevailing explanations in scholarship are shown to apply in some instances but not others, and to be largely insufficient in providing an underlying reason for Plato's use of mystery cults in general. Through a detailed examination of various mystery motifs in the dialogues, this paper argues that Plato has simply borrowed from religion what he could not achieve with philosophy alone: emotional appeal. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: Y custom: Copyright of Mnemosyne is the property of Brill Academic Publishers and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. item: Mnemosyne holder: Brill Academic Publishers dt: @attributes: year: 2020 holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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