Apollodorus of Phaleron

Apollodor (os) von Phaleron ( Greek  Ἀπολλόδωρος Apollódōros ; * around 434 BC; † after 399 BC) was a student of Socrates . He came from Phaleron , the oldest port in the city, 35 stadiums (not quite seven kilometers) from Athens , which was largely put out of use by the larger and safer Piraeus, which was newly built in Themistocles ' time to the west of it.

The Socrates pupil Apollodorus was probably also a sculptor and tried to make a portrait of his teacher Socrates. This is suggested by recent research [see Thomas Schirren]. The Apollodoros treated here would then be identical to the artist of the same name .

Apollodorus was around 403 BC. One of the closest followers of Socrates. The encounter with the Athenian philosopher gave his life a completely new direction. Before he got to know Socrates, he - according to his own admission - "drifted around wherever it met and believed he could achieve something, but was worse off than anyone". Apparently he only found meaning and support in his life together with Socrates. Like Antisthenes , he was with Socrates every day and was one of his constant companions. In his own words (as they are reported to us in Plato's “Banquet”) he made it “important to know every day what he is talking and doing”. As some of his behavior shows, he only achieved a poor understanding of his teacher's philosophy.

Plato lets Apollodorus appear as a reporter in his Dialog Symposion (The Banquet) . We learn that Apollodorus himself did not take part in the drinking binge, as it was already in 416 BC. BC - and as Apollodorus says "when we were still children" had played. From this information it can be concluded that Apollodorus was no more than eighteen years before this event, i.e. around 434 BC. BC (or later), must have been born. He had therefore only heard talk of the speeches that had been made on the occasion of the "banquet". When he asked, Socrates had also told him a lot about the event and the speeches held at it.

Socrates' companion at the banquet was Aristodemus , whom Apollodorus had met himself and who, however, seems to have died at the time of his reporting. This point in time of reporting must probably be dated to around 400 BC. BC (i.e. shortly before the death of Socrates), since Apollodorus, who is now no more than 34 years old, dates back to 416 BC. When looking back on "the time at that time".

Apollodorus had the characteristic, uncomfortably noticeable in his environment, of judging himself and other people very critically and often reviling them - only with Socrates he is said to have made an exception. He was therefore also called manikos "the great". He is said to have dealt with his own sculptural works in this supercritical manner, which could lead to the fact that after completion, if they did not meet his excessive demands, he destroyed them in an outburst of anger.

After the condemnation of Socrates to death belonged Apollodoros - as Plato in the dialogue Phaedo tells - to the number of friends that abstatteten her teacher one last visit to the prison. In this scene, his character is portrayed as good-natured and soft-hearted. That, despite his diligent dealings with Socrates, he could not have looked very deeply into the interior of his teacher's principles, it becomes clear from the fact that Apollodorus - as Diogenes Laertios narrates - weighs his teacher's heart with many tears and loud complaints, not only in prison made, but even offered him a precious coat so that he could die in it. Socrates, however, rejected the well-meaning gift with the remark that his previous old coat, which had served him faithfully throughout his life, would now also be sufficient for him in death.

swell

The sources are Diogenes Laertios, Life and Teaching of the Philosophers 2, 35; Plato, Das Gastmahl 173d and Phaedo 117d as well as Xenophon, Memorabilia 3, 11, 17.

literature

• Luc Brisson : Apollodore de Phalère . In: Richard Goulet (ed.): Dictionnaire des philosophes antiques , Vol. 1, CNRS, Paris 1989, ISBN 2-222-04042-6 , pp. 275-276
• Thomas Schirren : Apollodoros manikos - a text-critical problem in Plato's 'Symposion' 173d8 and its consequences . In: Göttingen Forum for Classical Studies 2, 1999, pp. 217–236 ( PDF )