In the Realm of the Senses

Abstract

Abstract The chapter centers on the phenomenon of metabolē or change in Republic Book VIII. While previous books of the dialogue are dedicated to building the ideal city, what is a “beautiful city” (kallipolis), Socrates explains that even such a constitution is subject to fade away and degeneration (Pl. Resp. 546a–d). In order to describe the process of transformation, Socrates relies on a feminine presence and invokes the Muses, who oversee what becomes of the kallipolis, as it declines into other forms, timocracy, oligarchy, democracy, and, finally, tyranny. The chapter asks why the feminine frame is brought into play at this particular moment and the female voice, as Diotima is in the Symposium and Aspasia in the Menexenus. An injection of the female voice into the narrative in Socrates’ tale of decline is deliberate and essential—it is a necessary move because metabolē consists in a ladder of becoming, reproductive cycles, and portrays generational change, which depends on and is driven by the quintessential feminine task: pregnancy, maternity, and childbirth.