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Isocrates and Recitations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

H. Ll. Hudson-Williams
H. Ll. Hudson-Williams
Affiliation:
University of Liverpool
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Extract

Little has been said as to how Isocrates' λγοι were published. It is commonly assumed that they were written for a reading public but for greater effect were given a fictitious dramatic setting. Such a generalization, although partly true, needs qualification. This article attempts to prove the following points:

(a) Isocrates wrote for a listening, as well as for a reading, public.

(b) Failure to recognize indications of this in his works has led to misinterpretation and mistranslation, especially of certain words used in a semi-technical sense.

(c) There has been a tendency to confuse references to a real audience who will actually be listening to the λόγος with references to a fictitious audience introduced as a picturesque literary device.

(d) The Panegyricus provides an example of this. It is not, as is generally supposed, addressed to an imaginary audience in Olympia or some other πανγυρις but to real audiences in Athens, as well as to an Athenian reading public.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Classical Quarterly , Volume 43 , Issue 1-2 , January 1949 , pp. 65 - 69
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1949

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References

Page 65 note 1 e.g. Norlin, G., Loeb Classical Library, vol. ii, p. 192 n.Google Scholar: ‘Isocrates, though writing for a reading public, habitually uses the language of a discourse to be delivered.“ Subsequent references to ‘Norlin’ are to his translation in vols. i and ii of the L.C.L.

Page 65 note 2 e.g. not much weight can be attached to the ancient tradition about Herodotus' recitations. However, in view of other evidence (v. infra), we may reasonably accept Diogenes Laertius' statement (D.L. 9. 50) that Protagoras and Prodicus gave public readings of their λόγοι, for which they charged fees (λόγους ναγινώακοντες ρανιζοντο).

Page 65 note 3 Funaioli in his article on ‘Recitationes’ (R.E. i. A. 1) mentions the scanty evidence for such readings in Greece: ‘von bestimmten R. in engeren Kreisen wissen wir sehr wenig, nur eben genug, um das Dasein der Sitte im allgemeinen erkennen zu können, wenn auch im einzelnen der uns zur Verfügung stehenden anekdoten-haften Literatur nicht zu viel Wert beizulegenist.’ He disregards the most important evidence, particularly contemporary references to readings of epideictic λόγοι. The subject of πιδείξεις in general is treated in W. Schmid's article on έπίδειξις (R.E. vi. 1).

Page 65 note 4 Parm. 127 c.

Page 65 note 5 Hippias Maior 286 a–b.

Page 65 note 6 Mem. 2. 1. 21.

Page 65 note 7 De Soph. 31 (Blass).

Page 65 note 8 e.g. Plato, , Symp. 194 b, Laches 183 bGoogle Scholar.

Page 66 note 1 Rhet. 1. 3. 2.

Page 66 note 2 Thuc. 3. 38. 4.

Page 66 note 3 A similar contrast is found in Ep. 1. 2–3, but as it is an πιστολ, not a λόγος, and consequently not meant to be read to an audience, τ γεγραμμένα is used instead of οι ἄν. λόγ. and there is no reference to the reciter.

Page 66 note 4 Mathieu, G. (Isocr. iii, ‘Les Belles Lettres’, Paris 1942)Google Scholar, who sees instruction to reciters in this passage, translates ‘doivent d'abord la faire entendre’. This can hardly be got from the Greek and seems unsuited to the context. The meaning ‘give a recitation or lecture’ for κρ. ποιεἶοθαι is well attested. Cf. Hippocr, . Praec. 12Google Scholar(ἣν δέ και εἳνεκεν όμιλον θέλης άκρόασιν ποιήσασθαι, ουκ γακλες πιθυμεἶς) and Polyb. 32. 2. 5. For κρ. meaning ‘something listened to’, i.e. a recitation or lecture, cf. also Alcidamas, , De Soph. 31Google Scholar(Blass) and for later examples, v. Stephanus, Thes. Ling. Gr.

Page 66 note 5 πρχομαι is here used in one of its regular meanings, ‘come forward to speak before an audience’. Cf. Paneg. 15: ὅσοι μν εύθύς πελθόντες διδάσκουσιν ὠς χρ…

Page 67 note 1 Evag. 74. For this use of διατ. cf. τν διατριβν in Panath. 19, where it seems almost synonymous with πιδειξις.

Page 67 note 2 Phaedo 97 b, 98 b.

Page 67 note 3 Ad Phil. 1.

Page 67 note 4 Ibid. 26–7.

Page 67 note 5 Cf. το νν ναγιγνωσκοέμνον in 110.

Page 67 note 6 Ad Phil. 155.

Page 67 note 7 Thompson, W. H., The Phaedrus of Plato, 1868, p. 24Google Scholar.

Page 67 note 8 Robin, L., Platon, Phèdre, ‘Les Belles Lettres’, Paris, 1933Google Scholar.

Page 67 note 9 Ad Phil. 17 and 93.

Page 67 note 10 Ibid. 27.

Page 68 note 1 Similarly in Antid. 265 δεικνυμένοις refers lectures delivered by the Sophists. (Cf. πιδεικνυμένου in Plato, , Hipp. Mai. 285 cGoogle Scholar, used of Hippias lecturing and the use of the noun πιδειξις applied to Prodicus' lectures, in Plato, , Crat. 384 bGoogle Scholar.) Norlin's ‘shown to us’ and Mathieu's (in op. cit.) ‘ce qu'on vous montre’ miss this technical sense. This use of δεικνυμι is found in Alcidamas, , De Soph. 31Google Scholar (Blass): τοἶς δ δι χρόνου μέν έπι τς κροάσεις Φιγμένοις, μηδεπώποτε δ πρτερον μῖν ντετυχηκόσιν πιχειρομέν τι δεικνὐναι τν γεγραμμένων, and in later times δεῖξις was used = πιδειξις meaning a ‘recitation’; e.g. Athen, . Deipn. 3. 98 cGoogle Scholar: δεῖξιν δέ πέτε λόγων δημοσιᾳ ποιοὐμενος.

Page 68 note 2 Panath. 233.

Page 68 note 3 Antid. 12.

Page 68 note 4 e.g. Jaeger, Werner, Paideia, vol. iii, p. 74Google Scholar: ‘Isocrates chooses to disguise his essay as a rhetorical show-piece declaimed at one of the great Panhellenic assemblies.’ Blass, , Ait. Ber. ii, p. 251Google Scholar: ‘Derm dass auch hier wenigstens in der Fiction die panhellenische Festversammlung in Olympia als ruhöiend zu denken ist, unterliegt keinem Zweifel.’ Most other commentators connect it with Olympia. Croiset actually states was read there by Isocrates himself (Histoire de la lit. grecque, iv, ch. vii, p. 498).

Page 68 note 5 i.e. it is primarily addressed to an Athenian public although naturally, like other Isocratean λόγοι, it was also meant for wider circulation in the Greek world.

Page 69 note 1 Paideia, vol. iii, p. 306Google Scholar.

Page 69 note 2 Antid. 12.

Page 69 note 3 Ad Phil. 12.

Page 69 note 4 Ibid. 13.

Page 69 note 5 Panath. 263.