the lost dialogue of Philosophocles

As I have in the past, over the next few weeks I plan to offer a gem from my arcana files, one section at a time. This one is a translation of an out-of-print Ancient Greek dialogue. Posting it as a serial in the Vocal Chapters community will make it more accessible to those of you who prefer to consume longer works in more digestible portions.

For today's installment I have included the translator's introduction and also provided the scholarly endnotes. I will continue to provide endnotes for future installments. I hope you enjoy this introduction to one of Ancient Greece’s lesser known but fascinating philosophers:

Translator's Introduction:

The Agnonistes is one of Philosophocles later dialogues and represents the philosophical bedrock of his maturity. His primary focus in the dialogue is to extol the virtue of labor for the common free citizens of Athens although he covers many ancillary topics as well.

The classical Greek virtues of prudence, justice, temperance and courage were typically pursued by those who had the leisure to study as well as to exercise power over the Polis - the city-state in Ancient Greece. Since wealth, power and privilege were luxuries that Philosophocles did not enjoy, it is not surprising that he made his distinctive virtue accessible to other free workers like himself.

Agonistes is a minor student of Socrates who visits the philosopher at the stone quarry where he works. Unlike Socrates, whom he often maligned as a member of the indolent wealthy, Philosophocles was a member of the Thetes class, a free citizen and wage earner, what we would call working class today. A quarryman by trade, he cut out large marble blocks by exploiting natural cleaves in the stone by hand with a chisel and hammer.

Philosophocles interrupts the dialogue at the end of each section to return to his painstaking labor of freeing a block of stone with his chisel and precisely delivered blows from his hammer.

Since this dialogue was believed lost during the long decline and eventual destruction of the Library at Alexandria, its relatively recent rediscovery at the Universita degli Studi di Milano caused a considerable stir in the departments of antiquity of many great universities.

In addition to adding the dialogue to other philosophical works from philosophy's golden age, due to Philosophocles and Agonistes lengthy discussion of Socrates early in the dialogue it has also generated scholarly enthusiasm regarding what is known as the Socrates problem.

What we think we know about the Socratic method and Socrates philosophy more generally was primarily passed down by his two greatest pupils, Plato and the military leader Zenophon. Because their existing accounts offer contradictory views of Socrates' teaching and his life, reconstruction of his philosophy is considered by many scholars to be nearly impossible.

Since Agonistes extols Socrates methods from almost the dialogue’s very beginning and Philosophocles, who clearly holds Socrates in low regard, questions Agonistes sharply, this gives us an unexpected if somewhat critical voice to what we think we know about Socrates and his methods.

At its best this dialogue will hopefully lead to greater knowledge of Socrates contributions to philosophy, and at its worst deepen the controversary. Only time will truly tell.

Those you who have not encountered Philosophocles' work in the past may be surprised at his frank, jocular and often insulting treatment of his interlocutors. He is also surprisingly cruel and earthy in his portrayal of Socrates.

Agonistes Part One (The Wise Fool)

Agonistes: Philosophocles, have you never disputed with my master, Socrates?

Philosophocles: Not that I recall.

But surely you have heard him speak.

I did hear him speak at length some years ago with Meno when the latter sought Socrates out while visiting Athens from Thessalonica and I have no desire to repeat the experience. Happily, when the wind is at Socrates back, I generally smell him well before his arrival and can beat a hasty retreat to safety. Although I am but a poor, working man, at least I bathe regularly.

But surely the wisdom gained in discussion with him merits some small sacrifice.

Even if some civic-minded souls were to thrust him into the Aegean and violently scrub his filth away I would still have no wish to either listen to or dispute with him. I can hardly bear to look at the poor fellow. His face is so ugly that I swear he must have suffered a double hoofed kick from an ass in his youth.

More to the point, I do not see how I might gain wisdom from a man who claims no knowledge of any of the virtues that the Athenian's hold so dear. What he does best in my view, is to make fools of otherwise reasonable men. I witnessed him do the same to both Meno and Anytus. I fear, Agonistes, as some in Athens do, that Socrates is more dangerous than wise. All who debate with fools will appear fools in the end.

You think my master a fool?

He himself has acknowledged it openly, many times by all accounts that I have heard. Do you doubt him?

He but humbles himself to cause those he will dispute to drop their guard. He has said many times, 'True knowledge can only be attained by first admitting our own ignorance.'

And yet, he continues to insist that he does not know. At what point does such acknowledgement lead to some small insight? A wise fool he may be, but a wise fool is still a fool. I credit him at least with this: he recognizes his lack, which is more than most Athenians.

But in recognizing his foolish nature, why has he made no effort to rectify his lack with true learning and therefore attainment of wisdom? By the gods, Agonistes, why do you follow such a man as he? Can you express some small truth or bit of logic that you have learned at his feet, or are you as great a fool as he?

If he were here now, I am confident that he could satisfy all of your questions in regard to his methods and wisdom and perhaps make you look as great a fool as you think he is.

How long have you followed your master?

Three years.

And yet you still need Socrates to speak for you? Have you learned nothing from him? I wish to hear you speak, Agonistes, not Socrates.

He has often said there are no teachers, only learners.

Have you never heard the expression, feces of the bullocks, my poor deluded boy? You claim a man as master and teacher who has emphatically told you there are no teachers. Please, be not offended my dear Agonistes, but do you not see how Socrates sows the fertile pasture of his students minds with the bullock's fecal waste instead of seed?

Socrates method is more complicated than that, Philosophocles.

That may be, my good and patient Agonistes, and I wish to continue our dialogue further, if for no other reason than to discover the secrets of wisdom which Socrates has vouchsafed you. Be not offended by my blunt manner. A poor freeman, I never studied under the tutelage of the traveling Sophists or learned the art of rhetoric that my words might sing in the ears of my listeners rather than sting. All I know is a working man's life and truth.

But I must attend further to this stone block that I may free it from the dark forces still binding it against its will to this wall. We shall speak again soon.

End Notes...

1. The Greek word for wisdom is isσοφία (Sophia) - wisdom, cleverness, learning. Tellingly, Sophia is feminine.

2. The Greek word for fool is μωρός (móros) - foolish, dull, stupid. Móros is the root of moron. Later in the dialogue Philosophocles admits to Agonistes that 'Socrates plays the fool well.’ Which is not, it must be said, quite the same as being a fool.

3. Various paraphrasing of the quote, ‘true knowledge can only be attained by first admitting our own ignorance,’ are found often in Plato's Socratic dialogues. Some scholar's believe that a quote of this nature from a fierce critic increases the likelihood that Socrates actually said words to this effect rather than Plato putting his own philosophical musings in Socrates' more famous mouth.

5. The Greek word for feces is Σκύβαλον (skubalon) - dung, rubbish, fit only to be thrown to the dogs. A few scholars have even suggested that Philosophocles was the first to invent the ancient version of the slang term bullshit. But most think that term in one form or another has likely existed since the very beginnings of human language.

...

Click below to read part 2

the lost dialogue of Philosophocles - 2