The City in the Mirror. Plato's Menexenus as a Philosophical Example of "Democratic Propaganda

The paper aims to examine Plato’s Menexenus, focusing on the role of the epitaph. The analysis engages with the mixture of irony and seriousness to show that the target of the moqueire is not the funeral speech itself, but the way Athenian orators compose their speeches. Conversely, Socrates delivers, with great seriousness, an epitaph masterfully composed by Aspasia. The interpretative hypothesis is that Plato, at the level of the dialogue’s architecture, constructs a “philosophical epitaph” by assigning, within the dramatic setting, the authorship of a “paradigmatic epitaph” properly to Aspasia, a figure both marginal and integrated in the athenian democracy. Overall, Plato’s funeral oration, due to its enigmatic nature, may be read as a form of “serious play”, that is a puzzle meant to provoke reflection. The assumption is that, through a philosophical use of the epitaph and a brilliant “game of mirrors”, Plato offers a constructive critique of the democratic Athens, attempting to save the city from itself, if not in deeds, then at least in speech. Indeed, this oration celebrates an idealised and idyllic Athens, however, as suggested by the anachronism, it is only an imaginary and impossible city, that never existed and perhaps never will.