Examples of metaphors used by Plato connected with archetypal symbols of ancient cosmology.

Abstract

The philosopher Plato speaks with metaphors; in them he hid many of his teachings; the metaphor forces the understanding to be clarified, to make an effort to decipher between the symbols, the meanings of an arcane and often sacred knowledge. I support the idea that Plato said much and expressed deep ideas using a symbolic language that was not at all explicit; a language that demanded an interpretative intellectual effort from the disciple; understanding that the teacher should not explain everything; In addition, every symbol is polysemic, it lends itself to multiple interpretations and each individual, depending on their nature and degree of intelligence, will understand what they have to understand. In the case of Plato and his metaphors, I chose two: the myth of the cave and that of the coachman, given that both are recurrent sacred symbols in other cultures such as Hindu and obvious Greek. The foregoing makes me consider that the selected Platonic metaphors have all an archetypal character and therefore were not simple philosophical inventions of the thinker; In light of precisely other traditions I intend in this article to decipher other meanings to these platonic metaphors that connect with the ancestral wisdom of ancient peoples.