Plato, Apology 19d8-20c3 (English) [19d8] But in fact none of these things are true, and if you have heard from anyone that I undertake to teach [19e] people and that I make money by it, that is not true either. Although this also seems to me to be a fine thing, if one might be able to teach people, as Gorgias of Leontini and Prodicus of Ceos and Hippias of Elis are. For each of these men, gentlemen, is able to go into any one of the cities and persuade the young men, who can associate for nothing with whomsoever they wish among their own fellow citizens, [20a] to give up the association with those men and to associate with them and pay them money and be grateful besides. And there is also another wise man here, a Parian, who I learned was in town; for I happened to meet a man who has spent more on sophists than all the rest, Callias, the son of Hipponicus; so I asked him -- for he has two sons -- "Callias," said I, "if your two sons had happened to be two colts or two calves, we should be able to get and hire for them an overseer who would make them [20b] excellent in the kind of excellence proper to them; and he would be a horse-trainer or a husbandman; but now, since they are two human beings, whom have you in mind to get as overseer? Who has knowledge of that kind of excellence, that of a man and a citizen? For I think you have looked into the matter, because you have the sons. Is there anyone," said I, "or not?" "Certainly," said he. "Who," said I, "and where from, and what is his price for his teaching?" "Evenus," he said, "Socrates, from Paros, five minae." And I called Evenus blessed, [20c] if he really had this art and taught so reasonably. I myself should be vain and put on airs, if I understood these things; but I do not understand them, men of Athens. [Pausanias 6.17.7: 17.8] This Gorgias was a son of Charmantides, and is said to have been the first to revive the study of rhetoric, which had been altogether neglected, in fact almost forgotten by mankind. They say that Gorgias won great renown for his eloquence at the Olympic assembly, and also when he accompanied Tisias on an embassy to Athens. Yet Tisias improved the art of rhetoric, in particular he wrote the most persuasive speech of his time to support the claim of a Syracusan woman to a property. [OCD] Gorgias of Leontini (c. 483-376 B.C), sophist and rhetor, who won renown at Athens (427) by his eloquence, wrote a philosophical treatise, in which he despaired of attaining positive knowledge, and then devoted himself to revealing the power of logos and the value of artistic form in prose speech. The treatise is lost, but it is known to have maintained three theses -- that nothing exists; that if anything exists, it is unknowable; that if anything can be known, the knowledge cannot be communicated by language. The chief philosophical influences which G. came under seem to have been Empedocles and Zeno the Eleatic. A few fragments of his speeches have survived. He wrote no technical treatises and his teaching is gathered from his writings and from the remarks of Plato and others. He aimed at a prose which should rival poetry in its effects. Hence his advocacy of (1) poetic words, metaphors, coinages, (2) figures embodying parallelisms and musical effects (antithesis, parisosis, paromoiosis, assonance, rhyme), as substitutes for metre. He also pointed out the effects of propriety, brevity, prolixity , and other devices. As the founder of artistic prose he made the teaching of style an essential part of rhetoric. [OCD] Prodicus of Ceos, a Sophist and a contemporary of Socrates. We have very little reliable information about his life. We learn from Plato that he was employed by his native city on diplomatic missions and that he took advantage of the opportunities these afforded to further his professional interests. He gained considerable repute in his profession and demanded high fees for his courses of instruction. These are described as being concerned with the right use of words and were marked by their subtle discriminations between the precise meanings of kindred terms. Plato represents Socrates as being on friendly terms with him and paying tribute to the value of his teaching, though always with a touch of irony. There are also references to discussions, or perhaps rather exhortations, on moral questions, and he was the author of the famous myth "The Choice of Heracles." [OCD] Hippias of Elis, sophist, a younger contemporary of Protagoras (who lived c. 481-411), is vividly depicted in Plato's Hippias Major and Hippias Minor. He acquired great fame and wealth by travelling all over Greece as a teacher and orator, claiming competence in mathematics, astronomy, grammar, poetry, music, and the history of the heroic age, as well as in various handicrafts, and was frequently employed on State business by his native city. That his claims had a solid basis is indicated by the fact that he can probably be identified with the Hippias who discovered the quadratrix, the first curve other than the circle to be recognized by the Greek geometers. It was probably discovered in the attempt to solve the problem of trisecting the angle, but was subsequently used in the attempt to square the circle. Of his immense output, a number are known by name, including an elegy on the drowning of a chorus of boys from Messenia. [OCD] Callias (5th c. B.C.), son of Hipponicus, of one of the richest families in Athens. He was cousin to Aristides, and married Elpinice, sister to Cimon. He is said to have distinguished himself at the battle of Marathon; he won the chariot-race at Olympia three times. He is chiefly known as the head of the embassy which went to conclude peace with Persia in 449, a peace which recognized each party's sphere of influence&emdash;Persia agreeing not to send a fleet west of Phaselis in south Asia Minor and of the Bosporus, nor to send troops within three days' march of the west coast, Athens leaving to Persia all to the east of that line, as well as Cyprus and Egypt. The reality of this treaty was impugned by Theopompus, and has been doubted by mdoern scholars. He is also said to have been one of the negotiators of the Thirty years' Peace with Sparta (446-445). [OCD] Evenus of Paros (5th c. B.C), poet and Sophist, of whom some twenty elegiac verses and two hexameters have come down. He gave metrical form to the rules of rhetoric and added to current terminology (Phaedrus 267a). |