Amphipolis Zoilos

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Zoilos ( Greek  Ζωίλος Zōílos , Latin Zoilus ; * around 400 BC; † around 320 BC) from the Thracian city ​​of Amphipolis was a Cynical orator and sophist .

Little is known about the life of the zoilos. He could have been a pupil of the Polycrates of Athens . Anaximenes of Lampsakos and Demosthenes are named as his pupils . He was said to have spoken against everything and everyone. Zoilus was best known as a harsh critic of Plato , Isocrates and Homer . Because of his criticism of the latter, he was also called Homeromastix ("Homer scourge"). He also worked as a historian.

He is said to have personally brought his writings against the Iliad and the Odyssey of Homer to Pharaoh Ptolemaios II Philadelphus in Alexandria, Egypt , without, however, meeting with the king's understanding for his diatribes. However, this cannot be so, since the life dates of Zoilus (* around 400 BC) and Ptolemy II (* 308 BC) do not even come close. The place and circumstances of Zoilos' death have been handed down in legend. Allegedly he was executed for murder. According to one version, he was crucified on the orders of Ptolemy II, according to other sources, he was burned at the stake in Smyrna , or stoned to death on Chios, or thrown to his death from a rock. These are probably fictitious stories that sprang from the idea that the attack on Homer was a crime worthy of death.

literature

  • Marie-Odile Goulet-Cazé: Zoïlos d'Amphipolis. In: Richard Goulet (ed.): Dictionnaire des philosophes antiques. Volume 7, CNRS Éditions, Paris 2018, ISBN 978-2-271-09024-9 , pp. 421-436
  • Stephanos Matthaios: Zoilos [1]. In: The New Pauly (DNP). Volume 12/2, Metzler, Stuttgart 2002, ISBN 3-476-01487-8 , Sp. 825.
  • Philipp Weiß: Death of a Critic: On the Zoilosa anecdote in Vitruvius. 7 praef. 8–9 and their afterlife in the Saturnalia of Macrobius. In: Gregor Bitto, Anna Ginestí Rosell (ed.): Philology on the second level. Literary receptions and stagings of Hellenistic learning. Franz Steiner, Stuttgart 2019, ISBN 978-3-515-12357-0 , pp. 119-132.

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ The Fragments of the Greek Historians (FGrH) 71.
personal data
SURNAME Amphipolis Zoilos
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ζωίλος
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Cynical orator and sophist
DATE OF BIRTH around 400 BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH around 320 BC Chr.