Prodicus
Prodicus of Ceos (
Life
Prodicus was a native of
In the Protagoras of Plato, (dramatic date c. 430 BC), Prodicus is mentioned as having previously arrived in Athens. He appears in a play of Eupolis, and in The Clouds (423 BC) and The Birds (414 BC) of Aristophanes.[9] He came frequently to Athens on public business.[10] His pupils included the orators Theramenes[11] and Isocrates,[12] and in the year of the death of Socrates (399 BC), Prodicus was still living.[13] According to the statement of Philostratus, on which little reliance can be placed, he delivered his lecture on virtue and vice in Thebes and Sparta also. The Apology of Plato unites him with Gorgias and Hippias as among those who were considered competent to instruct the youth in any city. Lucian mentions him among those who held lectures at Olympia.[14]
In the dialogues of Plato he is mentioned or introduced with a certain degree of esteem, compared with the other sophists.[15] Aristophanes, in The Clouds,[9] deals more indulgently with him than with Socrates; and Xenophon's Socrates, for the purpose of combating the voluptuousness of Aristippus, borrows from the book of "the wise Prodicus" the story of the choice of Hercules.[16] Like Protagoras and others, Prodicus delivered lectures in return for payment[17] of from half a drachma to 50 drachmae, probably according to whether the hearers limited themselves to a single lecture or a more complete course.[18] Prodicus is said to have amassed a great amount of money.[19] The assertion that he hunted after rich young men is only found in Philostratus.
Teachings
Prodicus was part of the first generation of
Linguistics
Several of Plato's dialogues focus upon Prodicus' linguistic theory, and his insistence upon the correct use of names. He paid special attention to the correct use of words,[26] and the distinction of expressions related in sense.[27] Thucydides is said to have gained from him his accuracy in the use of words.[28] In the Cratylus,[29] Socrates jokes that if he could have afforded the fifty drachma lectures he would now be an expert on "the correctness of names." In several of the Platonic dialogues Socrates appears as the friend and companion of Prodicus, which reveals at least that the two did have close personal relations, and that Socrates did attend at least a few of his lectures. "For Socrates, correct language was the prerequisite for correct living (including an efficient government). But Prodicus, though his linguistic teaching undoubtedly included semantic distinctions between ethical terms, had stopped at the threshold. The complete art of logoi embraced nothing less than the whole of philosophy."[30]
Ethics
The speech on the
Another speech, apparently by Prodicus, is mentioned in the spurious Platonic dialogue Eryxias. Prodicus undertakes to show that the value of external goods depends simply upon the use which is made of them, and that virtue must be learnt. Similar sentiments were expressed in Prodicus's Praise of Agriculture.[33] The spurious dialogue Axiochus attributes to him views respecting the worthlessness of earthly life in different ages and callings, and how we must long after freedom from connection with the body in the heavenly and cognate aether. Also found here is a doctrine that death is not to be feared, as it affects neither the living nor the departed.[34]
Naturalism
Prodicus, like some of his fellow Sophists, interpreted religion through the framework of naturalism. The gods he regarded as personifications of the sun, moon, rivers, fountains, and whatever else contributes to the comfort of our life,[35] and he was sometimes charged with atheism.[36] "His theory was that primitive man was so impressed with the gifts nature provided him for the furtherance of his life that he believed them to be the discovery of gods or themselves to embody the godhead. This theory was not only remarkable for its naturalism but for its discernment of a close connection between religion and agriculture."[37]
Notes
- ^ Herbert Ernest Cushman (1918). A Beginner's History of Philosophy. Vol. 1. p. 68.
- ^ Plato, Protagoras, 316d; Suda, Prodicus
- ^ Plato, Protagoras, 339c, 340e, 341b
- ^ Plato, Hippias Major 282, comp. Philostratus Vit. Soph. i. 12
- ^ Plato, Protag. 316a; Philostratus, Vit. Soph. i. 12
- ^ Plutarch, an seni ger. sit Resp. c. 15
- ^ Plato, Protag. 315d
- ^ Philost. Vit. Soph. i. 12
- ^ a b Aristophanes, 1. 360
- ^ Plato, Hipp. Maj. 282.
- ^ Aeschines in Athenenaeus, v. 220b.; Scholium ad Aristophanes, Nub. 360
- ^ Dionys. Hal. Isocr. 1; Photius, cod. 260
- ^ Plato, Apology, 19. c.
- ^ Lucian, Vit. Herod, c. 3
- ^ Plato, Hipp. Maj. 282, Theaet. 151b, Phaedo, 60, Protag. 341a, Charmid. 163d, Meno, 96, Cratyl. 384b., Symp. 177, Euthyd. 305
- ^ Xenophon, Memor. ii. 1. § 21
- ^ Xenophon, Mem. ii. 1. § 21, comp. Philostratus; Diogenes Laertius, ix. 50; Plato, Prot. 314b
- ^ Pseudo-Plato, Axioch. 6; Plato, Cratyl. 384b.; Aristotle, Rhet. iii. 14. § 9; Suda, Prodicus
- ^ Plato, Hipp. Maj. 282d; Xenophon, Symp. iv. 62, i. 5
- ISBN 0-521-09666-9. p. 275.
- ^ Plato, Euthyd. 305c
- ^ Plato, Meno, 96d; comp. de Rep. x. 600e
- ^ Plato, Lach. 197c
- ^ Plato, Phaed. 267a; comp. Gorg. 449c, Prot. 334e, 335b, 338d; Aristotle, Rhet. iii. 17
- ^ Cicero, Brut. c. 8.
- ^ Plato, Euthyd. 187e, Cratyl. 384b, comp. Galen, in Hippocr. de Articul. iv. p. 461. 1
- ^ Plato, Lach. 197d, Prot. 340a, 341a, Charmid. 163d, Meno, 75c, comp. Themistius, Orat. iv. p. 113
- ^ Marcell. Vit. Thuc.; comp. Scholium ap. Hemsterhus. Annot. in Lucian., App. 3; Maxim. Tyr. Dissert. vii.
- ^ Plato, Cratylus, 384b
- ISBN 0-521-09666-9. p. 276.
- ^ Philostratus, p. 496; Xenophon, Mem. ii. 1. § 21
- ^ Suda, Horai, Prodicus; Scholium ad Aristoph. Nub. 1. 360. The meaning of the title is obscure.
- ^ Themistius, Orat. 30
- ^ comp. Stobaeus, Serm. xx. 35
- ^ Sextus Empiricus, adv. Math. i. 52; Cicero, de Nat. Deor. i. 42
- ^ Cicero, de Nat. Deor. i. 55
- ISBN 0-521-09666-9. p. 179.
References
- This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Smith, William, ed. (1870). "Prodicus". Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. Vol. 3. pp. 541–543.