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PYRRHA AND PRIENE: A NOTE ON PLUTARCH'S CONVIVIUM SEPTEM SAPIENTIUM 146E–F

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 April 2014

Katarzyna Jazdzewska
Katarzyna Jazdzewska*
Affiliation:
Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski University in Warsaw
*
kjazdzewska@gmail.com
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Extract

In Plutarch's Convivium septem sapientium (CSS) a narration of the banquet proper is preceded by an account of the walk to the banquet of three of the participants: Thales, Diocles and Niloxenus, a messenger of the Egyptian pharaoh Amasis. Upon learning that Niloxenus brings a letter from Amasis to Bias, Thales says with laughter: εἴ τι κακὸν αὖθις εἰς Πριήνην· διαλύσει γὰρ Βίας, ὡς διέλυσεν αὐτὸς τὸ πρῶτον (CSS 146E–F: ‘if it is something bad – to Priene again! For Bias will solve it, just as he solved the first one’). Scholars have noticed that Thales’ words echo a Greek proverb, transmitted in Zenobius’ collection: εἴ τι κακὸν εἰς Πύρραν, ‘if it is something bad – to Pyrrha’. However, the purpose of Plutarch's reference to this particular proverb has thus far remained unclear. The aim of this contribution is to shed light on Thales’ words by examining the meaning of the Pyrrha proverb and suggesting an interpretation which explains the function of Plutarch's allusion to it.

Type
Shorter Notes
Information
The Classical Quarterly , Volume 64 , Issue 1 , May 2014 , pp. 426 - 428
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 2014 

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References

1 Zen. IV 2 in: Gaisford, T., Paroemiographi graeci (Oxford, 1836)Google Scholar, 303.

2 Defradas, J., Plutarque. Le Banquet des Sept Sages (Paris, 1954)Google Scholar, 90 n. 10.

3 Lo Cascio, F., Plutarco. Il convito dei sette sapienti (Naples, 1997)Google Scholar, 195 n. 20.

4 As observed by Huxley, G.L., ‘Stories explaining origins of Greek proverbs’, Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 81C (1981), 331–43Google Scholar, at 342.

5 Ibid.

6 Opera omnia Desiderii Erasmi Roterodami 2.5 (Amsterdam and Oxford 1981), 105–6.Google Scholar

7 As Halliwell, S., Greek Laughter: A Study of Cultural Psychology from Homer to Early Christianity (Cambridge, 2008)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, 22 observes, Greek laughter ‘is often superficially disrespectful, agonistic or aggressive. Much joking depends upon the appearance or pretence of insult …’.

8 Irwin, W., ‘What is an allusion?’, Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 59.3 (2001), 287–97CrossRefGoogle Scholar, at 292.