Gorgias, the eighth orator. Gorgianic echoes in Agathon’s Speech in the Symposium

Abstract

After Agathon’s speech in Plato’s Symposium, Socrates takes a little time to make some comments about it. One of these comments is that the speech brought Gorgias to his memory (198c2–5). In this paper we intend to track down in three complementary levels the diverse reasons why this recollection took place: (A) regarding the form of the speech, we will try to show that there is an equivalence in how both Gorgias in his Encomium to Helen and the character of Agathon in the Syposium construct their respective logoi; (B) regarding the style of writing, we will see the frequent use in the poet’s speech of the rhetoric resource of “saying things alike” (isa legein) usually ascribed to Gorgias; (C) finally, regarding the contents of both speeches we will try to show that many of the elements used by the sophist to praise the logos in his Encomiun to Helen (EH) may be found, more or less, in Agathon’s praise of Eros. The article will try to show, thus, which are the precise elements that may have made Socrates remember Gorgias after listening to the tragic poet.