Derkylides

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Derkylides ( ancient Greek Δερκυλίδης Derkylídēs , also Derkyllides ) was an ancient Greek philosopher . He was a Platonist and probably lived in the first half of the 1st century BC. Chr.

Nothing has been passed on about Derkylides' life; his written legacy is only known from a few mentions and quotations from later authors. As far as can be seen, he dealt exclusively with the explanation of Plato's teaching, with a particular interest in mathematical and astronomical questions. His great work was called "On Plato's Philosophy" and comprised at least eleven books. All information relating to him in ancient literature may have been taken from this work. Theon of Smyrna quotes a treatise, or rather a section of a work by Derkylides with the title "On the spindle and the whorls, of which Plato speaks in the Politeia ". This refers to an incident in the myth of the Er in Plato's dialogue Politeia . It is probably not a stand-alone work on this special topic; possibly there is talk of a chapter in the book "On Plato's Philosophy". The late antique Neo-Platonist Proklos reports in his Politeia comment that Derkylides traced the persistence of the celestial movements back to their rotational character and wrote that the stars would have to fall when their movement came to a standstill. Elsewhere Proclus gives a view which he ascribes to followers of Derkylides; it emerges from this that Derkylides had disciples. Furthermore, Proklos writes in his commentary on Plato's dialogue Timaeus that Derkylides meant that the fourth participant in this dialogue, who was not named, was the author himself.

The Middle Platonist Albinos reports that Derkylides, like Thrasyllos , a philosophical writer and advisor to the emperor Tiberius , divided Plato's dialogues into tetralogies (groups of four). Albinos disapproves of this classification insofar as it is taken as a recommendation for the order in which they should be read. Since the famous scholar Varro in his between 47 and 45 BC Chr. Created work De lingua Latina Plato's dialogue Phaedo , instead of calling him by name, called the "fourth" and Phaedo is actually the fourth dialogue of the first tetralogy, Varro seems to have known the tetralogy order. Its introduction can therefore not be ascribed to Thrasyllos, who died in 36 AD, but it must have been before 45 BC. Have been published. Thrasyllos probably only contributed to its spread and maybe made changes. Therefore, in research it is mostly assumed that Derkylides is the author; if this is the case, it can be deduced from this that he was in the first half of the 1st century BC. Because the Varro passage is the oldest evidence of the tetralogies, in the 2nd century BC. It probably didn't exist yet. However, this view is controversial; a counter-hypothesis is that the originator of the tetralogy order is unknown and that Derkylides lived in the 1st century AD, after the time of Thrasyllos.

Source edition with translation

  • Marie-Luise Lakmann (Ed.): Platonici minores. 1st century BC - 2nd century AD. Prosopography, fragments and testimony with German translation (= Philosophia antiqua , volume 145). Brill, Leiden / Boston 2017, ISBN 978-90-04-31533-4 , pp. 97–101, 422–433 (critical edition)

literature

Remarks

  1. ↑ Theon von Smyrna, Expositio p. 198, line 9 ff. Hiller ; Greek text of the mention of Derkylides with translation by Heinrich Dörrie , Matthias Baltes : Der Platonismus in der Antike , Vol. 3, Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt 1993, p. 44 f. (and commentary on p. 202 f.).
  2. ↑ Plato, Politeia 616c-617d.
  3. ↑ Proklos, In Platonis rem publicam II, p. 24 lines 6-15 Kroll ; French translation: André-Jean Festugière : Proclus, Commentaire sur la République , Vol. 2, Paris 1970, pp. 129f.
  4. ^ Proklos, In Platonis rem publicam II, p. 25 lines 14-26 Kroll; Greek text and translation by Heinrich Dörrie, Matthias Baltes: Der Platonismus in der Antike , Vol. 1, Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt 1987, pp. 110–113 (and commentary, pp. 342–344).
  5. ^ Proklos, In Platonis Timaeum I, p. 20, lines 9-11 Diehl; see Heinrich Dörrie, Matthias Baltes: Der Platonismus in der Antike , Vol. 3, Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt 1993, p. 212.
  6. ↑ Albinos, Eisagoge 4; Greek text of the passage with translation by Heinrich Dörrie, Matthias Baltes: Der Platonismus in der Antike , Vol. 2, Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt 1990, pp. 98f. (and commentary on p. 357 f.).
  7. ↑ Varro, De lingua Latina 7.37.
  8. ↑ Harold Tarrant, however, contradicts this prevailing view in the research literature: Thrasyllan Platonism , Ithaca 1993, pp. 73–76.
  9. ↑ For the dating see Carl Werner Müller : Die Kurzdialoge der Appendix Platonica , Munich 1975, p. 328 f.
  10. ↑ Jaap Mansfeld : Prolegomena , Leiden 1994, p. 64 f. and note 111. See also Harold Tarrant: Thrasyllan Platonism , Ithaca 1993, pp. 11-14, 72-76.
personal data
SURNAME Derkylides
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Derkyllides; Δερκυλίδης (Greek)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION ancient Greek philosopher
DATE OF BIRTH 2nd century BC BC or 1st century BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH 1st century BC Chr.