Una lode esemplare da non divulgare: anacronismi e stratificazione della voce autoriale nel Menesseno di Platone

Abstract

Authorship is a central issue in Plato’s Menexenus. The work consists mainly
of a long rhetorical speech, which Socrates claims to have learnt from Aspasia, who
in turn composed it by using parts of an oration previously delivered by Pericles.
However, there are obvious anachronisms in the speech, since events which took place
after Socrates’ death are mentioned. While Plato hides his own identity as an author
behind the voices of the characters, in the dialogue Socrates himself is elusive and
denies that he is the author of the speech. On the other hand, the comparison with
Thucydides is possible, who had integrated the Pericles’ famous funeral speech into
his writing on the Peloponnesian war. In addition to that, the use of the rhetorical
tradition must be considered. What is the author’s role in using the pre-existing topoi
constantly repeated by orators in the civic context? The essay aims to demonstrate
that in the Menexenus the doubts about the authorship are deliberately emphasized by
Plato. Thus, the reader is induced to question the text and grasp the author’s thought
by deeply investigating the overall literary construction of the dialogue.