119-152

Rhetoric in ancient Pythagoreanism

• Πολυκάρπου, Χριστόφορος Ν.

According to the comic poet Cratinus Junior, the Pythagoreans in Tarentum were zealously studying rhetoric because they had been infected with the sophistic virus. Far from sharing that view, we hold that the Pythagoreans in Tarentum (i.e. Archytas and his immediate followers) conceived of rhetoric as the art of persuasion without tending Pythagoreans and the Sophists, we put forward the opinion that Alcidamas’approach to rhetoric had something in common with the Pythagorean one. To our way of thinking, Alcidamas’reference to the dangers and limitations of the text - based speaker exerted influence upon Eudoxus, who was in favour of extemporaneous speaking. This being so, we concur with A. Rostagni in observing that Gorgias’view, that a well - educated speaker has to be flexible and sensitive enough to adjust to the moods of an unpredictable audience, can be traced back to the Speeches of Pythagoras. In our opinion, the Pythagoreans in Tarentum stressed the point that rhetoric and medicine are closely connected and regarded with approval Gorgias’statement that the art of persuasion (ή του λόγου δύναμις), like its medical counterpart (ή των φαρμάκων τάξις), can be dangerous as well as beneficial. Now it may be a coincidence, but the Pythagoreans in Tarentum, who were scientists skilled in rhetoric, rather remind us of the author of the so-called Hippocratic treatise On the Art. On the other hand, we have reason to believe that Eudoxus, who never broke away from the metaphysical requirements of genuine Pythagoreanism, claimed that the art of persuasion alone could not attain the highest degree of enlightenment without the aid of Πυθαγόρεια μυστήρια.

• Philosophy, Ethics and Religion
• Languages and Literature

• Φιλοσοφία, Αρχαία
• Classical philology

Περιέχει σημειώσεις, Ο τόμος αφιερώνεται στην μεγάλη ελληνίστρια Jacqueline de Romilly