The rhetorical significance of the conversion of the lover's soul in Plato'sPhaedrus

Abstract

course of his mythic depiction of the struggles of the lover's soul, when the lover's soul is converted from mania to reverence. The soul's conversion to reverence is a key moment in the myth, for it enables the lover to engage his beloved in edifying communication-in the kind of rhetorical discourse literally described by Socrates after reciting his second speech.' This essay interprets the conversion of the lover's soul as an instance (or allegory) of persuasion that sets an attitude of reverence in the lover/student of Plato's ideal rhetoric. The persuasion-to-reverence, the consequence of the lover's appropriate interpretive act, shows how the transformation of a lover's/ student's character is a starting-point in his progress toward becoming a Platonic rhetor-not only in affecting the appropriate ethical stance toward winning his beloved through edifying communication, but also in understanding, and being influenced by, the dual nature of embodied logos-its material and spiritual significance. The lover's reading of the beloved's face-this nondiscursive sensual presence embodying and radiating a Platonic Idea-is explained, in the context of the allegory, as a trope for the appropriate reception of a rhetorical artifact. The difference between the persuasive face and the persuasive word is the difference between the two sites where logos is manifest. Their difference shows how rhetorical words artfully mimic the persuasive face of the natural order. Nevertheless, they both may influence the soul to harmonize with Platonic Ideas in more or less the same way. From this perspective, in Platonic thought the redeeming character of the natural order is the effect it has on souls prepared to receive/observe it appropriately. The same value is attributed to Plato's ideal rhetoric. So part of the idea of learning rhetoric is linked to preparing the soul to appropriately receive/observe embodied logos-to be able to interpret sensually evocative signifiers in morally edifying ways (as the lover does). Thus, in the context of the allegory, Plato's understanding of rhetoric, and what the rhetor must know, encompass not only its appropriate production, but its appropriate reception as well. The lover's conversion is an allegorical case in point. It exemplifies an edifying aim of rhetorical education as a process of being persuaded