Overview
This is the first translation of Antisthenes’ remains into English. Chapters present the ancient source, the original Greek passage, and necessary critical apparatus. The author then adds the modern English translation and notes on the context of the preservation, the significance of the testimonium, and on the Greek. Several new readings are proposed.
Antisthenes of Athens will be of interest to anyone seeking to understand Antisthenes and his intellectual context, as well as his contributions to ancient literary criticism, views on discourse, and ethics.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780472120611 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | University of Michigan Press |
| Publication date: | 12/03/2015 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 824 |
| File size: | 1 MB |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
Antisthenes of Athens
Texts, Translations, and Commentary
By Susan Prince
The University of Michigan Press
Copyright © 2015 Susan H. PrinceAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-472-11934-9
CHAPTER 1
SECTION 1
Antisthenes' Biography
Homeland, Parents, and Social Status
Testimonia 1–11
1A. Diogenes Laertius, Lives of the Eminent Philosophers 6.1 (Marcovich)
= 122A DC
[=Arsenius, Violetum p. 106.21–107.1 Walz]
[TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]
Antisthenes son of Antisthenes, an Athenian. He was said to be not legitimately born. And this is also why he said to someone who reproached him, "Also the mother of the gods is Phrygian." For he was believed to be from a Thracian mother.
1B. Epiphanius, Abbreviated True Creed 9.30 (Dummer)
= 122D DC
[TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]
Antisthenes, who had a Thracian mother but was Athenian himself. ...
1C. Suda, no. A.2723 "Antisthenes" (Adler)
= 122B DC
[= Hesychius of Miletus, Onomatologium no. 61 "Antisthenes" p. 16.14–15 Flach]
[TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]
Antisthenes, an Athenian. ... and he was the son of a father by the same name but from a mother Thracian by birth.
1D. ps.-Eudocia, Violarium no. 96 "Antisthenes" p. 95.1 (Flach)
[TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]
Antisthenes the philosopher, Athenian by birth.. ...
Context of Preservation
The opening words in Diogenes Laertius' life of Antisthenes have been repeated and compressed in the Suda (ninth century CE), the fifteenth-century Violetum attributed to Arsenius, and the Violarium (Garden of violets) attributed to the Byzantine empress Eudocia (eleventh century) but probably composed by the later Greek writer Konstantinos Palaiokappa, who flourished c. 1539–51. (See Cohn RE 6.1 [1894]: 912–13.) In most cases, Arsenius and the Eudocian forgery cannot be rated as sources separate from Diogenes Laertius, but there are a few points at which they differ in detail of phrasing or information transmitted and so demonstrate either the author's access to sources now lost or interesting assumptions about what the ancient sources say. Here, ps.-Eudocia has elided all doubt about Antisthenes' Athenian status and suppressed the mother. (See also t. 35A, 185B.) On Epiphanius (c. 320–403 CE), who might have a source independent from Diogenes Laertius, see t. 107.
Importance of the Testimonia
Antisthenes' heredity and legal status at Athens are often considered a primary explanation for his rejection of Athenian custom and authority and his bent for personal independence (e.g., Joël 1893; Grube 1950; Rankin 1986:7–9; Navia 1999:19). Nevertheless, it is important to recognize that evidence for his Thracian mother, who is sometimes said to be Phrygian (t. 2B–C), is anecdotal, parallel with a set of anecdotes portraying his retort to those who slandered him (t. 2A–B, 3A) and consistent with his views on true "good birth," which is based on virtue, not heredity (t. 5, 7, 134b). The information about his mother could, then, be a product of the anecdotal tradition rather than historically true. Alternatively, if it is historically true that Antisthenes was not "legitimately born," the caution in Diogenes Laertius' report suggests that his ethnic status was ambiguous, and the status of his mother might have been officially unknown. Further, Antisthenes' illegitimate status is noticed in no contemporary source, neither Plato's Phaedo (t. 20; see Giannantoni 1990 v.4:197–98) nor Xenophon's Socratic writings (t. 13A, 14A–B, 82); on the unimportance of heritage in the Socratic circle, see Nails 2002:162. Throughout the biographical testimonia, Antisthenes is consistently called "Athenian," a term normally used for citizenship, not place of residence; and he allegedly fought as a soldier for Athens (t. 3, 10; this story, too, could be a fiction: see t. 200). See also von der Mühll 1966.
Notes
[TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] Antisthenes' father, also named "Antisthenes," cannot be identified definitely. Common practice among Athenian elites was to name sons for their grandfathers; naming after the father is less common. Approximately twenty-one individuals named "Antisthenes" are attested in the surviving record of Athens between the late fifth and mid-fourth centuries (PAA 1994 v.1:273–78), but chronological considerations eliminate most of them from identification with the father of the Socratic Antisthenes. (On the various famous persons called Antisthenes, see t. 38A.) Among these is one Antisthenes recorded as father of another Antisthenes, from the mid-fourth century (PAA 136890). Either the father of Antisthenes the Socratic is known only from this passage in Diogenes and the Suda (PAA 136795), or he is also the Antisthenes on which is based the fictional character in Xen. Mem. 3.4 (PAA 136760: see Nails 2002:34–36 and t. 110B). It has also been proposed that "Antisthenes son of Antisthenes" is an expression of self-determination and might not refer to the real father (Centre de Recherche Philologique, Lille 1986:143).
[TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]: The ethnic adjective "Athenian," if used technically, should indicate that Antisthenes was a citizen of Athens, not just that he lived there. (Compare the adjectives "Attic" as used in t. 5 and 7 and "native" as used of a large group in t. 20.) Yet Diogenes Laertius says immediately that he was not "legitimate" and explains his birth from a foreign mother, which should have denied a child citizenship after the introduction of Pericles' citizenship law of 451/50. Either Antisthenes was an accepted citizen despite having a Thracian mother (a well-represented ethnic identity in classical Athens), or one of Diogenes' conflicting statements is incorrect. If Antisthenes was a citizen and had a Thracian mother, two scenarios are possible: his birth in the mid-440s might not have been affected by the new law, or he might have earned citizenship through outstanding military service in a battleof the Peloponnesian Wars. His status was possibly first questioned in 403, when the law was newly reinforced at the restoration of the democracy. See also Rankin 1986:3–6.
[TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]: Diogenes' phrasing ([TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]) suggests rumor and then inference (Giannantoni 1990 v.4:196–97). Because disputes in Athenian law courts could include examination of a mother's legal standing as wife of an Athenian (e.g., Isaeus, Oration 8.18–20), it is clear that citizen status could be controversial. The phrase [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] might be a circumlocution for the Attic term [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] (bastard), but it might have an older nuance: it is attested (rarely) in Archilochus, Herodotus, Hellanicus, and the Hippocratic corpus, but otherwise in late sources and glossaries; Diogenes Laertius uses it once otherwise, in the positive, for Thales (1.22). No ancient source calls Antisthenes a [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII].
[TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]: Diogenes (or the tradition behind him) derives an anecdote from his biographical "fact," but it is not impossible that he has reversed the logic and that the fact was derived from the anecdote, which was devised as the setting for a famous utterance, or apophthegma, in this case, on the topic of "good birth" ([TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]) in distinction from literal heredity (a topic of concern in Athens since at least Sophocles' Ajax; on the broader discussion in late fifth-century Athens see also Irwin 2014). Normal Hellenistic practice takes both forms: apocryphal apophthegmata are created to illustrate a factual framework, usually an ideological or philosophical identity; and apocryphal anecdotes are created as settings for apophthegmata, some cases of which have been extracted and paraphrased from an original setting in non-historicizing literature (Wehrli 1973).
[TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]: The anonymous interlocutor is a figure often generated by the tradition. See, e.g., t. 29, 70A–B, 74–75, 101B.
[TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]: The Phrygian "mother of the gods" is Cybele, familiar to the Greeks since the dawn of literature (from Hesiod's Theogony and the Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite). The cult was known in Athens by the late fifth century, where there was probably a temple by c. 410: see Shear 1995:171–78. In t. 182, Antisthenes refuses to "nurture" this goddess.
[TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]: A papyrus from Herculaneum (PHerc 558) seems to preserve, amid a set of "sayings of Socrates," a reference to a "Thracian" versus "Attic" identity. If this constitutes a parallel to the anecdotes about Antisthenes' mother (as proposed by Crönert in RM 57 [1902] 297 n.2 and endorsed by Baldassarri in CronErc 6 [1976] 80), Socrates would have been the speaker of some statement about Antisthenes' parentage. Compare t. 3B, where Socrates also speaks about Antisthenes. The author of the papyrus fragment cannot be identified (it seems not to be Philodemus), but it would be earlier than any other evidence.
2A. Seneca, On the Firmness of the Wise Man 18.6 (Reynolds)
= 122C DC
Antistheni mater barbara et Thraessa obiciebatur: respondit et deorum matrem Idaeam esse.
Someone challenged Antisthenes over his barbarian and Thracian mother: he responded that also the mother of the gods was from Ida.
Context of Preservation
In Seneca's short dialogue arguing that the wise man cannot be harmed, Antisthenes appears as a commendable example of the wise man who endured insult. Seneca implies that he will give a catalog of such behavior, but Socrates and Antisthenes are the only examples mentioned.
Notes
barbara et Thraessa: In equating "Thracian" with "barbarian," Seneca's version of the anecdote tips Antisthenes' heritage in a more foreign direction than the likely original (t. 1A): Thracians spoke Greek and shared more ethnic continuity with the Athenians than a "barbarian" would; Athenians had commercial interests in Thrace, and some Thracian Greeks probably had Athenian heritage. Seneca, like Plutarch in t. 2B, seems to draw the two mothers of the anecdote toward symmetry. This could be a natural evolution in the generations of the story, or it could reflect Seneca's special ignorance of ethnic issues in fourth-century Athens. Seneca's version is the oldest that survives, and hence it has also been proposed that this version is closest to the original.
et deorum matrem Idaeam: Seneca (or his source) uniquely replaces the "Phrygian" of other versions with "Idaean." Mount Ida, in the region of Troy, was Phrygian; but the mother of the gods is associated traditionally (in Hesiod's Theogony and the Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite) with regions closer to Cyprus. Homer, who made Mount Ida famous, never mentions the mother of the gods, except to describe Tethys through a similar phrase (Il. 14.201, 302).
2B. Plutarch, On Exile 17 607b (Sieveking)
[TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]
And do you not like the retort of Antisthenes to the one who said, "Your mother is Phrygian"? [He said,] "For so is the mother of the gods."
Context of Preservation
Plutarch offers consolation on exile. In the final section, he refutes commonplace views that exile is bad. In the section where he cites Antisthenes, he shows that change of city is ubiquitous and often results in progress.
Importance of the Testimonium
This version, like that of Seneca (t. 2A) and unlike that of Diogenes Laertius (t. 1A), presents a symmetry between the taunt made to Antisthenes and his reply: here both are Phrygian. Clement (t. 2C) probably depends on Plutarch or a common source.
Notes
[TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] Hense (RM 45 [1890] 545 n.1) proposes that Plutarch adapts the anecdote himself here, changing Antisthenes' mother from a Thracian to a Phrygian under inspiration from his reference to the mother of the gods, and "blackens" the heredity of Antisthenes, presumably in order to make his indifference to his foreign heritage appear more dramatic. But there is no reason to think that Plutarch would tamper with the tradition or that he intends slander against Antisthenes for its own sake. Plutarch implicitly commends Antisthenes in general (t. 13B, 94, 100B, 102, 109; criticism in t. 81B).
2C. Clement of Alexandria, Miscellanies 1.15.66.1 (Stählin-Früchtel-Treu)
[TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]
And these were the times of the most important wise men and philosophers among the Greeks. But that most of them were barbarian in race and educated by barbarians, what need is there to say, that is, if Pythagoras was shown to be Tyrrhenian or Tyrian, and Antisthenes was Phrygian, and Orpheus, Odrysian or Thracian? For the majority show that Homer was Egyptian.
Context of Preservation
Near the beginning of the Miscellanies, Clement prepares to argue that Hebrew philosophy is older than Greek by stating that individual Greek philosophers were not really Greek.
Importance of the Testimonium
Antisthenes is listed among distinguished company. Since he has not been considered important so far in the text, Clement must select him here because his foreign ethnicity was famous.
Notes
[TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] A dispute over the ethnic origin of Pythagoras was indicated previously in Clement's text (62.1), and Neanthes was named as the authority for a "Syrian or Tyrian" origin, although the majority view, that he was Samian, was mentioned first. The other three figures in this list have not yet been discussed in the work, although each has been mentioned.
[TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] This claim is attested also in Gellius, Attic Nights 3.11.6, where it is cited at the end of a range of possibilities. The ancient Lives of Homer and biographical epigrams (Anth. Pal. 16.292–99) include Egyptian cities. Writing in Alexandria himself, Clement might know a tradition that claimed Homer locally. See, further, Raddatz in RE 8 (1913):2197–98; Kim 2010:166–67.
3A. Diogenes Laertius, Lives of the Eminent Philosophers 2.31 (Marcovich)
= 124 DC
[TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]
When someone said to him that Antisthenes was from a Thracian mother, he [Socrates] said, "And did you believe that anyone so noble could be born from two Athenians?"
3B. Diogenes Laertius, Lives of the Eminent Philosophers 6.1 (Marcovich)
= 123 DC
[= Arsenius p. 106 Walz]
[TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]
Whence also, when he distinguished himself in the battle at Tanagra, he gave Socrates the occasion to say that from two Athenians such a noble man would not be born.
3C. Diogenes Laertius, Lives of the Eminent Philosophers 6.4 (Marcovich)
= 145 DC
[TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]
When once chided that he was not born from two free parents, he said, "But neither am I born from two wrestlers, yet I am a wrestler."
Context of Preservation
These apophthegmata are from Diogenes' life of Socrates (3A), from his biographical introduction to the life of Antisthenes (3B), and from his series of unadorned apophthegmata (3C) listed between the narratives of Antisthenes' conversion to Socraticism and the anecdotes illustrating his interactions with Plato and the Athenians (6.3–6). There, it is listed eighth amid twenty-seven items, separated from the similar "biographical" material of t. 1A and 3B. Diogenes' life of Antisthenes can be divided into the following sections: biographical information, 6.1–2 (= t. 1A, 3B, 8, 11, 145, 9, 12A, 85); twenty-seven unadorned doctrines and apophthegmata, largely on topics of ethics and education (of which some are in clusters under Giannantoni's analysis), 6.3–7 (= t. 151A, 122A, 56, 171, 57A, 28, 178, 3C, 169, 60, 131, 177, 168, 129, 176, 71, 88, 108, 167, 73, 100–101, 34F, 87, 90); eleven longer anecdotes framing similar apophthegmata, largely set in Athens, 6.7–10 (= t. 27, 72A, 89, 15A, 172, 21, 61); a doxography in two parts, of which the first is attributed to the Stoic Diocles, 6.10–13 (= t. 134, 58); general comments on Antisthenes' importance, 6.14–15 (= t. 22A); a book catalog, 6.15–18 (= t. 41A–B); a death anecdote (= t. 37A); and an epitaph and list of homonymous figures, 6.19 (= t. 38A). On the structure and sources of Diogenes' sixth book and his life of Antisthenes, see Goulet-Cazé 1992 and Giannantoni 1990 v.4:195–96.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Antisthenes of Athens by Susan Prince. Copyright © 2015 Susan H. Prince. Excerpted by permission of The University of Michigan Press.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.