Menexenus (son of Demophon)

Menexenos ( Greek Μενέξενος Menéxenos ; * after 423 BC; † after 399 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher . He lived in Athens and was a student of Socrates .

Life

Very little is known about the life of Menexenus; the only sources are three literary dialogues written by his contemporary Plato . He came from a noble family in Athens. The assumption that the family was resident in the Paiania district , however, is unfounded, so the name “Menexenos of Paiania” is incorrect. The ancestors of Menexenus had excelled in politics. Whether his father Demophon can be identified with another bearer of this name, who was a great-nephew of the famous statesman Pericles , is disputed in research; this hypothesis is problematic and has not yet caught on. Menexenus had a relative named Ktesippus, who was also a pupil of Socrates and appears as a participant in two dialogues of Plato. Ktesippus taught Menexenus eristics when he was a boy . Menexenus was close friends with Lysis, after whom Plato's dialogue Lysis is named.

As a young man, Menexenus considered becoming politically active, which in democratic Athens was associated with an activity as a speaker, and aspiring to an office. According to Plato, however, he made this step dependent on Socrates approving it.

One of the three sons of Socrates, probably the youngest, was called Menexenus. This Menexenos was born in 402 at the latest. Probably Socrates named him after his pupil, which suggests that the philosopher Menexenus belonged to the closest circle of Socrates - perhaps also to his relatives.

When Socrates died in 399, Menexenus was among those present, as Plato testified, along with Ktesippus.

Role in literary dialogues

In Plato's dialogues Lysis and Menexenus Menexenus appears as a conversation partner of Socrates; the Menexenos is named after him. In Lysis he is still a confident, somewhat brazen boy and one of five participants in the dialogue. Here Plato portrays him as a cunning debater who knows the art of refutation. In the Menexenos he is already a young man and the only interlocutor of Socrates, whom he joined as a pupil; his demeanor is modest, and his life planning is based on the advice of his teacher.

According to a research hypothesis, the Menexenos, who appears in the dialogue named after him, is not identical with the person of the same name in Lysis , but rather the meanwhile grown up son of Socrates. This hypothesis is intended to partially remedy the glaring anachronism of the Menexenos dialogue (in the literary work, Plato allows Socrates to refer to events that took place long after the death of the historical Socrates; at that time, Menexenos des Lysis must also have been older than the title figure of Menexenus is pictured). The assumption that a different Menexenos is meant than in Lysis , however, only removes the anachronism to a small extent and has hardly found favor in research. The anachronism, which is unmistakable for contemporary readers, is an effect consciously used by the author.

According to the history of philosophy Diogenes Laertios , Plato's brother Glaucon wrote nine dialogues; one of them was called Menexenos . Even Aristotle wrote a work in dialogue form entitled Menexenus . The philosopher Antisthenes , who was a student of Socrates and is considered to be the founder of Cynicism , gave one of his dialogues the title Menexenos or Over Rule . The church father Clement of Alexandria mentions a dialogue by the megarist Philon, also titled Menexenos . Presumably the title figure of these now lost writings is identical with the Menexenus, who appears in Plato.

The French writer Abel Hermant published Dialog Aspasie in 1928 , in which he made Menexenus one of the two interlocutors. Menexenus is no longer a youth here, but a man of mature age; he is talking to the young Democrates about courtesans .

literature

• Luc Brisson : Ménexène de Péanée . In: Richard Goulet (ed.): Dictionnaire des philosophes antiques . Volume 4, CNRS Éditions, Paris 2005, ISBN 2-271-06386-8 , p. 466
• Debra Nails: The People of Plato. A Prosopography of Plato and Other Socratics . Hackett, Indianapolis 2002, ISBN 0-87220-564-9 , pp. 202-203, 319-320
• John S. Traill: Persons of Ancient Athens , Volume 12: M- to Mōsēs. Athenians, Toronto 2003, ISBN 0-9685232-4-2 , p. 227 (No. 644855; compilation of the documents)
• Stavros Tsitsiridis (Ed.): Plato's Menexenos. Introduction, text and commentary . Teubner, Stuttgart 1998, pp. 53-57, 131-137

Remarks

1. ↑ Stavros Tsitsiridis (Ed.): Platons Menexenos , Stuttgart 1998, p. 54 and note 72.
2. ^ Plato, Menexenus 234a-b.
3. ↑ Pierre Vidal-Naquet pleads for identity : La société platonicienne des dialogues . In: Aux origines de l'hellénisme. La Crète et la Grèce. Hommage à Henri van Effenterre , Paris 1984, pp. 273–293, here: 280. Against this are Luc Brisson: Ménexène de Péanée . In: Richard Goulet (ed.): Dictionnaire des philosophes antiques , Volume 4, Paris 2005, p. 466 and Debra Nails: The People of Plato , Indianapolis 2002, p. 202f. See Stavros Tsitsiridis (ed.): Platons Menexenos. Introduction, text and commentary , Stuttgart 1998, p. 54.
4. ↑ According to Plato, Lysis 206d, Menexenus was an anepsios of Ktesippos, which is often translated as "nephew"; but what is probably meant is “cousin”, see Debra Nails: The People of Plato , Indianapolis 2002, pp. 120, 202; Luc Brisson: Ménexène de Péanée . In: Richard Goulet (ed.): Dictionnaire des philosophes antiques , Volume 4, Paris 2005, p. 466.
5. ↑ Plato, Lysis 211c.
6. ↑ Plato, Lysis 206d.
7. ^ Plato, Menexenus 234a-b.
8. ^ Plato, Phaedo 59b.
9. ↑ Plato, Lysis 211b-c. See Michael Bordt : Plato: Lysis. Translation and Commentary , Göttingen 1998, p. 148.
10. ^ Lesley Dean-Jones: Menexenus - son of Socrates . In: The Classical Quarterly 45, 1995, pp. 51-57.
11. ↑ Diogenes Laertios 2,124.
12. ↑ Diogenes Laertios 5:22. See Renato Laurenti: Aristote de Stagire: Les “dialogues” . In: Richard Goulet (Ed.): Dictionnaire des philosophes antiques , Volume Supplément , Paris 2003, pp. 379f .; Stavros Tsitsiridis (Ed.): Plato's Menexenos. Introduction, text and commentary , Stuttgart 1998, pp. 55f. Note 76.
13. ↑ Diogenes Laertios 6:18. See Stavros Tsitsiridis (ed.): Platons Menexenos. Introduction, text and commentary , Stuttgart 1998, p. 55, note 76.
14. ↑ Clemens of Alexandria, Stromateis 4,19,121,5.