| A Commentary on Isocrates' Busiris Contributor(s): Livingstone (Author) |
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ISBN: 9004121439 ISBN-13: 9789004121430 Publisher: Brill OUR PRICE: $171.00 Product Type: Hardcover - Other Formats Published: June 2001 Annotation: This volume contains the first scholarly commentary on the puzzling work "Busiris part mythological "jeu d'esprit, part rhetorical treatise and part self-promoting polemic by the Greek educator and rhetorician Isocrates (436-338 BC). The commentary reveals Isocrates' strategies in advertising his own political rhetoric as a middle way between amoral 'sophistic' education and the abstruse studies of Plato's Academy. Introductory chapters situate "Busiris within the lively intellectual marketplace of 4th-century Athens, showing how the work parodies Plato's "Republic, and how its revisionist treatment of the monster-king Busiris reflects Athenian fascination with the 'alien wisdom' of Egypt. As a whole, the book casts new light both on Isocrates himself, revealed as an agile and witty polemicist, and on the struggle between rhetoric and philosophy from which Hellenism and modern humanities were born. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Literary Criticism | Ancient And Classical - Architecture | Interior Design - General - Literary Criticism | Medieval |
| Dewey: 885.01 |
| LCCN: 2001035010 |
| Series: Mnemosyne, Bibliotheca Classica Batava |
| Physical Information: 0.81" H x 7.34" W x 9.6" (1.21 lbs) 244 pages |
| Themes: - Chronological Period - Ancient (To 499 A.D.) |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: This volume contains the first scholarly commentary on the puzzling work Busiris - part mythological jeu d'esprit, part rhetorical treatise and part self-promoting polemic - by the Greek educator and rhetorician Isocrates (436-338 BC). The commentary reveals Isocrates' strategies in advertising his own political rhetoric as a middle way between amoral 'sophistic' education and the abstruse studies of Plato's Academy. Introductory chapters situate Busiris within the lively intellectual marketplace of 4th-century Athens, showing how the work parodies Plato's Republic, and how its revisionist treatment of the monster-king Busiris reflects Athenian fascination with the 'alien wisdom' of Egypt. As a whole, the book casts new light both on Isocrates himself, revealed as an agile and witty polemicist, and on the struggle between rhetoric and philosophy from which Hellenism and modern humanities were born. |