Ekphrasis in the Second Sophistic
• Philostratus, Lives of the Sophists (1.481 on name)
• ‘Ancient sophistic…discoursed on courage , on justice,
on the heroes and gods and how the universe has been
fashioned into its present shape. But the sophistic that
followed it, which we must not call ‘new’ for it is old,
but rather ‘second’, sketched the types of the poor man
and the rich, of princes and tyrants, and handled
arguments that are concerned with definite and special
themes for which history showed the way.’
What is a sophist?
• Bowersock 1969: 13, ‘a virtuoso rhetor with a
big public reputation’.
• Teacher of rhetoric
• Public orator, esp of epideictic rhetoric on
themes taken from the past
• Often also wealthy, important citizens in home
or adopted cities.
Some famous sophists
• VS 1.8 Favorinus of Gaul
• VS 1.25: Polemon of Smyrna (born at Laodicea
in Caria)
• VS 2.1 Herodes Atticus (of Athens)
• VS 2.23 Damianus of Ephesus
Some Second Sophistic writers
• Lucian
• Pausanias, Guide to Greece
• Philostratus –
I. Lives of the Sophists
II. Life of Apollonius of Tyana
III. Imagines
IV. Gymnasticus
V. Heroicus
• Writers of Novels – eg Achilles Tatius
Ekphrasis in Rhetorical Handbooks
• Theon, Progymnasmata 118-119
‘Ecphrasis is a descriptive account which brings
what is illustrated vividly (enargos) before
one’s sight…the virtues of ecphrasis are in
particular clarity and vividness, such that one
can almost see what is narrated’
Topics for ecphrasis: persons, circumstances,
places, periods
Theon: customs
Hermogenes: crises
Aphthonius: animals and plants
Nicolaos: statues and paintings
Key Themes
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•
•
•
•
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Enargeia (vividness)
Mimesis
Deceptions of Art
Connoisseurship
Allegory and need for interpretation
Rivalry of Words and Images
Mimesis and Enargeia
• Pliny, NH 35.65
Zeuxis and Parrhasius entered into competition.
Zeuxis exhibited a painting of some grapes so
true to nature that birds flew up to the wall of
the stage. Parrhasius exhibited a linen curtain
which was painted with such realism that
Zeuxis demanded that his rival remove the
curtain and show the picture. When he
realised his error he yielded the victory,
admitting that whereas he had deceived the
birds, Parrhasius had deceived Zeuxis himself,
a painter.
Philostratus, Imagines
Proem ‘Whoever scorns painting is unjust to truth’
Comus 1.2.4: ‘I praise the dewy look of the roses,
and assert that they are painted fragrance and
all’
Cupids 1.6.1 ‘Do
you catch any of the fragrance
hovering over the garden or are your senses
dull ?’
Im 1.28
• Do not rush past us, you hunters, not urge on your
steeds till we can track down your purposes and the
game you are hunting....How I have been deceived! I
was deluded by the paintings into thinking that the
figures were not painted but real beings, moving and
loving – at any rate I shout at them as though they
could hear and I imagine that I hear some response,
and you did not utter a single word to turn me from
my mistake, being as overcome as I was and unable
to free yourself from the deception and stupefaction
in it. So let us look at the details of the painting, so it
really is a painting before which we stand.
Allegory
• Phil, Im 1.6.3 ‘It is a beautiful enigma. Come,
let us see if I can guess the painter’s meaning’
– love and friendship
• Tabula of Cebes
• Lucian, On slander
• Pausanias, 5.17.5f Chest of Cypselus
Rivalry Words and Images
• Lucian, On the Hall 1:
• Can it be that on seeing a hall beyond
compare ...a man would not long to compose
speeches in it...
• The same law does not hold for the ordinary
and educated man....the educated man,,will
do all he can to linger there and make some
return for the sight in spectacle.
Bibliography
Second Sophistic Literature:
S. Goldhill ed., Being Greek under Rome, 2001.
T. Whitmarsh, Greek Literature and the Roman
Empire, 2001
S. Bartsch. Decoding the Ancient Novel, 1989.
ch. 1.