“The greatest of blessings come to us through madness, when it is sent as a gift of the gods.” — Plato, Phaedrus 244a
Divine Madness in Phaedrus
In Phaedrus, Socrates distinguishes two kinds of madness: one arising from human disease, the other “a divine release from the customary habits.” Divine madness is therefore not a blanket praise of every form of madness, but a god-given inspiration whose fruits Plato examines in prophecy, initiation, poetry, and love.
At 265a–b, Socrates gives the fourfold division: “[P]rophecy was inspired by Apollo, the mystic madness by Dionysus, the poetic by the Muses, and the madness of love, inspired by Aphrodite and Eros, we said was the best.” — Plato, Phaedrus 265a–b, trans. Harold North Fowler
1. Prophetic Madness — Apollo
Socrates first invokes the prophetess at Delphi and the priestesses of Dodona, who, “when they have been mad have conferred many splendid benefits upon Greece.” He contrasts this god-given prophecy with human augury conducted through signs, concluding that “madness, which comes from god, is superior to sanity, which is of human origin.”
2. Initiatory or Ritual Madness — Dionysus
Plato describes an affliction connected with “some ancient guilt,” for which divine madness discovers a release “by purifications and sacred rites.” This is the second form named at 265b: mystic, initiatory, or telestic madness, assigned to Dionysus. Its setting is purification and sacred initiation, not mere emotional excess.
3. Poetic Madness — the Muses
The Muse-inspired form “takes hold upon a gentle and pure soul, arouses it and inspires it to songs and other poetry.” Plato adds that the poet who approaches the Muses without divine madness will not succeed: “the poetry of the sane man vanishes into nothingness before that of the inspired madmen.”
4. Erotic Madness — Aphrodite and Eros
The fourth and highest form is the madness of love. In the sight of earthly beauty, the soul may recollect the true Beauty it once beheld and begin to recover its wings. [1] “This is, of all inspirations, the best and of the highest origin to him who has it or who shares in it.” — Plato, Phaedrus 249d, trans. Harold North Fowler For Plato, erotic mania is more than bodily desire. At its highest, it is a recollection of Beauty and an upward movement of the soul toward the divine.
Primary Sources
Plato, Phaedrus, trans. Harold North Fowler, especially 244a–245c, 249d–252c, and 265a–b. Plato, Phaedrus, trans. Benjamin Jowett, online edition.