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THE PLATONIC FRENZIES IN MARSILIO FICINO

WoU1iv J. H.icv..ii
In several publications, Jan Bremmer hasthoroughly and, in my opin-
ion, convincinglydeconstructed Karl Meulis and E.R. Dodds idea of
an ancient Greek shamanism.
1
In so doing, he has contributed consid-
erably to critical revision of a concept which, while originally derived
from a specifc Siberian context, was promoted as a universal complex
of presumably archetypal patterns in a bestselling book by Mircea Eliade
in 1o,
2
and got considerably out of hand ever since.
3
However, if we
follow Bremmer and discard the concept of an ancient Greek shaman-
ism, this does not mean that we have gotten rid of the archaic techniques
of ecstacy of Eliades subtitle: Bremmers discussions and references leave
no doubt about the fact that ecstatic or trance-like states, experiences and
techniques were frequently reported in ancient Greece as they have been
in many other parts of the world; and we might add that they were ofen
valued highly, as necessary conditions for, or means of access to, superior
or even absolute knowledge.
In short, to study and interpret the references to ecstatic or trance-like
states we need no grand cross-cultural framework of shamanism: on the
contrary, we may be better of without it. In the present article I hope to
demonstrate this at the example of Platos concept of mania, and the way
it was interpreted by the great Florentine Neoplatonist Marsilio Ficino
(11) as a means of ecstatic access to superior knowledge.
1
J.N. Bremmer, Te Early Greek Concept of the Soul (Princeton: Princeton University
Press, 18), i,; idem, Te Rise and Fall of the Aferlife: Te Read-Tuckwell
Lectures at the University of Bristol (London: Routledge, iooi), i,o.
2
M. Eliade, Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy (London: Routledge & Kegan
Paul, 1o; reprinted London: Arkana, 18).
3
As documented abundantly by the three-volume anthology by A.A. Znamenski,
Shamanism: Critical Concepts in Sociology (London: Routledge, ioo). For the devel-
opment of shamanism from a Siberian to a global concept, see especially R. Hutton,
Shamans: Siberian Spirituality and the Western Imagination (London and New York:
Hambledon & London, ioo1), K. von Stuckrad, Schamanismus und Esoterik: kultur- und
wissenschafsgeschichtliche Betrachtungen (Leuven: Peeters, ioo), and A.A. Znamenski,
Te Beauty of the Primitive: Shamanism and the Western Imagination (Oxford: Oxford
University Press, ioo,).
,, woU1iv ,. u.icv..ii
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Introduction: Te Meaning of Mania
It is well known that in Platos Phaedrus, we fnd not only the famous
mythical hymn of the Charioteer, but also a brief andtantalizing descrip-
tion of four frenzies, furies, or madnesses. Te considerable problems
of interpretation which these passages pose for the modern reader begin
withthe very term: maniainGreek, later translatedas furor inLatin. Plato
himself begins by explaining to Phaedrus that the concept of madness
could easily be misunderstood, pointing out that what he has in mind is
not the madness of insanity, but on the contrary, a heaven-sent state that
is in fact superior to normal sanity.
4
Tat a supposedly superior state of divine inspiration therefore does
not have a technical terminology of its own, but must be explained
indirectly by turning a negatively connotated term like madness into
a positive one, is highly signifcant. As formulated elsewhere in the
Phaedrus, it refects a notion of esoteric truth that will be understood
only by the elite of true philosophers, who are believed to be out of their
minds by the common man:
Standing aside from the busy doings of mankind, and drawing nigh to
the divine, (the true philosopher) is rebuked by the multitude as being
deranged, for they do not realize that he is full of God ().
5
For modern scholars intent on explaining the concept of mania to the
multitude of their colleaguesnot to mention the general public, the
problem is still the same: all the available options for translating the
term mania have pejorative or at least doubtful and hence misleading
connotations, and we simply do not have an English word that directly
conveys what Plato had in mind.
It is peculiar that this fact has not been a greater cause of concern for
scholars. How can we justify a situation in which the most infuential
philosopher of our intellectual tradition tells us that knowledge superior
to that of sane reason is given to us in a state of divine inspiration,
but afer more than two and a half thousand years we still have not
come up with a word for it? For in the Phaedrus at least, Plato leaves
no doubt about the priority of frenzied insight over merely profane,
rational argumentation. His previous argument, in which he had coolly
defended the sanity of the non-lover, turns out to have been a lie and
4
Plato, Phdr. iad.
5
Plato, Phdr. id.
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an ofence against the gods, for which they might well punish him with
blindness as they did in the case of Stesichorus.
6
Such punishment would
be ftting because the cynical rationality of the non-lover is the refection
of spiritual blindness: it is only in the lovers state of mania that our eyes
are opened to the truth.
If there is no neutral technical terminology for what Plato meant by
mania, we might ask ourselves how we would be likely to call it today.
My suggestion may seem somewhat radical at frst sight but will, I hope,
appear less so afer due consideration: the closest contemporary equiva-
lent I can think of is that of altered states of consciousness (ASCs). As is
well known, this term was introduced during the 1oos in an attempt to
make sense of the frenzies or madnesses induced by LSD.
7
Signifcantly,
LSD was described by some psychologists as a psychotomimetic sub-
stance, that is, it mimicked psychotic madness; but its defenders claimed
that what might look like psychosis was in fact a higher state of spiritual
insight.
8
Te structural parallel with Platos statement could therefore be
hardly more exact. Te feelings of resistance that such comparisons may
evoke with some academics are understandable enough; but they are not
very helpful if we want to understand the ecstatic dimension in Plato
and many later Platonists, who were faced with a quite similar kind of
scepticism against their contemporary equivalents to altered states, and
were at pains to try and refute it.
9
Platos discussion of the four frenzies belongs within a much wider
and more complex discursive feld, usually referred to by the general
6
Plato, Phdr. ia.
7
Te classic reference is C.T. Tart (ed.), Altered States of Consciousness (second edi-
tion; Garden City, NY: Anchor and Doubleday, 1,i). Although the concept of ASCs
was undoubtedly developed in an efort to make sense of the phenomenology of LSD
experiences, it is important to realize that Tarts volume also included non-drug expe-
riences such as hypnagogic states, dream consciousness, meditation, and hypnosis. Te
same is true of a recent landmark study, I. Baruss, Alterations of Consciousness: An Empir-
ical Analysis for Social Scientists (Washington, DC: American Psychological Association,
ioo), which has chapters for Wakefulness, Sleep, Dreams, Hypnosis, Trance,
Psychedelics, Transcendence and Death.
8
For a well-researched and very readable study that discusses these various perspec-
tives, see M. Lee and B. Shlain, Acid Dreams: Te Complete Social History of LSD. Te CIA,
the Sixties, and beyond (NewYork: Grove Press, 18,); for the intendedparallel withPlato,
see esp. pp. o1,,.
9
Tat already Plato knew he had to be on the defensive is evident from e.g. Phaedr.
ibc, which implies that whereas the ancients who gave things their names did not
consider madness appalling or disgraceful, contemporaries do look at it as shameful.
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label of ecstasy (ekstasis).
10
In the classical Greek context it includes
such terms as alloisis, kinsis, entheos and enthousiasmos, daimonismos,
theiasmos, apoplexia, ekplexis; and we will see that in later authors such
as Ficino it is connected with such terms as alienatio, abstractio, vaca-
tio, occupatio, instinctus, and raptus. What should be emphasized here
is that these unusual states were not seen as mere psychological or psy-
chiatric anomalies, but as phenomena with considerable epistemological
relevance for philosophers, for the simple reason that they were believed
to give access to a superior knowledge of some kind.
Platos frst frenzy was the prophetic one, represented by such examples
as the Delphic oracle or the Sibyls, who were claimed to have made their
predictions while in some kind of ecstatic altered state.
11
What Plato
means by his second frenzy is quite mysterious from the Greek text,
the linguistic complications of which have defeated most translators,
12
but in one way or another this so-called telestic frenzy had to do with
the performance of rites and purifcations for purposes of healing.
13
Tird comes the poetic frenzy: Plato emphasizes that technical skill does
not sumce for real poetry, which is created only when the Muses have
seized and taken possession of the poets soul, inspiring him to rapt
passionate expression.
14
Finally, Plato describes the fourth and highest
of the frenzies: the frenzy of passionate love (eros), inspired by visual
beauty and the desire to reach its ultimate source.
15
Te fnal culmination
of the erotic quest is described most eloquently elsewhere, by Diotima
in a famous passage of the Symposium;
16
but it should be noted that
what she described there can be called a vision only by analogy, for
10
See the exhaustive overview and terminological analysis, with abundant references
to classical sources for each term, by F. Pfster, Ekstase, in RAC (1,o), 8,.
11
Plato, Phdr. ib.
12
Plato, Phdr. ide. On the dimculties of the passage, see I.M. Linforth, Telestic
Madness in Plato, Phaedrus ide, University of California Publications in Classical
Philology 1 (1o): 1o1,i, who describes the sentence as so conceived and composed
that most commentators and probably most readers have found it baming (p. 1o) and
quotes Wilamowitz: Eine Erklrung habe ich nirgend gefunden und bin selbst ratlos
(p. 1o,).
13
See Linforth, Telestic Madness for his owninterpretationand for his disagreement
with F. Pfster, Der Wahnsinn des Weihepriesters, in Cimbria: Beitrge zur Geschichte,
Altertumskunde, Kunst und Erziehungslehre (Dortmund: Ruhfus, 1io), ,,oi. See also
Pfsters discussion in his Ekstase, ,o,,.
14
Plato, Phdr. i,a.
15
Plato, Phdr. ide.
16
Plato, Smp. i1oei11b.
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Platos text stipulates that what is perceived is not actually visible, nor can
its contents be described by words.
Divine Frenzy
How were the Platonic frenzies interpreted by Marsilio Ficino, the great
Florentine humanist who translated Platos complete dialogues into Latin
and thereby launched the revival of Platonism in the Renaissance? Not
only did Ficino believe, like Leonardo Bruni before him, that the Phae-
drus was the frst of Platos writings; but apart from describing the four
frenzies, he saw the dialogue itself as a product not merely of philosoph-
ical reasoning, but of poetic inspiration in a state of mania.
17
As formu-
lated by Michael J.B. Allen, Ficinos Phaedrus was the protodialogue par
excellence,
the seminal work from which (Platos) later works take their origin and in
which they are potentially contained
and a cipher to Platos subsequent mysteries.
18
Ficinos discussions of
the four frenzies can be subdivided into four texts or groups of texts,
which will be discussed here in that order:
19
his famous letter De divino
furore (dated as 1,, but probably written in 1oi),
20
a group of closely
17
M.J.B. Allen, Marsilio Ficino and the Phaedran Charioteer (Berkeley: University of
California Press, 181), 8. See in this regard the beginning of Ficino, In Phedrum: Our
Plato was pregnant with the madness of the poetic muse (. . . ). In his radiance, Plato
gave birth to his frst child, and it was itself almost entirely poetical and radiant (quoted
according to Allen, Marsilio Ficino, ,i; the frst child is of course the Phaedrus).
18
Allen, Marsilio Ficino, 1.
19
To this list one might add two letters, which both refer to the frenzies in order to
praise a contemporary person, but do not contain a substantial discussion. Te frst is by
FicinoandGiovanni Cavalcanti, andaddressedtoNaldoNaldi (Ficino, Opera, 8o); dated
by Kristeller between the end of 1,8 and beginning of 181, it mentions the four frenzies
and states that Naldo is inspired by the highest one, love (see also A. Sheppard, Te
Infuence of Hermias on Marsilio Ficinos Doctrine of Inspiration, Journal of the Warburg
and Courtauld Institutes [18o]: ,1o, esp. 1o81o). Te second letter is to Pietro
Dovizi da Bibbiena (Ficino, Opera, i,) and dated 11. It states that Lorenzo was moved
by the poetic and erotic frenzies in his youth, by the prophetic one in his mature years,
and fnally by the hieratic one (see also M.J.B. Allen, Te Platonism of Marsilio Ficino:
A Study of His Phaedrus Commentary, Its Sources and Genesis [Berkeley: University of
California Press, 18], 8 [n. io]).
20
See R. Marcel, Marsile Ficin: Commentaire sur le Banquet de Platon (Paris: Belles
Lettres, 1,o), i1,i18; and Sheppard, Infuence of Hermias, 8. Marcel notes that
the date 1,, is missing in several manuscripts and suggests that the copyist miswrote
MCCCCLVII as MCCCCLXII. Marcels dating seems convincing in the light of details
,,8 woU1iv ,. u.icv..ii
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related passages written during the second half of the 1oos, chapter two
of the thirteenth book of the Platonic Teology (18i), and fnally some
commentaries written as late as 1.
Ficinos letter De divino furore, addressed to Peregrino Agli, explains
how the soul, having recovered its wings, is separated from the body
and fies upwards to the heavens. Tis abstractio takes place by means
of the divine frenzy, which is divided into four parts: note, therefore,
that whereas Plato speaks of four frenzies, Ficinohere and elsewhere
sees them as four aspects of one and the same frenzy. He continues
by discussing all four of them, but with a very strong emphasisas
he himself admitson the frenzy of love, aroused by physical beauty
perceived by the eyes, and the frenzy of poetry, aroused by harmonious
music
21
that refects the numerical order and motions of the universe.
Inspired poets or musicians literally become vessels or instruments of
the divine:
they ofen utter such supreme words when inspired by the Muses, that
aferwards, whenthe rapture has lefthem, they themselves scarcely under-
stand what they have uttered.
22
Platos enigmatic second frenzy, the telestic one, is interpreted by Ficino
as centred in the mysteries; it consists of
a powerful stirring of the soul, in perfecting what relates to the worship of
the gods, religious observance, purifcation and sacred ceremonies.
23
such as Ficinos discussion of Hermes, which is more than just name-dropping and clearly
suggests he had read Corp.Herm. 1.o8, which was not yet available to him in 1,,. As
for Ficinos familiarity with the Phaedrus: Sheppard (Infuence of Hermias, ; cf. Allen,
Platonism, ,) argues that he possibly did not yet know the Phaedrus in Greek, but relied
on Leonardo Brunis partial translation of 1i. As pointed out by Allen (Marsilio Ficino,
1 [n. 1,]), no one has as yet attempted to compare Ficinos and Brunis Plato translations.
21
As explained by Allen (Platonism, ,,,), Ficinos conception of a poem was
essentially musical.
22
Ficino, Lettere 1, ed. S. Gentile (Florence: Olschki, 1o), i,: (. . . ) eosque poetas
qui celesti inspiratione ac vi rapiuntur adeo divinos sepenumero Musis afatos sensus
expromere, ut ipsimet postmodum extra furorem positi que protulerint minus intelligent.
EnglishtranslationinTe Letters of Marsilio Ficino, vol. 1 (NewYork: GingkoPress, 18,),
18.
23
Ficino, Lettere 1, ed. Gentile, i,: Primum quidem furorem difnit vehementiorem
animi concitationem in iis que ad deorum cultum, religionem, expiationem sacrasque
cerimonias pertinent perfciendis. Translation in Letters of Marsilio Ficino, vol. 1, 1. Te
corresponding, notoriously dimcult sentence in the Phaedrus was later translated by
Ficino as follows: Atqui adversus morbos et labores maximos ob antiqua delicta quandoque
divina indignatione mortalibus inminentes gentibus quibusdamalicunde furor adveniens ac
predicens quibus opus erat remedia adinvenit, confugiens ad vota cultusque deorum; unde
1ui vi.1oic iviziis i m.vsiiio iicio ,,
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And fnally, there is the frenzy proper to divination and prophecy,
which is possible
when the mind, withdrawn from the body, is moved by divine inspiration
(divino instinctu).
24
Ficino presents the four frenzies more systematically than Plato had
done, and emphasizes the deity assigned to each of them: Venus for the
erotic frenzy, the Muses for the poetic one, Dionysus for the mysteries,
and Apollo for the prophetic frenzy. Most innovative, however, is that he
also systematically distinguishes between a true and a false manifesta-
tion of each of the four frenzies.
25
Against Platos divine love stands the
irrational, common and completely insane love of bodily pleasure, or
sex;
26
against true poetry and music stands the superfcial and vulgar
music based merely on technique; against the mysteries stands supersti-
tion; and against true prophecy stands foresight or inference (coniectio)
based merely on human ingenuity. Tis procedure clearly expands upon
Platos distinction between the madness of insanity and the madness
of divine inspiration, and carries the same connotations of an esoteric
understanding reserved for the elite. Te multitude indulges in physical
sex, vulgar music, and superstitious practices, and puts its faith in mere
human predictions; but the true philosopher is oriented towards spiri-
tual beauty, tries to be in harmony with the celestial and divine order,
practices the true mysteries, and may attain a prophetic vision no longer
bound to the restrictions of time.
Soul Terapy
A second group of three texts discussing the Platonic frenzies originated
in the period 1o1o. Te earliest one was Ficinos Ion argumentum,
expiationes propitiationesque consecutus, incolumem reddidit possidentem et in presens
tempus et infuturum, absolutionempresentiummalorumrecte furenti occupatoque adeptus
(here quoted according to Allen, Marsilio Ficino, ,1,i). Note that in his translation of
Platos description of the erotic frenzy (Phdr. ide) Ficino switches the order of some
sentences, which actually results in a more logical order (Allen, Marsilio Ficino, ,,).
24
Ficino, Lettere 1, ed. Gentile, i,. Translation in Letters (above, n. ii), vol. 1, 1.
25
Ficino would repeat this in De amore ,.1,.
26
For Ficinos views on sexuality and their relation to his philosophy or eros, see
W.J. Hanegraaf, Under the Mantle of Love: Te Mystical Eroticisms of Marsilio Ficino
and Giordano Bruno, in Hidden Intercourse: Eros and Sexuality in the History of Western
Esotericism (eds. W.J. Hanegraaf and J.J. Kripal; Leiden: Brill, ioo8), 1,,io,.
,oo woU1iv ,. u.icv..ii
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dated by Kristeller between July 1o and April 1oo.
27
Te commentary
on the Phaedrus is dated, again by Kristeller, between April 1oo and
November 1o8.
28
And Ficinos Commentary on Platos Symposium on
Love, usually referred to as De amore, which discusses the frenzies in
speech seven, chapters fourteen and ffeen, was composed between
November 1o8 and July 1o.
Te Phaedrus commentary itself contains little of interest for us: Ficino
merely lists the frenzies in Platos original order,
29
and devotes a few
sentences to the distinction between divine and bestial love.
30
Much
more interesting are the two other texts, which are practically identi-
cal,
31
and where Ficinopossibly following Hermiass ffh-century com-
mentary
32
puts the frenzies in a newhierarchical order: frst the poetic,
then the mysterial, third the prophetic, and fourth the amatory.
33
Now I
believe it is essential here to see that Ficino proceeds as a doctor of souls
in the most literal sense of the word. His stated intention is to cure his
patients from the sick delirium of insanity and restore them to soberness
and clearmindedness. His basic perspective would be formulated with
perfect clarity much later, in the Platonic Teology:
As the Pythagoreans and Platonists believe, during the whole time the sub-
lime soul lives in this base body, our mind, as though it were ill, is tossed to
and fro and up and down in a kind of perpetual restlessness, and is always
asleep and delirious; and the individual movements, actions, and passions
of mortal men are nothing but the dizzy spells of the sick, dreams of the
sleeping, deliriums of the insane (. . . ). But while all are deceived, usually
27
Ficino, In Platonis Ionem, vel de furore poetico . . . , in Opera, 1i811i8. See also
the fundamental analysis by M.J.B. Allen, Te Soul as Rhapsode: Marsilio Ficinos Inter-
pretation of Platos Ion, in idem, Platos Tird Eye: Studies in Marsilio Ficinos Metaphysics
and Its Sources (Brookfeld, VT: Variorum, 1,), chapter 1, (1i,18 in original pagi-
nation). For the question of dating, see p. 1i, (n. ).
28
Ficino, In Phedrum, edited and translated by Allen as Texts II, chs. 1, in idem,
Marsilio Ficino, ,i8. On the question of dating, see p. 1,.
29
Ficino, In Phedrum, in Allen, Marsilio Ficino, ,,,.
30
Allen, Marsilio Ficino, ,8.
31
Cf. Allen, Platos Tird Eye, chapter 1, (1io1i,).
32
As argued by Sheppard, Infuence of Hermias, 1o,; but cf. M.J.B. Allen, Two
Commentaries on the Phaedrus: Ficinos Indebtedness to Hermias, in idem, Platos Tird
Eye, 11o1i, esp. 11i (n. ,), 11, who is sceptical about the infuence of Hermiass
commentary in this period of Ficinos life.
33
Ficino gives the same sequence, but in reverse order, in the letter to Naldo Naldi
(see n. 1, above). Here I will quote De amore according to the edition and translation of
the relevant chapters in Allen, Marsilio Ficino, iioii,. Allen recognizes the dimculty of
translating mysterialis and chooses to translate it as hieratic (Allen, Marsilio Ficino, ,o);
here I prefer to write mysterial.
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those are less deceived who at some time, as happens occasionally during
sleep, become suspicious and say to themselves: Perhaps those things are
not true which now appear to us; perhaps we are now dreaming.
34
Tis quotation is important for a proper understanding of what Ficino
has in mind when he discusses the frenzies. It is not just that the multi-
tude confuses a state of divine madness withinsanitythe real problemis
much more serious: all of us, in Ficinos opinion, are profoundly confused
about the relation between normality and abnormality. Te very state of
consciousness that we consider normal is in fact an abnormal one: we
are trapped in a sick delirium without even realizing it, and therefore if
someone begins to wake up to reality we believe he is going mad!
Ficino begins by giving his basic diagnosis of the human condition,
and then proceeds to outline the therapy. By having fallen into the body,
the soul has lost its unity; its higher faculties are virtually asleep, and its
lower ones are amicted with severe perturbations. As a result, the entire
soul is in a delirious state of confusion and discord, and can no longer tell
illusion from reality. Ficino then presents the frenzies as four successive
phases of one single, integrated method of healing:
1. He begins with music therapy. By means of musical sounds the
higher part of the soul is wakened from its torpor; and simultane-
ously, the lower part is brought from a state of discord and disso-
nance to one of concord and harmony. Here it should be noticed
that, in terms of Ficinos theory, it is not the mere physical efect of
sounds by which the healing is efected: afer all, not the body but
the soul is the patient here, and the healing process will be expe-
rienced subjectively as an alteration of ones habitual state of con-
sciousness.
35
i. Although harmony is now restored to the soul, it is still in a state
of multiplicity. Te second phase of the therapy consists of focusing
the various individual parts of the soul into one single direction, by
means of worship of the one God. Whereas the frst phase might
be seen as essentially passive, this second phase takes the form of
34
Ficino, Teologia Platonica 1.8. My translation is a mixture of the one given by
P.O. Kristeller, Te Philosophy of Marsilio Ficino (New York: Columbia University Press,
1), io8io, and the new standard translation by M.J.B. Allen and J. Hankins: Ficino,
Platonic Teology, vol. (Cambridge, MA: Te I Tatti Renaissance Library & Harvard
University Press, ioo), i,8i,.
35
See also Allen, Platonism, ,, where it is pointed out that what Ficino has in mind
as the highest state of harmony is the music of the spheres, which could only be heard
(. . . ) by the inner ear, the ear in an ecstasy of auditory trance or rapture.
,oi woU1iv ,. u.icv..ii
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active ritual practice: atonement, purifcations, sacrifces, and other
kinds of sacred rites. Again, the theory implies that mere outward
observance is useless: the whole point is to achieve a new state of
consciousness focused only on the divine.
. We nowhave a situation where the soul is in harmony and the mind
is properly directed; but the mind is still separate fromits own unity,
that is to say, from the (now awakened) higher part or head of the
soul. Tis situation, Ficino writes, Apollo remedies by means of the
prophetic frenzy, which unifes the soul. As a result of this process,
the soul now regains its ability to predict the future. It should be
noted thatboth in Plato and Ficinothe prophetic frenzy difers
from the other three in that it is not intrinsically connected to some
trigger. Te erotic frenzy is aroused by visual stimuli, the poetic one
by auditory ones, and the mysterial one by ritual acts. Te prophetic
frenzy, however, seems unique inthat it is presumably a gifof divine
grace.
. Te prophetic frenzy has allowed the soul to regain its essential
unity, but it is still separate from the superessential One, God him-
self. It is by means of the fourth and fnal frenzy, that of love, that the
unifed soul is recalled back to its source. Ficino here defnes love
not only (in line with Plato) as desire for divine beauty, but also (in
a more Christian vein) as a moral ardour for the good. Presum-
ably, then, the fnal phase in the healing of the soul culminates in a
state of transcendent vision, as described by Diotima in the famous
Symposium passage referred to earlier.
If we consider this four-phase therapy closely, we might better under-
stand why it is that Ficino always pays most attention by far to the poetic
frenzy. It is by means of music and poetry that the soul (or rather, its
higher part) receives its basic wake-up call, short of which no healing is
possible at all; andthis frst therapeutic phase is inmany respects the most
fundamental one as well.
36
If completed successfully, the soul is awake
and restored to harmony; afer that decisive step, it may still have a long
way to go, but because the essential illness has been cured, one may trust
the rest of the healing process to take its natural course. Ficino closes his
discussion in De amore ,.1 by linking the four frenzies with four phases
in the progress of the Phaedran charioteer. Te starting point is the char-
36
Here I difer from Allen (Platonism, ,o), who argues that the role of poetry in
this sequence was clearly subordinate because it marked the beginning stage only.
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ioteers obviously chaotic trajectory caused by the unruly bad horse. Te
charioteer successively becomes aware of his situation, takes control of
the unruly horse, unifes himself, and fnally heads towards and reaches
the universal One.
Afective States of Reason
Te relevance to our topic of Ficinos Platonic Teology (published in
18i) might easily be overlooked, since it does not explicitly devote a
chapter to the frenzies. Tey are in fact central, however, to chapter two
of book thirteen, which purports to demonstrate howthe soul dominates
the body. Tis chapter amounts to a catalogue of the various altered states
associated with ecstasy, defned in general as afective states of reason.
37
Ficino discusses them under four headings: those of the philosophers,
the poets, the priests, and the seers or prophets.
Te last three of these are clearly equivalent to the frst three of the
frenzies, in the order of succession that Ficino had established in the Ion
argumentumand De amore. One might therefore be surprised not to fnd
a fnal sectiondevotedto those who are inspiredby the fourthandhighest
frenzy, the erotic one. However, there are several plausible explanations
for this omission. First, as is evident from Platos two dialogues on love
37
Te title chapter refers to them as the second sign of the souls dominance over
the body, hence Signum secundum: ab afectibus rationis. I fnd it unfortunate that the
explicit reference to afects is lost in the Allen and Hankins translation (above, n. ),
which renders the second part as from what the reason accomplishes. Te same term
afectus is also used in the title of 1.1, ab afectibus phantasiae, translated by Allen and
Hankins as the phantasys emotions. Presumably, Allen and Hankins found a translation
like the emotions of reason confusing or evencontradictory, but the result is nevertheless
that the clearly intended parallel between 1.1 and 1.i is lost. Te termafectus is in fact
dimcult to translate. Marcel has les afections de la raison, but whatever dictionaries may
say, the romantic associations of the English afection (one may experience feelings of
afection for a person) make it unsuitable as a translation of afectus. In Dutch the word
canbe translatedquite accurately as gemoedsaandoening. Literally this means something
that afects the gemoed, a rather old-fashioned term which is so close to the term ziel
(soul) that it could be used as a synonym (hence in the Dutch language we actually fnd
zielsaandoening as a close equivalent to gemoedsaandoening). Te usual dictionary
translation of gemoedsaandoening is, in turn, emotion, so if we wish to fnd an accurate
English term this does not help us much further. If we would take the word emotion
literally as meaning something that moves the soul, it could be considered quite accurate;
but unfortunately, due to its common occurrence in everyday language it has lost much
of its original connotations of a specifc state of the soul. My solution afective state is
certainly not perfect, but I believe it is closer to what Ficino meant to convey.
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and from Ficinos De amore, the erotic drive is in fact the fundamental
drive of the true philosopher: it is eros, the desire for beauty, that spurs
on the soul in all the phases of its quest for the divine. Hence, Ficinos
frst section On the philosophers can be read as pertaining to all those
who are driven by this force, thereby making a ffh and fnal section
On the lovers redundant: these lovers, afer all, are philosophers in the
literal sense of lovers of wisdom. Second, according to the logic of Ficinos
therapy for healing the soul, exemplifed by the charioteer, the fourth
and fnal frenzy pertains to the fight of the unifed soul to the One. In
this phase, the mind has already been unifed with the soul, and thus
no longer exists as a separate entity; as a result, it would not have been
correct to discuss it in this chapter as one of the afective states of reason.
Ficino frst discusses how in the case of the philosophers, these afec-
tive states of reason demonstrate the souls power over the body. His
argument boils down to a list of ecstatic states as reported of Epimenides,
Pythagoras, Zoroaster, Socrates, Plato, Xenocrates, Archimedes of Syra-
cuse, Plotinus, Heraclitus, and Democritus, most of whom he believes to
have been melancholics. His conclusion states in no uncertain terms that
the acquisition of important newknowledge seems to require such states:
all those
who have discovered something important in any of the more noble arts
have principally done so when they have abandoned the body and taken
refuge in the citadel of the soul.
38
Te rest of the chapter follows the order of the frenzies as established
in the Ion argumentum and De amore. As for the poetic frenzy, Ficino
demonstrates its divine origin by emphasizing that it may cause wholly
unskilled men to produce great poetry, and by repeating that afer their
frenzy has abated, they themselves no longer understand what they have
sung. It was in fact God himself who spoke loudly through them as
through trumpets.
39
Ficinos section on the priests again consists of a
long series of reports about altered states: St Paul himself ascended to
the third heaven in a state of abstractio, the uneducated apostles were
transformed into sublime theologians by divine inspiratio, many ancient
38
Ficino, Teologia Platonica 1.i, translation Allen and Hankins, Platonic Teology,
vol. , 1i.
39
As recently demonstrated by M. van den Doel, Ficino en het voorstellingsvermogen:
Phantasia en Imaginatio in kunst en theorie van de Renaissance (diss. University of Ams-
terdam, ioo8), 1io, this detail was adopted in the most literal sense by Michelangelo
in his De sogno.
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priests danced in a frenzy and proclaimed marvels due to a state of
instinctus caused by daemons, St Augustine describes the trance state of
a priest of Calama, and so on and so forth. Ficino fnishes by referring
again to the Phaedrus passage about the man flled with God whom the
rabble believes to be mad.
Finally, in a lengthy and complex section, Ficino discusses seers and
prophets. Essential is that when the bonds with the body are loosed in
a state of vacatioof which Ficino distinguishes seven kinds
40
their
rational soul is no longer bound by the constraints of time and space,
having regained its natural state of being everywhere and always (ubique
et semper). Te prophet is of course defned by his ability to see the future,
and Ficino adds that he can see the past as well; but in addition, he
alludes to a passage in Corpus Hermeticum 11 to emphasize that the seer
can also freely travel to a multitude of places, even the most remote.
41
Again, we would seriously misunderstand Ficino if we were to dismiss
such references to out-of-body experiences and clairvoyant abilities
as mere oddities belonging to the fringe domain of the paranormal;
on the contrary, he consistently presents them as avenues of superior
knowledge, belonging to the very highest level of perception that may
be attained by the rational soul.
Afewyears before his death, in 1o, Ficino published a series of Com-
mentaria in Platonem, including two further commentaries on the Pla-
tonic frenzies, written a few years earlier.
42
Both are somewhat rambling
and sketchy, and can be discussed here briefy.
43
In the frst commentary,
Ficinos focus is again on the poetic frenzywhich requires a tender,
sof and intact soul
44
and he now asks himself why it is that Socrates
chose to put poetry third. Plato, he proceeds to explain, had specifc rea-
sons for presenting the frenzies in the order that he chose. Prophecy per-
tains mainly to knowledge, the mysteries to volition, poetry to hearing,
and love to seeing. Apparently, then, these four have emerged in that
order: for we frst know God, then we wish to worship him, next we
sing hymns to him, and fnally we love him afer having gazed at sen-
sible beauty. Reading Ficinos explanation here, one cannot help think-
40
Final section of Teologia Platonica 1.i: Septem vacationis genera, translation
Allen and Hankins, Platonic Teology, vol. , 1,o1o.
41
Ficino, Teologia Platonica 1.i, translation Allen and Hankins, Platonic Teology,
vol. , 11. Te reference is to Corp.Herm. 11.18ii.
42
See Allen, Marsilio Ficino, 1io.
43
Allen nevertheless devotes an entire chapter to them (Platonism, 1o,).
44
Ficino, De furore poetico . . . , in Allen, Marsilio Ficino, 8i8.
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ing that the logic of the argumentation is less compelling than the one
that guided his earlier sequence of poetry, mysteries, prophecy and love.
Ficino himself was aware of the contrast, for he points out that whereas in
the Ion Argumentumand De amore he arranged the frenzies in the order
pertaining to the souls restoration, he has now arranged them in accor-
dance with the actual origin of frenzy.
45
Finally, in the second of these
late commentaries, Ficino merely touches briefy on some points already
made earlier, and further refers the reader to his Ion Argumentum, De
amore, and Platonic Teology. It sumces to point out, he writes, that Plato
and the Platonists put the divine frenzy far before human wisdom.
Concluding Remarks
What, then, can we conclude about the Platonic frenzies in Ficinos
work? First, I would like to repeat that we should seriously consider the
terminological problemwith which I began this article: the absence of an
adequate technical terminology for what Plato and Ficino referred to as
mania and furor is a major obstacle that must be removed frst, or at the
very least, recognized. Although admittedly not unproblematic,
46
using
the terminology of altered states of consciousness might be a step in the
right direction.
47
45
Ficino, De furore poetico . . . , in Allen, Marsilio Ficino, 88,. It might be interest-
ing here to mention a further observation about the poetic frenzy. Any of the four frenzies
has a power so overwhelming that the one who experiences it raves, exults, and exceeds
the bounds of human behaviour; in short, he really does behave like a madman. But no
madman is content with simple speech: he typically bursts out in non-discursive forms of
expression such as songs and poems. Hence, one might say that in fact, each of the four
frenzies expresses itself in the form of poetic madness (Allen, Marsilio Ficino, 88,).
46
Even apart from the problem of defning consciousness as such, the term altered
states of consciousness would seem to imply the assumption of a stable baseline state;
but since the existence of any such stability in our normal psychological functioning is
questionable to say the least, one might prefer to speak of alterations of consciousness
(Baruss, Alterations, 1o). Another problem with the ASCs terminology might be its
close association with the countercultural agendas and spiritual concerns of the 1oos, as
a result of which it is ofen seen carrying a hidden agenda of going beyond the scholarly
or scientifc study of ASCs to such non-academic concerns as promoting psychedelics as
avenues to the attainment of higher consciousness.
47
Te only Renaissance scholar, to my knowledge, who has seriously addressed the
terminological problem and its theoretical corollaries, is G. Tomlinson, in his fascinating
study Music in Renaissance Magic: Towards a Historiography of Others (Chicago: Univer-
sity of Chicago Press, 1), 1,188 (chapter ,), where he makes good use of anthro-
pological perspectives on trance and possession states. A discussion of his general dis-
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Second, the case of the frenzies forces us to examine our background
assumptions about what counts as knowledge. I have been arguing
that for Ficino as for Plato, the various altered states falling within the
semantic range of ecstasy were means of access to superior knowledge
inaccessible to a normal sober state of consciousness. Since this reduces
normal rationality to a subordinate and merely propaedeutic role, it has
far-reaching implications for how we look at the many pages which
Ficino devotes to straightforward normal philosophy: to put it briefy,
how could he ever have been confdent that, from a superior prophetic
perspective, rational discourse would be anything more than (to repeat
his own formulation) the sick delirium of the insane?
Finally, Ficinos frenzies confront us head-on with a basic hermeneuti-
cal truth: the problem of correctly understanding him does not so much
lie in what he has written, but rather, in ourselves. Trying to put our-
selves in a frenzy like Socrates will certainly do nothing to solve that
problemalthough some readers might be surprised to learn that quite
some scholars belonging to the religionist branch of religious studies
would claim precisely that
48
, but adopting what is essentially the per-
spective of Stesichorus will leave us equally blind. Somehow, then, we
might need to steer a course that avoids both the Scylla of frenzy and
the Charybdis of soberness if we want to do justice, as scholars, to what
Ficino would like us to discover.
tinction between possession and soul loss and their relation to the frenzies would have
required another paper (see, however, my review in Aries ii [1]: 1181i); and all
the more so because of their complex relation to the notoriously problematic concept of
shamanism which I mentioned (with reference to Jan Bremmer) in the introduction of
this contribution.
48
Te classic (or notorious) statement of this position is R. Otto, Te Idea of the Holy:
An Inquiry into the Non-Rational Factor in the Idea of the Divine and its Relation to the
Rational (fourth edition; London: Milford, 1io), 8: Te reader is invited to direct his
mind to a moment of deeply-felt religious experience, as little as possible qualifed by
other forms of consciousness. Whoever cannot do this, whoever knows no such moments
in his experience, is requested to read no further.