Alcidamas
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Alcidamas ( grc-gre, Ἀλκιδάμας), of Elaea, in
Aeolis Aeolis (; grc, Αἰολίς, Aiolís), or Aeolia (; grc, Αἰολία, Aiolía, link=no), was an area that comprised the west and northwestern region of Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey), mostly along the coast, and also several offshore islan ...
, was a
Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
sophist A sophist ( el, σοφιστής, sophistes) was a teacher in ancient Greece in the fifth and fourth centuries BC. Sophists specialized in one or more subject areas, such as philosophy, rhetoric, music, athletics, and mathematics. They taught ' ...
and rhetorician, who flourished in the 4th century BC.


Life

He was the pupil and successor of Gorgias and taught at
Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...
at the same time as Isocrates, to whom he was a rival and opponent. We possess two declamations under his name: ''On Sophists'' (Περὶ Σοφιστῶν), directed against Isocrates and setting forth the superiority of extempore over written speeches (a more recently discovered fragment of another speech against Isocrates is probably of later date); ''Odysseus'' (perhaps spurious) in which Odysseus accuses Palamedes of treachery during the siege of
Troy Troy ( el, Τροία and Latin: Troia, Hittite: 𒋫𒊒𒄿𒊭 ''Truwiša'') or Ilion ( el, Ίλιον and Latin: Ilium, Hittite: 𒃾𒇻𒊭 ''Wiluša'') was an ancient city located at Hisarlik in present-day Turkey, south-west of Ç ...
. According to Alcidamas, the highest aim of the orator was the power of speaking ''ex tempore'' on every conceivable subject.
Aristotle Aristotle (; grc-gre, Ἀριστοτέλης ''Aristotélēs'', ; 384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Peripatetic school of ph ...
(''Rhet.'' iii. 3) criticizes his writings as characterized by pomposity of style and an extravagant use of poetical epithets and compounds and far-fetched metaphors. Of other works only fragments and the titles have survived: ''Messeniakos'', advocating the freedom of the Messenians and containing the sentiment that "God has left all men free; nature has made no man a slave";J.D. Bury and Russell Meiggs, ''A History of Greece to the Death of Alexander the Great'', fourth ed. (New York, New York: St. Martin's Press, 1975), page 375. a ''Eulogy of Death'', in consideration of the wide extent of human sufferings; a ''Techne'' or instruction-book in the art of rhetoric; and a ''Phusikos logos''. Lastly, his ''Mouseion'' (a word invoking the
Muse In ancient Greek religion and mythology, the Muses ( grc, Μοῦσαι, Moûsai, el, Μούσες, Múses) are the inspirational goddesses of literature, science, and the arts. They were considered the source of the knowledge embodied in the ...
s) seems to have contained the narrative of the '' Contest of Homer and Hesiod'', of which the version that has survived is the work of a grammarian in the time of Hadrian, based on Alcidamas. This hypothesis of the contents of the ''Mouseion'', originally suggested by
Nietzsche Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (; or ; 15 October 1844 – 25 August 1900) was a German philosopher, prose poet, cultural critic, philologist, and composer whose work has exerted a profound influence on contemporary philosophy. He began his car ...
(''Rheinisches Museum'' 25 (1870) & 28 (1873)), appears to have been confirmed by three papyrus findsone 3rd century BC (''Flinders Petrie Papyri'', ed. Mahaffy, 1891, pl. xxv.), one 2nd century BC (Basil Mandilaras, 'A new papyrus fragment of the ''Certamen Homeri et Hesiodi ''Platon'' 42 (1990) 45–51) and one 2nd or 3rd century AD (University of Michigan pap. 2754: Winter, J. G., 'A New Fragment on the Life of Homer' ''TAPA'' 56 (1925) 120–12

.


Notes


References

* *O'Sullivan, N. (2008) 'The authenticity of lcidamas''Odysseus'': two new linguistic arguments', ''Classical Quarterly'' 58, 638-647


Further reading

*Alcidamas' surviving works **Guido Avezzù (ed.), ''Alcidamante. Orazioni e frammenti'' (now the standard text, with Italian translation, 1982) **J.V. Muir (ed.), ''Alcidamas. The works and fragments'' (text with English translation, 2001)
reviewed in ''BMCR''
**Ruth Mariss, ''Alkidamas: Über diejenigen, die schriftliche Reden schreiben, oder über die Sophisten: eine Sophistenrede aus dem 4. Jh. v. Chr., eingeleitet und kommentiert'' (Orbis Antiquus, 36), 2002 **
Friedrich Blass Friedrich Blass (22 January 1843, Osnabrück5 March 1907, Halle) was a German classical scholar. Biography After studying at Göttingen and Bonn from 1860 to 1863, Blass lectured at several gymnasia and at the University of Königsberg. In 1876 ...
,
Teubner The Bibliotheca Teubneriana, or ''Bibliotheca Scriptorum Graecorum et Romanorum Teubneriana'', also known as Teubner editions of Greek and Latin texts, comprise one of the most thorough modern collection published of ancient (and some medieval) ...
edition of the Greek text (1908
online
**Alcidamas

*About Alcidamas **
Aristotle Aristotle (; grc-gre, Ἀριστοτέλης ''Aristotélēs'', ; 384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Peripatetic school of ph ...
, '' Rhetoric'' III.3 **J. Vahlen, "Der Rhetor Alkidamas", ''Sitzungsberichte der wiener Akademie, Phil.-Hist. Cl.'', 43 (1863) 491–52
online
=''Gesammelte philologische Schriften'' (Leipzig & Berlin 1911) 1.117–155) **
Friedrich Blass Friedrich Blass (22 January 1843, Osnabrück5 March 1907, Halle) was a German classical scholar. Biography After studying at Göttingen and Bonn from 1860 to 1863, Blass lectured at several gymnasia and at the University of Königsberg. In 1876 ...
, ''Die attische Beredsamkeit'', part 2 (1892
online
pp. 345–363 ** M.L. West (1967) for Alcidamas' invention of the contest of Homer and Hesiod , N.J. Richardson (1981) against
Various articles on Alcidamas
(1856–1919, with links to further online material) **Additional bibliography is available online at {{DEFAULTSORT:Alcidamas Sophists Ancient Greek rhetoricians 4th-century BC Greek people