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Comedy in Callipolis: Animal Imagery in the Republic*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2014

Arlene W. Saxonhouse
Arlene W. Saxonhouse*
Affiliation:
University of Michigan
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Abstract

The political society founded by Socrates in the Republic has been seen by many as Plato's conception of the ideal political community, his Callipolis. However, a study of the language used by Socrates as he builds his perfect city reveals an unusually heavy concentration of animal images. This language seems to undercut the ostensible perfection of Socrates' city and illustrates rather its connections to the comic world of Aristophanes, whose comedy the Birds offers the model according to which the Republic is built. It is suggested that the city of the Republic is comic and ugly, indicating the limitations of politics rather than its potentialities. The Republic argues for the need to reorient the concept of justice away from social life and towards the individual. Ultimately, the Republic suggests that the notion of social justice is laughable and fit for the comic Stage.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 72 , Issue 3 , September 1978 , pp. 888 - 901
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 1978

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Footnotes

*

I would like to thank the Horace H. Rackham Graduate School of the University of Michigan for financial support during the early stages of research for this article, and the anonymous referees of this journal for their helpful comments.

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