Article ID: CBB001221686

Presocratic Discourse in Poetry and Prose: The Case of Empedocles and Anaxagoras (2012)

unapi

Althoff, Jochen (Author)


Studies in History and Philosophy of Science
Volume: 43
Pages: 293--299


Publication Date: 2012
Edition Details: Part of a special issue, “Structures and Strategies in Ancient Greek and Roman Technical Writing”
Language: English

This paper explores the differences between poetry and prose in philosophical writing by examining two Pre-Socratic fragments, one in verse and one in prose, that express a very similar thought: Empedocles 59 B 17 Diels/Kranz and Anaxagoras 31 B 8 D./K. Although at first it might seem as though there is a simple division between Empedocles' opaque and allusive hexameters and Anaxagoras' sober prose, when we look in detail at the language used by the two authors, a close reading of the passages reveals a more complex picture. Both authors place rhetorical emphasis on their own role as innovator; Anaxagoras' prose shows a careful attention to style and word choice no less than Empedocles' poetry, and Empedocles' poetry itself reflects the range of stylistic registers and types of material that hexameter could be used for in antiquity. There is no simple antithesis between prose style and hexametric poetry, and the words and stylistic devices an author chooses are constitutive of the thought he expresses.

...More
Included in

Article Doody, Aude; Föllinger, Sabine; Taub, Liba (2012) Structures and Strategies in Ancient Greek and Roman Technical Writing: An Introduction. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science (p. 233). unapi

Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB001221686/

Similar Citations

Article Eric Lewis; (2000)
Anaxagoras and the Seeds of a Physical Theory (/isis/citation/CBB888264495/)

Chapter Giannakis, Elias; (2008)
Anaxagoras in the Baghdad Physics (/isis/citation/CBB001022533/)

Book Anaxagoras, ; Curd, Patricia; (2007)
Anaxagoras of Clazomenae: Fragments and Testimonia (/isis/citation/CBB000830486/)

Book Sedley, David N.; (2007)
Creationism and Its Critics in Antiquity (/isis/citation/CBB000830460/)

Article Paczkowski, Przemsław; (2003)
Ancient Tradition Concerning the Pre-Socratic Philosophy (/isis/citation/CBB000670904/)

Article Sisko, John E.; (2005)
Anaxagoras and Recursive Refinement (/isis/citation/CBB000670353/)

Article Sisko, John E.; (2003)
Anaxagoras' Parmenidean Cosmology: Worlds within Worlds within the One (/isis/citation/CBB000530278/)

Article Graham, Daniel W.; (2004)
Was Anaxagoras a Reductionist? (/isis/citation/CBB000670360/)

Book Chelsea C. Harry; Justin Habash; (2021)
Brill's Companion to the Reception of Presocratic Natural Philosophy in Later Classical Thought (/isis/citation/CBB718672647/)

Thesis Chang, Lian; (2010)
Articulation and the Origins of Proportion in Archaic and Classical Greece (/isis/citation/CBB001567176/)

Book Empedocles, ; (2000)
Poem of Empedocles: A text and translation with introduction (/isis/citation/CBB000101803/)

Book Morel, Pierre-Marie; Pradeau, Jean-François; (2001)
Les anciens savants: études sur les philosophies préplatoniciennes (/isis/citation/CBB000102662/)

Book Burns, Tony; (2011)
Aristotle and Natural Law (/isis/citation/CBB001033685/)

Book Curd, Patricia; Graham, Daniel W.; (2008)
The Oxford Handbook of Presocratic Philosophy (/isis/citation/CBB000952101/)

Article Matthews, Gareth B.; (2005)
Anaxagoras Re-Defended (/isis/citation/CBB000670354/)

Article Trépanier, Simon; (2014)
From Wandering Limbs to Limbless Gods: δαιμων as Substance in Empedocles (/isis/citation/CBB001214194/)

Article Zaborowski, Robert; (2003)
Sur le fragment DK 22 B 85 d'Héraclite d'Ephèse (/isis/citation/CBB000670903/)

Authors & Contributors
Zaborowski, Robert
Sisko, John E.
Graham, Daniel W.
Curd, Patricia
Chelsea Harry
Habash, Justin
Concepts
Philosophy
Pre-Socratic philosophers
Natural philosophy
Metaphysics
Matter theory
Cosmology
Time Periods
Ancient
Medieval
20th century
10th century
Places
Greece
Comments

Be the first to comment!

{{ comment.created_by.username }} on {{ comment.created_on | date:'medium' }}

Log in or register to comment