Peripatos the Athenian Philosophical Scene 1

8/2/2019 Peripatos the Athenian Philosophical Scene 1

1/13

Peripatos: The Athenian Philosophical Scene--I

Author(s): R. E. WycherleySource: Greece & Rome, Second Series, Vol. 8, No. 2 (Oct., 1961), pp. 152-163Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Classical AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/641646

Accessed: 02/10/2010 08:30

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at

http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless

you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you

may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use.

Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained athttp://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=cup.

Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed

page of such transmission.

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of

content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms

of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

Cambridge University Press and The Classical Association are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve

and extend access to Greece & Rome.

http://www.jstor.org
http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=cuphttp://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=classicalhttp://www.jstor.org/stable/641646?origin=JSTOR-pdfhttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=cuphttp://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=cuphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/stable/641646?origin=JSTOR-pdfhttp://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=classicalhttp://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=cup


2/13

PERIPATOS: THE ATHENIANPHILOSOPHICAL SCENE-IBy R. E. WYCHERLEY

We will wait for her here in the Kerameikos; she will be herepresentlyon her way back from the Academy, to take a stroll inthe Poikile too; she is in the habit of doing this every day.

Lucian, Piscator, 13.ONE day in 79 B.C.,when he was studying at Athens, Cicero anda group of friends took a walk along the same road as Lucian'sPhilosophia, but in the opposite direction.' They had listened, as usual,to a lecture by Antiochos, who was then head of the Academy, deliveredin the gymnasium called Ptolemaion, which was in the middle of thecity; and they resolved to take an ambulatiopostmeridiana (Latin forTEPiwCCTOS&iEAv65)in the Academy,which at thattime of daywouldbequiet (and comparatively cool). Forgathering at Piso's, they traversedthe six stadia from the Dipylon, and reached the justly famous walks(non sine causa nobilitata spatia) of the Academy. There Piso remarks,'Whether by a sound instinct or by an illusion (natura an errore)whenwe set eyes on the very places frequented by great men, we are moredeeply moved than when we merely hear of their deeds or read theirwritings. Plato used to hold discussions here; I can almost see himwalking in those little gardens near by (illi propinqui hortuli). Heretaught Speusippos and Xenokrates and Polemon, who used to sit on thevery seat which we can see over there. The power of suggestion whichplaces possess is indeed great (tanta uis admonitionis inest in locis).'Quintus Cicero is more attracted to the Kolonos near by, with itsSophoklean associations. 'I of course am an Epicurean,' says Pomponius(Atticus), 'and I spend much time with my dear friend Phaidros in thegardens of Epicurus, which we were passing just now.' M. Cicero fullyagrees about the stimulating effect of topography (locorumadmonitu) inone's studies of famous men; though all parts of Athens are full ofreminders of the great, he is particularly moved by an exedra, a class-room or lecture-hall, which he now sees-it was used by Karneades notso long ago. L. Cicero concludes, 'id quidem infinitum est in hac urbe;quacumque enim ingredimur, in aliqua historia vestigium ponimus'.

Fin. v. I.


3/13

4 ~ 7 9 3 3 8?-;?,.. i A X A P N I K A I7\1EPONPITTHE.;.t ~ ~ i 'BKAIAAAIZlTHX:GIMAXIn Y A A l ?

E - P A n Y A H ' ~ :~Zomor1orLWAIOHNAEtOPATPnTIALrrrn Y A A I T AMGAL~~~AF

. . . . . . ;H M W d ! ; 6 A l - - ,4~I~,?Ci' TL~EAEYY-INIQNIEO0Z 7 nArkPATP E J O l c I ; ~ ? ; ~ A Y K

MICAI r r ~ aK~hP~r\bmntEN>Y

nY A ? K A I K O P H- M O Y 1 M E WA Y A A A n . ' ) N

7 ? ? K A P F E L :AA~HPIKON50TEIXOTsooFIG. I. Athens in the fifth and fourth centuries B.C. Kynosarges is here shown near thBritish School at Athens. (J. Travlos, TToEo580o1KhiEWgtis -rc'v AerWvv Athens,


4/13

154 PERIPATOS: ATHENIAN PHILOSOPHICAL SCENE-IWithout attempting to maintain this level of enthusiasm, which is

essentially momentary, and which may even be thought to have in it anelement which is somewhat naive and touristic, and without makingexaggerated claims for topography as an aid to the study of philosophy,one may still insist that at Athens of all places philosophy should berelated as closely as possible to its physical, architectural setting, fittedinto the increasingly complete and detailed picture which we have of thecity. As in Lucian Philosophia should be seen walking in the streets ofAthens. By adding archaeological to literary material one can recon-struct this philosophic scene, or at least large parts of it. Recent excava-tions have added some important new elements and many minor details,but on the archaeological side there remain many difficulties and certainbig gaps which will, one hopes, be filled in due course.

I. SOKRATES; SCENES OF THE PLATONIC DIALOGUESOne naturally begins with the Athens of Sokrates (see Fig. I). Platowas acutely conscious of the importance of placing the dialogues ina definite and tangible physical setting, and used his dramatic genius

with sure and subtle skill for this purpose. Xenophon, Plutarch, andothers add details. By recapitulating some of these mainly familiarscenes, and illustrating them where one can, it may prove possible toemphasize certain significant points and to determine the cumulativeeffect of the whole series.

Some of Plato's dialogues have a pleasantly domestic setting. Inseveral the method of dialogue within dialogue means that the scene isset twice over. In the Parmenides Kephalos, arriving at Athens fromKlazomenai, meets Adeimantos and Glaukon in the agora. Thence theygo to the house of Antiphon, in the deme of Melite nearby, i.e. on thehigh ground to the south-west, to get an account of Sokrates' meetingwith Zeno and Parmenides. Antiphon tells how Zeno and Parmenidescame to Athens for the Panathenaic festival, and stayed with Pythodoros,who actually lived 'outside the city wall in Kerameikos' (127 b). Sokratesand many others flocked to hear them. Parmenides was not there whenthey arrived, and Zeno obligingly read from his works. Presently Par-menides returned, and a momentous discussion followed. In such waysrather than in epideictic lectures and formal teaching the powerfulcurrents of fifth-century thought made themselves felt at Athens, aboveall in the mind of Sokrates.

Most enlightening of all is the Protagoras. Wealthy Athenians actedas host to the distinguished sophists who came to Athens to teach the


5/13

PERIPATOS: ATHENIAN PHILOSOPHICAL SCENE-I 155arts of politics and rhetoric to ambitious young men. On this occasionSokrates plays Daniel to a remarkable troupe of lions assembled in thehouse of Kallias. Hippokrates comes knocking on Sokrates' door at anearly hour to tell him Protagoras is in town. They go to Kallias' house,and after a surly reception at the lodge by a porter who is disgusted bythe great influx of sophists, they enter the courtyard. Protagoras isrevealed pacing up and down in a colonnade, peripatetic fashion,' witha well-drilled and deferential chorus in attendance. In the oppositecolonnade Hippias is installed on a sort of professorial chair, a thronos,answering questions on astronomy posed by the followers who sit on thesteps or benches at his feet. From an adjacent room comes a droningsound, the deep voice of Prodikos discoursing while still in bed to yetanother group who sit on couches around him. His bed-chamber, weare told, was normally a store-room or pantry, but it had been clearedout and made to serve as a guest-room on this occasion because of theunusual number of visitors (314 c-315 e).Plato gives a gently ironical twist to the scene, but one can hardlyover-estimate its significance. The courtyard of the house, with thestoas and rooms opening off it, the various groups distributed around itintent on the pursuit of &pET-r~-the hole passage strikes a keynote inthe history of TratEia. It has been said quite rightly that a Greekphilosophical school was essentially a specialized extension of theHellenic household. Here we see something of the process of extension;what we have of course is not a philosophical school as yet, but thehousehold of a wealthy Athenian patron accommodating a mixed groupof exponents of the contemporary form of the higher education. Thepalaestra, or the gymnasium-courtyard, is no more than a magnificationof the court of the house of Kallias. It has also been noted that theGreeks felt little need for privacy, for the segregation of classes, ineducation. The colonnades of the gymnasium (or indeed of the agora)could serve the same purpose as those of Kallias. Class-rooms areknown as exedrae, which implies that they are open in front. We shall

I This constant walking about remained characteristic of the philosophers,and not only of the Peripatetics proper. It could be carried too far and becomedisorderly-in Menedemos' school (Diog. Laert. ii. 17. 130) there was no order,no benches in a circle; teacher and pupils wandered around as they fancied.Krantor (ibid. iv. 5. 24) was once merely taking a walk for health's sake in theAsklepieion, when people flocked to him expecting a discourse. Note thataccording to Diogenes (ix. 8. 54) Protagoras gave a reading of his work On theGods at Athens in the house of Euripides; Diogenes adds that some say he readit in the house of Megakleides, others that Archagoras read it for him in theLyceum.


6/13

156 PERIPATOS: ATHENIAN PHILOSOPHICAL SCENE-Isee more of this later, both in literature and in the monuments. Mean-while the Protagoras prepares the way.

One would like to know much more about the house of Kallias. Plato,characteristically, confines himself to a few vivid but sketchy strokes,and we derive no more from other contemporary authors such as Lysias.Vitruvius, giving a systematic account of the Greek house some cen-turies later, is most misleading (vi. 7). One thing is clear. Kallias' house,though he was one of the wealthiest Athenians and noted for luxuriousliving, was no palace, nor even a spacious mansion. Evidence has beenaccumulating recently for the houses of classical Athens, but the bestspecimens, in which the plan and characterof the house areclearest, comefrom the region of the agora, from the so-called 'industrial district'.'They are the houses of artisans, not of Kallias and his kind. They aremodest establishments, consisting of several rooms around a courtyardwhich tends to face towards the south. There were no doubt many farhumbler dwellings at Athens; Kallias' house, on the other hand, wasprobably hardly more than a larger and better-appointed version of thisscheme. We are quite justified, I think, in going to Olynthos, where somany excellent houses of the period have been discovered, to supplementthe Athenian material and to illustrate Plato, provided that allowance ismade for the systematic planning of Olynthos, and perhaps for somelocal peculiarities. We might quite well place the scene of the Prota-goras in the courtyard of one of the larger and better houses at Olyn-thos, such as the Villa of Good Fortune.2 Obviously Kallias had nosuite of guest chambers round a separate courtyard, such as Vitruviusspeaks of.3Other domestic scenes may be mentioned more briefly. For the sceneof the Symposiumin the dining-room of a successful tragedian one canagain go to Olynthos for illustration, where some of the houses havea handsome acv8pcbv or men's dining-room) with raised borders, onwhich stood the diners' couches, around a central area which some-times had a mosaic floor. One recalls too how Sokrates arrived late forthe feast, having fallen into a deep train of thought and pursued it toa conclusion in the prothyron, the recessed entrance, of a neighbouringhouse.

I Hesperia, xx (1951), 187 ff.; note Fig. II, p. 204. Cf. ibid. xxviii (1959),98 ff. (houses at north foot of Areopagus).2 D. M. Robinson and J. Graham, Excavations at Olynthus (Baltimore, 1938),viii. 55 ff.; cf. xii. 183 ff. (quoted below as Olynthus).3 vi. 7. In Hellenistic times one finds more complicated house plans. A verycurious new example has recently been found at Morgantina in Sicily; seeE. Sj6quist in A.J.A. lxii (1958), I6o.


7/13

PERIPATOS: ATHENIAN PHILOSOPHICAL SCENE-I 157One hardly needs to recapitulate the scene of the Republic, which isset with particular skill and realism.' The domestic piety of father

Kephalos, busying himself with the sacrifices and leaving the intricaciesof discussion to younger men, is an effective touch. A number of domesticaltars have been found at Olynthos; some stood in the courtyard, a fewwithin a room.2

Polemarchos' family were prosperous metics; Kallias was a verywealthy Athenian. It was in such houses that one would find the sophistswith whom Plato liked to bring Sokrates into conflict, and their prospec-tive pupils, whose fathers could pay the fees. But Sokrates frequentedhumbler establishments too. He was in his element among the smalltradesmen and manufacturers of the-commercial and industrial districtsand the agora. 'You are alwaystalking about cobblers, fullers, cooks, andphysicians', says the aristocratic and ambitious Kallikles in the Gorgias(491 a) impatiently. Xenophon tells how he and Euthydemos used areinmaker's shop near the agora as a rendezvous;3 Diogenes Laertioswrites4 of his intimate friendship with the philosophical cobbler Simon,whose modest shop has quite probably been found in the south-west ofthe agora; Plutarch shows him walking in the industrial quarterof Athens,amongst box-makers and herm-carvers.5 This is probably the districtwhich has been carefully excavated to the south-west of the agora; ina street which was largely devoted to marble working (the traditionwhich made Sokrates himself originally a sculptor is open to doubt) havebeen found the houses of the fifth and fourth centuries which are men-tioned above.

Sokrates himself in the Apology (17 c) asks the jury to bear with himif being unfamiliar with forensic rhetoric he speaks in the same terms as'in the agora by the tables, where many of you have heard me'. Thesewould be the tables of the trapezetai, the bankers and moneylenders,a place where people would naturally linger and talk. Similarly Sokratessays to Hippias in the Hippias Minor (368 b) that he has heard himmaking a display of his wisdom 'in the agora by the tables'. Beddingsfor tables have been found in the East Stoa of the 'commercial agora',south of the main square. This is Hellenistic, but trapezetai may have

I Which Professor Tarrant somewhat mars by calculating that the discussionwould require 18 hours (J.H.S. lxxv (1955), 85); the Protagoras would requireonly 31 hours.2 Olynthus, viii. 321 ff. (note P1. 73), xii. 19o; the courtyard altars would beof Zeus Herkeios.

3 Mem. iv. 2. I.Sii. 13. I2, Iz3; cf. Hesperia, xxiii(I954), 54; Archaeology, xiii(I96o), 234 ff.s De Gen. Socr. Io; cf. Greece & Rome, Second Series, iii (I956), 14.


8/13

158 PERIPATOS: ATHENIAN PHILOSOPHICAL SCENE-Icongregated in this spot earlier. The mint of Athens has been locatedwith some certainty a little to the south.'

Porphyrios is said to have written in disparagement of Sokrates thathe wasted his time amongst the crowds 'by the tables and by the Herms'.2The Herms were in the opposite corner of the agora, the north-west,between the Stoa Basileios and the Poikile, where the street fromthe Dipylon entered the square, another convenient place for mento loiter.The spirit of Sokrates must have haunted every corner of the agora,the public buildings and stoas no less than the market. In the Apologywe find him doing his duty as a councillor in the Bouleuterion (32 a), anddefying the Thirty in the Tholos (32 c), the elegant round building inthe south-west of the agora, where they had apparently usurped theseats of the Presidents of Council. Strangely we have no glimpse of himin the Poikile, the famous Painted Stoa, though he must often have gonethere. But in the pseudo-Platonic Theages (121 a) a friend takes himaside into the stoa of Zeus, to sit and talk about the education of thefriend's son. The stoa of Zeus is the building discovered in the north-western part of the agora; it was an open colonnade, with projecting

wings, still colonnaded, at either end of the fa9ade. It was built late inthe fifth century, and in both situation and design it was excellent forthis kind of social intercourse. Traces have been found of benches,running along the foot of the walls, on which Sokrates must often havesat.3 In Xenophon4 we again see him sitting in the stoa, and in thepseudo-Platonic Eryxias (392 a) he walks in it with his friends. Againwe have as yet no philosophical school, but there is no clear line to bedrawn between these habits of Sokrates and what happened later in thePoikile when Zeno and the Stoics took possession.This same building was probably also the Stoa Basileios, or RoyalStoa, in which the Basileus conducted his business and which was ropedoff on occasion to serve as a law-court.' The closing scenes of Sokrates'life too seem to be centred in the agora. In the Euthyphron (2 a) hisfriend discovers him lingering near the stoa of the Basileus since he has

' Hesperia, xxii (1953), 37; xxiii (1954), 45 iff2 Quoted by Theodoretos, Therapeutica, xxii. 175. 17 (Raeder); for 'theHerms' see R. E. Wycherley, The Athenian Agora, vol. iii: Testimonia(Princeton,1957; quoted below as Agora, iii), pp. 1o3 ff.

3 Hesperia, vi (I937), 23.4 Oecon. vii. I.s Ps.-Demosthenes, xxv. 23; for the possible identity of the stoas see Hesperia,vi (1937), 64 ff., 225; R. Martin, Recherchessur l'Agora grecque (Paris, 195I),320; Agora, iii, p. 30.


9/13

PERIPATOS: ATHENIAN PHILOSOPHICAL SCENE-I 159to appear before that magistrate. The law-court in which he made hisApology was probably near the agora, and near the court again was theprison of Athens,' from which Kriton tried to persuade him to escape,and in which he held his last discussion; but neither of these places canat present be located on the map.Sokrates was essentially a man of the town and of the agora, and seldomset foot outside the walls. But his peripatetics in the dialogues will leadus to each of the three famous suburban gymnasia in turn, though theycan best be described later in connexion with the philosophical schoolsof the fourth century.Plato does not locate any of the dialogues in the Academy itself, oreven give one glimpse of Sokrates talking there. Perhaps Sokratesnormally preferred not to go so far afield. But the opening scene of theLysis will show that he did go there on occasion, and at the same timewill take us from the Academy, north-west of Athens, in the directionof the Lyceum, to the east of the city. Sokrates himself speaks. 'I waswalking from the Academy straight to the Lyceum, along the road out-side the wall, right beneath the wall itself [i.e. he was skirting the northernand north-eastern section of the city--the line of the wall can be moreor less traced from slight indications]; and when I was by the posterngate where the fountain of Panops is, I met Hippothales and a crowd ofother young men.' Sokrates was seldom able to go straight to his destina-tion. He always met someone who wished to talk to him and who tookhim aside. On this occasion Hippothales pointed out to him an enclosure,just opposite the wall, and an open gate in it, and explained that it wasa newly built palaestra or wrestling-ground, where they went not somuch for exercise as for discussion, in which they would like Sokrates tojoin them; a friend and admirer of Sokrates, Mikkos, a sophist, gaveinstruction there--whether by way of self-advertisement or because hehad set up a regular school one cannot say. Sokrates of course could notresist his young friends, and entered the palaestra. There he finds someof the boys busy with a sacrifice, others engaged in games of dice. Mostare playing in the courtyard, but one group is in the apodyterion, thechanging-room. Sokrates and his companions find a comparatively quietspot to sit down, and presently Lysis and others gather round to listenand be questioned. Once again we have a very typical and significantscene.The scene of the Charmides is very similar to that of the Lysis;Sokrates describes how after his return from the campaign at Poteidaiahe began to seek out his customary haunts, and went to the palaestra of

x Phaidon, 59 d.


10/13

i6o PERIPATOS: ATHENIAN PHILOSOPHICAL SCENE-ITaureas, opposite the shrine of Basile (in the south-eastern part ofAthens, near the Olympieion').

The number of such palaestras must have been steadily increasing atAthens in the late fifth century. Some were public, some were privatelyowned. The writer of the pseudo-Xenophontic Constitution of Athens(ii. io) says that the Demos built for itself many palaestras, apodyteria,and bath-houses. No Athenian palaestras have been found and investi-gated; and in fact we have no good example of an early palaestra on anysite. To help imagine what these buildings were like, one has to workback from late-fourth-century and Hellenistic specimens, as at Delphi,Epidauros, Olympia, and Priene.z The necessary rooms were arrangedin various ways around a square or oblong colonnaded court; some wereopen in front, with a row or pair of columns. Probably the palaestra ofTaureas or of the Charmides was a simple prototype of this scheme,perhaps less formal in design and less regular in shape.At the beginning of the Lysis Sokrates was on his way to the Lyceum.This was a common resort of his, as we hear from Euthyphron and fromthe beginning of the Euthydemos,where Kriton mentions that he hasseen Sokrates the day before holding a discussion in the Lyceum withtwo sophists, with a large crowd of listeners around them.We continue to follow him round the walls. The Axiochos will takeus towards Kynosarges, in the southern suburbs. This dialogue isprobably not by Plato, but may well be a product of the Academy notlong after Plato's own time, and preserve authentic details of Sokrates'activities. 'I was going out to Kynosarges,' Sokrates says, 'and whenI was by the Ilissos I heard a shrill voice crying "Sokrates" . .. and I sawKleinias son of Axiochos running towards Kallirrhoe with Damon' andothers. As usual Sokrates is diverted from the 'straight way' by hisfriends, and goes to visit Axiochos, who lives near the Itonian Gate, oneof the southern gates of Athens; to reach it he again takes the road whichruns alongside the walls.Mention of the Ilissos recalls the delightful and unusual setting of thePhaidros, in the same quarter of Athens. Phaidros has just left Lysias,who is staying at a house nearthe shrine of Olympian Zeus. They paddlein the river and recline on the grassy bank. Sokrates' delight and en-thusiasm prompt Phaidros to say that he is more like a foreign visitor ina strange scene, since he hardly ever sets foot outside the city.3 'Pardon

I See W. Judeich, Topographievon Athen2 (Munich, 1931), 388; and noteI.G. i2. 94.2 See J. Delorme, Gymnasion(Paris, 1960), especially 253 ff.3 Contrast Lucian's flight of fancy in Vera Historia, ii. 23; as a reward for his


11/13

PERIPATOS: ATHENIAN PHILOSOPHICAL SCENE-I 161me', says Sokrates; 'trees and pleasant spots.do not teach me anything;men in the city do.' No sermons in stones, books in the running brooksfor Sokrates; yet one imagines he learned something on this occasion,and perhaps gained a new insight into the circumstances in whichphilosophy can be both pleasantly and effectively pursued. We shall seelater how for some of those who followed him the garden rather than theagora was the place for philosophy.Our brief review of the scenes of the Platonic dialogues leaves a strongimpression of the ubiquity of Sokrates, and of the ubiquity of constantinformal discussion in the Athens of Sokrates; and at the same time itemphasizes a particular aspect of the dramatic art of Plato. The skillwith which Plato can set the scene of a dialogue in a few simple strokes,unerring like those of a vase-painter, is immediately obvious. Put allthese scenes together, relate them to our general picture of Athens, andthe effect is more than that of a mere accumulation; one can hardly avoidthe impression that over the whole series of the dialogues Plato has withsome care and deliberation chosen to vary his scenes, to distribute themround and about the city, so that they add up to a coherent whole,a conspectus of Sokratic Athens. We see Sokrates here, there, and every-where, in the houses of friends, in the streets, in the market-place andthe stoas and public buildings, in the palaestras and gymnasia,' at thegates and around the walls, reclining beside the Ilissos, and everywhereplanting the seeds from which the philosophical schools were to grow.Plato could hardly fail to be conscious of the difference of all this fromhis own seclusion in the Academy.The Cynics, on the other hand, adopted and even exaggerated certainhabits of Sokrates. Though Antisthenes set up school in Kynosarges,some of his followers preferred to infest the agora. Diogenes, even morethan Sokrates, was an &yopaio< d&vlp.He considered the public placesof Athens as his home, and according to his namesake the biographer(vi. 2. 22) used all places for all purposes, eating, sleeping, and talkingalike. The Athenians, he said, pointing to the stoa of Zeus in the agora,and to the Pompeion near the Dipylon, had provided him with some-where to live. According to an extant letter which is probably notgenuine he had commissioned a friend to look out for a conventionalhouse for him, but when there was some delay, observing a snail oneday, he decided to take up his residence in the proverbial tub, or ratherbravery in the, battle against the rebels in the other world Sokrates is givena large paradeisos in the suburbs, which he names Nekrakademia.' In Diogenes Laertios, iii. 5, Plato himself listens to Sokrates 'in front of thetheatre of Dionysos'.3871.2 M


12/13

162 PERIPATOS: ATHENIAN PHILOSOPHICAL SCENE-Iearthenware jar. According to this letter, and Diogenes Laertios whomentions it,' the jar stood in the Metroon, the shrine of the Mother of theGods, where the Athenians kept their public records-it was still largelyan open shrine in the fourth century, and had not yet assumed itselaborate Hellenistic architectural form. But a fragment of a satire ofVarro said that a jar, which is presumably the jar of Diogenes, stoodnear the portico, which is probably the Poikile.z Diogenes may havemoved his abode from time to time. Both sites were in conspicuousplaces in the agora, and the Pompeion was near the main gate of Athens.Diogenes' simple life was not that of the hermit in seclusion. He kepthimself well in the public eye. There was a strain of exhibitionism inthe cynical way of life, as practised by such eccentrics. Diogenes usedto go round the Kerameikos, i.e. the agora, according to Plutarch,3addressing himself to the statues and asking them for assistance; andwhen asked to explain what he was doing, he said, 'I am practising failingto get what I want'. Diogenes, like Sokrates, must have become some-thing of an institution at Athens, one of the characteristic sights of thetown, like some of the fine old crusted academic characters one sees, orused to see, in the streets of our university towns. The stories aboutthem retailed by the anecdotists seem to show that on the whole theywere accepted with tolerant good humour.

Diogenes Laertios implies in one passage (vi. 104) that it was a wide-spread Cynic practice to makeuse of any chance shelter such as Diogenes'jar. This may be an exaggeration or an unsound generalization fromDiogenes' habits. But one can well believe that there were other philoso-phers too who more or less lived in the stoas and public places of Athens.Krates, a Cynic and follower of Diogenes, who affected the same wayof life, is said to have gone even farther than he. Though personallyunattractive, penniless, and without a roof over his head-except thestoas-he excited the devoted love of an attractive and wealthy femalepupil, Hipparchia, who insisted upon marrying him against all advice,and who gave up all and followed him to the stoa, no doubt the Poikile,where they set up house together, Zeno thoughtfully hanging up a cloakas a curtain to give them a little privacy. This is Apuleius' story,4 andit is perhaps not to be taken very literally, though Musonius too saysthat since Krates had no house or furniture he and his wife spent day

I vi. 2. 23; R. Hercher, EpistolographiGraeci (Paris, 1873), xvi, p. 239.2 Fr. 165 (Bticheler-Heraeus).3 De Vit. Pud. 7.4Florida, I4; cf. D. R. Dudley, A History of Cynicism (London, 1937),

49-


13/13

PERIPATOS: ATHENIAN PHILOSOPHICAL SCENE-I 163and night in the public stoas at Athens.' At least we must believe thatthe Cynics were prepared to go to embarrassing lengths in putting theirprinciples into practice. I xiv (ed. Hense).

(To be concluded)NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS

P. D. ARNOTT: Visiting Lecturer in Classics, State University of Iowa;producer of marionetteperformancesof many classical dramas;publica-tions include An Introduction to the Greek Theatre (I959) and translationsof Aristophanes' Birds and Plautus' Menaechmi.T. F. CARNEY:Professor of Classics, University College of Rhodesia andNyasaland, Salisbury;editorof Proceedingsf theAfricanClassicalAssocia-tions and of Achilles Tatius, Leucippe and Clitophon, Book iii (1960); otherpublications include The Career of C. Marius (i961).MARGARETS. DILKE: sometime Lecturer in Geography, Goldsmith's College,University of London; joint editor, Dunbartonshire volume, Third Statis-tical Accountof Scotland.

O. A. W. DILKE: Lecturer in Humanity, University of Glasgow, and VisitingProfessor of Classics, Rhodes University, Grahamstown; editor of Horace,Epistles, Book i, and Statius, Achilleis (both 1954), and Lucan, De BelloCivili, Book vii (i960).J. B. HAINSWORTH:Lecturer in Classics, University of London, King'sCollege.R. J. HOPPER,F.S.A.: Professor of Ancient History, University of Sheffield;sometime Joint Editor of the Annual of the British School at Athens.THEODORE ORN: sometime Senior Classical Master, Stockport GrammarSchool; editor of Eighteen Roman Letters (1937) in the Oxford School LatinSeries.SIREVELYNHOWELL,K.C.I.E., C.S.I.: Indian civil servant (retired); ForeignSecretary to the Government of India, 1930-2.C. MACDONALD: Headmaster, Maidenhead Grammar School; author (withM. S. Warman and I. Sutherland) of From Pericles to Cleophon (i954) and(with J. R. Hawthorn) of RomanPolitics: 80-44 B.c. (1960).N. P. MILLER: Lecturer in Classics, Royal Holloway College, University ofLondon; editor of Tacitus, Annals, Book i (i959).R. E. WYCHERLEY: Professor of Greek, University College of North Wales,Bangor: publications include How the Greeks Built Cities (1949) and TheAthenian Agora, vol. iii (I957)-

Peripatos the Athenian Philosophical Scene 1

Documents

Transcript of Peripatos the Athenian Philosophical Scene 1