Ekphrasis in the Second Sophistic

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Ekphrasis in the Second Sophistic
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• Philostratus, Lives of the Sophists (1.481 on
  name)
•  
• Ancient sophisticdiscoursed 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.

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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.

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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

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Some Second Sophistic writers

• Lucian
• Pausanias, Guide to Greece
• Philostratus
• Lives of the Sophists
• Life of Apollonius of Tyana
• Imagines
• Gymnasticus
• Heroicus
• Writers of Novels eg Achilles Tatius

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Ekphrasis in Rhetorical Handbooks

• Theon, Progymnasmata 118-119
• Ecphrasis is a descriptive account which brings
  what is illustrated vividly (enargos) before
  ones sightthe virtues of ecphrasis are in
  particular clarity and vividness, such that one
  can almost see what is narrated

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• Topics for ecphrasis persons, circumstances,
  places, periods
• Theon customs
• Hermogenes crises
• Aphthonius animals and plants
• Nicolaos statues and paintings

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Key Themes

• Enargeia (vividness)
• Mimesis
• Deceptions of Art
• Connoisseurship
• Allegory and need for interpretation
• Rivalry of Words and Images

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Mimesis and Enargeia
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• 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.

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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
  ?

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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.

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Allegory

• Phil, Im 1.6.3 It is a beautiful enigma. Come,
  let us see if I can guess the painters meaning
  love and friendship
• Tabula of Cebes
• Lucian, On slander
• Pausanias, 5.17.5f Chest of Cypselus

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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.

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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.