Praestigiae Platonis: the cavernous puppetshow

Abstract

The paper deals with Plato’s Allegory of the Cave at the beginning of the 7th book of the Republic, focusing on the two lowest stages of the Cave (and the corresponding parts of the Line from the simile in the Sixth book), occupied, respectively, by ‘prisoners and puppeteers’; the identity of these groups is questioned, along the lines set by J. Wilberding in his homonymously entitled article. The puppeteers and their show are examined with regard to the lexical peculiarities of Plato’s text, in particular his usage of thauma and the derived thaumatopoios. The overall ironical, playful character of the Allegory is emphasized, calling for cautious reading beyond its apparent face value. A Russian term vertep, meaning both ‘a cave’ and ‘a portable puppetshow’, may prove itself helpful in approaching the sense Plato actually intended with his Allegory.