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Many Plato interpreters held that his writings contain passages with double meanings, called ‘allegories’ or ‘symbols,’ that give the dialogues layers of figurative meaning in addition to their usual literal meaning. These allegorical interpretations of Plato were dominant for more than fifteen hundred years, from about the first century CE through the Renaissance and into the Eighteenth Century, and were advocated by major figures such as Plotinus, Proclus, and Ficino. Beginning with Philo of Alexandria (1st c. CE), these views influenced Jewish, Christian and Islamic interpretation of their holy scriptures. They spread widely in the Renaissance and contributed to the fashion for allegory among poets such as Dante, Spenser, and Shakespeare.〔For Ficino's influence on Spenser and Shakespeare, see Sears Jayne, 'Ficino and the Platonism of the English Renaissance,' ''Comparative Literature'', v. 4, no. 3, 1952, pp. 214-238.〕 In the early modern period, classical scholarship rejected claims that Plato was an allegorist. After this rupture, the ancient followers of Plato who read the dialogues as sustained allegories were labelled 'Neo-Platonists' and regarded as an aberration. In the wake of Tate's pioneering 1929 article 'Plato and Allegorical Interpretation,'〔J. Tate, ''Classical Quarterly'', v. 23, no. 3-4, p. 142 ff.〕 scholars began to study the allegorical approach to Plato in its own right both as essential background to Plato studies and as an important episode in the history of philosophy, literary criticism, hermeneutics, and literary symbolism. Historians have come to reject any simple division between Platonism and Neo-Platonism, and the tradition of reading Plato allegorically is now an area of active research.〔For a brief but general overview of the history of allegory, see Luc Brisson, ''How Philosophers Saved Myths: Allegorical Interpretation and Classical Mythology'' (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2004). Translated by Catherine Tihanyi.〕 The definitions of 'allegory,' 'symbolism,' and 'figurative meaning' evolved over time. The word 'allegory' (Greek for 'saying other') became more frequent in the early centuries CE and referred to language that had some other meaning in addition to its usual or literal meaning. Earlier in classical Athens, it was common instead to speak of 'undermeanings' (Gk., ''hyponoiai''), which referred to hidden or deeper meanings.〔Plutarch says “allegories … which the ancients called undermeanings” in an essay in the ''Moralia'': ''De Audiendis Poetis'', 4.19. Plato (''Rep.'' II. 378d), Euripides (''Phoenicians'' 1131-33), Aristophanes (''Frogs'' 1425-31), Xenophon (''Symposium'' III, 6), all use ''hyponoia'' to mean what is later subsumed under allegory. See Jean Pépin, ''Mythe et Allégorie'' (Paris: Etudes Augustiniennes, 1976), pp. 85-86.〕 Today, allegory is often said to be a sustained sequence of metaphors within a literary work, but this was not clearly the ancient definition since then a single passage or even a name could be allegorical. Generally, the changing meanings of such terms must be studied within each historical context.〔P. Struck, ''Birth of the Symbol'' (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2004).〕 == Allegory within Plato's Dialogues == As a young man, Plato encountered debates in the circles around Anaxagoras and Socrates over whether Homer's poems contained allegories.〔For Anaxagoras and Metrodorus, see Diogenes Laertius, II.1 and Plato's 'Ion,' 530c3-d3. For Antisthenes the Cynic, see the discussion in R. Pfeiffer,''History of Classical Scholarship: from the beginnings to the end of the Hellenistic Age'' (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1968), p. 36. See Robert Lamberton, ''Homer the Theologian: Neoplatonist Allegorical Reading and the Growth of the Epic Tradition'' (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1989). 〕 Plato refers to these debates and made allegories and the nature of allegory a prominent theme in his dialogues.〔According to Plato's dialogue the 'Cratylus,' most interpreters at that time treated Homer allegorically. Socrates says 'Indeed, even the ancients seem to think about Athena just as those who are currently skilled concerning Homer do. For the majority of these in interpreting the poet say that he has made out Athena to be mind and thought' (407a8-b2). 〕 He uses many allegorical devices and explicitly calls attention to them. In the Parable of the Cave, for example, Plato tells a symbolic tale and interprets its elements one by one (''Rep.'', 514a1 ff.). In the ''Phaedrus'', Socrates criticizes those who offer rationalizing, allegorical explanations for myths (229c6 ff.). Plato's own views on allegorical interpretation, or 'allegoresis,' have long been debated. Ford concluded that: Allegoresis is viewed by Plato as an uncertain method and dangerous where children are concerned, but he never denies outright the possibility of its being used in a more philosophical way. In the passage rejecting allegory from the ''Republic'' (378d), the reasons are primarily pedagogical and social rather than theological or methodological... Plato's disquiet is focused on popularisers of subtle interpretation, not on the method itself ... 〔A. L. Ford, ''The Origins of Criticism: literary culture and poetic theory in classical Greece'' (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2002, p. 86-7.〕 The core of Plato's philosophy is the Theory of Forms (or Ideas), and many writers have seen in this metaphysical theory a justification for the use of literary allegory. Fletcher, for example, wrote: The Platonic theory of ideas has two aspects which lead to allegorical interpretations of both signs and Many believe Plato was influenced by the Pythagoreans. Like other ancient sects, they were reputed to have secret doctrines and secret rituals.〔Walter Burkert, ''Lore and Science in Ancient Pythagoreanism'' (Cambridge: Harverd University Press, 1972) and W. Burkert, ''Ancient Mystery Cults'' (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1987).〕 Ancient writers, however, especially associated them with 'symbols' used to conceal their secrets.〔This late reputation for secrecy is already attested in the fourth century by Aristotle (in Iamblichus, ''Vit. Pit.'', 6) and by his sometime student Aristoxenus (D. L. 8.15-16). See also Burkert, op. cit., 1972, p. 179, cf. n. 96. In ancient Greek, the word 'symbol' originally meant the broken half of some small object which two parties split apart in order to use the matching pieces as proofs of identity.〕 The Pythagoreans seemed to extend the meaning of this term to include short phrases that played the role of secret passwords or answered ritualized riddles. Struck traces the way this usage was further stretched to encompass literary symbolism and thus why the Pythagoreans are sometimes credited with inventing such symbolism.〔Peter T. Struck, ''Birth of the Symbol: Ancient Readers at the Limits of Their Texts'' (Princeton: University Press, 2004).〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Allegorical interpretations of Plato」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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