Raphael Hythlodeus

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Raphael Hythlodeus tells More and his companion about Utopia
Wood engraving by Ambrosius Holbein (1518)

Raphael Hythlodeus is a fictional character from Thomas More's novel Utopia , which was published in Latin in 1516 . In the novel, Hythlodeus is an allegedly well-traveled comrade of the Florentine navigator and explorer Amerigo Vespucci (approx. 1452-1512). Hythlodeus claims to have lived for five years on the unknown island of Utopia, which he wants to tell More about. In terms of nationality, he was Portuguese and, due to his intensive study of philosophy , spoke Greek very well . The name Hythlodeus is derived from the Greek words ὕθλος ("hythlos": nonsense, empty chatter) and δάιος ("daios": experienced, but also hostile). It can thus be translated as "experienced in chattering", but also on the contrary as "hostile to chattering".

literature

  • Reinhold Görling: Why is America not called Columbia? Fictionalization as a means of power and subversion in the invention and conquest of the New World. In: ders., Claus Füllberg-Stolberg (Hrsg.): Amerika. The other face of Europe (= Transatlantic. Vol. 1). Centaurus, Pfaffenweiler 1996, pp. 35-57, here pp. 46-50.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Martin d'Idler: The modernization of utopia. On the change of the new man in the political utopia of the modern age (= Politica et Ars. Vol. 15). Lit, Münster 2007, ISBN 978-3-8258-0729-0 , p. 77.