Chairephon

Chairephon (also Chairephon of Sphettos , Greek  Χαιρεφῶν Chairephṓn ; * after 470 BC; † between 403 and 399 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher . He was a student of the famous philosopher Socrates of about the same age , whom he admired and with whom he was close friends.

Life

Chairephon probably came from Sphettos , a Demos (district) of Athens . All that is known about his family is that he had a younger brother named Chairekrates, who also belonged to Socrates' circle of friends. Chairephon's friendship with Socrates had existed since his youth, but at the same time he was friends with the famous orator Gorgias , one of the main exponents of sophistry , whose influence Socrates considered fatal and fought against.

The writer Xenophon , who was also a pupil of Socrates, reports in detail in his memoirs of Socrates about a rift between the brothers Chairephon and Chairekrates. Socrates, who had noticed the discord, wanted to mediate. He turned to Chairekrates, whom he believed to be more willing to communicate, and encouraged him to take the initiative for a reconciliation. Among other things, the confusion concerned financial issues, which Chairekrates felt disadvantaged. Chairekrates also claimed that his older brother had offended him in word and deed and was always causing him trouble. Socrates, on the other hand, praised Chairephon, who was magnanimous and generous.

Chairephon was a supporter of the Athenian democracy , which went through a serious crisis after the defeat of Athens in the Peloponnesian War and was temporarily abolished. When in the year 404 BC When the Oligarchical Council of Thirty ("Thirty Tyrants") took power and removed the democratic state system, Chairephon went into exile with other democrats. But the democratic exiled politician and general Thrasybulus soon assembled a force of like-minded people and took up the fight against the oligarchs. After the military successes of the insurgents, democracy was restored in the summer of 403. Chairephon could now return with the other Democrats. The hypothesis that he died fighting with the supporters of the oligarchy is unsubstantiated. The circumstances of his death are unknown. In any case, it is certain that he did not live long, because when the trial of Socrates took place in 399, he had already passed away. His brother Chairekrates, however, was still alive and was named by Socrates as a witness.

An alleged letter from Socrates to Xenophon, in which he asks him to welcome Chairephon, who is traveling to his hometown, in a hospitable manner, is fake and has no value as a source for Chairephon.

Oracle

Chairephon was known in antiquity as the one who asked the famous oracle there about Socrates in Delphi . Plato has Socrates himself report on this: In the Apology , the defensive speech of Socrates in the trial in 399, which was designed by Plato in literary form, Socrates addresses the questioning of the oracles. According to this account, Chairephon had the boldness to ask the oracle of the god Apollo in Delphi whether anyone was wiser than Socrates. The Pythia , the prophetic priestess, replied that this was not the case. This saying was communicated to him, Socrates. This confused him because he believed he was ignorant. In order to verify the Pythia's assertions, he asked men (politicians and poets) who were considered to be wise because he wanted to find out what their wisdom was all about. It turned out that he surpassed these alleged wise men with his - albeit very insignificant - level of knowledge. Since then he has regarded it as his calling in the service of God, ignorant people who consider themselves competent to show their ignorance.

Xenophon, who, like Plato, was one of the disciples of Socrates but was not present at the trial because he was not in Athens, gave a different account in his report on the defense speech. In doing so, he relied on information from Hermogenes , a friend and student of Socrates. According to his version, Apollo replied to Chairephon's request in the presence of numerous witnesses that no one was more independent, fairer or more sensible than Socrates.

The historicity of oracle inquiries was already disputed in antiquity. Several authors who were sharp opponents of Platonism or philosophy in general thought they had been invented : the Epicurean Kolotes von Lampsakos, against whose criticism Plutarch turned, an adversary of the Socratics (probably the grammarian Herodicus of Seleukia) and the rhetoric quoted by Athenaios Apollonios Molon. The argument handed down by Athenaeus, which probably comes from Herodicus, is that it is not credible that the god answered such a foolish question as expected in the sense of the questioner.

In modern research, the credibility of the narrative is also controversial. Some researchers are of the opinion that Chairephon's question in Delphi is a literary fiction among Socrates' circle of students. They assert, among other things, that at a time when Socrates was not yet famous, Chairephon had no reason to ask the oracle such a question. Proponents of historicity believe that Plato had no reason to make up such a detailed story and put Socrates in his mouth. If an opponent had then exposed it as fiction, which would have been easily possible at the time, this would have shaken the credibility of the entire defense speech.

Depiction in comedy

Chairephon was a showy, unusual personality and, as such, was a popular target of ridicule among comedy writers for a long time. He served as a well-known chilling example of a strange, ridiculous philosopher. Aristophanes targeted both his looks and his zeal. In the 423 BC This comedy poet's clouds, listed in the 3rd century BC, describes Chairephon as a “pale, windy barefooted” and “living corpse”, with the unhealthy appearance being attributed to his diligence in studying. Together with Socrates he investigates secret, absurd questions. In the Wasps that Aristophanes brought to the stage the following year, Chairephon appears with a woman pale with anger; he fits (according to his complexion) to the “pale yellow woman” who refers to him as a witness. In Aristophanes' 414 listed birds, he emerges as a ghostly soul of death in the form of a bat from the depths of the underworld. In other comedies by Aristophanes that have only survived in fragments, he is referred to in an unfriendly way: in the seasons ( Horai ) he is called the “child of the night”, in Die Dramen or Niobos he appears as a thief and in Die Telemesser as a sycophant ( Slanderer).

The comedy poets Kratinos and Eupolis also took up the grateful subject. Because of the fragmentary tradition of her pieces, the connections are not discernible. In Kratinos' 423 listed bottle , Chairephon appears as unwashed and poor. In Eupolis he occurs in the flatterers ( Kolakes ), where he appears as one of the flatterers of the rich callias, and in the cities ( Poleis ), where the popular motif of his pale yellow skin color is used.

Role in literary dialogues

In his dialogue with Charmides, Plato puts the statement in the mouth of the reporter, Socrates, that Chairephon has always been manikós (“violent”, “spirited” or “slightly crazy”). In the apology he lets Socrates say, "And ye know how Chaerephon was as boisterous ( sphodrós ) in all that he set himself." In the dialogues Charmides and Gorgias Chaerephon one of the interlocutors. In Gorgias Socrates encourages Chairephon to question the famous sophist Gorgias critically about his profession in front of several people. Chairephon then asks questions in the Socratic style, which are answered not by Gorgias, but by his pupil Polos. Finally, Socrates himself intervenes and continues the argument with Polos.

Chairephon is Socrates' interlocutor in the pseudoplatonic (wrongly attributed to Plato) dialogue Halcyon , which was already considered to be false in antiquity.

literature

• Luc Brisson: Chéréphon de Sphettos . In: Richard Goulet (ed.): Dictionnaire des philosophes antiques . Volume 2, CNRS Éditions, Paris 1994, ISBN 2-271-05195-9 , pp. 304f.
• Debra Nails: The People of Plato . Hackett, Indianapolis 2002, ISBN 0-87220-564-9 , pp. 86f.
• John S. Traill: Persons of Ancient Athens , Volume 18: Philosyria? to Ōphiliōn. Athenians, Toronto 2009, ISBN 978-0-9810250-1-8 , pp. 247f. (No. 976060; compilation of the documents)

Remarks

1. ↑ This message is mostly considered credible in research; However, Kenneth J. Dover (ed.): Aristophanes: Clouds , Oxford 1968, pp. 114f , expressed doubts about the origin from Sphettos . and Jeffrey Henderson (eds.): Aristophanes: Clouds, Wasps, Peace , Cambridge (Massachusetts) 1998, p. 27, note 14.
2. ^ Plato, Apology 20e – 21a; see. Xenophon, Memorabilia 1, 2, 48.
3. ↑ Plato, Gorgias 447b.
4. ↑ The relationship with Gorgias was, however, far less close than that with Socrates; see Joachim Dalfen : Plato: Gorgias. Translation and commentary , Göttingen 2004, p. 165.
5. ↑ Xenophon, Memorabilia 2,3.
6. ↑ Xenophon, Memorabilia 2,3,16.
7. ^ Plato, Apology 21a.
8. ↑ Abraham J. Malherbe (Ed.): The Cynic Epistles. A Study Edition , Atlanta (Georgia) 1986 (reprinted from 1977 edition), pp. 226–22. (Greek text and English translation).
9. ^ Plato, Apology 20d – 23c; see. Diogenes Laertios 2.37.
10. ↑ Xenophon, Apology 14.
11. ↑ Plutarch, Adversus Colotem 1116e – f.
12. ↑ Athenaios 5,218e-219a.
13. ↑ Douwe Holwerda (Ed.): Scholia in Aristophanem , Part 1: Prolegomena de comoedia, scholia in Acharnenses, Equites, Nubes , Fasc. 3.1: Scholia vetera in Nubes , Groningen 1977, p. 41 (Scholion 144).
14. ^ Robin Waterfield: Xenophon's Socratic Mission . In: Christopher Tuplin (Ed.): Xenophon and his World , Wiesbaden 2004, pp. 79–113, here: 94f .; Mario Montuori: The Oracle Given to Chaerephon on the Wisdom of Socrates. An Invention by Plato , in: Kernos 3, 1990, pp. 251-259; Olof Gigon : Ancient stories about the calling to philosophy . In: Museum Helveticum 3, 1946, pp. 1–21, here: 3–8; Louis-André Dorion: The Delphic Oracle on Socrates' Wisdom: A Myth? In: Catherine Collobert et al. (Ed.): Plato and Myth , Leiden 2012, pp. 419–434. Cf. Klaus Döring : Socrates, the Socratics and the traditions they founded . In: Klaus Döring among others: Sophistik, Sokrates, Sokratik, Mathematik, Medizin (= Hellmut Flashar (Hrsg.): Grundriss der Geschichte der Philosophie . The Philosophy of Antiquity , Volume 2/1), Basel 1998, p. 155.
15. ↑ Emile de Strycker: Plato's Apology of Socrates , ed. Simon R. Slings, Leiden 1994, p. 74; Ernst Heitsch : Plato: Apology of Socrates. Translation and Commentary , Göttingen 2002, pp. 73f.
16. ↑ Aristophanes, The Clouds 104, 501–504.
17. ↑ Aristophanes, The Clouds 140-168. For the presumed representation of Chairephon in the original version of the piece, see Harold Tarrant: Clouds I: Steps towards Reconstruction . In: Arctos 25, 1991, pp. 157-181, here: 160-162.
18. ↑ Aristophanes, The Wasps 1412f.
19. ↑ Aristophanes, The Birds 1562–1564; see. 1296.
20. ↑ Aristophanes, The Seasons, fragment 584; The Dramas or Niobus Fragment 295; The Telemesser Fragment 552.
21. ↑ Kratinos, The Bottle ( Pytine ), Fragment 215.
22. ↑ Eupolis, The Flatterers, Fragment 180 and The Cities, Fragment 253.
23. ^ Plato, Charmides 153b.
24. ^ Plato, Apology 21a.
25. ↑ Plato, Gorgias 447c-449a.