The Mythological Aspect of Plato’s <i>Phaedo</i> as Disclosing the Soul’s Ontological Significance

Abstract

This essay offers an interpretation of Plato’s Phaedo, which proceeds in two parts: (1) methodological interpretation of myth and (2) application of the method to the analysis of the soul. The paper claims that the myths in this dialogue are not limited to the explicitly mythical sections but that the entirety of the Phaedo—including the arguments that it presents—is saturated with myth. Through this interpretive lens, the soul, as it appears in the Phaedo, ceases to be characterized as a mere thing and gains an ontological dimension.

Keywords

• Earth itself
• Hades
• logoi
• Minotaur
• muthoi
• space