page_title: Allegorical interpretations of Plato
section_title: Dominance of the allegorical Plato: Neo-Platonism
hierarchical_section_title: Allegorical interpretations of Plato / Dominance of the allegorical Plato: Neo-Platonism
caption_attribution_description: English: "In the central portion, 21 in. high, by 151/2 in. wide, is seated figure, reading a roll. In front of him is a cupboard, the doors of which are open. It is fitted with two shelves, on the uppermost of which are eight rolls, the ends of which are turned to the spectator. On the next shelf is something which looks like a dish or shallow cup. The lower part of the press is solid. Perhaps a second cupboard is intended. Above, it is finished off with a cornice, on which rests a very puzzling object. I thought that it was intended to represent a wooden tablet covered with wax, and that the reader had laid it open on the top of his bookpress to indicate that he was making notes from the roll which he was reading. Professor Petersen, on the contrary believes that certain lines on the marble, which I admit are tolerably distinct, are intended to represent surgical instruments, and so to indicate the profession of the seated figure. There is a Greek inscription on the sarcophagus but it merely warns posterity not to disturb the bones of the deceased" (Clark, The Care of Books [1901] 40-41).
context_page_description: Many Plato interpreters held that his writings contain passages with double meanings, called 'allegories' or 'symbols', that give the dialogues layers of figurative meaning in addition to their usual literal meaning.
  These allegorical interpretations of Plato were dominant for more than fifteen hundred years, from about the first century CE through the Renaissance and into the Eighteenth Century, and were advocated by major figures such as Plotinus, Proclus, and Ficino. Beginning with Philo of Alexandria, these views influenced Jewish, Christian and Islamic interpretation of their holy scriptures. They spread widely in the Renaissance and contributed to the fashion for allegory among poets such as Dante, Spenser, and Shakespeare.
  In the early modern period, classical scholarship rejected claims that Plato was an allegorist. After this rupture, the ancient followers of Plato who read the dialogues as sustained allegories were labelled 'Neo-Platonists' and regarded as an aberration.
context_section_description: Modern historians call the followers of Plato in the early centuries CE 'Neo-Platonists.' They were the most important  and vigorous advocates of the allegorical interpretation of Plato. Plotinus, regarded as the founder of Neo-Platonism, often says that Plato's dialogues have 'undermeanings' (hyponoiai). His Ennead III.5 is an extended allegorical interpretation of passages from Plato's Symposium. 
  Surviving commentaries on Plato's dialogues by Neo-Platonists such as Proclus contain extended allegorical interpretations. Proclus' commentary on Plato's Parmenides says, for example, that the narrator Antiphon could not have been ignorant of the dialogue's 'secret' or 'deeper meanings' (682). Proclus himself see the dialogue's characters as symbols of metaphysical principles: Parmenides is a representation of the divine, Zeno of the Intellect, and Socrates of the particular Intellect (628). Proclus argues generally that: 
  Writings of a genuinely profound and theoretical character ought not to be communicated except with the greatest caution and considered judgement, lest we inadvertently expose to the slovenly hearing and neglect of the public the inexpressible thoughts of god-like souls (718, cf. 1024). 
   
  Proclus claims that the Parmenides generally communicates its meaning through allegory or undermeanings. A teacher, he says, does not 'speak clearly, but will content himself with indications; for one should express mystical truths mystically and not publicize secret doctrines about the gods' (928). The dialogue's method of instruction is 'to employ symbols and indications and riddles, a method proper to the most mystical of doctrines ...' (1027).
  A late neo-Platonist, Macrobius shows that in the fifth century CE allegorical interpretations of Plato were routine:
  That is why Plato, when he was moved to speak about the Good, did not dare to tell what it was ... philosophers make use of fabulous narratives (fabulosa); not without a purpose, however, nor merely to entertain, but because they realize that a frank and naked (apertam nudamque) exposition of herself is distasteful to Nature, who, just as she has withheld an understanding of herself from the uncouth sense of men by enveloping herself in variegated garments, has also desired to have her secrets handled by  more prudent individuals through fabulous narratives... Only eminent men of superior intelligence gain a revelation of her truths ... (I.17-18).
caption: The earliest depiction of a Roman book cabinet or armarium, with scrolls inside on the upper shelf. From a sarcophagus dated to 200–300 CE, i.e, about the time Plotinus was in Rome. Though found in Ostia, a port near Rome, the Greek inscription suggests a Greek resident. The open case containing surgical tools on the cabinet top, the other scrolls, and a basin for bleeding patients within the cabinet suggest a learned physician (Metropolitan Museum of Art, N.Y., 48.76.1).
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