I finally got around to reading The Symposium and The Apology of Socrates this month, and I find myself confused by repeated references to capital-G “God.”
Since Socrates died in 399 BC, I have trouble believing this is the J/C/I God. And while I suppose Socrates – or Plato, his biographer – could have had his own monotheistic conceptions (heresy was one of the charges against Socrates), it wouldn’t explain why Phaedrus and Aristophanes also make reference to “God” in The Symposium.
Is it a specific God – Zeus or Apollo? A general conception of the divine? A translation of daimyon? A reflection of bias on the part of translators? A simple mistake?
Which “God” are they refering to? Since “introducing new gods” seems to have been a crime in Athens, am I right in assuming it refers to one of the well-recognized Greek pantheon?
Not looking at the original Greek for the Symposium or the Apology at the moment, but it could actually be any or all of the things you’ve mentioned. If it is meant to refer back to a “standard” Greek god it is most likely Zeus, who is sometimes just called ‘theos’ or ‘dios’ in Greek. It could be the divine in general depending on the context. It could be the daimon but usually translators like to make it pretty clear when Socrates is talking about his daimon specifically. The older your translation is (but it doesn’t need to be particularly old, probably just mid-1960’s or older) the more likely it is just the translator trying to make it sound “familiar” to readers (or something more sinister: there are some folks who want to make Socrates and Plato proto-Christians). This is also true if your translation is not geared for a scholarly audience.
if you want to give me specific passage citations you’re curiosu about I can check them against the Greek but in general there are just too many references in those works for it to be all one thing.
Thanks, Melandry. I do wonder what the original word was, because then I could look it up myself. The translation I’m reading is fairly old, but I haven’t found a more recent one.
As for specific passages, how about this one from about a third of the way through the Apology:
Hamish- That one is just ‘ho theos’= the god. You can see the Greek here if you’re interested. From context he likely means Apollo, since it’s his oracle.
I suppose, then, when Aristophanes says, “God has dispersed us,” halfway through The Symposium, he’s referring to Zeus and not Apollo? I guess what I’m saying is that “God” could probably better refer to “the god,” whichever one is most relevant?
Yup, another just ‘tou theou’ which is the genitive form of ‘ho theos’. Referring back to Zeus, whom he names earlier in the speech as the conceiver of the plan.
So in a way with these two examples, the translator has some justification for saying “God”, but more responsible translation would likely say “the god” so as not to leave any confusion about Judeo-Christian vs. pagan gods.