Interpretation,Transmission And Imitation

Plato’s early work Ion focuses on the dialogue between Socrates and Ion and explicitly discusses the theme of reciting poetry.By inquiring into the identity of the reciter and exploring whether he knows it or not,this paper shows that the Rhapsode is not an interpreter of Homer’s epic and has no knowledge of poetry interpretation.From Socrates’ point of view he is the poet,the divine inspiration as faith and not as knowledge;It is,in fact,an imitator of Homer’s epic,making images of sensible things,without knowledge.In Plato’s philosophy,does the Rhapsode know? First,Poetry is assumed to be a craft,and the possessor of the craft possesses knowledge of both the whole particular subject and the interpretation of the individual.The Rhapsode Ion,however,could only recite Homer’s poems,and had neither the knowledge to explain the poems as a whole nor the knowledge to explain specific Homer’s poems.Secondly,inspiration replaces skill as the source of reciting poetry,and inspiration from divine cannot be regarded as the knowledge.In an irrational state,the Rhapsode conveys the sacred knowledge to the audience.In the process of conveying,he loses his reason and cannot obtain the sacred knowledge himself.Therefore,the inspiration of the divine ode can only serve as the belief of the Rhapsode.Finally,in the process of reciting the poem,the Rhapsode Ion breaks away from the chain of inspiration by imitating the poem,which in the Republic is regarded as the product of imagination and cannot be regarded as the Rhapsode’s knowledge.Based on the three kinds of definition of knowledge of Plato,the paper tries to extract the three identities of the Rhapsode,tries to interpret Socrates’ criticism of the Rhapsode,and comes to the conclusion that the Rhapsode does not have knowledge,and finally reveals the ignorance of Ion.