Divine and Human Laughter in Later Platonism
Plato’s dialogues contain much laughter, sometimes expressing personal or shared pleasure, but often aggressive or malicious (a phenomenon examined in Philebus). Later Platonists, whose texts did not dramatize social interactions, have less to say about laughter and treat it with reserve. Porphyry’s Plotinus never laughs, though he smiles tolerantly at Porphyry’s misunderstanding of his metaphysics (a scene modeled on a passage in Plato’s Parmenides). So the famous remark that Longinus was philologos but not philosophos was probably not aggressive, but a witty riposte to Longinus’ wordplay in the titles of a pair of texts criticizing Plotinus’ philosophy. Later Platonists increasingly favor a serious demeanor, treating laughter with reserve. For Iamblichus, laughter is a merely human trait that obstructs assimilation to the divine. Yet Syrianus and his pupils find in the laughter of Homer’s gods a celebration of divine providence, inspired by Plotinus’ playfully serious reflections on the seriousness of play.