Lycophron: a Minor Sophist or a Minor Socratic?

Giombini, Stefania

doi:10.5840/philinquiry2016401-27

Philosophical Inquiry

2016

DOI: 10.5840/philinquiry2016401-27

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Lycophron: a Minor Sophist or a Minor Socratic?

Stefania Giombini¹

Abstract: Licòfron: un sofista menor o un menor socràti

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TRAGIC NOISE AND RHETORICAL FRIGIDITY IN LYCOPHRON'SALEXANDRA

Nelson¹,

Molesworth

2021

The Class. Q.

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This paper seeks to shed fresh light on the aesthetic and stylistic affiliations of Lycophron's Alexandra, approaching the poem from two distinct but complementary angles. First, it explores what can be gained by reading Lycophron's poem against the backdrop of Callimachus’ poetry. It contends that the Alexandra presents a radical and polemical departure from the Alexandrian's poetic programme, pointedly appropriating key Callimachean images while also countering Callimachus’ apparent dismissal of the ‘noisy’ tragic genre. Previous scholarship has noted links between the openings of the Aetia and of the Alexandra, but this article demonstrates that this relationship is only one part of a larger aesthetic divide between the two poets: by embracing the raucous acoustics of tragedy, Lycophron's poem offers a self-conscious and agonistic departure from Callimachus’ aesthetic preferences. Second, this article considers another way of conceiving the aesthetics of the poem beyond a Callimachean frame, highlighting how Lycophron pointedly engages with and evokes earlier Aristotelian literary criticism concerning the ‘frigid’ style: the Alexandra constructs its own independent literary history centred around the alleged name of its author, ‘Lycophron’. The article proposes that this traditional attribution is best understood as a pen name that signposts the poem's stylistic affiliations, aligning it not so much with the Ptolemaic playwright Lycophron of Chalcis but rather with Lycophron the sophist and a larger rhetorical tradition of stylistic frigidity. Ultimately, through these two approaches, the article highlights further aspects of the Alexandra's aesthetic diversity.

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TRAGIC NOISE AND RHETORICAL FRIGIDITY IN LYCOPHRON'SALEXANDRA

Nelson¹,

Molesworth

2021

The Class. Q.

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Sophistry and Law: The Antilogical Pattern of Judicial Debate

Giombini

2022

Humanities

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This essay aims to reveal the relationship between sophistry and law in a twofold direction: on one side, how the development of ancient Greek law influenced sophistry’s production, and on the other, how and to what extent the knowledge and skills developed by sophists contributed to the development of legal expertise in classical Athens. The essay will initially focus on the historiographical category of the sophists to identify a line that connects these intellectuals to the new vision of society, the democratic polis, and the community that presides over legal and judicial life. This section will show that we can indeed speak of a “sophistic movement” in light of the structuring role of antilogies (antilogiae, or antithetical arguments) in forensic rhetoric. The rest of the essay will examine, from a theoretical point of view, sophistic methods of argument that contributed to the development of ancient Greek law. Touching on the issues of opposition, the debate, the reductio ad absurdum, and the principle of non-contradiction, the essay will highlight the relevance of sophistic thought to the judicial field and, more generally, the legal arena, in ancient Athens, so much so that one can think of the sophists as advocates of a particular legal culture.

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Lycophron: a Minor Sophist or a Minor Socratic?

Abstract: Licòfron: un sofista menor o un menor socràti

Cited by 2 publications

References 1 publication

TRAGIC NOISE AND RHETORICAL FRIGIDITY IN LYCOPHRON'SALEXANDRA

TRAGIC NOISE AND RHETORICAL FRIGIDITY IN LYCOPHRON'SALEXANDRA

Sophistry and Law: The Antilogical Pattern of Judicial Debate

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