Abstract

In his Memoirs of Socrates at 3.11 Xenophon reports a dialogue of Socrates with Theodote, a high-ranking prostitute, which looks to be unique in the ancient Greek canon in representing a philosophical exchange of ideas between a man and woman. But what are we to make of the dialogue between them? The mere occurrence of the dialogue alone is surely not enough to make Xenophon’s Socrates out to be a feminist. In the attempt to understand the exchange between them I argue it is important to note that Theodote’s offer for Socrates to cross the line from the mind to the body makes literal and commercial sense, while Socrates’ description of his male followers as “girlfriends” does neither. Moreover, the biting irony of the dialogue’s conclusion suggests that he would not have wanted her to join his male followers, thus breaking with their established women-stay-at- home social conventions. Xenophon’s Theodote dialogue, I conclude, emphatically does not make Socrates out to be a feminist, at least not in the sense of being willing to accept female followers.