Plato's Ion Analysis

In the current world of art, it seems that inspiration and imitation are separated by only a thin line. Someone could present what they made based off inspiration, but critics can accuse it to be merely a copy of someone’s else work. These differences in perceptive seems to be a reoccurring argument that lasted the centuries. One of the most famous work that demonstrate this conflict is Plato’s Ion. This written dialogue between Greek philosopher Socrates and professional rhapsode Ion dives into the ideas of whether or not Ion’s ability to repeat works of Homer to be from his knowledge of the work or by the inspiration to brought to him.
The earliest issue Socrates brings to Ion is his limitation to reciting Homer. Ion admits that when anyone …show more content…
He claims that inspiration comes at the cost of the minds of men being consumed by a divine influence. He then illustrates that Ion, being the rhapsode that he is, must be possessed by the maddening control of the Muse. The logic behind this is that Gods will first pass their words down to a poet, who would then pass them down to rhapsode. The rhapsodist would recite the poet’s, and thus the Gods’, words to the people, who would share them to other and creating a large chain the allows the communication between Gods and man. Now the notion that inspiration is just the product of madness is indeed interesting. It is like stating that the truth of reality cannot inspire people as they know what they see. By allowing something from a different spiritual plane of existence to take over and accepting madness, this creates an opening to escape the limitation of reality to find true …show more content…
In response, Socrates brings up to Ion about the separation of the skill of a general and the skill of a rhapsode. Ion said that when he reads a passage about the military, it shows his skills to be a good general while also dismiss the idea of a good general having the skills to be a good rhapsode. The reasoning behind this is the role of a rhapsode: being about to portray different roles in a convincing fashion on stage. It is rather interesting that Ion states this. With his affinity for only Homer, it seems that would limit the roles Ion can convey. However, the idea the of that a good general cannot be a good rhapsode seems justified. A good general job is not to take the role of many people to convince others, but to master the role and lead them into