Performing Citizenship in Plato's Laws (Cambridge Classical Studies)
Language: English
Pages: 281
ISBN: 1107072883
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
In the Laws, Plato theorizes citizenship as simultaneously a political, ethical, and aesthetic practice. His reflection on citizenship finds its roots in a descriptive psychology of human experience, with sentience and, above all, volition seen as the primary targets of a lifelong training in the values of citizenship. In the city of Magnesia described in the Laws erôs for civic virtue is presented as a motivational resource not only within the reach of the 'ordinary' citizen, but also factored by default into its educational system. Supporting a vision of 'perfect citizenship' based on an internalized obedience to the laws, and persuading the entire polity to consent willingly to it, requires an ideology that must be rhetorically all-inclusive. In this city 'ordinary' citizenship itself will be troped as a performative action: Magnesia's choral performances become a fundamental channel for shaping, feeling and communicating a strong sense of civic identity and unity.
superintendent of his idle and dissipated desires.21 To take stock of what has been outlined so far: within the discursive utopia of the ‘city of words’, non-personal er¯os as a motivational resource to draw on is granted only to the ‘best citizens’, the future philosopher-kings.22 What is the emotional and cognitive reservoir that is left available to the two lower classes, the producers and the auxiliaries, as citizens of Callipolis? This is investigated in the next section. 1.3 S¯ophrosyn¯e as
argument switches from perceptible moral qualities and their ‘images’ (those of moderation, courage, liberality and magnanimity in whatever type of life they may present themselves) to one specific instantiation of the beautiful: namely, embodied human beauty. The passage is worth quoting in full (3.402d1–9): οὐκοῦν, ἦν δ’ ἐγώ, ὅτου ἂν συμπίπτῃ ἔν τε τῇ ψυχῇ καλὰ ἤθη ἐνόντα καὶ ἐν τῷ εἴδει ὁμολογοῦντα ἐκείνοις καὶ συμφωνοῦντα, τοῦ αὐτοῦ μετέχοντα τύπου, τοῦτ’ ἂν εἴη κάλλιστον θέαμα τῷ δυναμένῳ
through song and dance, and the resulting consciousness of ‘well-being’, see also Strabo 10.3.9 and Burkert 2012: 45 on it. On συνείροντας at 654a4 conjuring up the ‘image of divine puppets, all the citizens together, responding in unison in dance to the golden cord of logismos’, see Kurke 2013: 131–2 and 138. For heortai as a primary tool of socialization between sexes, cf. also 8.835d3– e5 where the link between festivals, sacrifices, choruses and sexual behaviour is made explicit (cf. also
ἔτι γὰρ θεόθεν καταπνείει πειθὼ μολπᾶν ἀλκὰν σύμφυτος αἰών42 I have the authority to utter the auspicious command ruling the expedition, the command of men in their prime. For from the gods the age that has grown with me still breathes down upon me the persuasion of songs so as to be my war-like strength. There the chorus of the elder citizens of Argos asserts its authoritative voice as a community group on the basis of both its old age (106 σύμφυτος αἰών) and the divinely inspired persuasion of
the unidiomatic nature of the collocation φέρειν ᾠδάς cf. England 1921, I: 309 ad loc. with the qualifications by Bartels 2012: 146 n. 36. 164 patterns o f c horality i n magnesia is ‘fitting’ for themselves (πρεπόντως) simply ‘to look on’ the performances of their juniors (ἐκείνους αὖ θεωροῦντες), taking delight (χαίροντες) at their plays and festivals. The explicit reason given for this behaviour is that ‘agility’ (τὸ . . . ἐλαφρόν) has now abandoned the old men, yet they still feel an