THE IRREDUCIBILITY OF MYTH: PLATO'S PHAEDRUS, APOLLO, ADMETUS, AND THE PROBLEM OF PEDERASTIC HIERARCHY

Through a close analysis of Phaedrus' speech in Plato's Symposium, this essay shows the inadequacy of the reductive categories of active erastes and passive eromenos to critical analysis of Greek homoerotic love. The same conceptual inadequacy is demonstrated in the deeply embedded mythological paradigms that structured Greek consciousness, as seen especially in the myth of Apollo and Admetus, which is here argued to be fifth century in date.