Plato’s words of magic: pharmakon and epode

Abstract

Corpus Platonicum is one of our primary evidence on the history of Greek magic in the classical period and with other sources it gives the knowledge on those who practiced magic-working (magoi, goetes, pharmakeis and epodoi). Plato is well known for his critics of magicians in the Republic and the Laws yet picturing Socrates as a magician and enchanter in other dialogues. I will address this apparent inconsistency by examining pharmakon (drug) and epode (incantation) as two magical terms that we know already from pre-platonic texts, while in the dialogues Plato uses them for depicting a variety of Socratic philosophical practices: in the Charmides Socrates presented as a follower of Thracian medical-magical practitioner, in the Theaetetus he appears as a midwife of the souls, in the Phaedo as a prophet and a servant of Apollo and in the Republic as a lover of poetry who places his own incantation in opposition to poetry’s mimetic charm. As it follows, the magic of Socrates is a counter-magic to the bewitchment and jugglery of a sophistry and mimetic poetry. By enchanting pharmakon with epode Socrates neutralizes the risk of pharmakon being dangerous drug: a model for a method that Socrates is famed for yet expressed in the words of magic.