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Whip Scars On The Naked Soul: Myth And Elenchos In Plato's Gorgias, Radcliffe G. Edmonds Iii

Greek, Latin, and Classical Studies Faculty Research and Scholarship

Stripped of his regal robes and all the trappings of his worldly power, the soul of the Great King cowers naked before Rhadamanthys, who looks down upon the crippled wretch before him, disfigured like the basest slave by the marks of the whip and covered with festering sores. Many scholars (most importantly Annas, "Plato's Myths of Judgement," Phronesis, Vol. XXVII 1982, pp. 119-143) have interpreted this horrific image of the judgement of the soul from Plato's Gorgias as a threat of hell-fire designed to convince the skeptical Callicles that justice pays 'in the end.' Socrates' myth, however, does not supply …