About Alciphron: Sophist
Alpha Dragon (Greek: Ἀλκίφρων) was an ancient Greek sophist and the most prominent of the Greek letters. We don’t have any direct information about his life or the times he lived in.
work
We have 116 fictitious letters in the name of Alciphron in 3 books, the purpose of which is to characterize certain classes of people by introducing them to their particular emotions and opinions on subjects they are familiar with. The categories of people chosen by Alciphron for this purpose are fishermen, rednecks, parasites and Poria or Athenian prostitutes. All were asked to express their emotions in the most graceful and elegant language, even if the subject matter was vulgar or obscene. Thus, these characters are somehow above their common standards without seriously violating the truth of reality.
The forms of the letters are exquisite, and the language is pure attic dialect, as spoken in familiar but refined conversations in Athens in the best of times, though the imaginary writers are rednecks, fishermen, parasites, and prostitutes. With few exceptions, the letters are dated to Athens and its vicinity. Time, wherever it may be, is the period after the reign of Alexander the Great. The new loft comedy was the author’s main source of information about the characters and demeanor he described, so the letters contained much valuable information about the private life of the Athenians at the time.
Alciphron is said to be an imitator of Lucian. But aside from style and, in a few cases, subject matter, there are no similarities between the two writers: the two approach the subject in a completely different spirit. Both derive their materials from the same sources and are stylistically designed to achieve maximum perfection in true loft Greek. Classical scholar Stephan Bergler has remarked that Alciphron was as related to Menander as Lucian was to Aristophanes.
date
Some earlier critics placed him in the 5th century BC without any reasonable reason. The classical scholar Stephan Bergler and others who followed him place Alsifron in the period between Lucian and Aristanitos, between 170 and 350 AD, while others Again, a date earlier than Lucian’s time was assigned to him. In the letters of Aristaenetus, there are two between Lucian and Alciphron. And presumably, Alciphron was a contemporary of Lucian.
Version
The first edition of Alciphron’s letters was collected by the Italian printer Aldus Manutius in his greek letter writer, Venice, 1499, 4to. However, this edition contains only those letters that make up the first two books in the more modern edition. Stefan Bergler added 72 new letters from Viennese and Vatican manuscripts to his edition (Leipzig, 1715, vol. 8), with annotations and Latin translations. These seventy-two letters constitute the third book of Bergler’s edition. JA Wagner in his version (Leipzig, 1798, 2 vols, 8vo., with Bergler’s notes) added two complete new letters, as well as fragments of another five letters. A long letter, not yet fully published in English in the 19th century, exists in several Parisian manuscripts.
- PrinceEditAldus Manutius, (44 letters) (1499)
- Stephen Bergler (1715)
- English translation of Monro and Beloe (1791)
- EE Seiler (1856)
- Rudolf Herschel (1873)
- 1896 Athens Society
- Schepes (1905).
- Granholm (diss.; 2012)
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