This article examines the ways in which Parmenides and Plato
avail themselves of the literary motif of the charioteer's journey for
philosophical discourse. I argue that the Phaedrus' myth of the soul as a
charioteer exemplifies Plato's literary and philosophic appropriation of
the charioteer allegory in Parmenides' proem and of Parmenides' concept
of being, showing how the literary study of intertexts can be applied
to questions of both content and form in philosophy.
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