sign in sign up
<<
Home , Aristotle

for Aristotle

In ‘Thucydides for Aristotle,’ I study (ἱστορία), narration (διήγησις) and report (ἀπαγγελίας) as they appear in Aristotle's , , and in the Tractatus Coislinianus. After having down what history is for Aristotle, I refer to the single history that is named by Aristotle in order to corroborate his that the writing of is history (Poetics 9, 1451a37-51b7.) Then, I consider whether the writing of Thucydides would be history for Aristotle. I say that, for Aristotle, Thucydides did not write ἱστορία because Thucydides’s writing imitates “ and ,” which are the “natural causes of action,” with the result that his writing is one story that is of a “length appropriate to the magnitude of the action” of which it is the imitation (Poetics 6, 1450a3 f.) Thucydides therefore writes a “story” that is an “imitation of one whole and complete action” by means of “events that are set together according to what is likely or necessary.” Thucydides does not “clarify a in haphazard way” as ἱστορία does “by necessity,” and as Herodotus does in (Poetics 23, 1459a20 f.) In order to defend this , I consult Aristotle’s differentiae of imitation, assessing in what (ἐν οἷς), of what (ἃ), and how (ὥς) Thucydides’s writing imitates (Poetics 1, 1447a16; 6, 1450a10 f.) As a result of this assessment, I observe that Thucydides’s particular-based “amimetic narrative” (διηγηµατικῆς) is woven thoroughly with -oriented “mimetic report” (απαγγέλλετικον of Tractatus Coislinianus in Comicorum Graecorum Fragmenta, vol. 1, p. 50, Kaibel, 1891.) All indicate that Thucydides wrote a “mixed narrative” very much like that put forward in (III, 393d-396d,) rather than him having written a history per Aristotle’s of the . I conclude with some remarks as to how modern vogue obscures this philosophic and genre defining achievement of Thucydides.

Outline: What is history? (To Aristotle? In Herodotus?)—How much does Thucydides have in common with history?—Why is Thucydides not history?—How much does Thucydides have in common with Epic and ?—What sort of story does Thucydides write?—What is its action?—Who are its characters?—What are their ?—Where are the reversals and recognitions of the story, and of what sort are they?—To what extent does it resemble the “narration with some imitation of men” in Republic 393d-396d?—What did Thucydides write?

baldenk.net