The Jar of Plato: Some Thoughts About the Syncretisitic Plato-Diogenes Motive in Gazel 17 by the Ottoman poet Fıṭnat Ḫānım

Abstract

The present article explores the syncretistic Plato-Diogenes motive in the 3rd couplet of Gazel 17 (Çeçen) by Ottoman poet Fıṭnat Ḫānım. Within this passage, the motive appears in the form of Plato’s epithet ḫum-nişīn (‘jar-sitter’). The motive of Plato’s jar, even if not unknown in the Ottoman tradition, presents a curious phenomenon in the context of oriental literary reception of Greek philosophers. Contrary to the opinion that the motive stems from an arbitrary confusion between the two poets, I will demonstrate that the usage was deliberate and had its literary antecedent within the older Persian tradition (at least in Gazel 306 [Clarke] by Hafez). Furthermore, I will point out that Plato’s jar can have two different metaphoric functions, one as part of Plato’s traditional role (Plato as a symbol of the greatest level of wisdom), and the other as its creative variation (Platon as a mecnūn-like figure). Finally, I argue that the usage in the gazel by Fıṭnat Ḫānım is creative, whereby I base my opinion on, first, a comparison with two more instances of the epithet ḫum-nişīn in couplets by poets Belīġ (d. 1760/61) and ʿIzzet Molla (1785–1829), second, a comparison of the usage of the motive in the gazel by Hafez, and third, a close reading of the 3rd couplet of Fıṭnat’s gazel.