Seriousness and joke in the scene of the Gorgias

Abstract

In a central passage of the Gorgias, Callicles interrupts the conversation between Socrates and Polus to ask Chaerephon weather Socrates is talking seriously or not. In our communication we analyse Chaerephon’s answer to Callicles as a part of Plato’s strategy on Socrates. The use of ὑπερφυῆ / ὑπερφυῶς will take us to a kind of serious exaggeration and exaggerated seriousness in the Socratic statements created by Plato.

Keywords: Plato, Gorgias, rhetoric.