Isocrates's "Busiris" as Guide to Plato's "Republic"

• In Event: The Socratics: Plato, Xenophon, Isocrates, and Aristotle

Abstract

The “Busiris” of Isocrates is a short text in which the author attempts to correct and educate the sophistic or philosophic writer of an “Apology of Busiris” and an “Accusation of Socrates.” The main substance of Isocrates’s lesson consists in his own modeling of the correct way to defend Busiris, the infamously impious Egyptian king of ancient myth. But Isocrates acknowledges that the true purpose of such a document may be above all “to leave behind a model for philosophers of how they should make defenses concerning shameful charges and difficult problems” (48). Moreover, Isocrates’s own model “praise and defense” (9) of Busiris portrays the legendary figure as the founder of a primordial Egyptian regime bearing striking resemblances to the perfect city of Plato’s “Republic.”

The neglect of Isocrates in the field of Political Theory has resulted in an under-appreciation of the significance of his work for the study and understanding of Socratic philosophy. In this essay, I attempt to show how the “Busiris” provides an invaluable perspective on Platonic political thought: the complex assessment of a contemporary of Plato and onetime associate of Socrates (see Plato, Phaedrus 278b-279b), a master of rhetoric and writing who, like Plato, famously called his own activity philosophy. In my analysis, Isocrates teaches us why the regime of Plato’s “Republic” must subvert human “eros,” and also how the invention of this regime served Socrates’s own philosophic project.

Author

• Ariel Helfer, Wayne State University