Damon and Phintias

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Damon and Phintias are the heroes of an ancient tale from the 4th century BC. In which the friendship and loyalty of the two is glorified. The setting is the city of Syracuse . Despite the legendary embellishment of the story, it can be assumed that they are historical people and that the story has a historical core. The material was used in various literary terms up to the modern age.

background

The two were Pythagoreans , so they belonged to the community that the philosopher Pythagoras founded in the 6th century BC. In southern Italy. The Pythagoreans placed great value on friendship ( philía ). This particularly meant unconditional mutual trust and unconditional solidarity in emergencies. The saying koiná ta tōn phílōn was known , which said that the good of the friends was a common good, so that one with his possessions stands for the other. Some anecdotes have circulated about the implementation of this principle in the life of the Pythagoreans, of which the story of Damon and Phintias was and is by far the best known.

Several versions of the story have survived. One comes from the philosopher Aristoxenus , who was a contemporary of Damon and Phintias, and another from the historian Diodorus (1st century BC).

Representation of Aristoxenus

When the tyrant Dionysius II ruled Syracuse , his courtiers chatted and scoffed at the legendary loyalty of the Pythagoreans, whom they considered to be showing off. The tyrant then decided to put the Pythagoreans to the test. He summoned Phintias, accused him in front of the courtiers of being involved in a plot, and immediately sentenced him to death. Phintias accepted the sentence indifferently and only asked permission to go about his personal affairs freely before the execution. Dionysius agreed on the condition that Phintias' friend Damon would be liable with his life for the convict's return on the same day before sunset. The courtiers mocked Damon and foretold that Phintias would flee and that he - Damon - would face death. However, shortly before sunset, Phintias returned. This impressed the tyrant so much that he asked the two to be accepted into their friendship bond, which they refused.

Representation of Diodorus

In contrast to Aristoxenus, Diodorus reports that Phintias actually tried to kill the ruler and was therefore arrested and sentenced. Diodorus describes the further course in a similar way to Aristoxenus. In his version, Phintias had not returned shortly before the appointed time. A crowd gathered and Damon was led to the execution. Phintias didn't arrive until the last moment. Thereupon the tyrant pardoned him and asked to join the friendship covenant. How the friends reacted to it, Diodor leaves open.

Historical core

Research has debated which of the two versions is more credible. The contemporary Aristoxenus claimed that the tyrant Dionysius himself, who lived in Corinth after his fall, had told him the story. It must be reckoned with the possibility that Dionysius played down his own role. Diodorus lived much later, in the 1st century BC. BC, but came from Sicily and perhaps knew a tradition there. However, the fact that it is hardly plausible that Dionysius offered his friendship to a man who had sought his life shortly before speaks against his representation.

In addition to the descriptions of Aristoxenus and Diodorus, there were also later versions of the story in antiquity, but these are of no importance for determining the historical course.

reception

Cicero was the first author to write in Latin who took up the story and briefly summarized it in a slightly modified form, noting Dionysius II, but his father Dionysius I of Syracuse as the tyrant involved. The writer Valerius Maximus , the author of the mythographic handbook Genealogiae, known as Hyginus Mythographus, and the rhetor Polyainos , who lived in the 2nd century, followed - with a few deviations - the version of Diodorus by assuming a serious death sentence. They extended the time frame from originally one day to several days or six months (Polyainos). Hyginus and Polyainos stated that the convict wanted to arrange the wedding of his sister abroad and obtained the postponement of the execution for this purpose. In the Genealogiae , the intended method of execution is crucifixion and the reason for the late return is given as a thunderstorm that swelled a river that had to be crossed.

Later two church fathers , Lactantius and Ambrosius of Milan , referred to the narrative.

In the late Middle Ages, the story found renewed interest. Jacobus de Voragine took it - following the representation of Ambrosius - in his Legenda aurea . Jacobus de Cessolis gave it in his book on the allegorical and moral interpretation of the game of chess, where he kept to the version of Valerius Maximus. Vincent von Beauvais followed this version in his encyclopedic work Speculum maius . The author of the Gesta Romanorum made Damon and Phintias two robbers and murderers, one of whom was caught and rightly convicted; the other vouched for him, and in the end the pardon followed.

English writer Richard Edwards wrote a tragic comedy Damon and Pithias in 1564 , which was published in 1571. Friedrich Schiller followed the version of the Genealogiae in his ballad The Guarantee , written in 1798, and added further dramatic elements to the process. As a result of a name change, Damon was the assassin for him.

Furthermore, the narrative in the 18th century is in one-act acts by David Laroche ( Damon and Pythias, a tragedy in one act ), Heinrich Wilhelm Lawätz ( Damon and Phintias, or the pattern of friendship, play in one act ) and Gottlieb Konrad Pfeffel ( Damon and Pythias, A Comedy in One Act ). Gotthold Ephraim Lessing's one-act act Damon, or the true friendship, on the other hand, also deals with the topic of friendship, but in the form of a comic romantic comedy with a completely new staff, without killing anyone.

literature

  • Ernst Gegenschatz: The 'Pythagorean guarantee' - on the story of a motif from Aristoxenus to Schiller . In: Peter Neukam (Ed.): Encounters with the new and the old. Bayerischer Schulbuch-Verlag, Munich 1981, ISBN 3-7627-8136-2 , pp. 90-154.
  • Constantinos Macris: Phintias de Syracuse. In: Richard Goulet (ed.): Dictionnaire des philosophes antiques. Vol. 5, part 1, CNRS Éditions, Paris 2012, ISBN 978-2-271-07335-8 , pp. 578-580.

Remarks

  1. ↑ Bartel Leendert van der Waerden : Die Pythagoreer , Zurich - Munich 1979, pp. 175–180; Johan C. Thom: “Harmonious Equality”: The Topos of Friendship in Neopythagorean Writings . In: John T. Fitzgerald (Ed.): Greco-Roman Perspectives on Friendship , Atlanta 1997, pp. 77-103.
  2. ↑ Narrated by Iamblichos von Chalkis , De vita Pythagorica 233–236, and Porphyrios , Vita Pythagorae 59–61.
  3. ↑ Diodorus April 10, 2-6.
  4. ^ Kurt von Fritz : Pythagorean Politics in Southern Italy , New York 1940, pp. 21-25; Walter Burkert : Wisdom and Science , Nuremberg 1962, p. 93, note 36; Ernst Gegenschatz: The 'Pythagorean guarantee' - on the story of a motif from Aristoxenus to Schiller . In: Peter Neukam (Ed.): Encounters with New and Old , Munich 1981, pp. 90–154, here: 108–112.
  5. ↑ The Cicero passages are compiled and discussed by Ernst Gegenschatz: The 'Pythagorean Guarantee' - on the history of a motif from Aristoxenus to Schiller . In: Peter Neukam (Ed.): Encounters with New and Old , Munich 1981, pp. 90–154, here: 117–119.
  6. ↑ Valerius Maximus, Facta et dicta memorabilia 4,7, ext. 1; Hyginus Mythographus, Genealogiae 257,3-8; Polyainos, Strategika 5,2,22.
  7. ↑ Ernst Gegenschatz quotes and discusses your statements: The 'Pythagorean guarantee' - on the story of a motif from Aristoxenus to Schiller . In: Peter Neukam (Ed.): Encounters with New and Old , Munich 1981, pp. 90–154, here: 124–133.
  8. ↑ Vincent de Beauvais, Speculum historiale 4.26 and Speculum doctrinale 6.84.
  9. ↑ Gesta Romanorum, Chapter 108.
  10. ↑ Online text from "Damon and Pithias"
  11. ↑ Damon and Pythias, a tragedy in one act. In: Anonymus [David Laroche]: Dramatic and other poems. Füsslin and Compagnie, Zurich 1768, pp. 1–24 ( digitized version ).
  12. ↑ Damon and Pythias, A Comedy in One Act. In: Gottlieb Konrad Pfeffel: Dramatic children's games. Bauer, Strasbourg 1769 ( digitized version ).