Lover of the people

Use in the book

Socrates’ fear at 132a is that Alcibiades will become a lover of the Athenian people and be corrupted. He has just promised to remain as the lover of the young man himself, provided improvement continues. The people now appears as a competing object of desire capable of changing that trajectory. Its danger is not established by a constitutional classification of democracy; the immediate concern is a relationship in which political attractiveness can displace the work of becoming better.

The handsome face borrows a Homeric phrase about the dēmos of Erechtheus. The edition explains that dēmos in the quoted epic line denotes the land, while here Socrates takes it as the political people. The verbal transfer permits a civic body to be pictured as an attractive youth. Stripping then asks the future lover to judge more than the appealing surface. It belongs to the figurative evaluation of the people, not to a literal instruction to undress a person or a reference to a scene that occurs in the dialogue.

The immediately following command, “exercise first,” keeps the bodily and educational imagery linked. Alcibiades must learn before entering public affairs, taking antidotes so he will not suffer harm. Alexipharmaka are protective or counteracting remedies in this image; the dialogue does not name literal drugs. The practical content of the precaution is preparation and care.

An earlier passage supplies the matching political vice. Meidias and his like have come to flatter the city rather than rule it. Flattery names service to the city’s appetite for gratification or approval within the criticism; it should not be equated with ordinary persuasion, which the dialogue also treats as a legitimate function of expertise. Together, flattering the city and becoming its lover show why a merely ambitious relation to the public can leave the would-be leader governed by what he hoped to govern.

Places to read

1. 120bUncultured politicians are said to come to flatter the city.
2. 131e–132b2Persistence in love is threatened by the people, whose attraction requires scrutiny and preparation.
3. 135eThe city’s power returns as the last threat.

Translation in this edition

The edition renders the compound literally, preserving the erotic force. The supplied Homeric note prevents treating the quoted dēmos as already democratic in the epic. “Antidotes” carries a medical image, not a named curriculum whose contents have all been settled.

ἀλεξιφάρμακον

Attested: ἀλεξιφάρμακα (alexipharmaka; 132b). Counteracting or protective remedy; a metaphor for preparation against civic corruption. Lexical identification: lemma: ἀλεξιφάρμακον. See Lover of the people.

ἀποδύω

Attested: ἀποδύντα (apodynta; 132a). To strip or undress; the attractive people must be inspected without their surface covering before Alcibiades gives himself over to them. Lexical identification: lemma: ἀποδύω. See Lover of the people.

δημεραστής

Attested: δημεραστὴς (dēmerastēs; 132a). Lover of the people, the potentially corrupting political-erotic attachment Socrates fears. Lexical identification: lemma: δημεραστής. See Lover of the people.

εὐπρόσωπος

Attested: εὐπρόσωπος (euprosōpos; 132a). Fair-faced or attractive in appearance; the people are imagined as a handsome beloved whose apparent charm needs closer examination. Lexical identification: lemma: εὐπρόσωπος. See Lover of the people.

κολακεύω

Attested: κολακεύσοντες (kolakeusontes; 120b). To flatter; the criticized politicians court the city’s approval instead of governing it. Lexical identification: lemma: κολακεύω. See Lover of the people.