The Ostensible Author of Ps.-Aeschines Letter 10 Reconsidered
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Journal of Hellenic Studies 139 (2019) 210–221 doi:10.1017/S0075426919000703 © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 2019 THE OSTENSIBLE AUTHOR OF PS.-AESCHINES LETTER 10 RECONSIDERED ZILONG GUO Northeast Normal University* Abstract: This article examines the alleged author, or first-person narrator, of the tenth pseudonymous letter in the Corpus Aeschineum. It argues that the forger, in a short epistolary novel that describes the seduction of a certain Callirhoe in Troy, uses puns (αἰσχύνειν, ἀναισχυντία, etc.) on the name of the fourth-century BC orator Aeschines. It notes that αἰσχρός-words recur in ancient works and, as a rhetorical device, are attested in Demosthenes. The forger’s aims are, first, to serialize the ‘Aeschinean’ letters as a whole by relating them to the same author and, second, to create an ‘aischro- logic’ counterpart of the Callirhoe, which is attributed to Chariton (Χαρίτων/‘The Graceful’). Thus there is less likelihood of suggesting other figures such as the eponymous Aeschines Socraticus. Keywords: pseudonymous letters, authorship, Aeschines, Chariton, pun In the manuscript tradition of Aeschines we find a collection of 12 letters that purport to describe the orator’s exile from Athens after the ‘crown trial’ in 330 BC. These letters are called ‘pseudony- mous’ because of their questionable authenticity: Letters 2, 3, 7, 11 and 12 imitate the letters of Demosthenes and are reminiscent of the historical declamations and progymnasmata familiar from Hellenistic times onward; Letters 1, 5, 6, 8, 9 and 10 reconstruct a fictitious narrative of Aeschines’ exile, and have traditionally been accepted as products of the so-called Second Sophistic. Letter 4 is a prose paraphrase of Pindar’s victory odes.1 Among them, Letter 10 has occasioned extensive scholarly discussions. It is unique in resembling what scholars call Briefromane, or ‘epistolary novels’, in that the actual author mixes the theme of adventure with that of the passion of love in a manner similar to the ‘canonical’ novelists Chariton, Xenophon of Ephesus, Achilles Tatius, Longus and Heliodorus.2 Its centrepiece – the seduction of a certain Callirhoe by one Cimon in the guise of the river god Scamander (λαβέ μου, Σκάμανδρε, τὴν παρθενίαν, §§ 3, 5, 6) – holds a special position in classical literature as an outstanding example of the Milesian Tales alongside such Roman counterparts as the works of Petronius and Apuleius;3 the term has its origin in the now lost collection of erotic (if mostly salacious) stories attributed to Aristides of Miletus (ca. first century BC) and was first applied to the account of Letter 10 by Karl Dilthey.4 * [email protected]. I am grateful to the two 4; Reardon (2008) 9; Tilg (2010) 2. But the scandalous anonymous JHS readers for their excellent suggestions. element is more common in some fragmentary and Thanks are also due to Mirko Canevaro, Sven Günther ‘fringe’ novels: Stephens and Winkler (1995) 4–7. For and Qiang Zhang, as well as the Editor of JHS and my example, ὁ Σκάμανδρος Κίμων (§ 5), associating seduc- colleagues at the Institute for the History of Ancient Civi- tion with the theme of disguise, finds an echo in Iolaos’ lizations at Northeast Normal University for their novel (P.Oxy. 42.3010): Puiggali (1988) 34–35; generous help and advice on this article. Mignogna (1996) 318 n. 11. 1 See Reiske (1771) 650–55; Schäfer (1885–1887) 3 Cf., following the Latin adaptation by Lucius 3.292 n. 2; Blass (1887–1898) 3.2.185–86; Drerup Cornelius Sisenna (ca. 120–167 BC), Ov. Tr. 2.413–14, (1904) 51; Wilamowitz-Moellendorff (1905) 147–49; 443–44; Petron. Sat. 85, 111; Apul. Met. 1.1, 2.21, 4.32. On Schwegler (1913); Martin and de Budé (1927–1928) Sisenna’s work, see Aragosti (2000); on the Milesian Tales 2.121–22; Goldstein (1968) 7, 49 n. 70, 100, 128, 131– and Roman novels, see Lefèvre (1997); Jensson (2004); 32, 265–66, 284–86; Salomone (1985); Holzberg (1994) Harrison (2013) 57–68. Less established is the view that 17–22; Glaser (2009) 63–84. These are the subject of my Letter 10 exerted an influence over Petronius’ Satyricon: commentary on the epistolographic corpus that excludes Abbott (1911) 265–66; Konstan (1994) 122 n. 47. Letter 10: Guo (2018). 4 Dilthey (1863) 102 n. 1; see also Weinreich (1911) 2 Also known as the ‘big five’: Rohde (1960) chapter 37–38; Schwegler (1913) 17–18; Martin and de Budé Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. University of Athens, on 02 Oct 2021 at 02:05:53, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0075426919000703 THE AUTHOR OF PS.-AESCHINES LETTER 10 RECONSIDERED 211 Such generic taxonomies notwithstanding, Letter 10 presents some thorny problems. The story takes place in Asia Minor, where Aeschines spent his exile according to the biographical tradition, but apart from its presence in the manuscripts there is no explicit sign of Aeschinean (or Ps.- Aeschinean) authorship.5 The author (or, as I shall argue, the forger) eschews any direct mention of Aeschines and all we have is little more than a first-person narrated erotic adventure with one Cimon.6 As a result, the ostensible author and the bewildering relation with the rest of the collection of letters have dominated previous scholarship on the letter. While some scholars connect it to the ‘Aeschinean’ letters, there has long been a tendency among others to treat it as a chance insertion that has nothing to do with the orator. Christoph Stöcker, for example, offers a novel interpretation of how it was misplaced in the process of transmission;7 that is, this letter was included erroneously in the epistolographic corpus, primarily due to a series of coincidences of names.8 He conjectures that the letter was addressed to the ‘Socratic’ Aeschines of Sphettus, supposedly by Stesimbrotus of Thasos in the mid-fifth century BC. The latter figure was an exegete of Homer and so expressed a keen interest in sightseeing around the heroes’ graves in Troy (§ 2).9 Cimon is identified with the distinguished Athenian statesman and general.10 Aeschines of Sphettus is as plausible a recipient here as he is in the ‘Socratic’ letters. He was supposed to know how to enjoy the charm of an erotic story as a result of his spiritual superiority, i.e. σὺ δὲ ἂν ἱκανῶς οἶμαι γελάσειας (‘I guess you would find it worth a laugh’, § 10).11 At the same time, since Callias, Cimon’s brother-in-law, is a recurrent figure in Aeschines of Sphettus’ works, it is plausible to establish a connection between this Aeschines and the Cimonian circle.12 The Melanippides that received the two travellers when they were chased by the Trojans (§ 10) would, then, be a Melian contemporary of Aeschines of Sphettus, i.e. Melanippides the dithyrambic poet.13 (1927–1928) 2.133 n. 1; Cataudella (1957) 107, 147–48; tigation of the manuscript tradition. A very different Rohde (1960) 596 n. 1; Lesky (1966) 608, 763; narrative order is represented by the 14th-century Salomone (1985) 232 n. 4; Puiggali (1988) 29–30; Stire- Harleianus 5610, which preserves only Letters 1, 6, 7 and walt (1993) 25 n. 74; Ferrari and Zanetto (1994) 77; 3, but the editio princeps of 1499 and two relevant manu- Gallé Cejudo (1996) 41, 43–44; Mignogna (1996) 86– scripts, Helmstadiensis 806/Guelferbytanus 902 and 87; Lefèvre (1997) 73–74; Benz (2001) 79–83; de Dios Laurentianus 70, 19, may offer evidence for a single (2002) 621 n. 37; Jensson (2004) 170; Bowie (2008) 21; point of origin of the pseudonymous letters, since the Hodkinson (2013) 323 n. 1; Giaquinta (2014) 9–10, 12– editor-scribes read ὁ δὲ Κίμων for ὁ δὴ Κίμων to mark 13, 25. Other notable Greek exponents are the Lucianic continuation: see Dobree (1831) 346; Drerup (1904) 30. Erotes and (probably) P.Oxy. 40.4762; generally on the 8 But this thesis seems rather farfetched to many Milesian Tales, see, for example, Ferrari and Zanetto scholars: for example Mignogna (1996) 316 n. 3: (1994); Benz (2001); Bowie (2013). ‘l’ipotesi tanto ingegnosa quanto poco convincente’. 5 Cf. Plut. Dem. 24.3; [Plut.] Mor. 840c–e; Philostr. 9 Cf. Stesimbrotus of Thasos BNJ 107 T 3 = Pl. Ion V S 1.481, 509; Phot. Bibl. 61.20a; Vitae Aeschin. 1.4–6, 530c–d. 2.12, 3.3–4 Dilts; P.Oxy. 15.1800. 10 As Stöcker points out, the forger may have based 6 For clarity, ‘first-person narrator’ (Ich-Erzähler) or his tale significantly upon Cimon’s unrestricted sexual simply ‘narrator’ are suitable alternatives to ‘author’ or life at an early age – for instance, the incestuous relation- ‘forger’ here, given that they are compatible in the ship with his sister Elpinice – which was probably known context of literary fabrication: cf. Stöcker (1980); Puig- to Stesimbrotus. Cf. SEG 46.79; Stesimbrotus of Thasos gali (1988) 30, 34; Ferrari and Zanetto (1994) 77; BNJ 107 T1, F4; Plut. Cim. 4.4–10, 15.4; Comp. Cim. Holzberg (1994) 19; Giaquinta (2014) 9 n. 4. Notice too Luc. 1.7; Anth. Pal. 11.224; Nep. 5.1.2. See also Davies, that the (alleged) author presenting himself as narrator of APF 302–03; Blamire (1989) 11, 95, 97, 161; Zaccarini an erotic story is typical of the Milesian Tales; accord- (2017) 35–36. ingly, the third-person narrator in P.Oxy. 40.4762 is 11 Cf. Socr. Epp. 10, 16, 22–23. In Socr. Ep. 23.3, deemed ‘exceptional’: cf. Jensson (2004) 192; May for example, he is said to have urged Plato and Aristippus (2010) 76–77; Bowie (2013) 247 n.