Alkidamas

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Alkidamas ( ancient Greek Ἀλκιδάμας Alkidámas , Latinized Alcidamas ; † around 375 BC) was an ancient Greek sophist and rhetor from Elaia . He worked in Athens as a contemporary and rival of Isocrates and was a pupil and successor of the sophist Gorgias .

Life

Little is known about the life of Alkidamas. He came from Elaia in Asia Minor , and his father's name was Diocles. The Suda states that Alkidamas took over the management of Gorgias' school.

Works

Traditional speeches

Two speeches are recorded under Alkidamas' name. While about people who write speeches or about the sophists (Perì tṓn toùs gramtoùs lógous graphóntōn ḕ Perì sophistṓn) is considered real, this is controversial with Odysseus versus Palamedes (Odysseùs katà Palamḗdous) .

About the Sophists is directed against a group of men who called themselves sophists, including Isocrates. Not only the artlessness of their speeches is criticized, but also their neglect of “research in the field of natural phenomena” (istoría) , culture and philosophy. As far as the rhetoric is concerned, the speaker should prepare the structure and the thoughts including the main arguments, but when speaking he should adjust to the concerns and thoughts of the audience. So he is at least partially in favor of spontaneous and improvised speech. According to the method of his teacher Gorgias, the choice of words and the expression should only be found at the moment of the speech act.

Lost Works

Only fragments of Alkidamas' other writings have survived. In Messenian Logos (Messēniakòs lógos) , a speech for the Spartan Helots , he says that God set all people free and nature made no one a slave. Alkidamas thus also represents the human equality thesis, for which the sophist Lycophron pleaded. The fragment also suggests that Alkidamas took a stand against the law (nómos) and for nature (phýsis) in the contemporary debate .

Another writing by Alkidamas was the enkomien ( Egkṓmia ; a collection of enkomien , among which was an eulogy of death in view of the great extent of possible human suffering). Also lost a rhetorical textbook (Techne) and Museion ( Mouseion ; German in about Muse Garden ), which was probably the former as Contest of Homer and Hesiod narrated tale of a contest between Homer and Hesiod contained (first suggested by Nietzsche ), as well as an album about things of nature (Physikòs lógos) , which may have been written in dialogue form.

reception

Aristotle criticized Alkidamas' writings as pompous and "cold" in style and wrote that the poetic metaphors were too overloaded, extensive and far-fetched.

literature

Overview representations
examination

Neil O'Sullivan: Alcidamas, Aristophanes and the beginnings of Greek stylistic theory . Steiner, Stuttgart 1992.

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Suda, Alcidamas .
  2. ↑ a b George B. Kerferd, Hellmut Flashar: Alkidamas. In: Hellmut Flashar (ed.): Outline of the history of philosophy. The philosophy of antiquity. Volume 2/1, Basel 1998, pp. 51–52, here: p. 51.
  3. ↑ Scholion on Aristotle 's Rhetoric , A 13,2, 1373b18.
  4. ↑ George B. Kerferd, Hellmut Flashar: Alkidamas. In: Hellmut Flashar (ed.): Outline of the history of philosophy. The philosophy of antiquity. Volume 2/1, Basel 1998, pp. 51–52, here: p. 52.
  5. ^ Friedrich Nietzsche: The Florentine treatise on Homer and Hesiod, their sex and their competition 1–2. In: Rheinisches Museum für Philologie . 25, 1870, pp. 528-540, and The Florentine Tractate on Homer and Hesiod, Their Sex and Competition 3-5. In: Rheinisches Museum für Philologie. 28, 1873, pp. 211-249.
personal data
SURNAME Alkidamas
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Alcidamas
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Greek rhetorician and sophist
DATE OF BIRTH 5th century BC BC or 4th century BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH around 375 BC Chr.