Receptions and appropriations of Platonic myth: Dio, Plutarch, and Aristides between literary fashion and philosophical exegesis

Abstract

This chapter examines the Platonizing myths of Dio Chrysostom, Plutarch, and (to a lesser degree) Aelius Aristides, in the light of our evidence for both the philosophical and the literary-rhetorical reception of Plato’s own myths. It argues that, while reflections of the development of Platonism as a systematic philosophy can be detected in them, it can be hard and may in some respects be pointless to disentangle this philosophical input neatly from the ramifications of the literary-rhetorical reception.