Wasps, and Gadflies: The Role of Insect Similes in Homer, Aristophanes, and Plato

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John Harris discusses how Plato, influenced by epic and comedy, uses the gadfly simile to elicit heroic qualities not typically associated with this insect.

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John Harris discusses how Plato, influenced by epic and comedy, uses the gadfly simile to elicit heroic qualities not typically associated with this insect.

Image courtesy of interviewee. May 30, 2024

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This video reflects on the author's scholarly journey involving the works of Plato, Aristotle, and Homer, particularly focusing on Plato's "Apology of Socrates." The author discusses Socrates' characterization as a "gadfly," which is an unconventional choice for defending oneself against charges of corrupting Athenian youth, given the negative connotations associated with the insect. Despite this, the gadfly metaphor emphasizes the role of Socrates in prompting critical thought among his fellow citizens.

The author explores how Homer and Aristophanes also utilize insect imagery, illustrating a broader literary tradition where lowly creatures are sometimes used to elevate heroic themes. This video delves into how Homer compares the tenacity of a fly to the courage of a warrior, suggesting that even insignificant beings can play pivotal roles in significant narratives.

Ultimately, the author argues that philosophical and artistic figures challenge complacency, provoking thought and action for the greater good. The notion that "one should not judge by appearances" is highlighted, suggesting that there is deeper value found in individuals like Socrates, who, despite their unappealing exterior, contribute to the intellectual rigor of society. The author aims to show parallels between the works of Homer and Plato, underscoring the enduring relevance of their ideas in contemporary discourse.

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X-TIMESTAMP-MAP:LOCAL=00:00:00.000,MPEGTS=900000

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I've been, working on Plato, Aristo.

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He in Homer for quite some time.

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Uh, and I always had a kind of interest in esop.

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And, so all of these things came together,

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way back when I worked on my massive thesis.

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Insect imagery in the plays

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of Aristophanes sounds a bit dull,

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but in fact, aristo, he's this great

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fantasist would take these small, insignificant heroes

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and turn them into the overlords

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of each world that they created.

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So lots of fun. Uh,

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and so wasps, for example, is a title of one of his plays,

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birds frogs.

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And then in one the piece, he has a protagonist

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fatten up a dung beetle in order to fly up

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to Olympus on the back of it, like hon on, Pegasus,

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in order to negotiate a piece, for Athens

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and Sparta using Zeus as a mediator.

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So all that by way of saying insects, are fun

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to use and animals are fun to use to create lots of,

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interesting things for human beings.

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What essentially I did was, my main focus was Aristo,

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or sorry, was Plato's Apology of Socrates.

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And the most famous, image of it is, of course, Socrates

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as gadfly.

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Uh, and yet it seemed to me an odd choice if you want

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to in fact get off of the charge of, you know,

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corrupting the youth of Athens

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and introducing new gods in that.

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And if you wanna win your case, why is it

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that you would choose this bile

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and disgusting insect when you figure Athens

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as this noble steed

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and all you're doing is constantly biting it

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and, snapping at it

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and annoying it such

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that it'll ultimately get swatted and get killed?

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Odd, it seemed unusual to do.

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And very clearly, Socrates does get executed.

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He has to drink the hemlock.

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So in some sense, it,

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it's a failure as a defense speech.

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It's a great, defense of the life of philosophy.

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And the gadfly, of course,

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is now figured extremely prominently in, in the West.

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Uh, we use it all the time.

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If you look up any dictionary entry

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after that initial dictionary entry

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of it being like a horsely, the second entry describes it as

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somebody who persistently annoys somebody,

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particularly in political venues, to get things going.

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Uh, I wanted to look particularly at

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why he would choose that.

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And since I'd worked already on aristot needs and Homer,

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and had seen their usage of insects

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and, imagery

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that I thought there might be something there.

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So that was my initial catalyst, I guess.

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No, that's, that's a very good question.

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And so essentially what you have, if you go all the way back

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to Homer, he's the beginning of Western literature

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and, similes and metaphors are everywhere in Homer.

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And what's interesting is he uses a lot of animals,

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but normally what he does is he uses, say, a lion

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as your prime example of comparing a hero.

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Uh, Achilles fell upon the enemy like

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A lion upon, you know, some animals, right?

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So that's the kind of thing. And you use these kind of bold

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and noble and courageous, creatures

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to elevate your hero.

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Yet interestingly, Homer will on occasion use

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less noble animals such as wasps or flies.

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Uh, and some aren't going to be flattering portraits,

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and I won't go into all those details,

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but on occasion, he does choose a particular

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low insect like a fly,

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and uses it to, in fact, elevate a hero.

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So in one particular instance that tied in very nicely

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with Plato's, apology of Socrates was Menis, who is

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or was married to Helen, of course, Helen of Troy, chief

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for whom the whole war got going.

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Uh, he is now in book 17 acting as a kind of antagonist.

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And what he ends up doing is he tries to rescue,

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the body of a slain comrade.

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Uh, but he's up against all these Trojans fighting him.

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So Athena appears to him,

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and she imbues him with extra power, extra strength.

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But what she ends up doing,

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or what Homer ends up doing, is describing the kind

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of daring that she puts into mans the daring of a fly

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that despite constantly being swatted at by,

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human beings persists in trying to do what it wants to do.

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So weirdly, perhaps,

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unexpectedly you have men aus now likened

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to a fly rather than to what you might have expected, a lion

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or some wolf or something like that.

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So we see it in, the case of Homer,

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where he can use these lowly incept for lofty ends,

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which goes against the grain.

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So in fact, what I try to show in my, article is that

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not just Plato, but also his epic, predecessor,

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Homer can do something very similar to what Plato does

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with the gadfly, and then that's an antidepressant.

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Then you get Aristophanes in his comic version

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where the wasp, are usually seen as irascible,

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and, they're annoying

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and they're gonna constantly hassle you.

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But, Aristophanes will also highlight the fact

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that the wasps were used,

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or at least the, the Athenians,

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the old men describe themselves

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as wasps protecting their homeland against the Persian

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invaders a couple of generations before.

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So wasps are now figured as homeland security to defend

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and protect the homeland against any outside Maring forces.

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So you get this strange image

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of an insect doing something noble.

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Uh, and valorous,

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a Marshall prowess is all tied in with this.

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So when it comes to Socrates gadfly,

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although he's this annoying, disgusting insect

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that can attack and bite you

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and cause you to bleed, he's doing it for a purpose.

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He's doing it to, in fact, rouse us as human beings,

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more generally speaking now from our lethargy for our, from

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what con called our dogmatic slumbers,

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and to get us to think harder about we, what we're trying

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to do, in life, and not just sleep, walk through it.

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You know, as I mentioned at the very beginning,

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we still use the image of the gadfly today, right?

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Uh, and so this has powerful resonance and,

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but we also are well aware of everybody knows,

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or at least had any experience on a farm,

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or, you know, what a gadfly is.

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You know what a horse fly is.

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They, can really pester, they can really annoy.

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They can cause horses to, get out of control and wild.

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Uh, so they're kind of dangerous things,

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and we do have to watch them,

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and we have to, in some sense protect against 'em.

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And yet at the same time, they can be essential,

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when we get a bit too complacent with ourselves.

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Socrates themself a very polarizing figure,

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very fam famously Babington McCauley,

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the 19th century wig historian in a letter

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describes reading the Socratic Dialogues,

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and he goes, the more I read about Socrates,

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the less I'm surprised

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that they actually wanted to poison him.

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So he saw, Socrates as this horrific figure.

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Uh, whereas the whole point I think here is that artists

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and philosophers want to challenge us, want to get us out

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of our, as it were, of the ruts that we are all in.

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And in a polarizing world, you know, no one is all villain.

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No one is all hero. We're all a mixture of these things.

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And if you can take a figure, lake Socrates,

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who was ugly, he was kind of nasty.

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He didn't wash, he was unshare, all of these things.

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And yet, he ends up being this symbol of the,

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as it were, internal world of our minds

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and our thoughts as opposed to,

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so let's focus maybe on what's inside as opposed to what's,

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just on the outside.

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So more broadly speaking, I believe that the whole point

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of this, if you want to draw an isop moral from this

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particular fable, is that let's not judge by appearances.

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Let's not judge, by,

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what we might think is the initial effect,

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but stand back more broadly and kind of suss things out

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and accept the fact that yes, artists

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and philosophers might use something to provoke us,

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but they do it ultimately for our own good, whether

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or not we believe that to be the case.

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Uh, and quite often these guys are knocked out

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and taken out, just finished actually submitting something

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I'm still waiting to hear back.

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But, another take on this idea,

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of the tragic comic figure that is Socrates.

08:33.525 --> 08:36.285
So, in book, one of the Id

08:36.925 --> 08:38.885
Achilles ends up getting in an argument with,

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AGA Menon wants to kill him, but is stalk,

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but he has a big harangue with him, and he belittles him

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and berates him famously in book two, this,

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the Ugliest Man to come to, Troy, a fellow by the name

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of Thees, essentially makes the very same

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Argument that Achilles does, but he's ugly

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and he gets brow beaten by Odysseus.

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So what I am trying to look at in the Plato's apology is

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that, Socrates

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or Plato has figured, Socrates as both Achilles

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and the ascites,

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because he's saying exactly the same thing

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that Achilles is saying as his thees.

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He's trying to get Athens to change their ways

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to do something better, but

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because he's as ugly as thees, he's going

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to end up like thees as opposed to Achilles

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who makes his case,

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and ultimately, well, he will die at the end,

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but immediate he doesn't.

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But, so I, I'm trying to show

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that there's something similar going on once more Homeric

09:36.725 --> 09:39.045
influence upon Plato's writings.

"Insect Imagery and the Philosophical Gadfly: A Study of Socratic Defense"

00:00:00 - I've been, working on Plato, Aristo. He in Homer for quite some time. and I always had a kind of interest in esop. And, so all of these things came together, way back when I worked on my massive thesis. Insect imagery in the plays of Aristophanes sounds a bit dull, but in fact, aristo, he's this great fantasist would take these small, insignificant heroes and turn them into the overlords of each world that they created. So lots of fun. and so wasps, for example, is a title of one of his plays, birds frogs. And then in one the piece, he has a protagonist
00:00:42 - to Olympus on the back of it, like hon on, Pegasus, in order to negotiate a piece, for Athens and Sparta using Zeus as a mediator. So all that by way of saying insects, are fun to use and animals are fun to use to create lots of, interesting things for human beings. What essentially I did was, my main focus was Aristo, or sorry, was Plato's Apology of Socrates. And the most famous, image of it is, of course, Socrates as gadfly. and yet it seemed to me an odd choice if you want to in fact get off of the charge of, you know,
00:01:24 - and introducing new gods in that. And if you wanna win your case, why is it that you would choose this bile and disgusting insect when you figure Athens as this noble steed and all you're doing is constantly biting it and, snapping at it and annoying it such that it'll ultimately get swatted and get killed? Odd, it seemed unusual to do. And very clearly, Socrates does get executed. He has to drink the hemlock. So in some sense, it, it's a failure as a defense speech. It's a great, defense of the life of philosophy. And the gadfly, of course, is now figured extremely prominently in, in the West.
00:02:04 - If you look up any dictionary entry after that initial dictionary entry of it being like a horsely, the second entry describes it as somebody who persistently annoys somebody, particularly in political venues, to get things going. I wanted to look particularly at why he would choose that. And since I'd worked already on aristot needs and Homer, and had seen their usage of insects and, imagery that I thought there might be something there. So that was my initial catalyst, I guess. No, that's, that's a very good question. And so essentially what you have, if you go all the way back to Homer, he's the beginning of Western literature and, similes and metaphors are everywhere in Homer.
00:02:49 - but normally what he does is he uses, say, a lion as your prime example of comparing a hero. Achilles fell upon the enemy like A lion upon, you know, some animals, right? So that's the kind of thing. And you use these kind of bold and noble and courageous, creatures to elevate your hero. Yet interestingly, Homer will on occasion use less noble animals such as wasps or flies. and some aren't going to be flattering portraits, and I won't go into all those details, but on occasion, he does choose a particular low insect like a fly,
00:03:30 - So in one particular instance that tied in very nicely with Plato's, apology of Socrates was Menis, who is or was married to Helen, of course, Helen of Troy, chief for whom the whole war got going. he is now in book 17 acting as a kind of antagonist. And what he ends up doing is he tries to rescue, the body of a slain comrade. but he's up against all these Trojans fighting him. So Athena appears to him, and she imbues him with extra power, extra strength. But what she ends up doing, or what Homer ends up doing, is describing the kind

"The Complex Symbolism of Insects in Philosophy and Literature"

00:04:12 - that despite constantly being swatted at by, human beings persists in trying to do what it wants to do. So weirdly, perhaps, unexpectedly you have men aus now likened to a fly rather than to what you might have expected, a lion or some wolf or something like that. So we see it in, the case of Homer, where he can use these lowly incept for lofty ends, which goes against the grain. So in fact, what I try to show in my, article is that not just Plato, but also his epic, predecessor,
00:04:51 - with the gadfly, and then that's an antidepressant. Then you get Aristophanes in his comic version where the wasp, are usually seen as irascible, and, they're annoying and they're gonna constantly hassle you. But, Aristophanes will also highlight the fact that the wasps were used, or at least the, the Athenians, the old men describe themselves as wasps protecting their homeland against the Persian invaders a couple of generations before. So wasps are now figured as homeland security to defend and protect the homeland against any outside Maring forces.
00:05:30 - of an insect doing something noble. and valorous, a Marshall prowess is all tied in with this. So when it comes to Socrates gadfly, although he's this annoying, disgusting insect that can attack and bite you and cause you to bleed, he's doing it for a purpose. He's doing it to, in fact, rouse us as human beings, more generally speaking now from our lethargy for our, from what con called our dogmatic slumbers, and to get us to think harder about we, what we're trying to do, in life, and not just sleep, walk through it. You know, as I mentioned at the very beginning,
00:06:12 - and so this has powerful resonance and, but we also are well aware of everybody knows, or at least had any experience on a farm, or, you know, what a gadfly is. You know what a horse fly is. They, can really pester, they can really annoy. They can cause horses to, get out of control and wild. so they're kind of dangerous things, and we do have to watch them, and we have to, in some sense protect against 'em. And yet at the same time, they can be essential, when we get a bit too complacent with ourselves. Socrates themself a very polarizing figure, very fam famously Babington McCauley,
00:06:54 - describes reading the Socratic Dialogues, and he goes, the more I read about Socrates, the less I'm surprised that they actually wanted to poison him. So he saw, Socrates as this horrific figure. whereas the whole point I think here is that artists and philosophers want to challenge us, want to get us out of our, as it were, of the ruts that we are all in. And in a polarizing world, you know, no one is all villain. No one is all hero. We're all a mixture of these things. And if you can take a figure, lake Socrates, who was ugly, he was kind of nasty.
00:07:34 - And yet, he ends up being this symbol of the, as it were, internal world of our minds and our thoughts as opposed to, so let's focus maybe on what's inside as opposed to what's, just on the outside. So more broadly speaking, I believe that the whole point of this, if you want to draw an isop moral from this particular fable, is that let's not judge by appearances. Let's not judge, by, what we might think is the initial effect, but stand back more broadly and kind of suss things out and accept the fact that yes, artists

"The Tragicomic Nature of Socrates: A Comparative Analysis with Achilles and Thersites"

00:08:15 - but they do it ultimately for our own good, whether or not we believe that to be the case. and quite often these guys are knocked out and taken out, just finished actually submitting something I'm still waiting to hear back. But, another take on this idea, of the tragic comic figure that is Socrates. So, in book, one of the Id Achilles ends up getting in an argument with, AGA Menon wants to kill him, but is stalk, but he has a big harangue with him, and he belittles him and berates him famously in book two, this, the Ugliest Man to come to, Troy, a fellow by the name of Thees, essentially makes the very same
00:08:57 - and he gets brow beaten by Odysseus. So what I am trying to look at in the Plato's apology is that, Socrates or Plato has figured, Socrates as both Achilles and the ascites, because he's saying exactly the same thing that Achilles is saying as his thees. He's trying to get Athens to change their ways to do something better, but because he's as ugly as thees, he's going to end up like thees as opposed to Achilles who makes his case, and ultimately, well, he will die at the end, but immediate he doesn't. But, so I, I'm trying to show that there's something similar going on once more Homeric
00:09:36 -

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Wasps, and Gadflies: The Role of Insect Similes in Homer, Aristophanes, and Plato

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