Dionysodorus (sophist)
Dionysodorus (
Life
Plato's Euthydemus features Dionysodorus and Euthydemus as prominent interlocutors. According to the dialogue, the brothers were born on the Aegean island of Chios before relocating as colonists to Thurii in Magna Graecia of modern-day Italy.[1] After being exiled from Thurii, perhaps in 413,[2] they came to Athens. According to Socrates in the Euthydemus, the two taught fighting in armor and legal oration before developing an interest in sophistry.[3] Xenophon in the Memorabilia further attributes the teaching of generalship to Dionysodorus specifically.[4]
Additionally, an individual named Dionysodorus appears in Lysias' Against Agoratus speech,[5] who potentially matches the sophist on several biographical details.[2] This Dionysodorus was a general and taxiarch who supported the democracy; if the general and sophist are one and the same, Dionysodorus may have become a naturalized Athenian citizen along with many other foreign residents before the Battle of Arginusae.[2]
Philosophy
Throughout the Euthydemus, Plato depicts Dionysodorus and his brother employing a string of
In Xenophon's Memorabilia, Socrates examines a student of Dionysodorus who appears not to have learned basic elements of generalship. The implication seems to be either that Dionysodorus has shamelessly taken the student's payments without giving him his money's worth, or that Dionysodorus himself is ignorant of the very art of generalship he claims to teach.[4] This is apparently in keeping with Plato's critique of Dionysodorus, although the biographical details are in conflict.[citation needed]
See also
References
- ^ Plato, Euthydemus, 271c
- ^ a b c Debra Nails, The People of Plato, Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing, 2002; pp. 136–137
- ^ Plato, Euthydemus, 271e–272a
- ^ a b Xenophon, Memorabilia, 3.1
- ^ Lysias, Against Agoratus, 1
- ^ S. Morris Engle, Fallacies and Pitfalls of Language: The Language Trap, Toronto: Prentice-Hall, 1994; pp. 13
- ^ Nails, 152
- ^ Aristotle, Rhetoric, 1401a26
- ^ Aristotle, Sophistical Refutations, 177b12