Canons of Style in the Antonine Age Idea-Theory and Its Literary Context

by Rutherford, Ian

• ISBN13: 9780198147299
• ISBN10: 0198147295
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1999-01-28
• Publisher: Clarendon Press

Summary

This is a study of the relationship between Greek prose literature of the Antonine Age in the second century AD (the Second Sophistic) and idea-theory, a type of literary stylistics best known from the Peri Ideon of Hermogenes of Tarsus. The author considers sophistic declamation, the relative value attributed to prose and poetry, attitudes towards Xenophon and Demosthenes, and the reputation of Aelius Aristides.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Literature and Rhetoric in the Second Century CE	1	(5)
I. Idea-Theory	6	(16)
1. The Major Sources	6	(4)
2. The System of Stylistic Qualities and its Background	10	(8)
3. Hermogenes on Demosthenes	18	(4)
II. Sophistic Influences	22	(15)
1. The Sophistic Style in Peri Ideon	22	(3)
2. The Contribution of Sophistic Declamation to the Theory of Ideai	25	(6)
3. Technique and its Appearance	31	(6)
III. Politikos and Panegurikos: The Reading List in Peri Ideon	37	(17)
1. Hermogenes' Survey of Literature	37	(2)
2. Earlier Reading Lists	39	(4)
3. The Origin of the Categories XXX and XXX	43	(4)
4. Demosthenes and Plato	47	(5)
5. The Function of the List	52	(2)
IV. The Position of Poetry	54	(10)
1. Poetry in Peri Ideon	55	(3)
2. Poetry and Religion	58	(3)
3. Homer and Demosthenes	61	(3)
V. Xenophon: Kanon of Apheleia	64	(16)
1. Stylistic Readings of Xenophon	64	(10)
2. Hermogenes' Appropriation of 'AXXX	74	(6)
VI. The Demosthenic Canon	80	(16)
1. The Canon Extended	80	(8)
2. Contemporary Relevance for a Demosthenic Speech?	88	(8)
VII. Aelius Aristides	96	(9)
1. Aristides and the Rhetorical Ideal	96	(5)
2. Aristides, Hermogenes, and the Canon	101	(4)
Appendices	105	(19)
A: The Relationship between Peri Ideon and Peri Heureseos	105	(10)
B: Methodos and its Background	115	(3)
C: The Relation between Peri Ideon and Peri Aphelous Logou	118	(6)
Translation of Peri Aphelous Logou	124	(30)
Bibliography	154	(10)
Index of Passages Cited	164	(3)
General Index	167