Halcyon

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The beginning of the halcyon in the oldest surviving medieval manuscript: Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale , Gr. 1807 (9th century)

The Halcyon or Alkyon ( Greek  Ἀλκυών Alkyṓn , in the Attic dialect Ἁλκυών Halkyṓn , Latin (H) alcyo ) is an ancient literary dialogue in ancient Greek , which was ascribed to the philosopher Plato , but certainly does not come from him. The inauthenticity was already recognized in antiquity. The unknown author, supposedly named Leon, apparently lived in the Hellenistic period.

The content is a short fictional conversation between the philosopher Socrates and his pupil Chairephon . They discuss the question of whether metamorphoses - the transformations of humans into animals that have been handed down in numerous myths - are actually possible. This topic leads you to the general epistemological problem of the limits of knowledge, the weakness of the mind, and the lack of certainty of what one thinks one knows. Socrates explains why he is skeptical about the availability of secure knowledge.

In the early modern period , dialogue was usually considered the work of the writer Lukian of Samosata .

content

The parties and the circumstances

The dialogue takes place during Socrates' lifetime († 399 BC), before the takeover of power by the oligarchical council of thirty ("thirty tyrants") in 404 BC. BC, which forced Chairephon to go into exile. The historical chairephon was a contemporary, student and friend of Socrates.

A framework is missing, the conversation starts suddenly. The two interlocutors are on a walk on the seashore near Phaleron near Athens . It is the time of the fourteen " halcyon days " in December around the winter solstice . The halcyon days were valued in ancient Greece because of the usually serene weather and calm during this period. They were named after the halcyon, the kingfisher , because it was assumed that the female kingfisher nests and broods around this time.

The course of the conversation

Chairephon asks Socrates about the lovely sounds that can be heard from afar; he wants to know which animal makes such sounds. Socrates explains to him that it is the sad, plaintive voice of the kingfisher. There is a myth connected with it. According to an old story, Halcyone (Alkyone), the daughter of the wind god Aiolus , was married to Keyx , the son of the morning star Heosphoros . After the death of her husband, she wandered inconsolably around the world in the vain hope of finding him somewhere again. Eventually, out of pity, they turned the gods into a kingfisher. Since then she has been flying over the seas in this form, where she continues the search for her beloved husband. As a reward for their extraordinary love, the gods have made sure that the weather is nice during their breeding season. Chairephon, who has never heard a kingfisher before, confirms that its voice sounds like a wail. But he doubts the truth of the story, because the transformation of a woman into a bird seems impossible to him. Now he wants to know what his friend and teacher thinks of it.

Socrates takes the question as an opportunity to point out the limits of human knowledge. According to his explanations, any claim that a process that has never been observed is possible or impossible is questionable. The assumption that something cannot be has no basis. Since man's life is short, his mind is always childlike. Even with the everyday natural processes that he perceives, many things are puzzling to him, for example how diverse living beings can emerge from eggs. His possibilities of knowledge and judgment are strictly limited; his understanding is related to that of the gods as that of a child a few days old is to that of an adult. In the face of the forces of nature, man is helpless and clueless like such a child. He is wrong when he thinks he can judge what is possible and what is not. Deeds that are unimaginable for some are done by others. Mortals have no idea of ​​the extent of the gods' abilities. Therefore they should not imagine that they know the limits of what is possible. Socrates wants to tell his children the myth of the kingfisher as he inherited it from their ancestors; He does not care whether the processes described literally happened that way. It is important to him to glorify exemplary conjugal love in the kingfisher legend. Chairephon agrees.

Author and date of origin

The Halcyon is passed down together with other works wrongly attributed to Plato, but also together with works by the satirist Lukian of Samosata , who lived in the 2nd century. It is undisputed in research that neither of the two can be considered as an author.

The imperial historian of philosophy, Diogenes Laertios, names Leon as the author, referring to the fifth book of Memories by the writer Favorinus , who lived in the 2nd century. Only fragments of the work of Favorinus have survived. Athenaios claims that "Leon the Academic" wrote the dialogue; he reports that this information came from Nicias of Nikaia, the author of the now-lost history of philosophy The Succession of the Philosophers . Who Leon was and whether the tradition that names him as an author is credible is unclear. It has often been assumed that it was about Leon of Byzantium , a philosopher and politician of the 4th century BC. Another fourth-century Leon who studied mathematics and belonged to the Platonic Academy has also been considered. The assumption that Leon of Byzantium is the author continues to have supporters, but is met with serious concerns, since linguistic and stylistic reasons suggest that the dialogue at the earliest in the 3rd century BC. Was created. Carl Werner Müller suspects that it was written in the second half of the 2nd century BC. BC, Eckart Mensching puts the work in the middle of the 3rd century BC. None of the attempts to identify the alleged author Leon and to determine the time of origin has met with general approval. The author of the Halcyon has his Socrates mention that he has two wives, Xanthippe and Myrto . However, nothing has come down to us in contemporary sources of the philosopher's alleged double marriage; it is a legend that was only spread after Plato's death. This is also an indication that speaks against early dating. Since a pronounced epistemological skepticism is represented in the dialogue , it is likely that the author belonged to the Platonic Academy in the period known as the “younger” or “skeptical” academy (268 / 264–88 / 86 BC .). Another clue is the argument of Socrates, detailed in the Halcyon, against the claim that it is impossible to transform a person into an animal. With this the author of the dialogue turns against the sharp distinction advocated by the Stoics between the rational human being and the unreasonable animal. Accordingly, it is a matter of a statement in the dispute about the rationality of animals, which took place between the Academy and the Stoa in the epoch of Hellenism .

reception

The beginning of the halcyon in the first edition, Florence 1496

Since the halcyon was considered spurious in antiquity, it was not included in the tetralogy of the works of Plato. Diogenes Laertios listed them among the writings that were unanimously regarded as not coming from Plato.

Nevertheless, the halcyon was spread under Plato's name in the 2nd century at the latest. The attribution to Lucian began later than that to Plato, probably not until late antiquity or in the Middle Ages. The only ancient text witness that has survived is a papyrus fragment from the late 2nd century.

In the Middle Ages, the halcyon was not accessible to the Latin- speaking scholarly world of the West. In the Byzantine Empire, however, it found a few readers. The oldest surviving medieval manuscript dates from the 9th century. She gives as the title Alkyon or About Metamorphosis . In the Lukian tradition the alternative title is About the Metamorphoses .

After its rediscovery in the age of Renaissance humanism , the halcyon again attracted attention. The humanist Agostino Dati made a Latin translation, which he completed in the period 1448–1467. Dati considered the dialogue to be a genuine work of Plato, which is characterized by its proximity to the Christian faith. Its translation was first printed in Siena in 1503. The first edition of the Greek text appeared in Florence in 1496 as part of the first edition of Lukian's works. The Halcyon was also included in the following Lucian editions . In the first edition of Plato's works published in 1513, however, it was missing. Even in the published in 1578, governing the aftermath Plato edition of Henri Estienne (Henricus Stephanus) was Halcyon omitted in contrast to other pseudo-Platonic works. Christoph Martin Wieland (1733–1813), who translated the Halcyon into German, considered it to be a real work by Lukian.

In his historical novel Marius the Epicurean , published in 1885, the English writer Walter Pater had a scholar perform who recited the halcyon at a symposium and raised the question of whether Lucian could really be the author.

The little work has received relatively little attention in modern research. The older research opinion that the author was a stoic is no longer supported today. Alfred Edward Taylor described the dialogue as a bit of silly delicacy. Luc Brisson, on the other hand, praised the very neat style of Halcyon , which is a natural and attractive font. The Lukian editor Matthew D. MacLeod published what is now the authoritative critical edition of the Halcyon in 1987 as part of his complete edition of the works of Lukian, although he rules out the possibility that Lukian was actually the author. MacLeod says the author of the dialogue skilfully imitated Plato's style.

Editions and translations

  • Matthew D. MacLeod (Ed.): Luciani opera , Vol. 4: Libelli 69-86 . Oxford University Press, Oxford 1987, ISBN 0-19-814596-9 , pp. 90-95 (critical edition)
  • Christoph Martin Wieland (translator): Lukian: Works in three volumes , 2nd edition, volume 3, Aufbau-Verlag, Berlin 1981, pp. 155–159 (the translation of Wieland first published in 1789)
  • Matthew D. MacLeod (Ed.): Lucian in eight volumes , Vol. 8, Harvard University Press, Cambridge (Massachusetts) 1979 (reprint of 1967 edition), ISBN 0-674-99476-0 , pp. 303-317 ( Greek text and English translation)

literature

Web links

  • Halcyon (German translation by Christoph Martin Wieland, 1789)

Remarks

  1. ↑ See also Carl Werner Müller: Die Kurzdialoge der Appendix Platonica , Munich 1975, p. 275 and note 5.
  2. ^ Halcyon 1-2.
  3. ^ Halcyon 3-8.
  4. ^ Helen M. Cockle: The Oxyrhynchus Papyri , Vol. 52, London 1984, p. 114.
  5. ↑ Diogenes Laertios 3.62 (Favorinus, fragment F 53 Amato).
  6. ↑ Athenaios 506c.
  7. ↑ See, for example, Helen M. Cockle: The Oxyrhynchus Papyri , Vol. 52, London 1984, pp. 113f. See Heinrich Dörrie , Matthias Baltes : Der Platonismus in der Antike , Volume 2, Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt 1990, p. 346 and note 1.
  8. ↑ François Lasserre : De Leodamas de Thasos à Philippe d'Oponte , Napoli 1987, p 518F .; Tiziano Dorandi: Léon (No. 32). In: Richard Goulet (ed.): Dictionnaire des philosophes antiques , Vol. 4, Paris 2005, p. 86.
  9. ↑ Carl Werner Müller: Die Kurzdialoge der Appendix Platonica , Munich 1975, pp. 285-296, 316f.
  10. ↑ Eckart Mensching (Ed.): Favorin von Arelate , Berlin 1963, p. 89.
  11. ↑ See the research overview in Eugenio Amato (ed.): Favorinos d'Arles: Œuvres , Vol. 3, Paris 2010, pp. 243f.
  12. ↑ See on Myrto Debra Nails: The People of Plato , Indianapolis 2002, pp. 208-210; on the legend of the double marriage Carl Werner Müller: Appendix Platonica and Neue Akademie . In: Klaus Döring, Michael Erler, Stefan Schorn (eds.): Pseudoplatonica , Stuttgart 2005, pp. 155–174, here: p. 167 and note 51.
  13. ↑ Michael Erler: Platon , Basel 2007, p. 330; Carl Werner Müller: Appendix Platonica and New Academy . In: Klaus Döring, Michael Erler, Stefan Schorn (eds.): Pseudoplatonica , Stuttgart 2005, pp. 155–174, here: 164–166.
  14. ↑ Carl Werner Müller: Die Kurzdialoge der Appendix Platonica , Munich 1975, pp. 307-311, 316f .; Carl Werner Müller: Appendix Platonica and New Academy . In: Klaus Döring, Michael Erler, Stefan Schorn (eds.): Pseudoplatonica , Stuttgart 2005, pp. 155–174, here: 166–168.
  15. ↑ Diogenes Laertios 3.62. See Heinrich Dörrie, Matthias Baltes: Der Platonismus in der Antike , Vol. 2, Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt 1990, pp. 90-93, 345f.
  16. ^ Corpus dei Papiri Filosofici Greci e Latini (CPF) , Part 1, Vol. 1 **, Firenze 1992, pp. 463f. and Part 1, Vol. 1 ***, Firenze 1999, p. 91. Carl Werner Müller: Die Kurzdialoge der Appendix Platonica , Munich 1975, p. 274f. assumed that it was only medieval Byzantine scholars who made the assignment to Lucian.
  17. ↑ POxy 3683; see Corpus dei Papiri Filosofici Greci e Latini (CPF) , Part 1, Vol. 1 **, Firenze 1992, pp. 463-466 and Part 1, Vol. 1 ***, Firenze 1999, pp. 90f.
  18. ↑ Parisinus Graecus 1807; see on this manuscript and its date Henri Dominique Saffrey: Retour sur le Parisinus graecus 1807, le manuscrit A de Platon . In: Cristina D'Ancona (Ed.): The Libraries of the Neoplatonists , Leiden 2007, pp. 3–28.
  19. ^ Matthew D. MacLeod (Ed.): Luciani opera , Vol. 4, Oxford 1987, p. 90.
  20. ^ Mariella Menchelli: La versione dell'Alcione di Agostino Dati Senese e il Vat.gr. 1383 . In: Civiltà Classica e Cristiana 11, 1990, pp. 203-219; James Hankins: Plato in the Italian Renaissance , 3rd edition, Leiden 1994, pp. 408-411, 524 (edition of Dati's letter of dedication to his translation), 744f.
  21. ^ Walter Pater: Marius the Epicurean , Vol. 2, London 1910, pp. 80-84.
  22. ^ Carl Werner Müller: The short dialogues of the Appendix Platonica , Munich 1975, pp. 301-303.
  23. ^ Alfred Edward Taylor: Plato. The man and his work , 5th edition, London 1948, p. 552.
  24. ↑ Luc Brisson: Plato. Dialogues douteux et apocryphes . In: Richard Goulet (ed.): Dictionnaire des philosophes antiques , Volume 5, Part 1, Paris 2012, pp. 833–841, here: 838.
  25. ^ Matthew D. MacLeod (Ed.): Lucian in eight volumes , Vol. 8, Cambridge (Massachusetts) 1979, p. 304.
This version was added to the list of articles worth reading on February 22, 2014 .