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Durham E-Theses Durham E-Theses Philosophy in Verse: Competition and Early Greek Philosophical Thought BENZI, NICOLO How to cite: BENZI, NICOLO (2016) Philosophy in Verse: Competition and Early Greek Philosophical Thought, Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/11568/ Use policy The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in Durham E-Theses • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Please consult the full Durham E-Theses policy for further details. Academic Support Oce, Durham University, University Oce, Old Elvet, Durham DH1 3HP e-mail: [email protected] Tel: +44 0191 334 6107 http://etheses.dur.ac.uk 2 Abstract: Philosophy in Verse: Competition and Early Greek Philosophical Thought Nicolò Benzi This thesis is a study of Archaic and Early Classical philosophical poetry within the competitive context which characterized the poetic production of that period. In particular, I evaluate the ideas and arguments of Xenophanes, Parmenides, Epicharmus and Empedocles in the context of the social and cultural aspects of Archaic poetic performance in order to evaluate their response to traditional agonism. As I argue, these figures entered the poetic contest not only to defeat their poetic adversaries, but also to transform and redefine the terms of the competition itself. Chapter 1 is devoted to the analysis of three institutionalized forms of poetic agonism: sympotic games, rhapsodic contests, and dramatic performances. In chapter 2, I evaluate the socio-political import of Xenophanes' poetry and argue that his conception of the greatest god serves to substantiate his moral prescriptions aimed at eliminating civic conflict. In chapter 3, I examine Parmenides' original notion of alētheia as logical deduction, whereby he provides a solution to the problem of the truth-status of poetry stemming from the Muses' ability to inspire both genuine and false accounts, as narrated in Hesiod's Theogony. Chapter 4 provides an analysis of Empedocles' polemic allusions to his poetic and philosophical predecessors. I argue that Empedocles' confidence in his poetic authority is ultimately grounded on his self- declared divine status, which grants him a unique and comprehensive poetic knowledge. In chapter 5, I evaluate Epicharmus' philosophical fragments against the background of early rhetoric and argue that, through the use of philosophically inspired arguments, Epicharmus aimed to make manifest philosophy's agonistic potential and to show how it could be exploited to one's own advantage. 1 2 Philosophy in Verse: Competition and Early Greek Philosophical Thought Nicolò Benzi University College A thesis submitted to The Department of Classics and Ancient History Durham University This thesis is submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2015 3 4 Table of Contents Page Declaration 7 Statement of Copyright 7 Acknowledgements 9 Introduction 11 Chapter 1: Poetry and institutions of competition 17 1.1 – Poetic competition at the symposium 17 1.2 – Rhapsodic contests 31 1.3 – Dramatic festivals 40 Conclusion 46 Chapter 2: Xenophanes' poetry and the eradication of stasis 49 2.1 – Xenophanes' symposium 51 2.2 – Xenophanes' greatest god and the dispensation of justice 63 2.3 – Xenophanes and poetic competition 72 Conclusion 76 Chapter 3: Parmenides and the redefinition of alētheia 81 3.1 – The proem 83 3.2 – Truth in the Hesiodic poems 90 3.3 – Parmenides' alētheia 98 3.4 – The Doxa 108 Conclusion 117 Chapter 4: Empedocles, the divine poet 121 4.1 – The meaning of stolos at B17.26 123 4.2 – Empedocles and the Muse 131 5 4.3 – Empedocles' divine knowledge 143 Conclusion 153 Chapter 5: Epicharmus and the staging of competition 155 5.1 – Epicharmus' philosophical fragments: paradoxes and parodies 159 5.2 – Epicharmus and the beginnings of rhetoric 170 Conclusion 176 Final Remarks 179 Bibliography 185 6 Declaration I confirm that no part of the material offered has previously been submitted by me for a degree in this or any other University. This thesis is exclusively based on my own research. Material from the work of others has been acknowledged and quotations and paraphrases suitably indicated. Statement of Copyright The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. No quotation from it should be published without the author's prior written consent and information derived from it should be acknowledged. Word Count: 68050 7 8 Acknowledgements My first and greatest thanks are for my first supervisor, Phillip Horky, who guided me during the years of my PhD offering invaluable advice and constant support and encouragement, in good times as well as in difficult ones. He has been a wonderful supervisor and a dear friend. Words will never be enough to express my gratitude to him. I am honoured to have worked with him. I would like to thank my second supervisor, Luca Castagnoli, for his useful comments on my work, which proved indispensable for the development of my project, as well as for his unfailingly friendly and kind support during my years in Durham. Special thanks go to all the people who contributed to making the last years unforgettable: my dear friends with whom I shared moments of fun, professional worries and stimulating exchanges of ideas: Valentina di Lascio, Paola Bassino, Erika Taretto, Chiara Grigolin, Daniele Sberna, Talisa Tavella, Chiara Blanco, Peter Fane- Saunders; the colleagues and friends who took part in the Ancient Philosophy Reading Group, which provided a unique and valuable opportunity to engage in philosophical discussions: George Boys-Stones, Lucas Herchenroeder, Richard Beniston, Sebastiano Molinelli, Matteo Milesi, Mattia Sisti, Andrea Argenti, Jun Yeob Lee. I would also like to acknowledge all the staff and members of the Department of Classics and Ancient History, which has always been a stimulating and lively environment for research as well as personal growth. I cannot forget my new colleagues and friends of the Trinity Plato Centre at Trinity College, Dublin, where I am spending a year as a Newman Research Fellow: Vasilis Politis, John Dillon, Ashley Clements, David Horan, Pauline Sabrier, Keith Begley, Jun Su, and John Nugent. I would like to thank Giulio Di Basilio, for his friendship and his kind advice and support in the first days of my stay in Dublin. My 9 deepest thanks go to Peter Larsen and Kerry Cuskelly, two wonderful friends who made me feel at home when I most needed it. I will be forever grateful to them. I would like to thank my family for their love and constant support. My warmest thanks to Carla and Antonio, on whom I know that I can always count, and to my mother, Sonia, one of the bravest women I have ever known. Last, but not least, I would like to thank Rodrigo for his unconditional love, which never faded and will always be with me. 10 Introduction This doctoral thesis is a study of Archaic and early Classical philosophical poetry within the competitive context that characterized the poetic production of that period. In particular, I focus on the works of Xenophanes, Parmenides, Empedocles and Epicharmus. I reconstruct these philosophical poets' arguments and ideas by situating them within the social and cultural institutions of Archaic poetic performance in order to evaluate their approach to traditional agonism, since, as I claim, they entered the poetic contest not only to defeat their adversaries, but also to transform and redefine the terms of poetic competition itself. The importance of competition for our understanding of early Greek thought has been the object of increasing interest, especially thanks to pioneering works such as those of Lloyd, who, in his studies on ancient science and medicine, has pointed out how agonism informed the beginnings of scientific speculation. In particular, Lloyd argues that the origins of Greek science must be traced to the competitive socio-political dimension which marked the development of the life of the polis towards the end of the Archaic Age1. Within such a context, doctors, philosophers and, broadly speaking, wisdom practitioners engaged in a public “game” in order to prove their primacy and thereby win the favour of the audiences which they addressed. Indeed, some of the extant texts of the period show remnants of this fiercely agonistic debate: for example, in his fragments Heraclitus attacks Hesiod, Pythagoras, Xenophanes, Hecataeus for their lack of understanding2; Xenophanes criticizes Homer and Hesiod for their representations of the gods3; Hecataeus remarks that the stories of the Greeks are ridiculous and corrects traditional versions of myth4; the author of the treatise On 1 Cf. Lloyd 1979, pp. 226-267. This idea was proposed also by Vernant, cf. Vernant 1982, esp. pp. 49ff. 2 Cf. DK 22 B40. 3 Cf. DK 21 B11, B12. See further infra, Chapter 2, pp. 65-66. 4 Cf. BNJ 1 F a; F19. 11 Ancient Medicine attacks philosophers, among whom he enumerates Empedocles, and other physicians for their new methods of healing, and pointedly denounces their lack of medical expertise5. Competition was a prominent feature of Archaic poetry as well. As long recognized by scholars, a complete understanding of Archaic poetry is not possible without considering the competitive context in which poets composed and performed their works. Poetic production was characterized by an “agonistic mannerism”6 observable in both the form and content of poetry: correction and contradiction of rivals, rhetorical figures such as priamel, recusatio and praeteritio, and confrontational forms of composition found in different poetic genres, from lyric to drama, all providing a vivid portrayal of the manifold ways in which poets competed to prove the superiority of their poetic skills7.
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