Peripatetics Between Ethics, Comedy and Rhetoric
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DISSERTATIONES STUDIORUM GRAECORUM ET LATINORUM UNIVERSITATIS TARTUENSIS 4 DISSERTATIONES STUDIORUM GRAECORUM ET LATINORUM UNIVERSITATIS TARTUENSIS 4 CHARACTER DESCRIPTION AND INVECTIVE: PERIPATETICS BETWEEN ETHICS, COMEDY AND RHETORIC IVO VOLT Department of Classical Philology, Institute of Germanic, Romance and Slavonic Languages and Literatures, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Tartu, Estonia The Council of the Institute of Germanic, Romance and Slavonic Lan- guages and Literatures has, on 31 August 2007, accepted this disser- tation to be defended for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Classical Philology. Supervisor: Professor Anne Lill, University of Tartu Reviewer: Professor Karin Blomqvist, University of Lund The dissertation will be defended in Room 209, Ülikooli 17, on 21 De- cember 2007. The publication of the dissertation was funded by the Institute of Ger- manic, Romance and Slavonic Languages and Literatures, University of Tartu. ISSN 1406–8192 ISBN 978–9949–11–793–2 (trükis) ISBN 978–9949–11–794–9 (PDF) Autoriõigus Ivo Volt, 2007 Tartu Ülikooli Kirjastus www.tyk.ee Tellimus nr. 528 PREFACE This thesis has originated from my interest in the Characters of Theophras- tos, a remarkable piece of writing from the Greek antiquity and a true aureolus libellus.1 I first read the Characters, in Russian, for a Russian class during my first year of study at the University of Tartu in 1993, and since then have come across this work several times, including a course on the Characters by Anne Lill in 1996, my B.A. and M.A. theses (1997 and 2000), a course on the Characters by myself (1999), and the Estonian translation and commentary of the work (Lill & Volt 2000). I am grateful to all my friends and colleagues, both in Estonia and abroad, who have been helpful in many ways and various stages of the work. To list all those who, throughout the years, have helped with lit- erature, personal advice or procuring scholarships would take too much space, but I would like to mention Simone Beta, Carl Joachim Classen, William W. Fortenbaugh, Heinz Hofmann, Luis Alfonso Llera Fueyo, Severin Koster, John McChesney-Young, Marcel Meulder, Janika Päll, Graziano Ranocchia, Stefan Schorn, Markus Stein, Peter Stork and Jaan Unt. I am especially grateful to Nancy Worman and Paul Millett who allowed me to see their work or parts of it before publication. I cordially thank my thesis supervisor Anne Lill for her continuous support and encouragement. Jeffrey Vollmer has taken on the task of checking my English. I am greatly indebted to the Centre for Ethics of the University of Tartu (headed by Margit Sutrop) and to Volkswagen-Stiftung for awarding me a doctoral study grant for four years (from autumn 2001 till summer 2005). No philologist could live or work without libraries, and I wish to express my sincerest thanks to those in Tartu (especially the Department of Interlibrary Loans of Tartu University Library), Göt- tingen, Tübingen, Lund, Wolfenbüttel, Budapest and elsewhere. The preparation of this thesis was further supported by doctoral funding from the Ministry of Education and Science of Estonia (grant SF0182256), 1 This is Isaac Casaubon’s often quoted description of the Characters, although in the original source, Jerome’s Against Iovinianus 388.11b, it is used for his book on marriage (aureolus Theophrasti liber de nuptiis = Theophrastos fr. 486.7 FHS&G). Cf. FHS&G II: 258– 9, Fortenbaugh 1994a: 24–5 (= 2003: 232–3), Diggle 2004: 14. 5 targeted financing of the Ministry of Education and Science of Estonia (grants SF0180527s98 and SF0182545s03), and the Estonian Science Foundation (grant ETF4567). Work on this thesis has been made considerably easier by the facilities offered by the CD-ROM disk #E and on-line database of the Thesaurus Linguae Graecae, and Packard Humanities Institute CD-ROM disks #5.3 (Latin texts) and #7 (inscriptions and papyri).2 Translations of passages of ancient authors are my own, unless noted otherwise. In the case of Aristotle’s works I have used, with occasional modifications, the revised Oxford translation edited by Jonathan Barnes (1984); quotations from the Characters of Theophrastos are adapted from James Diggle’s translation (2004). 2 For searching and browsing texts on these CD-ROMs I have used two software programs: Musaios (various versions) by D. J. Dumont and R. M. Smith, and Diogenes (various versions) by P. J. Heslin. 6 CONTENTS ABBREVIATIONS ..................................................................................... 10 INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................... 13 Aim, structure, sources, methodology .............................................. 13 Terminology .......................................................................................... 17 Previous studies on the topic .............................................................. 20 PART 1. CHARACTER WRITING BEFORE THEOPHRASTOS ........ 24 1.1. Forerunners of Theophrastos outside the Peripatetic school .. 24 1.2. Peripatetic tradition: general introduction ................................ 32 1.3. Aristotle and Ps-Aristotle on character ...................................... 35 1.3.1. Ethics and politics ............................................................... 36 1.3.2. Rhetoric ................................................................................ 42 1.3.3. Poetics ................................................................................... 47 1.3.4. Physiognomics .................................................................... 47 PART 2. THE CHARACTERS OF THEOPHRASTOS ........................... 49 2.1. Structure and authenticity of the Characters .............................. 49 2.1.1. Title of the work .................................................................. 51 2.1.2. Preface .................................................................................. 52 2.1.3. Definitions ............................................................................ 53 2.1.4. Descriptions ......................................................................... 67 2.1.5. Conclusions ......................................................................... 68 2.1.6. Lost and merged sketches? ................................................ 69 2.1.7. Traces of character writing in other works of Theophrastos ....................................................................... 73 2.1.8. The thirty character sketches: an overview ..................... 74 2.2. Purpose and function of the Characters ...................................... 104 2.2.1. Ethics..................................................................................... 105 2.2.2. Rhetoric ................................................................................ 107 2.2.3. Poetics and comedy ............................................................ 108 2.2.4. Pure entertainment ............................................................. 113 2.3. Selecting, grouping and classifying characters ......................... 115 2.4. Levels of social communication in the Characters ..................... 118 2.4.1. Polis and public sphere ....................................................... 120 2.4.2. Religious sphere .................................................................. 123 7 2.4.3. Economic sphere ................................................................. 124 2.4.4. Cultural and educational sphere ...................................... 126 2.4.5. Social sphere ........................................................................ 127 2.4.6. Oikos and family sphere ..................................................... 131 2.4.7. Occupations and professions ............................................ 133 2.4.8. Concluding remarks ........................................................... 134 PART 3. CHARACTER WRITING IN LATER PERIPATETIC AUTHORS .................................................................................................. 135 3.1. Ariston ............................................................................................ 136 3.1.1. Sources and identity ........................................................... 136 3.1.2. On relieving arrogance (fr. 21 SFOD) .................................. 138 3.1.3. On flattery (fr. 19–20 SFOD) ............................................... 149 3.2. Lykon .............................................................................................. 151 3.3. Satyros ............................................................................................. 160 3.4. Excursus: on character writing in the Stoic school ................... 162 PART 4. CHARACTER TYPES IN ACTION ......................................... 166 4.1. Εἰρωνεία and εἴρων: Sokrates and the tradition of dissembling .................................................................................... 166 4.1.1. Comedy ................................................................................ 168 4.1.2. Plato ...................................................................................... 170 4.1.3. Aristotle ................................................................................ 171 4.1.4. Theophrastos ....................................................................... 177 4.1.5. Ariston of Keos .................................................................... 185 4.1.6. Εἰρωνεία and ἀλαζονεία .................................................. 186 4.2. Βδελυρία in Theophrastos