Notario F., Plato's Political Cuisine. Commensality, Food and Politics.pdf

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Plato´s political cuisine. Commensality, food and politics

in the Platonic thought

A cozinha política de Platão. Comensalidade, comida e política no

pensamento platónico

ERNANDO

OTARIO

(Labex RESMED — Université Paris Sorbonne — France)

Abstract: This paper addresses the question of the sociological and political background

of food, cuisine and commensality in Plato´s philosophy. It argues that the importance of

these elements in Plato´s political thought is related to the increasingly complex

gastronomic developments in fourth century Greek world. In the first place, it will

analyse the general trends concerning Platonic perceptions on fourth century´s food

habits and cookery. In the second place, it will study the role food and eating habits have

in the Platonic utopias of the

Republic, Critias

and

Laws.

These two compared analyses

will de‐monstrate how the utopian diets and eating habits are key elements in the

construction and stabilisation of these imaginary communities.

Keywords: Plato; Utopias; Food; Commensality; Politics; Banqueting.

1. Introduction

In later years, there have been an increasing number of interesting

works concerning ancient Greek gastronomy and food habits

. One of the

most interesting trends is the exceptional development of cookery and

gastronomy in the late classical period, roughly corresponding with the

fourth century BC

. The emergence of the firsts Greek cookbooks, the

professionalization of the cooking activity and the integration of

gastronomic connoisseurship in the general trends of social recognition are

some of the elements that help to this cultural development

. This process is

coincident with the consolidation of dietetics as one of the most relevant

Text received on 10/25/2014 and accepted on 01/20/2015.

fnotariopacheco@gmail.com.

Detailed bibliography can be found in M

URRAY

(2003); N

OTARIO

(2011); S

CHMITT

ANTEL

(2012).

ALBY

(1996): 113‐129. In a more general way: O

LSON

; S

ENS

(2000).

ERTHIAUME

(1982) 71‐78. Greek cookbooks: W

ILKINS

; H

ILL

(1996). Concerning

the concept of social recognition in ancient Greece: D

UPLOUY

(2006).

Ágora. Estudos Clássicos em Debate 17 (2015) 123‐158 — ISSN: 0874‐5498

124

Fernando Notario

branches in ancient Greek medicine, which, besides some earlier works,

is also roughly situated in the fourth century BC

The new socio‐cultural interest in food and cookery, both, from the

gastronomic and the dietetic point of view, introduced interesting questions

regarding food preparation and consumption that would influence contem‐

porary and later philosophical inquiry

. Beyond the views of some philoso‐

phical and religious sects, since the later fifth century, cookery and eating

became critical matters regarding ethical and moral issues, such as physical

desire, guilt or indulgence

. Fourth century philosophers used food as a

way of thinking about the nature of social relationships, the virtues and im‐

perfections of contemporary political ideologies, and the acceptance or

rejection of the shared habits concerning cooking and eating.

Besides an arguably shared background rooted in the personal rela‐

tionships with Socrates, the existence or, at least, the terms in which the

“Socratic circle” can be defined, remains a problematic topic. As several

scholars have pointed out, in the case of admitting its existence, the

fragmentation of this circle must have been an early phenomenon. This is

proved in the emergence of rival philosophical schools, each one interested

in the appropriation of conflicting memories concerning Socrates, his perso‐

nality and legacy

. The literary genre of the logoi sokratikoi, the Socratic dia‐

logue, conveys the articulation of the diverging images of Socrates. At the

same time, however, gives them a particular shape in accordance with,

or contrasting with, the writer´s philosophical, ethical and ideological

principles

. In spite of these fragmentation and colliding interests, there is

little doubt that at least there was an underlying Socratic experience that the

RAIK

(1995); N

UTTON

(2004) 115‐127.

In general: W

ILKINS

; H

ILL

(2006) 185‐210; A

UBERGER

(2010) 211‐216. Concerning

food and philosophy: T

ELFER

(1996); O

NFRAY

(1990a; 1999b); K

ORSMEYERS

(2002); K

APLAN

(2012).

Concerning the discourses about food of some of these sects, such as Orphic or

Pythagoreans: D

ETIENNE

(1970; 1977); S

EAFORD

(1981); B

EER

(2010) 28‐53.

ONTUORI

(1988) 7‐24; M

ORRISON

(2011) xiii‐xv. D

ORION

(2011).

Arist. Rh. 3, 1417a 17‐20; Po. 1447b 1‐13; F 72 Rose. V

EGETTI

(2006); D

ANZIG

(2010)

69‐113; D

ORION

(2011) 7‐9.

Ágora. Estudos Clássicos em Debate 17 (2015)

Plato´s political cuisine. Commensality, food and politics in the

Platonic thought

125

scholars usually have ascribed to the moral, dialectic and ethical horizons

It is regarding these overlapping areas that the philosophical attitudes

towards food and eating in the Socratic philosophical schools achieve its

full signification.

As in other areas of intellectual inquiry, nevertheless, the differences

between the Socratic students are also evident in the way they conform

their philosophy of food. Xenophon presents a coherent frame for food con‐

sumption in moral, ethical and political terms, and other Socratics such as

Antisthenes o Aristippus developed a significant part of their moral, ethical

and even ontological propositions using food as a conceptual tool

. This

paper aims to analyse, in the first place, the way Plato dealt with contem‐

porary gastronomic developments and its impact in the socio‐cultural re‐

cognition patterns of the Greek social elites. The contrast and even real

opposition between cookery and dietetics is one of the major trends in Pla‐

tonic thinking concerning food. However, the analysis of food and eating in

the Platonic utopian texts clearly shows us that health can be regarded as

secondary or, rather, just a complementary aspect of them. The political and

sociological background of food is more decisive than the medical one in

Platonic thought.

2. The background of food and cookery in Plato

It can be hardly argued that eating and drinking are among the most

prominent topics in Platonic studies. Although the relationship between

Plato and wine drinking has received some scholarly attention, the contexts

of cooking and eating have remained in a relative academic obscurity

Nevertheless, classical scholars have little to blame on this apparent neglect.

The disdain with which Plato regards contemporary gastronomy is mate‐

OLFF

(1997); G

OURINAT

(2001); D

ÖRING

(2011).

Concerning the political, moral and ethical uses of food as the background for

the evergetic action in Xenophon´s works: A

ZOULAY

(2004); N

OTARIO

(2013). Concerning

Aristippus, food and pleasure: T

RAINA

(1991); O´K

EEFE

(2002); H

OURCADE

(2008).

Concerning Antisthenes, cynical attitudes towards food and other cynical habits: N

AVIA

(1996) 37‐80; (2001).

Wine and Plato: B

OYANCÉ

(1951); B

ELFIORE

(1986) R

OLAND

(1990); N

OËL

(2002);

OLOWCHACK

(2003).

Ágora. Estudos Clássicos em Debate 17 (2015)

126

Fernando Notario

rialised in a profound silence concerning food in banqueting contexts,

something that is mostly apparent in his

Symposium

. The detailed focus

Plato has towards the realm of sociability and drinking habits in this text

contrasts with his oblivious attitude towards food

. The brief description at

the beginning of the dining soon gives way to a portrait of Socrates’

eccentric behaviour

. After the libation and hymn singing, the guests

started to drink

. There isn´t any further mention to the foods that were

cooked and eaten by the guests, a feature that, as Luciana Romeri argues,

will be shared with other philosophical banquets

. Only those banquets

that are consciously constructed as anti‐philosophical, such as Athenaeus´

Deipnosophistae

or Lucian´s

Symposium,

indulge in the description of the

food consumed in them

As far as the Platonic Socrates is concerned, banqueting is just a con‐

text for philosophical debate, without any interest in the food served, and

while he is certainly someone that enjoys human company, he is a solitary

eater. When he makes his entrance in Agathon´s dining room, he eats alone,

in a somewhat differentiated way regarding the other guests

. Later on,

when Alcibiades remembers the campaign to Potidaea, he says that Socrates

already had the habit of standing alone thinking while the other members of

the military contingent dined together

. Nevertheless, Socrates´ loneliness

Concerning food in Plato´s

Symposium,

the analysis of Luciana R

OMERI

(2000);

(2002) 61‐103 remains of great interest. As John W

ILKINS

(2000) 4‐12 argues, if the

material world is the milieu for popular empowerment, Plato´s silence concerning food

could be seen as another mark of his elitist background, philosophical concepts aside.

For example, concerning the host reception: Pl. Smp. 174d‐e. Instructions for the

slaves serving the banquet: Pl. Smp. 175b. The reception of Alcibiades as an unexpected

guest: Pl. Smp. 213a‐b. Concerning social manners: N

ADEAU

(2010).

Pl. Smp. 175c‐e.

Pl. Smp. 176a.

OMERI

(2002) 70‐79; X. Smp. 1, 8‐11. The parallel silence concerning food is but

one of the signs of the early constitution of the general trends of the literary genre of the

philosophical banquets: D

UPONT

(1977); N

IGHTINGALE

(1995). Cf. D.L. 2, 57; 3, 34.

OMERI

(2000) 256‐271; (2002) 191 ff.

Pl. Smp. 176a.

Pl. Smp. 220c‐d.

Ágora. Estudos Clássicos em Debate 17 (2015)

Plato´s political cuisine. Commensality, food and politics in the

Platonic thought

127

does not correspond to the cultural patterns of the solitary eaters in other

cultural depictions of this phenomenon in Greek culture. He is neither an

incorrigible glutton nor an antisocial thug: for him, food is only a biological

necessity. When it is pleasurable, it is only because of its contraposition to the

pains created by famine and starvation, not because of its inherent nature

In accordance with the ideal image of Socrates, the wise man should

be able to raise some form of philosophical and behavioural firewall that

isolates him from the entire conceptual network that connects eating with

pleasure, and gluttony with the pleasurable life

. Unlike other intellectual

proposals, such as the Cynic school, Plato argues that the ideal philosopher

should not distance himself from the dominant culturally accepted gastro‐

nomic background, although he should regard refined cookery as a hollow

knowledge

. Thus, in

Theaetetus

Plato excludes gastronomic connois‐

seurship from the set of skills that conforms the philosopher´s mechanisms

for social and intellectual recognition

Plato further explores the complex relationship between pleasure, the

new gastronomic trends and pleasure in his Gorgias

. The first glance of the

importance that cookery will have in this dialogue can be found in the debate

over the nature of the distinction between art or science (τ�½�χ�½η) and

habitudes (πρᾶγμα‐ἐμπειρ�½�α)

. Socrates defines rhetoric as a habitude of

producing a kind of satisfaction and pleasure (χ�½�ριτος κα�½� ἡδο�½ῆς), making

explicit his refusal to accept it as an art

. Socrates considers then that rhetoric

is similar to cookery (�½�ψοποι�½�α), as they are both habitudes related to the

Pl.

Phlb.

31e. On Socratic eating (or lack of) in Plato´s

Symposium:

URANO

(1989); R

OMERI

(2002) 66‐69. Solitary eating: W

ILKINS

(2000) 67‐69;

This image is shared with other Socratic philosophers: X. Mem. 1, 3, 7 and 4, 5, 1.

ESMOND

(2008) 78‐82. It is significant that apparently Plato thought that

Diogenes was like a “maddened Socrates”, among other things, because of his rejection

of normalised foods and eating habits: Ael. VH 14, 33; D.L. 6, 54.

Pl. Tht. 175e. Concerning the idea of intellectual recognition as a form of social

distinction: A

ZOULAY

(2010).

Concerning Gorgias: W

ARDY

(1996). An interesting commentary: P

IERI

(1991).

ODDS

(1959) 228‐229. Another interpretation on the traditional distinction

between these areas of knowledge: B

ALANSARD

(2001) 139‐159.

Pl. Grg. 462c.

Ágora. Estudos Clássicos em Debate 17 (2015)

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