Simmias of Thebes

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Simmias of Thebes (in Greek Σιμμίας; lived late 5th century BCE–early 4th century BCE) was a disciple of Socrates. In his Memorabilia, Xenophon included him in the inner circle of Socrates' followers.

Named in:

Plato: Phaedo (Cebes and Simmias as main discussion partners of Socrates), Crito 45b, Phaedrus 242b, Epistle XII, 363a
Xenophon: Memorabilia 1.2.48, 3.10.17.

[edit] Simmias as a character in Plato's Phaedo

Simmias is one of Socrates' interlocutors in Plato's Phaedo. This is a philosophical dialogue by Plato, so the analogy presented in it by the character Simmias, although summarized here, need not reflect the views of the historical Simmias.

Simmias Attunement Analogy (Plato: Phaedon,86a )

Body is visible, composite and mortal.
A harp is visible, composite and mortal.
When the harp is destroyed the tune which is ethereal, invisible and divine is also destroyed.
The soul is like a tune (harmonia) of the parts of the body. If the body is destroyed, the tune cannot survive.

Socrates attacks Simmias Analogy with three different arguments (Plato: Phaedon, 92a7-95a6):

Harmonia-argument would be a contradiction to the anamnesis-argument that Simmias had already agreed on before.
If the soul would be a tune, and bodies can be tuned differently, there would be more or lesser souls - which is not possible.
Also, moods and characters of the soul could not be explained: this would require a tune of the tune, a harmony or disharmony of the harmony.
If the soul would be at tune it could not resist the body or dominate him. But the soul does have these powers. # Thus it cannot (only) be a tune of the body.

Thus, Simmias' argument cannot be upheld.

Therefore when the body is destroyed (dies) the soul is also destroyed As we can see, this analogy is a nice counter-example to the kinship argument just advanced by Socrates.

[edit] In the later tradition

In addition to the references in Plato and Xenophon, Diogenes Laertius (2.124) mentions Simmias as the author of 23 brief dialogues, now lost, including On Philosophy and On Music.