Ancient Greek authors

409 Pages·1997·18.644 MB·English

by  Briggs, Ward W.

Dictionary of Literary Biography® • Volume One Hundred Seventy-Six
Ancient Greek Authors
Edited by
Ward W. Briggs
University of South Carolina
A Bruccoli Clark Layman Book
Gale Research
Detroit, Washington, D.C., London
Advisory Board for
DICTIONARY OF LITERARY BIOGRAPHY
John Baker
William Cagle
Patrick O’Connor
George Garrett
Trudier Harris
Matthew J. Bruccoli and Richard Layman, Editorial Directors
C. E. Frazer Clark Jr., Managing Editor
Karen Rood, Senior Editor
Printed in the United States of America
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factual material herein through one or more of the following: unique and original se­
lection, coordination, expression, arrangement, and classification of the informa­
tion.
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Copyright © 1997 by Gale Research
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All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in
whole or in part in any form.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Ancient Greek authors / edited by Ward W. Briggs.
p. cm. — (Dictionary of literary biography; v. 176)
“A Bruccoli Clark Layman book."
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8103-9939-3 (alk. paper)
1. Greek literature - Bio-bibliography - Dictionaries. 2. Authors. Greek - Biography — Dictionaries.
I. Briggs» Ward W. 11. Series.
PA3064.A63 1997
RRO.9‘001 - dc21 97-435
[B] C1P
10 98765432
For Laura

Contents
Plan of the Series..................................................... Epictetus (circa A.D. 55-circa A.D. 125-130).......134
Introduction................................................... Michele Valerie Ronnick
A Note on the Manuscripts............................
Epicurus (342/341 B.C.-271/270 B.C.).................140
Edward Brian Roots
Aeschines (circa 390 B.C.-circa 320 B.C.).............3 Euripides (circa 484 B.C.-407/406 B.C.)..............146
Eduard W. Harris David Kovacs
Aeschylus (525-524 B.C.-456-455 B.C.)...............8 Galen of Pergamon (A.D. 129-after 210)............156
E. Christian Kopjf John Scarborough
Alcaeus (born circa 620 B.C.)..............................24 Gorgias of Leontini (circa 485 B.C.-376 B.C.) .... .171
Botham Stone William Seaton
Apollonius Rhodius (third century B.C.)....... .......30 Heraclitus (flourished circa 500 B.C.).....................176
Charles Rowan Beye David Sider
Aratus of Soli (circa 315 B.C.-circa 239 B.C.). .......37 Herodotus (circa 484 B.C.-circa 420 B.C.).............182
Michele Valerie Ronnick Stewart Flory
Archilochus (mid seventh century B.C.E.)..............41 Hesiod (Traditional date: eighth century B.C.)......191
John T. Kirby Robert Lamberton
Aristophanes (circa 446 B.C.-circa 386 B.C.)...........47 Hippocrates of Cos
Jeffrey Henderson (flourished circa 425 B.C.)...................................199
John Scarborough
Aristotle (384 B.C.-322 B.C.).....................................55
Mark A. Stone Homer (circa eighth-seventh centuries B.C.)......220
Charles Rowan Beye
Arrian (circa A.D. 89-circa 155).................................77
Philip A. Städter Flavius Josephus ( A.D. 37-100)...........................234
Louis H. Feldman
Babrius (circa A.D. 150-200).....................................£5
John Vaio Longinus (circa first century A.D.)...........................241
Brian G. Caraher
Callimachus (circa 305 B.C.-240 B.C.).................89
Ward W. Briggs Lucian (circa A.D. 120-180).................................250
R. Bracht Branham
Cassius Dio
(circa A.D. 155/164-post A.D. 229).................101 Lysias (circa 459 B.C.-circa 380 B.C.).................254
Ralph W. Mathisen W. Jeffrey Tatum
Demosthenes (384-322 B.C.).............................110 Menander (342-341 B.C.-circa 292-291 B.C.).... .259
Galen 0. Rowe Sander M. Goldberg
Diogenes Laertius (circa A.D. 200)................ .....121 Parmenides (late sixth-fifth century B.C.)........ .264
J. Mejer Victoria Nichole Voytko
Empedocles (fifth century B.C.)..........................128 Philo (circa 20-15 B.C.-circa A.D. 50).................271
Joel Wilcox Louis H. Feldman
vu
Contents DLB 176
Pindar (circa 518 B.C.-circa 438 B.C.)....................278 Sophocles (497/496 B.C.-406/405 B.C.)...................351
William H. Rare Roger D. Dawe
Plato (circa 428 B.C.-348-347 B.C.)...................285 Strabo (64 or 63 B.C.-circa A.D. 25)........................359
Thomas C. Brickhouse and Nicholas D. Smith James Romm
Plotinus (A.D. 204-270)......................................305 Theocritus (circa 300 B.C.-260 B.C.).......................363
David P. Hunt Kathryn Gutiwiller
Plutarch (circa A.D. 46-circa 120)......................322 Theophrastus (circa 371 B.C.-287 B.C.).................371
Frances B. Titchener Paul T. Keyser
Polybius (circa 200 B.C.-circa 118 B.C.)..............330 Thucydides (circa 455 B.C.-circa 395 B.C.)........381
Craige B. Champion Mortimer Chambers
Protagoras (circa 490 B.C.-420 B.C.)...................335 Xenophon (circa 430 B.C.-circa 356 B.C.)..........390
Mark L. McPherran Richard L. S. Evans
Pythagoras (circa 570 B.C.-?)..............................342 Books for Further Reading.................................397
Nicholas D. Smith Contributors.........................................................400
Sappho (circa 620 B.C.-circa 550 B.C.)...................347
William Seaton
Plan of the Series
. .. Almost the most prodigious asset ofa country, and standing volumes provides a biographical-biblio­
perhaps its most precious possession, is its native literary graphical guide and overview for a particular area
product — when that product isf ine and noble and enduring. of literature. We are convinced that this organiza­
tion — as opposed to a single alphabet method —
Mark Twain* constitutes a valuable innovation in the presenta­
tion of reference material. The volume plan neces­
sarily requires many decisions for the placement
The advisory board, the editors, and the pub­ and treatment of authors who might properly be in­
lisher of the Dictionary ofL iterary Biography are joined cluded in two or three volumes. In some instances a
in endorsing Mark Twain’s declaration. The litera­ major figure will be included in separate volumes,
ture of a nation provides an inexhaustible resource but with different entries emphasizing the aspect of
of permanent worth. We intend to make literature his career appropriate to each volume. Ernest Hem­
and its creators better understood and more accessi­ ingway, for example, is represented in American
ble to students and the reading public, while satisfy­ Writers in Paris, 1920-1939 by an entry focusing on
ing the standards of teachers and scholars. his expatriate apprenticeship; he is also in American
To meet these requirements, literary biography Novelists, 1910-1945 with an entry surveying his en­
has been construed in terms of the author’s achieve­ tire career. Each volume includes a cumulative
ment. The most important thing about a writer is index of the subject authors and articles. Com­
his writing. Accordingly, the entries in DLB are ca­ prehensive indexes to the entire scries are planned.
reer biographies, tracing the development of the The series has been further augmented by the
author’s canon and the evolution of his reputation. DLB Yearbooks (since 1981) which update published
The purpose of DLB is not only to provide re­ entries and add new entries to keep the DLB current
liable information in a convenient format but also to with contemporary activity. There have also been
place the figures in the larger perspective of literary DLB Documentary Series volumes which provide bio­
history and to offer appraisals of their accomplish­ graphical and critical source materials for figures
ments by qualified scholars. whose work is judged to have particular interest for
The publication plan for DLB resulted from students. One of these companion volumes is en­
two years of preparation. The project was proposed tirely devoted to Tennessee Williams.
to Bruccoli Clark by Frederick C. Ruffner, presi­ We define literature as the intellectual com­
dent of the Gale Research Company, in November merce of a nation: not merely as belles lettres but as
1975. After specimen entries were prepared and that ample and complex process by which ideas
typeset, an advisory board was formed to refine the are generated, shaped, and transmitted. DLB en­
entry format and develop the series rationale. In tries are not limited to “creative writers” but ex­
meetings held during 1976, the publisher, series ed­ tend to other figures who in their time and in
itors, and advisory board approved the scheme for their way influenced the mind of a people. Thus
a comprehensive biographical dictionary of persons the series encompasses historians, journalists,
who contributed to North American literature. Edi­ publishers, bibliographers, and screenwriters. By
torial work on the first volume began in January this means readers of DLB may be aided to per­
1977, and it was published in 1978. In order to ceive literature not as cult scripture in the keeping
make DLB more than a reference tool and to com­ of intellectual high priests but firmly positioned at
pile volumes that individually have claim to status the center of a nation’s life.
as literary history, it was decided to organize vol­ DLB includes the major writers appropriate to
umes by topic, period, or genre. Each of these free- each volume and those standing in the ranks behind
them. Scholarly and critical counsel has been
*From an unpublished section ofM ark Twain ’s auto­ sought in deciding which minor figures to include
biography, copyright by the Mark Twain Company and how full their entries should be. Wherever pos-
ix
Plan of the Series DLB 176
sible, useful references are made to figures who do drawings, paintings, and photographs of authors,
not warrant separate entries. often depicting them at various stages in their ca­
Each DLB volume has an expert volume edi­ reers, but also illustrations of their families and
tor responsible for planning the volume, selecting places where they lived. Title pages are regularly re­
the figures for inclusion, and assigning the entries. produced in facsimile along with dust jackets for
Volume editors are also responsible for preparing, modern authors. The dust jackets are a special fea­
where appropriate, appendices surveying the major ture of DLB because they often document better
periodicals and literary and intellectual movements than anything else the way in which an author’s
for their volumes, as well as lists of further read­ work was perceived in its own time. Specimens of
ings. Work on the series as a whole is coordinated the writers’ manuscripts and letters are included
at the Bruccoli Clark Layman editorial center in when feasible.
Columbia, South Carolina, where the editorial staff Samuel Johnson rightly decreed that “The
is responsible for accuracy and utility of the pub­ chief glory of every people arises from its authors.”
lished volumes. The purpose of the Dictionary of Literary Biography is
One feature that distinguishes DLB is the to compile literary history in the surest way avail­
illustration policy - its concern with the iconogra­ able to us - by accurate and comprehensive treat­
phy of literature. Just as an author is influenced by ment of the lives and work of those who contributed
his surroundings, so is the reader’s understanding to it.
of the author enhanced by a knowledge of his envi­
ronment. Therefore DLB volumes include not only The DLB Advisory Board
x
Introduction
Wc are all Greeks. Our laws, our literature, our religion, century was marked by scholarship (Callimachus),
our arts have their root in Greece. But for Greece —
and didactic poetry (Aratus, Callimachus); and the
Rome, the instructor, the conqueror, or the metropolis
first and second centuries A.D. in Rome were distin­
of our ancestors, would have spread no illumination
guished by historians (Plutarch, Arrian, Cassius Dio).
with her arms, and we might still have been savages and
idolaters; or, what is worse, might have arrived at such This is of course a simplified view, perhaps
a stagnant and miserable state of social institution as useful only for students facing comprehensive
China andjapan possess. exams in related fields, and will not stand up to
— Percy Bysshe Shelley, Preface to Hellas stricter delineation than has been given here. Never­
theless, it is remarkable that, though epics contin­
The view of Shelley has long survived the Ro­ ued to be written, viable epic never revived after
mantic period that gave it birth. Though Europe Homer, with the sole exception of the experiment of
had acknowledged the primacy of Aristotle as the Apollonius Rhodius; there are no tragedies worthy
“master of those who know,” Plato as the great of the name after Euripides; the New Comedy of
thinker, and Homer as the great poet, Rome was the Menander extended into the fourth century, but
immediate forbear in terms of the classical heritage Aristophanic comedy died with its author. Great fig­
of the West, both from the temporal view of the ures are of course not confined to these periods.
Holy Roman Empire and the spiritual view of the Gorgias, renowned in rhetoric, was born a century
Roman Catholic Church. Though Rome conquered before Demosthenes. The apogee of Greek philoso­
Greece following the First Punic War, Rome’s phy is generally considered to be the century of
greatest lyric poet, Horace, observed that “Cap­ Plato and Aristotle, but philosophy has been a prin­
tured Greece took captive her uncivilized captor”; cipal and defining interest of the Greek mind
and Rome’s greatest epic poet, Virgil, wrote in his through the centuries, and the pre-Socratics (Py­
first-century-B.C. Aeneid that the Greeks mastered thagoras, Parmenides, Heraclitus, Empedocles, Pro­
the arts, politics, and scientific inquiry, while the tagoras, and Gorgias) of the fifth century are vitally
Romans excelled at “imposing civilization on important, though in most cases there is little infor­
peace,” that is, the arts of war, governance, and mation about their lives. The philosophy of the pe­
public works. riod after Socrates (that is, Plato) and of the Chris­
Indeed, it is from the Greeks that the literature tian era is represented in this volume by Epictetus,
of Western Europe derives its epic, tragic, comic, Plotinus, and Diogenes Laertius. Other genres
elegiac, lyric, and pastoral poetry; of the genres of stand apart from such temporal categorization, such
classical literature only satire, according to Quintil­ as the pastoral (Theocritus), the fable (Babrius),
ian, may be attributed to the Romans. In developing and satire (Lucian).
their literary history, the Greeks were thoughtful But the generic approach to literary history
enough to distribute the greatest works of literature can be problematic. The last extensive history of
by genre and century; that is, individual genres Greek literature in English, Albin Lesky’s A History
arose (often seemingly ex nihilo), flourished, and in of Greek Literature (1966), was published more than
many cases died out in discrete centuries. The early thirty years ago. There is undeniable value to a
period (eighth century B.C.) saw the rise of the compendious version of virtually all classical writ­
Homeric epic; the seventh to sixth centuries pro­ ers from a single, consistent, highly intelligent, and
duced lyric poetry (Alcaeus, Archilochus, Sappho); widely knowledgeable author. (Similar virtues at­
the fifth produced drama, including tragedy tend a shorter volume, by H. J. Rose, A Handbook of
(Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides) and comedy (Ar­ Greek Literature: From Homer to the Age of Lucian,
istophanes), and also choral lyric (Pindar); the late 1957). And yet there is also great value in an exam­
fifth and fourth centuries were the age of prose, ination of individual authors by experts on those
which included seminal works in history (Herodo­ authors. A recent effort. Ancient Writers: Greece and
tus, Thucydides, Xenophon), philosophy (Aristotle, Rome, edited by T. J. Luce (1982), requires two vol­
Epicurus, Plato, Theophrastus), and rhetoric (Aes­ umes to present only fifty authors of Greek and
chines, Demosthenes, Isocrates, Lysias); the third Latin (though there are some collective articles on,
xi
Introduction DLB 176
for example, Hellenistic writers, that would add to and some mitigating factors. Because the present
the total); while the Cambridge History of Classical Lit­ volume aims to give an idea of the breadth of the
erature, volume 1, Greek Literature, edited by P. E. corpus of Greek literature, the book attempts to
Easterling and B. M. W. Knox (1985), tries to treat present as many different areas as possible, includ­
every figure of consequence in all Greek literature, ing medicine (Hippocrates, Galen), science (Aris­
from Homer to Cassius Dio and Herodian, with totle, Theophrastus), and geography (Strabo), to
chapters arranged by genre within periods. Of these represent the enormous range of the inquisitive Greek
works on Greek literary history, the greatest is by mind. Works in these fields may not fit everyone’s def­
Lcsky, yet even he recognized the difficulty of mak­ inition of the word literature, but they fairly represent
ing summary judgments about the complex and ob­ the literary spectrum of ancient Greece.
scure development of literary genres. He also be­ The principle of selection and the allotment of
lieved that authors who do their work in more than pages depended upon striking a balance between
one genre (this is far truer for the Romans than the those Greek authors whose importance continues
Greeks) can obscure the development of their own into the modern era, as evidenced by their signifi­
lives and careers, while masking the contributions cant and influential literary remains (for example,
that work in one literary field may have made to an­ Homer, Plato, Aristotle), and those authors signifi­
other, for example, the influence of rhetoric on cant to the ancient world whose surviving texts are
drama or of drama on epic. few (Alcaeus) or disputed (Hippocrates). To some
The present volume, therefore, assumes a dif­ extent more space is given to authors whose works
ferent posture from the eminent works noted above. need careful cataloguing and explanation: this vol­
The aim of DLB 176: Ancient Greek Authors is to con­ ume presents the first such consistent accounts in
centrate, in keeping with the purpose of the series, English for Galen and Hippocrates. More space has
on bio-bibliography. The scholar Aby Warburg also been given to authors whose influence is far
said that one should see the times through the man, out of proportion to the amount of their surviving
not the man through the times. By concentrating on work (for example, Longinus), because in these
a defining individual such as Socrates, Callimachus, cases there is more that needs to be said about the
or Theophrastus, one can understand the character authors and their works than in others. In many
of the individual’s time more clearly than one could cases, so much has been said that the articles here
ever see him through a study of his age. can serve the valuable purpose of leading the reader
Limits have necessarily been imposed on this to other, fuller discussions of works and their atten­
volume. It was decided not to include Christian dant problems rather than outlining such matters
writers, as they are too numerous to do justice to again. The editorial goal has been not only to treat
under the limitations of this volume (indeed they an author’s extant works fairly but also to give an
should have a DLB volume of their own); but two idea of the author’s full career, including the lost
important Jewish writers, Philo and Flavius Jose­ writings that helped to constitute the writer’s im­
phus, are included as representatives of an impor­ portance.
tant and somewhat limited area of ancient Greek lit­ Other factors affecting the final selection of
erature. Writers of the Byzantine era are not in­ the authors presented here involved the vicissitudes
cluded; the latest author is Diogenes Laertius, of the of any collaborative enterprise. Ancient authors de­
third century A.D. There are no essays on the trans­ pend upon modern authorities who are willing and
mission of the texts to modern times or on bibliog­ able to write about them. As in any project, some
raphy of the history of the various periods, because scholars promised to contribute, but despite re­
these topics were deemed to be outside the scope peated promises that kept the editor in an expectant
and practice of the series. state up to and well beyond the deadline, they sim­
What remains are accounts of those whom the ply did not. It is regrettable that authors such as
editor considers the greatest authors of the long age Pausanias and Bacchylides fell victim to their
of classical Greece, which lasted more than a thou­ contributors’ inabilities to fulfill a contract.
sand years. Ask any ten scholars who the fifty most As the intended audience for this volume is
significant Greek authors are and you are likely to the intelligent nonspecialist, there is a minimum of
get general agreement on at least thirty; the choice ancient Greek in the text; where passages in Greek
of the remaining twenty authors will depend on the have been directly quoted, translations by the au­
subjective estimate of each scholar. The authors in thors of the individual articles have been used, un­
this latter group included in this volume have like­ less otherwise specified. Moreover, the articles here
wise depended on the subjective estimate of the editor are presented in alphabetical order, in accordance
Xll