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The Curriculum Vitae of Duris of Samos

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

Andrew Dalby
Andrew Dalby
Affiliation:
London House for Overseas Graduates
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Extract

Duris of Samos is significant enough, among lost Hellenistic historians, for a paragraph or two to be devoted to him in most works on the history or literature of the period. For the last two centuries such paragraphs have been saying among other things that Duris went to Athens and studied under Theophrastus. But Athenaeus 128a, the source cited for this statement, does not support it unless a doubtful conjecture is admitted to the text.

Type
Shorter Notes
Information
The Classical Quarterly , Volume 41 , Issue 2 , December 1991 , pp. 539 - 541
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1991

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References

1 E.g. Barron, J. P., ‘The Tyranny of Duris of Samos’, CR n.s. 12 (1962), 189–92Google Scholar: ‘Together with his brother Lynceus… Duris studied under Theophrastus… Master of the Academy (sic) for thirty-five years, from 322/1.’

2 Duris is ranged on the tragic side by Dionysius of Halicarnassus, On Composition 4.30; so is Polybius, and that takes some explaining. Polybius himself (2.56) had attacked emotive historiography, though without naming Duris. The surviving fragments of Duris might be characterised as ‘romantic’ or ‘melodramatic’ rather than ‘tragic’; certainly they are anything but critical.

3 E.g. Brink, C. O., ‘Tragic History and Aristotle's School’, Proceedings of the Cambridge Philological Society, 186 (1960), 14–19CrossRefGoogle Scholar: ‘Duris, who had sat under Theophrastus and who had written about subjects that were popular in the Peripatos…’ The debate is summarised by Albin, Lesky, A History of Greek Literature2 (Eng. trans., London, 1966), p. 765.Google Scholar

4 E.g. Walbank, F. W., Polybius (Berkeley and London, 1972), p. 35Google Scholar. See also his important ‘History and Tragedy’, Historia 9 (1960), 216–34.Google Scholar

5 Okin, L., Studies on Duris of Samos (Ann Arbor, 1974Google Scholar), the microfilm of a UCLA thesis.

6 Okin, L., ‘A Hellenistic Historian Looks at Mythology’, Panhellenica (Lawrence, Kansas, 1980), pp. 97, 105Google Scholar. The question at issue is what occasioned Philoxenus’ poem Cyclops, or Galatea. Unluckily for Okin's argument, Duris' opinion (Scholia on Theocritus 6 argumentum) appears to have differed entirely from that held by one who certainly did study at the Lyceum, Phaenias of Eresus (Epitome of Athenaeus 6f–7a).

7 Kebric, R. B., In the Shadow of Macedon: Duris of Samos (Wiesbaden, 1977)Google Scholar. See also his ‘A Note on Duris in Athens’, Classical Philology 69 (1974), 286–7.Google Scholar

8 Besides Athenaeus 128a Kebric here cites Suda s.v. Λυγκεύς and Athenaeus 100e, but these two texts link only Lynceus and Theophrastus, saying nothing of Duris.

9 None of the fragments of Duris is overtly autobiographical. Several of those of Lynceus are, but none mentions his brother. It is an inference (a probable one) from Athenaeus 128a–b, not an assertion by Lynceus, that he was himself present at the two dinners mentioned here. Lynceus may well have spent a long time in Athens: he was the author of Reminiscences of Menander and of other gossipy sketches of Athenian society. Therefore the date of these dinners tells us little about the date at which he arrived, still less Duris.

10 Twice Athenaeus mentions Duris and Lynceus in the same sentence. One is at 128a, quoted below. The other is at 337d: Λυγκεύς δ' ό Σάμιος ό Θεοφράστου μν μαθητς Δούριδος άδελφς το τς ίστορίας γράψαντος τυραννήσαντος τς πατρίδος ‘Lynceus of Samos, pupil of Theophrastus and brother of Duris (who wrote histories and was tyrant of his country)…’ This says nothing about whether Duris and Lynceus were together, and noticeably fails to confirm that Duris studied under Theophrastus.

11 Korais, A., manuscript note quoted by J. Schweighäuser, Animadxersiones in Athenaei Deipnosophistas, ii (Strasbourg, 1802), pp. 386–7.Google Scholar

12 Athenaeus 128a (Marcianus 447 fo. 29 verso). In the Epitome of Athenaeus (MSS. C, E and Hoeschl.) the sentence is roughly abridged: ‘Ιππόλοχος ό Μακεδών τοῖς χρόνοις γέγονε κατ Λυγγέα κα Δοριν τοὺς Σαμίους Θεοφράστου δ το’ Ερεσίου μαθητής συνθήκας είχταύας… Peppink, S. P. in Athenaei Dipnosophistarum epitome (Leiden, 1937–1939Google Scholar), distracted by what was by his time the received text of the Deipnosophists, prints μαθητάς.

13 Athenaeus 337d, quoted above, note 10. The similar statement in Suda s.v. Λυλκεύς is probably not independent of Athenaeus. As to their relationship Athenaeus cites no authority, but seems to have had access to Lynceus' letters and memoirs and to some of the works of Duris, so there is no good reason to doubt his statement. As to Lynceus' studies Athenaeus had the evidence of Hippolochus' letter to Lynceus: σὺ δέ μόνον έν 'Αθήναις μένων εύδαιμονίζεις τς Θεοφράστου θέσεις άκούων, ‘You simply stay in Athens and find your pleasure in the lectures of Theophrastus…’ (Athenaeus 130d). For a translation of Hippolochus' letter with a commentary see Dalby, A., ‘The Wedding Feast of Caranus the Macedonian’, Petits propos culinaires 29 (July 1988), 37–45.Google Scholar

14 Athenaei Deipnosophistarum libri XV, ed. Dindorf, G. (Leipzig, 1827Google Scholar); Athenaei Deipnosophistae, ed. Meineke, A. (Leipzig, 1858–1859Google Scholar); Athenaei Naucratitae Deipnosophistarum libros XV, ed. Kaibel, G. (Leipzig, 1887–1890Google Scholar); Athenaeus, The Deipnosophists, ed. and tr. Gulick, C. B. (London etc., 1927–1941).Google Scholar

15 According to Ferrero, G., ‘Tra poetica ed istorica: Duride di Samo’, Miscellanea di studi alessandrini in memoria di A. Rostagni (1963), pp. 68–100Google Scholar, ‘sembra quasi che i due fratelli costituiscano una sorta di inseparabili Dioscuri della cultura samia dell ‘epoca’; Robert, Kebric, In the Shadow of Macedon: Duris of Samos (Wiesbaden, 1977), p. 20Google Scholar asserts ‘the fact that Duris and Lynceus led the island's cultural rejuvenation’. There is room for a study of Lynceus that stays closer to the evidence. The numerous, brief fragments of his works, all preserved by Athenaeus, have never been collected and printed separately.