Polos from Akragas

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Polos von Akragas ( ancient Greek Πῶλος Pṓlos ) was an ancient Greek sophist and rhetor from Akragas , today's Agrigento in Sicily . He was in the second half of the 5th century BC. Active.

Polos was a student of the sophist Gorgias , whose travel companion he later became. The two sophists gave lessons in Athens . Plato had Polos appear as a participant in his dialogue with Gorgias . A text of polo on rhetorical technique is lost today.

The Pythagorean of the same name from Lucania is to be distinguished from the sophist Polos , from whose work On Justice the late antique scholar Johannes Stobaios has given a quote.

Life

Little is known about the life of polo. Presumably he was after the middle of the 5th century BC. Born in BC. He probably spent his youth in the Greek part of Sicily. The writer Flavius ​​Philostratos , who in the 3rd century compiled biographical information on numerous sophists in his biography of the sophists , reports that Polos was rich. So he could afford the very expensive rhetoric lessons from Gorgias, a famous rhetoric teacher. From information provided by Plato, it emerges that the sophist Likymnios of Chios , who was also a pupil of Gorgias, worked with Polos. In a scholion on the text On the Pythagorean Life of the Neo-Platonist Iamblichus , Gorgias and Polos are referred to as students of Empedocles .

Polos later accompanied Gorgias to Greece and stayed with him for a while in Athens, where the two sophists were teaching. In the dialogue attributed to Plato Theages , the authenticity of which is disputed, Socrates names Polos among the successful sophists teaching in Athens who claimed to be able to provide education to young people and who, with their art of persuasion, won over the most distinguished and richest youngsters. According to this presentation, they asked a lot of money for their lessons.

Lukian of Samosata names Polos among the sophists who appeared as speakers in Olympia . After a remark by Dionysius of Halicarnassus , he had students. His name - Polos means "foal", in a figurative sense "youth" - gave rise to puns that alluded to his heat.

Works

None of the works that Polos wrote or that were ascribed to him have survived. Aristotle approvingly quotes his statement - also passed down in Plato's Dialogue with Gorgias - that professional competence is the fruit of experience and that the inexperienced is left to chance (for lack of perspective). A remark in Plato's Gorgias shows that Polos wrote a pamphlet on rhetorical technique, probably a manual. In Plato's dialogue Phaedrus , a “collection of words” ( μουσεῖα λόγων mouseía lógōn, literally “temple of the muses of words”) from Polos is mentioned, in which double expressions, proverbs and figurative expressions were put together. Apparently Polos introduced new technical terms in this work, which earned him Plato's ridicule. Perhaps the collection was part of the rhetoric manual.

In the Suda , a Byzantine encyclopedia, the entry on Polos lists three works ascribed to him: a representation of the origins of the heroes who participated in the Trojan War , a catalog of ships (meaning ships that played a role in the Trojan War played) and a - perhaps identical to the rhetoric manual - a text on the art of expressing oneself correctly ( Περὶ λέξεως Peri léxeōs, "On linguistic expression"). However, the encyclopedist points out that the attribution of the genealogical work is uncertain, since some believed the author was not Polos, but the geographer Damastes von Sigeion .

Role in literary dialogues

In Plato's dialogue with Gorgias , Polos appears as Gorgias 'companion and Socrates' interlocutor. The two Sicilian speakers are in Athens. Your host there is the sophist Callicles . Gorgias gives lectures, gives lessons and answers any questions from the audience, Polos assists him. Socrates mentions that he read Polos' writing on rhetorical technique. In Phaedrus ' dialogue , Plato makes his Socrates refer ironically to Polos' specialist literature.

The portrayal of polo in Plato's Gorgias is very unfavorable. Although he has already emerged as a specialist author in the field of rhetoric, he is unable to define his subject, fails in argumentation, proves to be impatient and appears arrogant. Diligence in philosophical investigation is alien to him. He considers rhetoric to be the most beautiful of the arts. He represents the concept of a value-free, arbitrarily applicable, unconditionally success-oriented rhetoric; as a speaker one does not need to know what is fair and what is unjust. On the one hand, he admires power and success, even if they are achieved with unfair means, on the other hand, he also takes into account conventional values ​​such as the disapproval of injustice and engages with Socrates' ethical argumentation. This contrast is not a problem for him, because he has not thought through his position and checked it for conclusiveness. Since he adopts common judgments, he does not come to an independent position. His approach is similar to that of his teacher Gorgias, whom he admires; he exaggerates the conception of Gorgias to the extreme.

Source collections

  • Robert L. Fowler: Polos of Akragas: Testimonia . In: Mnemosyne Vol. 50, 1997, pp. 27–34 (complete compilation of the source texts)
  • Ludwig Radermacher (ed.): Artium scriptores (remnants of pre-Aristotelian rhetoric) . Rudolf Rohrer, Vienna 1951, pp. 112–114 (compilation of source texts; incomplete)

literature

  • Monique Canto: Plato: Gorgias. Traduction inédite, introduction and notes . Flammarion, Paris 1987, ISBN 2-08-070465-6 , pp. 34-38
  • Pierre Chiron: Pôlos d'Agrigente . In: Richard Goulet (Ed.): Dictionnaire des philosophes antiques , Vol. 5, Part 2, CNRS Éditions, Paris 2012, ISBN 978-2-271-07399-0 , pp. 1218-1221
  • Debra Nails: The People of Plato. A Prosopography of Plato and Other Socratics . Hackett, Indianapolis 2002, ISBN 0-87220-564-9 , p. 252

Remarks

  1. ↑ Philostratos, Vitae sophistarum 1,13.
  2. ↑ Plato, Phaedrus 267b-c. For the interaction of Polos and Likymnios see Michel Narcy: Licymnios de Chios . In: Richard Goulet (ed.): Dictionnaire des philosophes antiques , Volume 4, Paris 2005, pp. 105-107, here: 106.
  3. ↑ Hermann Diels , Walther Kranz : The Fragments of the Pre-Socratics , Vol. 1, 9th edition, Berlin 1960, p. 285 (DK 31 A 19).
  4. ↑ Theages 127e-128a.
  5. ↑ Lucian, Herodotus or Aëtion 3.
  6. ^ Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Lysias 3.
  7. ↑ Aristotle, Rhetorik 1400b20-21; Plato, Gorgias 463e.
  8. ↑ Aristotle, Metaphysics 981a; Plato, Gorgias 448c, 462b-c. See Robert Renehan: Polus, Plato, and Aristotle . In: The Classical Quarterly 45, 1995, pp. 68-72.
  9. ↑ Plato, Gorgias 462b-c. See Joachim Dalfen : Plato: Gorgias. Translation and commentary , Göttingen 2004, p. 130.
  10. ↑ Plato, Phaedrus 267b-c. See Eric Robertson Dodds (ed.): Plato: Gorgias. A Revised Text with Introduction and Commentary , Oxford 1959, p. 11.
  11. ↑ Suda , keyword Πῶλος , Adler number: pi 2170 , Suda-Online .
  12. ↑ On Plato's Polos see Eric Robertson Dodds (ed.): Plato: Gorgias. A Revised Text with Introduction and Commentary , Oxford 1959, pp. 11f .; Joachim Dalfen: Plato: Gorgias. Translation and Commentary , Göttingen 2004, pp. 131, 264-277, 288, 296; Charles H. Kahn: Drama and Dialectic in Plato's Gorgias . In: Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy 1, 1983, pp. 75–121, here: 94–97; Evelyne Méron: Les idées morales des interlocuteurs de Socrate dans les dialogues platoniciens de jeunesse , Paris 1979, pp. 65f .; Adele Spitzer: The Self-Reference of the Gorgias . In: Philosophy & Rhetoric 8, 1975, pp. 1–22, here: 9–11.
personal data
SURNAME Polos from Akragas
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Polos from Agrigento; Polos from Akragas
BRIEF DESCRIPTION ancient Greek sophist
DATE OF BIRTH 5th century BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH 5th century BC BC or 4th century BC Chr.