Pseudo-longinos

As pseudo-Longinos , the research describes the so far unidentified author of the powerful ancient treatise Peri hypsous ("On the sublime"). After the Aristotelian Poetics and the Ars poetica of Horace , it is one of the most important poetic theoretical works of antiquity.

Author and writing

Peri hypsous' title names "Dionysios Longinos" as the author. In the table of contents, however, the medieval manuscript, to which all later text documents go back (Codex Parisinus Gr. 2036; 10th century), a note ascribes the text to a “Dionysius or Longinos”. Since a Dionysios Longinos is not documented in other texts, Kassios Longinos or Dionysios of Halicarnassus was accepted as the author based on this note . Today it is assumed that neither of the two is the author of the work. On the basis of the following evidence in Peri hypsous , the time of writing is now dated to the first half of the 1st century AD: a style that was independent of Atticism ; the complaint that the rhetoric is decaying; the polemic against Caecilus - a Greek rhetor and literary critic of the Augustan period - which suggests a short time lag.

Contents of peri hypsous

Peri hypsous (Latin: De sublimitate ) is a treatise on the sublime or greatness. This is understood not only as a concept of style, a property of a text, but also as a reference to the abilities and strength of the author.

"The sublime tears apart, when it breaks out at the right moment, like lightning all things and suddenly shows the whole power of the speaker."

A distinction is made between two ways in which size / sublimity is produced: through system ( physis ) and learnable method ( technê ). "Five sources of the sublime" are described:

1. Ability to create great thoughts;
2. strong pathos;
3. Use of certain figures;
4. elegant diction achieved through specific choice of words and the use of tropes;
5. elevated set of rules.

The first two produce the system (Greek physis ), the remaining three can also be reached using the learnable method (Greek techne ). Above all, the three sources based on techne bring together set pieces from the rhetorical tradition, especially from the area of ​​the ornatus (speech jewelry).

reception

In modern times, especially as a result of a translation made by Nicolas Boileau and published in 1674, the work has had a broad impact on theories of the sublime , and influenced Edmund Burke and Immanuel Kant , among others .

Translations

• Otto Schönberger (translator): On the sublime. Reclam, Stuttgart 1988, ISBN 3-15-008469-5 .
• Reinhard Brandt : Pseudo-Longinos. From the sublime. Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 1966; Reprinted 1983, ISBN 3-534-09470-0 .
• James A. Arieti , John M. Crossett (transl.): Longinus. On the sublime (= Texts and studies in religion. Volume 21). Mellen, Lewiston, NY 1985, ISBN 0-88946-554-1 .

literature

• Manfred Fuhrmann : The poetry theory of antiquity. Artemis & Winkler, Düsseldorf and Zurich 2003, ISBN 3-538-07155-1 , pp. 162-184.
• Paul Barone: Schiller and the tradition of the sublime. E. Schmidt, Berlin 2004, ISBN 3-503-07917-3 .
• Dietmar Till: The doubly sublime. History of a figure of argument from antiquity to the beginning of the 19th century. Niemeyer, Tübingen 2006, ISBN 978-3-484-18175-5 .
• Martin Vöhler : Pseudo-Longinos. Perí hýpsus. In: Christine Walde (Ed.): The reception of ancient literature. Kulturhistorisches Werklexikon (= Der Neue Pauly . Supplements. Volume 7). Metzler, Stuttgart / Weimar 2010, ISBN 978-3-476-02034-5 , Sp. 773-782.

Web links

• Longinus, On the Sublime (English translation at Peithô's Web)

Remarks

1. ↑ Horst-Dieter Blume : Longinos 2. In: Der Kleine Pauly (KlP). Volume 3, Stuttgart 1969, Col. 733 f.
2. ^ De sublimate 1; quoted from: Manfred Fuhrmann: The poetry theory of antiquity. Artemis & Winkler, Düsseldorf and Zurich 2003, p. 166.
3. ↑ Cf. Manfred Fuhrmann: The poetry theory of antiquity. Artemis & Winkler, Düsseldorf and Zurich 2003, p. 168.