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> But I’ll also take that Plato could have used an existing folk tale describing that very event as the basis for a point he was trying to make. Seems reasonab
by digging 3y ago
> But I’ll also take that Plato could have used an existing folk tale describing that very event as the basis for a point he was trying to make.
Seems reasonable as well. What comes to mind for me is a (Western?) tradition of writing fiction as if it were reality that takes place in a foreign land. Isn't that kind of a thing? Maybe my brain is extrapolating an untrue connection, if someone here with more literary experience needs to shoot this down that's ok.
- empath-nirvana 3y agoThis would be a reasonable thing to believe if plato didn't frequently make up tales like this as allegory out of whole cloth, including more than one example _in the same dialogue_ There are multiple examples of 'myth-like' stories whose only attestation is a platonic dialogue. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myth_of_Er https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myth_of_Er here's another example.