Plato and the Charm of Epideictics in the Menexenus

The aim of this paper is to show that Plato in the Menexenus indicates the possible function of epideictics in the ideal city. Of course, in the first section critics discover shadows of irony. The result, however, that derives from reversing the content and the form, is not acceptable. Plato recognizes the praise of the glorious death as the best frame to draw the katholou of the ideal city and to appease the desire for elegance. Certainly, on the trail of Gorgias, the charm of epideictics overwhelms the soul: the speech that provides knowledge, the speech that depends on research, on the questioning of Socrates, is the reliable pharmakon for the παιδεία