In the first part of this article, a parallel theoretical approach has been attempted regarding the means and processes through which the psycho-physical reactions of an ideal lover-beholder are presented on his encountering the beauty of animate forms in Phaedrus and The Triumph of Life correspondingly. Despite some kind of initial disparity existing in the comparison between Plato΄s mainly ontological approach and Shelley΄s early XIXth century epistemological perspective, the epistemological data culminating in a consciousness crisis, and the passage from the aesthetic category of the beautiful to that of the sublime, appear to be quite similar in the two works. The symbolism of the half-lit cave, though not appearing in Phaedrus, stands for both Plato and Shelley as the basis of a visual/optical parable for different degrees and levels of understanding and states of consciousness. The blinding to the non-heavenly soul and mortal eye celestial pageantry of the immortal gods in Phaedrus seems to stand, in a contrapuntal way, for the partial darkness of the platonic cave in the Republic. The way these issues are presented in the cave of Shelley΄s poem will be traced and analysed through a method congenial to the subject, based on scientific data and recent academic scholarship. This analysis, which aims to evaluate the process of sense perception and the ensuing states of consciousness on beholding the beauty of animate forms, will appear in the second part of this article.
