The Transformative Power of Paideia Or Paideia Transformed? Paideutic Culture During the Second Sophistic
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The Transformative Power of Paideia or Paideia Transformed? Paideutic Culture during the Second Sophistic Darren A. Hunter Department of History and Classical Studies McGill University, Montreal April, 2013 A Thesis submitted to McGill University in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree Master of Arts ©Darren A. Hunter, 2013. Table of Contents ABSTRACT .......................................................................................................................... iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................................................ iv ABBREVIATIONS .................................................................................................................. v INTRODUCTION: Defining Hellenism ................................................................................... 1 CHAPTER I: The Changing Face of Hellenism .................................................................. 12 CHAPTER II: The Aesthetics of Paideia: Philosophy, Sophistry, and Spectacle ............... 42 CHAPTER III : Paths to Commodification: Lucian and Roman Greek Paideia ................. 75 CONCLUSION: Hellenism Revisited ................................................................................. 102 APPENDIX 1: Declamation in the Second Century AD .................................................... 105 APPENDIX 2: The Antecedents of the Tabula of ps.-Kebes ............................................ 108 APPENDIX 3: Summary of the Tabula of ps.-Kebes ........................................................ 111 APPENDIX 4: Philotimia in the Corinthiaca .................................................................... 115 BIBLIOGRAPHY ................................................................................................................ 120 ii ABSTRACT The present study contends with the commodification and decadence of Hellenism and paideia (intellectual and cultural sophistication) during the Second Sophistic. It charts the path that Hellenism took from an esoteric ethnic essence to a universal and inclusive ethic. Given this inclusiveness, anyone in the empire who adopted a paideutic character had the chance of becoming a “Hellene,” especially sophists. Upon establishing an ecumenical Hellenism, competition for audiences with other forms of entertainment compelled sophists to adopt a more theatrical lecture style, where the aesthetics of performance were more important than edification, and laid the foundation for commodification. The socio-political Roman context encouraged dissembling, actively commodifying the role of the sophist and philosopher. In the end, the empty pleasures of spectacle allowed for a new moral code to adopt and adapt Greek philosophic education, heralding a slow decay of ancient Hellenism. RÉSUMÉ L'étude présentée ici discute la marchandisation et la décadence de l’Hellénisme et de la paideia durant la Seconde Sophistique. L’essence de l’Hellénisme a dû changer d’une ethnique ésotérique à une éthique universelle et inclusive. La compétition pour une audience obligea les sophistes à adopter un style de cours davantage théâtral, dans lequel les apparences et le divertissement étaient plus importants que l'enseignement. Le contexte socio-politique romain encouragea également la dissimulation en marchandant activement le rôle du sophiste et du philosophe. À la fin, les plaisirs superflus du spectacle permirent à un nouveau code moral d'adopter et d'adapter une éducation philosophique grecque, annonçant un lent déclin de l'Hellénisme ancien. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank my thesis supervisor Professor Anastassios Anastassiadis for his constructive criticism, advice, and dedication. I am also indebted to Professors Lynn Kozak, Nikos Poulopoulos, Renaud Gagné, Annabel Robinson, Ken Leyton-Brown, Sarah Burgess-Watson, David Meban, and Kimbery Hart. They have all driven my passion for classics and its reception in the contemporary world. I would like to thank the Ouranis Foundation for their generous support. Professors Socrates Petmezas and Andreas Lyberatos of the Πανεπιστήμιο Κρήτης at Rethymno were most welcoming and helpful while I researched there. I would like to thank l'École française d'Athènes and the American School of Classical Studies at Athens for giving me access to their resources while I conducted research in Athens. I would also like to extend especial gratitude to Professor Maria Vittoria Cerutti who made it possible for me to study and research at the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan. I owe much thanks to many people who have helped me throughout my studies. I would like to thank my amazing colleagues for the many stimulating discussions: Carina de Klerk, Alex Myhr, Brahm Kleinman, Paul Vadan, Catherine Mcpherson, Alex McAuley, Dina Tsitouras, Catherine Cournoyer, among many others. I especially want to thank Margherita Vittorelli who persevered with me through all the highs and lows that such an endeavour encompasses. Finally, I want to express my gratitude to my family for their support and encouragement. To my mother who passed away before I was able to finish this thesis, I will remember you always, and I know that you are beaming with pride. iv ABBREVIATIONS Lucian’s works (selection) Abbreviation Latin title* English title Ana. Anacharsis Anacharsis Apol. Apologia Apology Asin. Asinus The Ass Bis Acc. Bis Accusatus Twice Accused D.Meretr. Dialogi Meretricii Dialogues of the Courtesans Dem. Demonax Demonax Eun. Eunuchus The Eunuch Fug. Fugitivi The Runaways Herm. Hermotimus Hermotimus Hist. Conscr. Quomodo historia How to Write History conscribenda sit Icar. Icaromenippus Icaromenippus Imag. Imagines Essays in Portraiture Ind. Adversus Indoctum The Ignorant Book Collector Pro Laps. Pro Lapsu inter Salutandum A Slip of the Tongue Lex. Lexiphanes Lexiphanes Merc. Cond. De Mercede Conductis On Salaried Posts potentium familiaribus Nig. Nigrinus Nigrinus Philops. Philopseudes The Lover of Lies Pisc. Piscator Fisherman Pro Imag. Pro Imaginibus Essays in Portraiture Defended Pseudol. Pseudologista The Mistaken Critic Rh.Pr. Rhetorum praeceptor The Teacher of Rhetoric Salt. De Saltatione The Dance Scyth. Scythianus The Scythian Somn. Somnium [sive Vita Luciani] The Dream or Lucian’s Life DDS. De Dea Syria The Syrian Goddess Tox. Toxaris Toxaris Vit. Auc. Vitarum Auctio Philosophies for Sale Philostratus’s works (selection) Abbreviation Latin title* English title VS Vitae Sophistarum The Lives of the Sophists VA Vita Apollonii The Life of Apollonius of Tyana *Titles are not given in Greek as most scholarship refers to these works by their Latin title. v INTRODUCTION : DEFINING HELLENISM “La seconde sophistique performe l’héllenisme.” -Barbara Cassin, L’effet sophistique, 451 In the fourth century BC, the Athenian logographer, teacher of rhetoric, and publicist Isocrates (Panegyricus 4.50) put forward a radical claim that education and culture (paideia) rather than birth (genos) constitute one as a “Hellen”: τοσοῦτον δ᾽ ἀπολέλοιπεν ἡ πόλις ἡμῶν περὶ τὸ φρονεῖν καὶ λέγειν τοὺς ἄλλους ἀνθρώπους, ὥσθ᾽ οἱ ταύτης μαθηταὶ τῶν ἄλλων διδάσκαλοι γεγόνασι, καὶ τὸ τῶν Ἑλλήνων ὄνομα πεποίηκε μηκέτι τοῦ γένους ἀλλὰ τῆς διανοίας δοκεῖν εἶναι, καὶ μᾶλλον Ἕλληνας καλεῖσθαι τοὺς τῆς παιδεύσεως τῆς ἡμετέρας ἢ τοὺς τῆς κοινῆς φύσεως μετέχοντας. Our city [Athens] has so far surpassed other men in thought and speech that students of Athens have become the teachers of others, and the city has made the name “Hellene” seem to be not that of a people (γένους) but of a way of thinking; and people are called Hellenes because they share in our education (παιδεύσεως) rather than in our birth.1 Regarding this statement, Jonathan Hall rightly argues that “Isocrates was not just extending the definition of ‘Hellene’ to include barbarians but rather restricting its usage to those who have passed through an Athenian education.”2 This Athenocentric education laid out a standard set of authors and a dialect by which others could more easily attain the name and identity of “Hellene.”3 The implications and realization of this statement presented themselves in the following centuries. Later in the fourth century BC, Alexander the Great spread the Attic dialect of Greek and an Athenian education throughout the Near East. By the time the Romans 1 All translations are my own, unless specifed. 2 J. Hall 2002, 209. See also Too 1995, 129, “being Athenian ultimately takes precedence over and eclipses being Greek;” Kaldellis 2007, 18-9. On Isocrates, Paneg. 4.50, see Swain 1996; Malkin 2001; Said 2001; Mellor 2008, 79-86; Cartledge 1993. Cf. Thuc. 2.41.1: Ξυνελών τε λέγω τήν τε πᾶσαν πόλιν τῆς Ἑλλάδος παίδευσιν εἶναι, “In summation, I say that the whole city [Athens] is the educator of the Greeks.” 3 Sourcebooks tend to offer Homer, Demosthenes, Plato, and the tragedians as the educators of Greece, e.g. Joyal 2009. 1 conquered the Greek poleis (cities, sg. polis) of Achaea, Asia Minor, the Levant, and Egypt, other Greek poleis (Alexandria, Smyrna, Ephesos, Pergamon) had risen to cultural authority while Athens, a nostalgic topos, had itself become a backwater.4 Athenaios of Naucratis (Deipnosophistae 4.83.6-7) tells us that the Alexandrians were now the ones who educated not only all of the Greeks but also the barbarians: ὅτι Ἀλεξανδρεῖς εἰσιν οἱ παιδεύσαντες πάντας τοὺς Ἕλληνας καὶ τοὺς βαρβάρους. By the time the East was finally subdued in 31 BC, Rome itself had effectively usurped the place of Alexandria as the cultural