Cultural depictions of Alcibiades
The prominent
Ancient comedy
Alcibiades excited in his contemporaries a fear for the safety of the political order.[1] Thereby, he has not been spared by ancient Greek comedy, and stories attest to an epic confrontation between Alcibiades and Eupolis resembling that between Aristophanes and Cleon.[2]
Aristophanes mentions Alcibiades several times in his satirical plays, for instance making fun of his manner of speech and his lisp. According to Aristophanes the Athenian people "yearns for him, and hates him too, but wants him back".[3] Aeschylus in Aristophanes' Frogs illustrates Alcibiades' ambivalent personality saying:[4]
You should not rear a lion cub in the city,
[best not to rear a lion in the city,]
but if one is brought up, accommodate its ways.
Aeschylus sees Alcibiades as a powerful creation arousing admiration, but also as a "savage figure" unacceptable and dangerous when released in the city.[5]
Socratic dialogues
Alcibiades also appears in several Socratic dialogues:
- Plato's Symposium where he appears to be in love with Socrates.
- There are two dialogues from antiquity titled "Alcibiades", ascribed to Plato, that feature Socrates in conversation with Alcibiades: First Alcibiades (or Alcibiades I) and Second Alcibiades (or Alcibiades II). Some scholars, however, consider them spurious.
According to Plato, Alcibiades is an extraordinary soul, an embodiment of the pursuit of worldly power. What is extraordinary for the philosopher, however, is not the deeds that result but the soul itself, especially that selfish passion for what is best for himself beyond the conventional offices and honors. For Plato, Alcibiades embodies the culmination of politics, but that culmination that seeks a grand and almost god-like superiority that transcends politics. Plato presents Alcibiades as a youthful student and lover of Socrates who would, in time to come, be the ruin of Athens through his change of allegiance in war.[6] Because of the high level of esteem for the community in ancient Greece, Alcibiades’ betrayal of his fellow soldiers ensures that he is looked down upon in all of Plato’s writings. He is indirectly ridiculed, often portrayed as intoxicated, boisterous, and seeking pleasure. According to Habinek, his appearance in Plato's Symposium conforms to the pattern of Alcibiades literature: Alcibiades is always just what is wanted.[7] Good looking, eloquent, witty, and easy to look down upon.
In his
Literature
In medieval and Renaissance works such as the
Alcibiades the Schoolboy, by Antonio Rocco (1652), has been called "the first homosexual novel".[9]
Alcibiades constituted also a source of inspiration for certain modern novelists, especially those writing
Other modern works featuring Alcibiades as a main character include:
- Machado de Assis' short story "Uma Visita de Alcebíades" (1875) is about Alcibiades showing up to a police officer in 19th century Brazil.
- Peter Green's Achilles His Armour (1955),[11]
- Stephen Marlowe's Greek novel The Shining (1965)
- Rosemary Sutcliff's Flowers of Adonis (1969)
- Joel Richards' Nebula Award-nominated[12] short story "The Gods Abandon Alcibiades" (Asimov's Science Fiction, February 2001) full text
- Paul Levinson's time travel novel, The Plot to Save Socrates (2006)
- Giannina Braschi's postcolonial novel United States of Banana (2011) features Alcibiades, Parmenides, Diotima, and Laches.[13][14] Braschi's Spanglish novel Yo-Yo Boing! (1998) features Alcebíades gossiping about Socrates.[15]
- Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer's novel Alkibiades (2023)
Other media
Alcibiades is a role in Erik Satie's Socrate (1918), a work for voice and small orchestra (or piano). (The text is composed of excerpts of Victor Cousin's translation of works by Plato, with all of the chosen texts referring to Socrates.)
Alcibiades appears as a prominent recurring character in the 2018 video game Assassin's Creed Odyssey, which takes place in ancient Greek times at the start of the Peloponnesian War. In the game, Alcibiades gives the protagonist several quests, and is also an optional romance option for sexual encounters. True to his historic nature, many of his quests have hidden motivations that assist him in gaining financial and political power, however he is depicted positively, siding with the main characters against the game's antagonists.
Alcibiades appears in the first season of the webcomic Everywhere & Nowhere in a main capacity.
Internet comedian
Notes
- ^ D. Gribble, Alcibiades and Athens, 41
- ^ D. Gribble, Alcibiades and Athens, 32-33
- ^ Aristophanes, Frogs, 1425
- ^ Aristophanes, Frogs, 1432-1433
- ^ D. Gribble, Alcibiades and Athens, 1
- ^ G.A. Scott, Plato's Socrates as Educator, 19
- ^ Plato, Apology, 33a
- ^ N. Endres, Alcibiades Archived 2006-10-20 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ William A. Percy, "Alcibiades the Schoolboy. Afterword", http://www.williamapercy.com/wiki/index.php?title=Alcibiades_the_Schoolboy Archived 2017-01-01 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ J. Nield, A Guide to the Best Historical Novels and Tales, 4
- ^ T. T. B. Ryder, Alcibiades, 32
- ^ "Title: The Gods Abandon Alcibiades". isfdb.org.
- OCLC 1143649021.
- ISSN 1168-4917.
- ^ "Google Scholar". scholar.google.com. Retrieved 2020-10-21.
- ^ Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: Absolute Mad Lads - Alcibiades. YouTube.
External links
- Project Gutenberg:
- 11 comedies by Aristophanes et al.: Part I and Part II
- Socratic dialogues, translated by Benjamin Jowett: Alcibiades I and Alcibiades II
- "Alcibiades". Endres, Nikolai. Archived from the original on 5 September 2006. Retrieved September 22, 2006.
- "Alcibiades in the Socratic Tradition and in Plato". Michelini, Ann. Retrieved August 5, 2006.