Beyond Socrates’ Dia-Logos. Luigi Giannachi

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СКАЧАТЬ battle allowed Athens to control Aegean Sea’s poleis - I said to her - Theseus isn’t just an Ionian hero, but a hero for the whole Hellas. I knew a curious detail on his ship: however his ship had done a lot of travel, it was always the same. Although the various parts were changed from time to time, the ship never lost its identity, inviolable in cutting through the waves».

      Â«The whole thing works better than the set of individual elements; Theseus was the first to think that the union of individual cities could give rise to a much greater economic and political power than the simple local domain. Athens put into effect this policy along with the Ionian cities from which I come. According to my brother-in-law Alcibiades at this time, the biggest supporter of this policy is Pericles: I hope to know this so brave man who is pursuing Theseus’ original goal».

      Â«Your knowledge doesn’t look like those of a woman so young. Can I ask who your preceptor was?»

      Â«My family boast of descending from Neleus and therefore to have originated from the god Poseidon, as well as the legend would like of Theseus. I can’t ignore such an important hero. He became something like a god for my people. If you want to know, however, from whom I have received the teachings that have brought me to philosophy, you must know the tradition of Ionian philosophers. Thales, Anaximander and Anaximenes were the first to seek a principle of reality as the principle of all living beings. Do you know the philosopher Anaxagoras, friend of Pericles, he also Ionian?»

      Â«I know Xenophanes of Colophon, an Ionian poet and philosopher who lived in Zancle and Elea. According to him, men are able to garner the best with time; he was sceptical that gods could have revealed everything to the mortals. As you see, I also know something about Ionian philosophers, although I know more about those who have approached my peninsula, closer to the heart of Hellas».

      She smiled perhaps hurt in the pride of her proud Ionian origin.

      Â«They call us barbarians because we have been under the control of governors not refined by the fervour of Hellas’ art, politics and knowledge, but we were the only ones to have the courage to say “No” to Persians, the only ones to create a merchant network to make other peoples jealous, the only ones to allow men’s natural love for free women».

      She had stopped to make the dance moves, walked determined along lines that formed regular squares. The tiger inside her had found free vent. I dared say to her:

      Â«Democracy, in Athens, indulges in the love between old politicians and young chap who are approaching political and social life. You will not have there an easy life if you only will venture to propose such arguments».

      Â«You are wrong if you think I want to mess up Athens’ society as well as you described it, but you underestimate what is new there, where the good use of the word will enable the realization of the true and the beautiful».

      Â«... and you think you are the priestess who knows the true and the beautiful?»

      Â«Stranger, if useful, I will be the one to advocate love as the ideal instrument for soul’s elevation while respecting the gods. Only by scaling the peaks of love man can think of achieving his perfection, but in doing so he needs to be reciprocated in the realization of his pleasure and aspirations».

      Â«Tell me then how will I recognize you in Athens, since our paths will diverge: you may be in Pericles’ circle, while I’ll be looking for a truth, but I don’t know if I could recognize you».

      Â«You will then recognize me as you said. As a priestess, expert in divination art and respectful of the will of gods, I will be available to those who will wonder the properties of Eros to achieve the perfection of the soul. I will be Diotima of Mantinea or Aspasia of Mileto or even Pericles' concubine if he will love me, but I will always be a woman coming from barbaric Ionia. My only enjoy will perhaps be to let Theseus’ heirs this gift: the thread that one day Ariadne gave him to get out of the labyrinth wasn’t just a thread, it was much more».

      So she greeted me as we resumed the journey from Delos to Athens, without giving me the opportunity to exchange other words with her, while the veil I had given her back, in the constant attempt to keep her hair united, was fighting hard against the worst of Etesian winds.

      

      

      

      

      

      

       «Bard! thou who art my guide,

      Consider well, if virtue be in me Sufficient,

      ere to this high enterprise thou trust me.

      

      

      (Dante Alighieri, Inferno, II vv. 11-14)

      

      

      

      

      Â«Thy soul is by vile fear assail’d,

      which oft So overcasts a man,

      that he recoils From noblest resolution,

      like a beast At some false semblance in the twilight gloom»

      

      

      (Dante Alighieri, Inferno, II vv.46-49)

      

      

      3. The divine mind

      

      

      I got back with my tail in the legs lost inside my head, because not only I didn’t understand how philosophy was born just coming from Mileto, but I didn’t even know a way to go to the truth, much less to democracy.

      Hm, was there something wrong in the city where Aspasia was heading? Was perhaps the city of Athens incapable of welcoming her message? Or was Aspasia the first between the greatest Utopian in history? Perhaps the mind sometimes fails to understand all the knowledgeable? Or is the world in which we live too limited for the abilities of the human mind? But there was another alternative: maybe I wasn't able to understand and transmit such a deep message.

      I was plagued by doubts, the fear of not being up made my body shiver to the backbone. I wouldn’t know which of these hypotheses would be more likely, but the Poet urged me to move on, he insisted so that I didn’t beat around the bush too much about my thoughts, because fear wasn't an excuse of my eventual failure, because fear weakens legs, because I didn’t have anything to prove, neither to him nor to myself, and finally because the energy was stronger in me to move forward rather than giving up.

      So I set out to continue the journey that I had taken in the light of that advice from the distant space-time, intended I would go back to consult my guide when the moment was closer to his time. Once I arrived at the port of Piraeus, my eyes opened to СКАЧАТЬ