“Myth, Memory, and Homecoming: A Homeric Reading of Phaedo”

Homer’s Odyssey depicts the many obstacles, challenges, mishaps, and temptations that threaten and delay the return home, or nostos, of Odysseus and his men. Drawing on mythic narrative patterns and the play of language, I argue that in the Phaedo Plato draws on the tradition of nostos narratives, most notably Homer’s, in his depiction of the return home of Socrates’s soul. This reading of Phaedo demonstrates how the journey, forgetting, nostalgia, and the desire for return to origins all motivate the philosophical life.


Contact
Silvia Benso
Event Snapshot
When and Where
March 02, 2017
4:00 pm - 5:30 pm
Room/Location: 87-1600
Who

Open to the Public

CostFREE