“The Islands of the Blessed" - political art and myth in Gorgias by Plato

Abstract

The Gorgias is one of Plato´s dialogues that are responsible for the discussion of the Ideal State and the Statesman. Although the work can be defined as a treatise on rhetoric, this main element is connected to the discussion of the Ideal State, as can also be observed in the Republic, the Critias and in the Timaeus. After all, the Statesman is not purely and simply the prince or the basileus. For Socrates it is the politician, anyone whose voice obtains a hearing in the polis, be it under compulsion or lawfully. There is a serious problem in the Socratic discourse when his rhetoric is stimulated by the power of the words as opposed to the reality of the actions. There appears the true political art which questions the power by means of side effects, when it gets difficult for the philosopher to convince the listener of the pedagogy that is essential for the education of the politician(two examples by Plutarch, Demosthenes and Cicero too, dialogue as well with Socrates'speech about this embroglio). The mythos as a narrative becomes the last attempt at an explanation of the political role of the Statesman. Socrates eventually develops a fable or narrative (Mythos) called the Island of the Blessed.