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Esteban Bieda
Universidad de Buenos Aires Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Ténicas (CONICET)
Argentina
Biography
Vol 35 No 1 (2016), Studies
DOI: https://doi.org/10.15304/ag.35.1.2405
Submitted: 14-02-2015 Accepted: 16-09-2015 Published: 09-11-2015
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Abstract

The reunion described in Plato’s Symposium takes place in the year 416 b.C.. One year later, Thucydides points out one specific aspect of the personality of the historical Alcibiades: his alleged tyrannical aspirations. Is there any way in which it would be possible to link the berserk lover of the Symposium with the proto-tyrant of Thucydides? In this article I propose that the key to explain the complexity of Plato’s character lies in the description of the soul of the tyrannical man in Republic VIII-IX. In order to do that, first I will do a portrayal of the famous Athenian general according to Thucydides and Plutarch; secondly, I will expound the characteristics of the tyrannical soul as it is described in the Republic; finally, I will integrate all these elements in order to interpret Alcibiades words in the Symposium, trying to show how Plato suggests some tyrannical aspects of his soul.

http://dx.doi.org/10.15304/ag.35.1.2405

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