Living as Lotus-Eaters Do: Democracy, Rhetoric, and the Appearance of Virtue in Republic 8

• In Event: Myth, Epic, and Apocalypse: When Political Thinkers Put a Good Story to Use

Brief Overview

I challenge the consensus that Republic 8’s account of redescribed language in the democratic soul references Thucydides’ reflections on Corcyraean stasis. Plato is instead invoking the Homeric legend of Odysseus’s encounter with the Lotophagi race.

Author

• Theodore Lai Wenming, Georgetown University