David
M. Johnson Socrates and Theodote: Memorabilia 3.11
Why,
in the course of defending Socrates, does Xenophon show him in
conversation with the hetaira Theodote?
Commentators ancient (Athenaeus 5.220ff.) and modern (Delatte,
commentary on Memorabilia
3) have been troubled for Socrates’ morals. But Xenophon, a man of the world, meant the
passage to be humorous (Breitenbach, RE)
in a way more characteristic of his Symposium (see Huss, Symposium commentary and in AJP 1999). Is it anything more than that? The most telling part of the joke is that Theodote
is in many ways comparable to Socrates, as both of them are in the
same business: seduction (cf. Strauss, Xenophon’s
Socrates, 85ff.). Of course Socrates’ seductions are
intellectual, while Theodote’s have a healthy corporeal element. But I will suggest that the comparison with
Theodote teaches us at least one thing we might not otherwise know:
Socrates, like Theodote, makes sparing use of his charms in order to
increase his companions’ desire for what he has to offer.
Neither
Plato nor Xenophon ever explicitly compares Socrates to an hetaira,
but both make free use of erotic language to describe Socrates, and
speak in positive terms of the most famous hetaira of them all,
Aspasia (Plato, Menexenus; Xenophon, Mem. 2.6.36, Oec. 3.14; cf. the Aspasia of Aeschines, with Ehlers
1966, 107ff.). Plato’s
Socrates several times claims that his specialty is ta erotika (Symposium 177d; cf. Lysis 211e, Theages 123b). Xenophon’s Socrates is also erotic
(Mem. 2.6.28, 4.1.2ff.), and in
Xenophon’s Symposium he prides himself on his
procuring or pimping (mastropeia:4.56ff.),
and is said to ply the art not only for others but also on his own
behalf (8.5).
In our passage Socrates
charmingly strips Theodote of the various conceits that maintain her
status as an hetaira rather than a porne,
a common prostitute (cf. Davidson, Courtesans & Fishcakes,
120ff.). By the end of our passage it is not Socrates who
wants to visit Theodote but Theodote who wants to visit Socrates: as
Socrates elsewhere begins as the lover but becomes the beloved, so
here he starts as the would-be customer but ends up as the hetaira,
with his own suite of philai, his companions, whom he
attracts with various love charms.
Unlike Theodote, however, Socrates teaches his friends how to
attract friends of their own: this is one important respect in which
he is her superior.
Theodote consorts with those
who persuade her to do so, and not, as a common prostitute, with
anyone who can pay her price. Rather
similarly Socrates, unlike the mercenary sophists, picks and chooses
his companions (Mem 1.6.3). Theodote lives in high style but without
traditional means of support: she relies on her philoi. Socrates,
of course, prides himself on his poverty, but he too lacks any
observable means of support, and can count upon the generosity of his
friends (Oec. 2.8; Plato, Apology 38b).
Much
of Socrates’ advice to Theodote closely parallels the advice he
gave about winning friends to Critobulus earlier in the
Memorabilia (2.6). But certain elements are most closely paralleled
by Socrates’ own practice.
Theodote should act differently in different cases: those who
are full of themselves she should lock out, but those who truly care
for her she should favor with all her soul.
Above all, she must be careful to allow her friends to fulfill
their desire for her only when their desires are at a peak.
Socrates too went after different sorts of would-be companions
through different means (Mem. 4.1.3-4.2.1), depending upon
whether they prided themselves on their natures, wealth, or learning. His students needed to be
good learners, but also to possess a great desire for learning
(Mem. 4.1.2; Morrison 1994). In Memorabilia 4.2, Xenophon shows us
Socrates’ intellectual seduction of Euthydemus; only after first
teasing, enticing, and humiliating Euthydemus does Socrates reveal
himself to him. He thus first ensures that
Euthydemus has a deep and lasting desire for what he has to teach
before he gives him the goods. Xenophon
clearly enough shows that many questioned Socrates’ willingness
to reveal himself by saying that Socrates did not hide what he
thought (Mem. 4..4.1 cf. 4.2.40; 4.7.1; Plato, Symposium 215bff.).
When
Socrates and his companions arrived, Theodote was revealing only as
much as is fine to the painter doing her portrait.
Does Xenophon do the same in his portrait of Socrates? The subtlety of his portrayal
of Socrates’ encounter with Theodote ought to suggest to us that
his Socrates may have hidden depths Xenophon thought it improper to
call our attention to in an apologetic work.
Thus Xenophon’s Socrates, who is so often thought to be
the essence of banality, may have more to him than meets the eye.
One such depth is Socrates’ hiddenness itself, which
Xenophon does reveal, but only under the veil of Theodote.
Morrison, Donald. 1994. “Xenophon’s Socrates as a Teacher.” 181-208 in The Socratic
Movement, Paul A. Vander Waerdt, ed. Ithaca.
Ehlers, Barbara. 1966. Eine vorplatonische Deutung des Sokratischen
Eros: Der Dialog Aspasia des Sokratikers Aischines. Zetemata 41. Munich.
Classics Section, Department of
Foreign Languages and Literatures
SIU Carbondale
mjohnson@siu.edu