Antiphon from Rhamnus

Antiphon of Rhamnus or Antiphon the Orator ( ancient Greek Ἀντιφῶν Antiphṓn ; * approx. 480 BC; † 411 BC ) was an ancient Greek orator and oligarchic politician who worked in Athens . He is one of the ten classical Attic speakers in Greek literature .

His possible identity with the Sophist Antiphon has not been fully clarified in research.

Life

Antiphon, born as the son of Sophilos in Rhamnous , which belongs to Athens , is called "the speaker", but did not appear as such, but became famous as a logographer , i. H. as the author of court speeches for clients who always had to defend themselves in Athens. Plato also calls him a rhetoric teacher, but it is not clear whether Antiphon actually taught others or whether this is only intended to emphasize his role model function. Uncertain sources refer to the historian Thucydides as his pupil, which of course can also be interpreted as a subsequent explanation of stylistic similarities. In any case, Thucydides gives a famous characteristic of antiphons in his historical work, at the same time practically the only surviving evidence of antiphons, apparently half dazzling, half eerie personality:

[...] Antiphon, which was not inferior to any Athenian of his time in efficiency ( Arete ) and was masterful in thinking through things and in expressing what was thought. He did not appear before the people or in court of his own free will , but remained uncanny to the crowd because of his reputation for cunning [δεινότης deinótes ]; but everyone who had to answer before the court or before the people, seeking advice, could receive the most help from him than from any other individual.

As a supporter of the oligarchs, Antiphon took part in the overthrow of Athenian democracy by the dictatorship of the so-called Council of Four Hundred in 411 . With eleven other envoys he took part in a diplomatic mission that negotiated a peace treaty in Sparta in the ongoing Peloponnesian War , but remained unsuccessful. When the four hundred were overthrown, Antiphon, unlike their leaders, did not flee and, together with his party friend Archeptolemus, was accused of high treason . Although his defense speech, the only speech he ever made on his own account, was, according to Thucydides ' judgment, the best apology ever delivered , Antiphon was condemned and executed.

Works

Overview

The textbooks ascribed to antiphons in antiquity, especially on judicial argumentation, have been lost, as has a collection of truisms (tópoi) for promises , conclusions and epilogues . Of the 60 speeches read under the name of Antiphons, of which Caecilius von Kaleakte only accepted 35 as genuine, 3 are genuine, i.e. actually delivered, defense speeches for murder trials. In addition, three tetralogies have survived, i. H. Briefly drafted sample processing of fictitious legal cases in two indictment and defense speeches each (so a total of four speeches, hence the name tetralogies ). Its authenticity has occasionally been contested, but is now generally recognized again. Finally, there are also sparse fragments of other speeches, including fragments of Antiphon's defense speech on his own behalf.

Antiphon's style shows all signs of a still developing, therefore experimental and bold literary language, the emerging Attic . What is striking is the contrast between the ingenious reasoning technique, which works primarily with probability arguments (εἰκότα, eikóta ), and the equally pronounced preference for antitheses and sound figures (so-called Gorgian figures) to the often rather simple, sometimes hard and awkward sentence structure.

The speeches received

The speeches and tetralogies are handed down in the manuscripts as a corpus in the following interlaced order, according to which they are usually also quoted:

1. Speech I: Against the stepmother . Accusation Speech: A long time ago the speaker's father was poisoned at a banquet. The poisoned wine was served by the concubine of the host who was also killed; but she claimed to have been instigated to do this by the second wife of the murdered father, the plaintiff's stepmother. The now adult and therefore legally competent plaintiff accuses his stepmother with this speech of murder.
2. Speech II = 1st tetralogy. A man was killed in the street. When his body was found, his servant, who was also dying, is said to have testified that a known enemy of his master was the murderer. In the four parts of the tetralogy , this enemy is now accused of murder (parts 1 and 3) and defends himself (parts 2 and 4). - Since there is no tangible evidence, this speech gives Antiphon the opportunity to extensively apply the argumentation of probability (εἰκότα, eikóta ) and to question it again.
3. Speech III = 2nd tetralogy. A boy was fatally hit by a spear on the sports field because he accidentally got into the trajectory of the bullet. It is now disputed whether the thrower of the spear is to blame, even if he did not aim at the boy (as the indictment in Parts 1 and 3 claims), or whether the boy himself is responsible for his actions (like the defense in Part 2 and 4 objection). - This tetralogy visualizes the conflict between archaic law, in which the author of an act is always responsible for all possible consequences (cf. Greek αἰτία, aitía , which means "cause" and "guilt"), and the gradually developing idea of responsibility. In order to satisfy the prosecution's traditional notion that someone is always to blame in the event of death, the accused must go so far as to blame the boy or even the spear (sic!).
4. Speech IV = 3rd tetralogy. One of them was killed in a fight between two drunkards. The circumstances of the death are very complex, with the plaintiff and defendant blaming each other and third parties. - This tetralogy demonstrates v. a. the impossibility of reconstructing an unambiguous causal chain and thus the fundamental impossibility of actually determining the truth retrospectively in a somewhat complex case.
5. Speech V: About the murder of Herod . - Defense speech for an otherwise unknown Euxitheus, a citizen of Mytilene on the island of Lesbos , who is said to have killed an Athenian citizen named Herod on a joint boat trip. The case is complicated by the fact that Herod's body was never found: After a night of partying with Euxitheus, he simply disappeared without a trace. The indictment is based solely on the torture forced testimony of a slave who is said to have testified that Euxitheus was the murderer, but was then killed by the interviewees, so that the testimony cannot be repeated in court. Together with other circumstances, this results in an extremely complex case, which Antiphon knows how to put in an admirable way in a light favorable to his client , while he repeatedly clearly emphasizes the favorable points, but lets the unfavorable ones get lost in a vortex of arguments. - This speech was considered the best antiphon in antiquity.
6. Speech VI: About the choirboy . - Defense speech.

Text editions and translations

• Mervin R. Dilts, David J. Murphy (Eds.): Antiphontis et Andocidis Orationes. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2018 (new authoritative edition of the speeches without fragments).
• Friedrich Thalheim, Theodor Blass (Ed.): Antiphon: Orationes et fragmenta. Teubner, Leipzig 1914, reprint Stuttgart 1982 (basic edition).
• Antiphon: Tetralogiae. Ed. Fernanda Decleva Caizzi. Milan 1969.
• Antiphon: The Speeches. Edited by Michael Gagarin. Cambridge University Press 1997 (Greek text and extensive English commentary).
• Thomas Schirren , Thomas Zinsmaier (ed.): The Sophists. Selected texts. Greek / German. Reclam, Stuttgart 2003, pp. 120–215 (text and translation of the 1st and 2nd tetralogy as well as the larger fragments).

literature

General, introductions

• Michael Gagarin: Antiphon the Athenian. Austin (Texas) 2003 (important monograph).
• Thomas Paulsen : Antiphon from Rhamnus. In: Bernhard Zimmermann (Hrsg.): Handbook of Greek literature in antiquity. Volume 1: The literature of the archaic and classical times. C. H. Beck, Munich 2011, ISBN 978-3-406-57673-7 , pp. 436-439.

Investigations on individual speeches and topics

• Edwin Carawan: The Tetralogies and Athenian Homicide Trials. In: American Journal of Philology . Volume 114, 1993, pp. 235-270.
• Michael Gagarin: The Murder of Herodes. Peter Lang Verlag, Frankfurt 1989 (on the 5th speech).
• Ernst Heitsch : Law and Argumentation in Antiphons 6th Speech. Academy of Sciences and Literature, Mainz 1980.
• Johannes Hendrik Thiel: Antiphons first tetralogy. Wolters, Groningen / Batavia 1932.
• Gerhard Vollmer: Studies for the proof of antiphontic speeches. Dissertation University of Hamburg 1958.
• Thomas Zinsmaier: Truth, justice and rhetoric in the speeches of Antiphons. In: Hermes . Volume 126, 1998, pp. 398-422.

Web links

Wikiquote: Antiphon of Rhamnus  - Quotes

• Literature by and about Antiphon in the catalog of the German National Library
• Antiphons speeches in Project Perseus (ancient Greek and English)

Remarks

1. ^ Plato, Menexenus 236a.
2. ↑ Vita Thucydidis 22.
3. ↑ Thucydides VIII 68.
4. ↑ Thucydides 8.90.
5. ↑ Thucydides 8.68.
6. ↑ See the essay by Thomas Zinsmaier: Truth, Justice and Rhetoric in Speeches Antiphons. In: Hermes . Volume 126, 1998, pp. 398-422.