Beyond human reason: baccheia and theōria in Plato and Clement of Alexandria

The article examines Plato’s use of baccheia and theōria as metaphors that relate the exceptional perception of the philosopher from his middle dialogues, mainly the Symposium, the Phaedrus, and the Phaedo to the later Laws, and explores their influence on Clement of Alexandria. Drawing on Euripides’ Bacchae, Plato defends philosophical baccheia as the most genuine form of mania, while in the Laws he suggests the Test of the Wine as a means of enhancing the citizens’ self-awareness, thus facilitating their pursuit of sōphrosynē. Although the mental illumination of those initiated into philosophy is famously rendered in the middle dialogues in terms that allude to mystic initiation, in the Laws Plato reworks the political aspects of theōria, as applied by Solon, to suggest that under the guidance of the (philosophically inclined) Nocturnal Council, citizens have access to divine sōphrosynē, thus fulfilling their telos at both individual and collective levels. The appeal of these metaphors was not lost on Clement of Alexandria, a thorough reader of Plato and classical pagan literature; following Plato, Clement rejects drunkenness but appreciates that the true gnostic must transcend the limitations of the human mind to grasp the Christian truth. Thus, in his search of God Clement adapts Platonic theōria into gnostic contemplation.