Simmias of Thebes

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Simmias von Thebes was an ancient Greek philosopher . He lived in the late 5th and early 4th centuries BC. And belonged to the circle of friends and students of Socrates .

Life

Little is known about the life and personality of Simmias, but most of the biographical reports are relatively reliable because they come from Plato and Xenophon , two contemporaries who knew him and were also Socratic. Plato had Simmias appear as one of the main interlocutors in his dialogue Phaedo . However, it is unclear to what extent the utterances that the dialogue figure in the literarily designed work put in the mouth actually correspond to the philosophical position of the historical Simmias. It can be largely or entirely a literary purpose fiction.

Simmias came from Thebes . In his youth he was in contact with the Pythagorean Philolaos, like his close friend, companion and fellow citizen Kebes , who had emigrated to Greece because of the persecution of the Pythagoreans in his southern Italian homeland and lived temporarily in Thebes. Hence the two Theban philosophers are often referred to as students of Philolaos and Pythagoreans. However, the correctness of this assignment has not been proven, because a possibly short-term contact does not necessarily mean that the two young men eager to learn shared the emigrant's philosophical views. The ideas that Plato ascribes to Simmias contradicts the Pythagorean doctrine of the soul and does not give the impression of a solid worldview; the Theban appears in this representation on the one hand as relatively gullible, on the other hand as a doubter and seeker who clings to the uncertainty and is hardly ready to be finally convinced.

Later Simmias and Kebes moved to Athens to join the local seeker of wisdom, Socrates . They found acceptance into the immediate environment of the prominent thinker. When Socrates was sentenced to death in 399 BC. While waiting in prison for his execution, they advocated an escape plan that was considered among the condemned's friends. Simmias offered to provide the money that would be needed for this purpose. However, Socrates rejected the plan on grounds of principle. This episode shows that, unlike his teacher, the Theban was relatively wealthy. On the day of the execution, Simmias was present and took part in the last philosophical conversation. According to Plato, he was still young at the time. Nothing is known about his further fate.

reception

Plato's depiction in Phaedo shaped the image that posterity made of Simmias. The famous dialogue describes how Socrates discussed the meaning of death with Simmias and Kebes on the day of his execution. At first it turns out that the two Thebans received no further information from Philolaos about how death is to be judged from a philosophical point of view. Therefore, this question is now being taken up and examined in depth. Socrates puts forward arguments for the immortality of the soul , but he fails to completely convince Simmias. The skeptical Theban, who initially raised objections, finds the arguments put forward plausible, but he points out that such considerations are prone to error and reserves the right to continue to doubt. Socrates praises the young man's critical attitude and encourages him to continue to strive to clarify the question even more thoroughly. An intense research debate revolves around the hypothesis put forward by the dialogue figure Simmias in Phaedo , according to which soul is only a term for the harmony of the material elements of the body.

In Plato's dialogue Phaedrus , Simmias is not among the participants, but is mentioned with the utmost respect. Socrates praises his enthusiastic friend Phaedrus , who has made more contributions to the philosophical discourse than any of his contemporaries with the exception of the (much younger) Simmias, who is the only one who surpasses him. This extraordinary praise is particularly noticeable because the Thebans in Athens were considered rough people with no linguistic power of expression and their intellectual abilities were judged derogatory.

Xenophon's description of Simmias' personality is also beneficial. According to his description, the Theban was one of the Socratics who did not want to impress the public as speakers and legal experts, but simply tried to be able and good people and to honor their duties towards relatives, friends, fellow citizens and the state.

According to the Suda , a Byzantine encyclopedia, the Socratic student Phaedo von Elis wrote a dialogue with the title Simmias . Accordingly, the Theban should have played a leading role in this work named after him, of which no other trace has survived. However, the credibility of the Suda message is considered dubious.

Simmias plays a central role in Plutarch's Dialogue About the Daimonion of Socrates . The fictional conversation takes place in 379 BC. In Thebes in the house of Simmias, who was injured. There a group of conspirators meets who want to bring about an overthrow to free Thebes from oligarchic tyranny , and also discuss philosophical topics. Simmias himself is not involved in the conspiracy. In this dialogue he appears as a scholar who accompanied Plato on his journey to Egypt and who acquired a wealth of knowledge about non-Greek wisdom teachings on his travels. He gives his interpretation of the daimonion, a divine authority from whom Socrates was advised according to Plato and Xenophon. Plutarch's Simmias does not understand the daimonion as an inner voice of Socrates that articulates words, but as a daimon , an incorporeal being who was in direct contact with the spirit of the famous philosopher and who conveyed his messages to him without a sound. Finally, Simmias tells the "Timarch myth", the story of the teachings that Timarch of Chaironeia - a figure invented by Plutarch - received from a daimon.

The imperial historian of philosophy, Diogenes Laertios, names the titles of 23 dialogues that Simmias is said to have written. These can only have been short writings, as they were put together in a single papyrus roll . The questions of whether these dialogues really existed and whether they were at least partly authentic works by the Theban Socratics remain open.

According to an anecdote that was only handed down in later sources, Simmias interpreted a dream of Plato in which the latter turned into a swan.

Simmias also appears among the interlocutors in the book about the apple (Arabic Risalat at-Tuffaha , Latin Liber de pomo ), a free redesign of Phaidon -Stoffs whose Greek original is lost. This popular philosophical work of unknown origin, which was distributed in Arabic versions in the Middle Ages and translated into Hebrew and Latin, contains alleged statements by Aristotle among his students shortly before his death. Here Simmias initiates the discussion about the soul.

iconography

A floor mosaic from the late 3rd or 4th century found in Mytilene, now in the Archaeological Museum of Mytilene , shows Socrates in conversation with Simmias and Kebes. Apparently a scene from Plato's Phaedo is depicted.

literature

  • Constantinos Macris: Simmias de Thèbes. In: Richard Goulet (ed.): Dictionnaire des philosophes antiques. Volume 7, CNRS Éditions, Paris 2018, ISBN 978-2-271-09024-9 , pp. 904-933

Remarks

  1. ^ Constantinos Macris: Simmias de Thèbes. In: Richard Goulet (ed.): Dictionnaire des philosophes antiques , Volume 7, Paris 2018, pp. 904–933, here: 904.
  2. ↑ On the question of the authenticity of the dialogue act, see David Bostock: Plato's Phaedo , Oxford 1986, pp. 7-11.
  3. ^ Theodor Ebert : Socrates as Pythagoreer and the anamnesis in Plato's Phaidon , Stuttgart 1994, pp. 8-10, 18 f .; Constantinos Macris: Simmias de Thèbes. In: Richard Goulet (ed.): Dictionnaire des philosophes antiques , Volume 7, Paris 2018, pp. 904–933, here: 908–910; David Sedley : The Dramatis Personae of Plato's Phaedo . In: Timothy Smiley (Ed.): Philosophical dialogues , Oxford 1995, pp. 3–26, here: 10–22.
  4. ^ Plato, Crito 45b.
  5. ^ Plato, Phaedo 89a.
  6. ↑ Plato, Phaedo 106e-107c.
  7. ↑ See the detailed research report by Constantinos Macris: Simmias de Thèbes. In: Richard Goulet (ed.): Dictionnaire des philosophes antiques , Volume 7, Paris 2018, pp. 904–933, here: 919–933.
  8. ^ Plato, Phaedrus 242a – b.
  9. ^ Constantinos Macris: Simmias de Thèbes. In: Richard Goulet (ed.): Dictionnaire des philosophes antiques , Volume 7, Paris 2018, pp. 904–933, here: 905.
  10. ↑ Xenophon, Memorabilia 1, 2, 48; see. 3.11.17.
  11. ^ Constantinos Macris: Simmias de Thèbes. In: Richard Goulet (ed.): Dictionnaire des philosophes antiques , Volume 7, Paris 2018, pp. 904–933, here: 911.
  12. ^ Daniel Babut : Parerga , Lyon 1994, p. 425.
  13. ↑ Andrei Timotin: La démonologie platonicienne , Leiden / Boston 2012, pp 246-249; Stephan Schröder : Plutarch on oracles and divine inspiration. In: Heinz-Günther Nesselrath (ed.): Plutarch: On the daimonion of Socrates , Tübingen 2010, pp. 145–168, here: 159–168; Klaus Döring : Plutarch and the daimonion of Socrates. In: Mnemosyne 37, 1984, pp. 376-392, here: 376-385, 387 f.
  14. ↑ Diogenes Laertios 2,124.
  15. ↑ See on the research history Constantinos Macris: Simmias de Thèbes. In: Richard Goulet (ed.): Dictionnaire des philosophes antiques , Volume 7, Paris 2018, pp. 904–933, here: 906–908.
  16. ↑ Alice Swift Riginos: Platonica , Leiden 1976, p. 24 f. Cf. Constantinos Macris: Simmias de Thèbes. In: Richard Goulet (ed.): Dictionnaire des philosophes antiques , Volume 7, Paris 2018, pp. 904–933, here: 916 f.
  17. ^ Constantinos Macris: Simmias de Thèbes. In: Richard Goulet (ed.): Dictionnaire des philosophes antiques , Volume 7, Paris 2018, pp. 904–933, here: 918.
  18. ^ Constantinos Macris: Simmias de Thèbes. In: Richard Goulet (ed.): Dictionnaire des philosophes antiques , Volume 7, Paris 2018, pp. 904–933, here: 918 f.
personal data
SURNAME Simmias of Thebes
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Pupil of Socrates
DATE OF BIRTH 5th century BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH 4th century BC Chr.