Menippus of Gadara

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A bust found in the Villa dei Papiri and interpreted as Menippus, now in the National Archaeological Museum in Naples.

Menippos of Gadara ( ancient Greek Μένιππος Ménippos , Latinized Menippus ) was an ancient Greek writer who was close to the thoughts of the Cynical philosophers. He came from Gadara and was in the first half of the 3rd century BC. Active.

The writings of Menippus are lost. Only a few accounts of his life and the satires he wrote have come down to us . He was the first to mix prose and verse , which is why he was named after a literary genre , the Menippe satire .

Life

Menippus came from Gadara, today's Umm Qais in Jordan. He was probably of Phoenician descent, is said to have been released from slavery and to have received citizenship in Thebes . It is also reported that he made a fortune by lending money and killed himself because he was cheated out of it. His exact life dates are unknown. Apparently he was in the first half of the 3rd century BC. Active.

plant

Menippus' writings are lost. Ancient authors report that they comprised a total of 13 books, name the titles of individual writings and pass on a few pieces of content. However, due to the imprecise formulation and different information given by different authors, it is neither clear how many writings Menippos wrote nor what their names were. Some of the traditional titles are:

  • Descent into the underworld (Νέκυια). One suspects the following framework of this document. Menippus himself comes from the underworld to the upper world to observe the mistakes of the people and later to report them to the gods. He is disguised as Erinye .
  • Testaments (Διαθῆκαι). These were probably parodies of the wills of philosophers.
  • Letters conceived from the perspective of the gods (Ἐπιστολαὶ κεκομψευμέναι ἀπὸ τῶν θεῶν προσώπου).
  • The birth of Epicurus and the twentieth ritually celebrated by the Epicureans (Γονὰς Ἐπικούρου καὶ τὰς θρησκευομένας ὑπ 'αὐτῶν εἰκάδας). Here Menippus probably made fun of the celebrations the Epicureans held on the twentieth of each month and on Epicurus' birthday.

In addition to Epicurus, Arkesilaos , the natural philosophers, mathematicians and grammarians were also targets of Menippus.

Since all works are lost, the style of his works can only be reconstructed through his imitators. They include the satirist Lukian of Samosata and the Roman scholar Marcus Terentius Varro . It is believed that Menippus was the first to mix prose and verse . In Lucian's funeral talks , Menippus also appears as a literary figure; The extent to which Lucian's style wrote independently or closely based on Menippus is controversial in research. According to Diogenes Laertios , Menippus' writings contained little to be taken seriously and were full of ridicule and derision. This judgment agrees with other ancient reports, so it is assumed that Menippus hardly wrote down his own philosophical doctrines, but is mainly seen as a satirist, derisive critic and parodist. His writings were thus in the tradition of the Cynical diatribe .

Portraits

A 2nd century Roman copy of a lost Greek statue from the 3rd century BC. Chr. Have karl schefold and Gisela MA Richter interpreted as Menippos. The copy was found in the villa of Antoninus Pius in Lanuvium and is now in the Capitoline Museums in Rome . In addition, Maria R. Wojcik interpreted one of the two portraits of a double herme found in the Villa dei Papiri as Menippus. The double thermal bath is now in the Naples National Archaeological Museum .

Aftermath

Menippus' mixture of prose and verse (cf. Prosimetrum ) was style-forming and found numerous successors in Latin literature up into the Middle Ages (see Menippeian satire ).

Menippos , painting by Diego Velázquez, 1639/40

Menippus is not regarded as a symbolic figure of a philosophical school, but as the founder of satire as a literary genre on the grounds that the literary form and the entertaining function seem more relevant to him than the philosophical intention. The reason for this may be that even in ancient times the philosophy no longer allowed irony, joke and ridicule to be considered its own means; Rather, they were in the field of literature, which philosophy could no longer contest in its field. That is why Menippos is still the symbolic figure with which "serious" philosophy first distinguished itself from "foolish" literature. It may appear as a sign of the philosophically vehemently advocated separation of literature from philosophy that not a single philosophical school invokes Menippus, while on the other hand an entire literary genre is named after him.

Diego Velázquez created a painting showing Menippus.

The historian Theodor Mommsen described Menippos as the “father of feuilleton literature ” and speculated about him that he was “the most genuine literary representative of that philosophy whose wisdom consists in denying philosophy and mocking the philosophers, dog wisdom [Note: what is meant is the Cynicism] of Diogenes ; a funny master of serious wisdom, he proved in examples and purring that apart from the righteous life everything on earth and in heaven is vain, but nothing more vain than the strife of the so-called wise men. "

Hartmut Schmidt and Werner Thuswaldner created the opera Menippus based on the text Ikaromenippus or The Air Travel by Lukian von Samosata .

Source translation

literature

Overview representations

Investigations

  • Eugene P. Korkowski: Menippus and his Imitators. A Conspectus, up to Stars, for a Misunderstood Genre. San Diego 1973 (dissertation)
  • Eugene P. Kirk: Menippean satire. 1980.
  • Frederick J. Benda: The tradition of Menippean satire in Varro, Lucian, Seneca and Erasmus. Ann Arbor 1983.
  • Joel C. Relihan: A history of Menippean satire to AD 524. Madison 1985.
  • Joel C. Relihan: Ancient Menippean satire. Baltimore / London 1993.
  • Werner von Koppenfels : The Other Look or the Legacy of Menippos. Paradoxical Perspectives in European Literature. Munich 2007.

Web links

Wikisource: Menippus or the Oracle of Death  - Sources and full texts
Wikisource: Death Talks  - Sources and full texts

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Precise information on this portrait from Arachne .
  2. ↑ Strabon 16,2,29. Any statements to the contrary are probably incorrect. Cf. Klaus Döring: Menippos from Gadara . In: Hellmut Flashar (ed.): Outline of the history of philosophy. The philosophy of antiquity . Volume 2/1, Schwabe, Basel 1998, pp. 310-312, here: p. 311.
  3. ↑ a b Diogenes Laertios, Life and Teachings of Famous Philosophers 6.99.
  4. ^ Klaus Döring: Menippos from Gadara . In: Hellmut Flashar (ed.): Outline of the history of philosophy. The philosophy of antiquity . Volume 2/1, Schwabe, Basel 1998, pp. 310-312, here: pp. 310-311.
  5. ↑ Diogenes Laertios, Lives and Teachings of Famous Philosophers 6,101.
  6. ^ Klaus Döring: Menippos from Gadara . In: Hellmut Flashar (ed.): Outline of the history of philosophy. The philosophy of antiquity . Volume 2/1, Schwabe, Basel 1998, pp. 310-312, here: p. 311.
  7. ↑ Diogenes Laertios ( Life and Teachings of Famous Philosophers 6,102) wrongly transmitted this story for the Cynic Menedemus . Cf. Klaus Döring: Menippos from Gadara . In: Hellmut Flashar (ed.): Outline of the history of philosophy. The philosophy of antiquity . Volume 2/1, Schwabe, Basel 1998, pp. 310-312, here: p. 311.
  8. ^ A b Klaus Döring: Menippos from Gadara . In: Hellmut Flashar (ed.): Outline of the history of philosophy. The philosophy of antiquity . Volume 2/1, Schwabe, Basel 1998, pp. 310-312, here: p. 312.
  9. ↑ Diogenes Laertios, Lives and Teachings of Famous Philosophers 6.99.
  10. ^ Karl Schefold: The portraits of ancient poets, speakers and thinkers , Schwabe, Basel 1943, pp. 122–123; 2nd edition Schwabe, Basel 1997, pp. 248–249. 251.
  11. ^ Gisela MA Richter: The portraits of the Greeks , Vol. 2, Phaidon, London 1965, p. 185 fig. 1071; 1074.
  12. ^ Maria R. Wojcik: La Villa dei Papiri ad Ercolano , L'Erma di Bretschneider, Rome 1986, pp. 79-80.
  13. ↑ Inventory number 6154.
  14. ^ Theodor Mommsen : Roman history in the project Gutenberg-DE vol. 5, 1854-1857.
personal data
SURNAME Menippus of Gadara
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Menippus; Menipp
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Greek philosopher; Cynic
DATE OF BIRTH 4th century BC BC or 3rd century BC Chr.
PLACE OF BIRTH uncertain: Gadara (Umm Qais) , Jordan
DATE OF DEATH 3rd century BC Chr.