The historical reader of Plato's Protagoras

Classical Quarterly

Volumn 48, Issue 1, 1998, Pages 126-133

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EID: 0007036986     PISSN: 00098388     EISSN: 14716844     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1093/cq/48.1.126     Document Type: Article

References (9)

1. In a recent article on the origins of the Diskin Clay discusses the influence of Attic comedy and tragedy on the form of Plato's dramatic dialogues ('The Origins of the Socratic Dialogue', The Socralic Movement, ed. Paul A. Vander Waerdt [Cornell, 1994], pp. 23-47). But Clay equivocates about the validity of the ancient tradition that claims the mimes of Sophron provided a model for the Platonic dialogues. That Sophron's mimes are in significant respects similar to Plato's dialogues is not in doubt, but that Sophron's mimes provided a model upon which Plato developed the philosophical dialogue seems to me highly suspect. External and internal evidence for Plato's acquaintance with Sophron is collected and evaluated by J. M. S. MacDonald, Character-Portraiture in Epicharmus, Sophron, and Plato (University of the South, 1931), pp. 129f
2. Only two sources survive before the first century A.D.: one, Duris of Samos (c. 240-70 B.C.), who is cited by Athenaeus (11.504b), the other, Timon of Phlius (C. 320-230 B.C.) is cited by John Tzetzes of the twelfth century A.D. (Chiliades, 10.806-10). The citation from Duris does not mention that Plato modelled the dialogues on the Sophronic mimes, only that Plato read them fondly. The citation from Timon specifically does say that Plato developed the dialogues on the model of the mimes, but Tzetzes' as well as Timon's reliability are suspect (MacDonald discusses the problems of Timon, p. 131)
3. The internal evidence for Plato's acquaintance with the Sophronic mimes is extremely slight (MacDonald, pp. 134-41). Plato never mentions Sophron. In fact the only plausible allusion to Sophron is that of Rep. 451c, where Socrates says: 'Perhaps it might be well, after the completion of the men-drama, to go through the women-drama'. In antiquity, the mimes of Sophron were categorized according to men- and women-dramas, according to the gender of the characters - so, Diogenes Laertius and Choricius of Gaza, and cf. MacDonald's remark: 'Interestingly, a intended to be attached to a book-roll, bearing the title "Solon's Women-Mimes" and dating from the late first century or early second century A.D. has been found' (Grenfell and Hunt, Oxyrhynchus Papyri, vol. 2 [1899], p. 303, no. ccci; cited by MacDonald, p. 80)
4. At the Olympic games in 564 Callias' great-great-grandfather was victorious in the horse-race (Hdt. 6.122.1; Σ. At. Aves 283). He is also known to have purchased the confiscated property of Peisistratus (Hdt. 6.121.2). Both events suggest pentakosiomedimnal status for the family at this early period. Callias' grandfather is the first member of the family for whom we have definite evidence of political prominence. He held the official religious office of torch-bearer for the Eleusinian mysteries (cf. J. K. Davies, Athenian Propertied Families [Oxford, 1975], p. 254)
5. Maidment translates 'books' with the note, 'Lit. "his table," with a play on meaning "bank." The pun cannot be rendered exactly in English' (Minor Attic Orators [Harvard, 1982], vol. I, p. 437)
6. See also C. A. Cox, CQ 46 (1996), 572-5
7. 2 325-34, but since then other fragments have been found. All have been re-edited by W. Kendrick Prichett, The Attic Stelai i (in Hesperia 22, 1953) 255-99'
8. (Macdowell, Andokides on the Mysteries [Oxford, 1960], p. 71). These stelae confirm that the mentioned in Andoc. 1.15 is in fact the Phaedrus who appears in the Protagoras and Phaedrus
9. Ibid