Symposium - AIC

Aikaterini Lefka
was just a new-born from the cruelty of his father, Cronos.
The Dioscuri 10 , experienced warriors and horsemen, were the protectors of men in battle but
also of navigators and were often invoked in case of bad sailing conditions that could put into danger
the ships, the persons and the goods they carried. For a people of seamen as the Greeks, these
“saviours” were highly appreciated. On the other hand, Hermes 11 , as the god protecting the travellers,
the messengers and the merchands, is a soter asked to assure the safe journeys by land.
He is also the guide of the souls in their way to Hades, and this eschatological dimension may add a
second aspect to his role as a “saviour”. The soul is also expected to be “saved”, thanks to the eternal
beatitude offered by the initiation to Mysteries, like the Eleusinian ones, which explains sufficiently, I
think, the attribution of the epithet soteira to Demeter 12 and to Kore 13 .
Hecate 14 is a particular divinity, attached to the crossroads (and therefore protecting also travellers),
including the ones between the three levels of existence: the heavens, the earth and the underworld, a
fact that makes her also responsible of the safe souls’ transition. She is the obscure goddess of the
moon, occult practices and fortune, too. Her help was asked to assure protection from evil and
acquisition of good luck.
Tyche 15 , the goddess of Fortune herself is considered as a soteira for the same reason. We
may therefore conclude that, besides the invocation to the gods in general, in various cases of great
need, the particular divinities who most currently receive the epithet soter or soteira are the ones who
supervise domains where the human life, liberty, safety, health, procreation, justice, wealth, success,
and even the soul’s eternal well-being may be seriously threatened.
It is noteworthy for our study that Eros never figures among the traditional divine “saviours”.
II. Who is a soter for Plato?
Among these divinities who currently received the epithet soter, Plato chooses only Zeus, to whom he
refers four times in his whole work.
When we give a close look to these passages, we may observe that the philosopher offers
new, original interpretations of the epithet, the ritual attached to it and the salutary action of the
supreme god of the Greek pantheon, adapted and integrated to his own theories. For example, in the
Laws, III, 692 a 3, Zeus is referred to as tritos soter. Instead of the usual third libation, the context
here is a metaphore concerning the “salvation” of the city, thanks to the third of the institutions that
the god accorded for the government of Sparta, that is the ephors (after the two kings and the senate),
elected among the people in order to control the just exercise of the government.
In the Charmides, 167 a 7, Socrates uses this epithet when he is trying for the third time to
give a definition of wisdom (sophrosyne), which he identifies with “knowing one’s self”. In the same
way, in the Philebus, 66 d 4, he mentions tritos soter while he gives his third version of defining the
relation between wisdom and pleasure.
Finally, in the Republic, IX, 583 b 3, Socrates combines this epithet of Zeus with the sport of
wrestling, where the athlete who would throw his opponent three times on the ground was the winner.
The third victory of the just man against the unjust within the frame of the arguments of the
philosophical dialogue (compared to an Olympic victory) is dedicated to Zeus soter and Olympios.
In the Timaeus, 48 d 5, there is a more general reference to “the god” who is asked to operate as the
“saviour” of the interlocutors while they undertake an extraordinary, but true narration of the
cosmogony, the theogony and the anthropogony.
Other entities, non-divine but characteristic of Platonic philosophy receive also the
qualification “soter”, like the intellect (nous: Laws, XII, 961 d 1), the reason (logos: Republic, VIII,
549 b 7) and the laws (Symposium, 209 d 5).
Concerning more concrete operations of rescue, an Egyptian priest calls the river Nile the
saviour of Egypt (Timaeus, 22 d 5) from all extreme and dangerous climate conditions, among others.
The hero Hector (Cratylus, 392 e 2) is also called “saviour”, as it was the case in the Homeric Iliad,
because he defended efficiently his city against the Greek army till his death. But the human beings
10
For the twin sons of Zeus and Leda, who saved also their sister Helen from Theseus’ kidnapping, see, for exemple E.
Bethe, 1903, pp. 1087-1123 and T. Scheer, 1997, pp. 673-677.
11
See, for exemple, G. Baudy, 1998, pp. 426-431 ; S. Eitrem, 1912, pp. 738-792 ; D. Jaillard, 2007 ; L. Kahn, 1978.
12
See, for exemple, F. Graf, 1997, pp. 420-425 ; S. Guettel Cole, 2000, pp. 133-154 ; O. Kern, 1901, pp. 2713-2764 ; N. J.
Richardson, 1974.
13
See, for exemple, F. Bräuninger, 1937, pp. 944-972 ; L. Bruit, 2007, pp. 37-52 ; K. Clinton, 2007, pp. 342-356 ; S. Rosen,
1943, pp. 247-259 ; Chr. Sourvinou Inwood, 2000, pp. 600-603 ; G. Zuntz, 1971.
14
See, for exemple, J. Heckenbach, 1912, pp. 2769-2782 ; S. I. Johnston, 1990 and 1998, pp. 267-270.
15
See also G. Herzog-Hauser, 1948, pp. 1643-1689 and N. Johannsen, 2002, pp. 936-937.
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