Dionysodorus (

Greek Greek may refer to: 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 of all kno ...

: Διονυσόδωρος, ''Dionysódōros'', c. 430 – late 5th century or early 4th century BCE) was an

ancient Greek Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...

sophistic

philosopher Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

and teacher of

martial arts Martial arts are codified systems and traditions of combat practiced for a number of reasons such as self-defence; military and law enforcement applications; combat sport, competition; physical, mental, and spiritual development; entertainment; ...

, generalship, and

oration Public speaking, is the practice of delivering speeches to a live audience. Throughout history, public speaking has held significant cultural, religious, and political importance, emphasizing the necessity of effective rhetorical skills. It all ...

. Closely associated with his brother and fellow sophist Euthydemus, he is depicted in the writing of

Plato Plato ( ; Greek language, Greek: , ; born BC, died 348/347 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher of the Classical Greece, Classical period who is considered a foundational thinker in Western philosophy and an innovator of the writte ...

and

Xenophon Xenophon of Athens (; ; 355/354 BC) was a Greek military leader, philosopher, and historian. At the age of 30, he was elected as one of the leaders of the retreating Ancient Greek mercenaries, Greek mercenaries, the Ten Thousand, who had been ...

Life

Plato's '' Euthydemus'' features Dionysodorus and Euthydemus as prominent interlocutors. According to the dialogue, the brothers were born on the Aegean island of

Chios Chios (; , traditionally known as Scio in English) is the fifth largest Greece, Greek list of islands of Greece, island, situated in the northern Aegean Sea, and the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, tenth largest island in the Medi ...

before relocating as colonists to

Thurii Thurii (; ; ), called also by some Latin writers Thūrium (compare , in Ptolemy), and later in Roman times also Cōpia and Cōpiae, was an ancient Greek city situated on the Gulf of Taranto, near or on the site of the great renowned city of Syb ...

Magna Graecia Magna Graecia refers to the Greek-speaking areas of southern Italy, encompassing the modern Regions of Italy, Italian regions of Calabria, Apulia, Basilicata, Campania, and Sicily. These regions were Greek colonisation, extensively settled by G ...

of modern-day

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

. After being exiled from Thurii, perhaps in 413,

Debra Nails Debra Nails (born November 15, 1950) is an American philosophy professor who taught at Michigan State University. Nails earned her M.A. in philosophy and classical Greek from Louisiana State University before going on to earn a Ph.D. in philosophy ...

, ''The People of Plato'', Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing, 2002; pp. 136–137 they came to

Athens Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...

. According to

Socrates Socrates (; ; – 399 BC) was a Ancient Greek philosophy, Greek philosopher from Classical Athens, Athens who is credited as the founder of Western philosophy and as among the first moral philosophers of the Ethics, ethical tradition ...

in the ''Euthydemus'', the two taught fighting in armor and legal oration before developing an interest in sophistry. Xenophon in the ''

Memorabilia A souvenir (French language, French for 'a remembrance or memory'), memento, keepsake, or token of remembrance is an object a person acquires for the memory, memories the owner associates with it. A souvenir can be any object that can be collecte ...

'' further attributes the teaching of generalship to Dionysodorus specifically.Xenophon, ''Memorabilia'', 3.1 Additionally, an individual named Dionysodorus appears in

Lysias Lysias (; ; c. 445 – c. 380 BC) was a Logographer (legal), logographer (speech writer) in ancient Greece. He was one of the ten Attic orators included in the "Alexandrian Canon" compiled by Aristophanes of Byzantium and Aristarchus of Samothrac ...

' ''Against Agoratus'' speech, who potentially matches the sophist on several biographical details. This Dionysodorus was a general and ''taxiarch'' who supported the democracy; if the general and sophist are one and the same, Dionysodorus may have become a naturalized Athenian citizen along with many other foreign residents before the

Battle of Arginusae The Battle of Arginusae took place in 406 BC during the Peloponnesian War near the city of Canae in the Arginusae Islands, east of the island of Lesbos. In the battle, an Athenian fleet commanded by eight ''strategoi'' defeated a Spartan flee ...

Philosophy

Throughout the ''Euthydemus'', Plato depicts Dionysodorus and his brother employing a string of

logical fallacies In logic and philosophy, a formal fallacy is a pattern of reasoning rendered invalid by a flaw in its logical structure. Propositional logic, for example, is concerned with the meanings of sentences and the relationships between them. It focuses ...

against Socrates and his student Clinias (III), son of Axiochus. Scholars have suggested that Plato here chose the brothers as token sophists worthy of ridicule.S. Morris Engle, ''Fallacies and Pitfalls of Language: The Language Trap'', Toronto: Prentice-Hall, 1994; pp. 13

Aristotle Aristotle (; 384–322 BC) was an Ancient Greek philosophy, Ancient Greek philosopher and polymath. His writings cover a broad range of subjects spanning the natural sciences, philosophy, linguistics, economics, politics, psychology, a ...

preserves, and refutes, a specific argument of Euthydemus, which implied that "a man knows that there is a trireme in the

Piraeus Piraeus ( ; ; , Ancient: , Katharevousa: ) is a port city within the Athens urban area ("Greater Athens"), in the Attica region of Greece. It is located southwest of Athens city centre along the east coast of the Saronic Gulf in the Ath ...

because he knows each of the two things a trireme' and 'in the Piraeus'separately."Aristotle, ''

Sophistical Refutations ''Sophistical Refutations'' (; ) is a text in Aristotle's ''Organon'' in which he identified thirteen fallacies.Sometimes listed as twelve. According to Aristotle, this is the first work to treat the subject of deductive reasoning in ancient Gree ...

'', 177b12 In Xenophon's ''Memorabilia'', Socrates examines a student of Dionysodorus who appears not to have learned basic elements of generalship. The implication seems to be either that Dionysodorus has shamelessly taken the student's payments without giving him his money's worth, or that Dionysodorus himself is ignorant of the very art of generalship he claims to teach. This is apparently in keeping with Plato's critique of Dionysodorus, although the biographical details are in conflict.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dionysodorus 5th-century BC Greek people Metic philosophers in Classical Athens Sophists Ancient Chians

Life

Philosophy

See also

References