RESOLUCIÓN N.º 261/AGC/

Because of its engagement with the political and social climate of Athens in the late fifth century, one might think that Old Comedy is the ultimate source to determine whether there is any specific denotation or connotation attached to the label

sophistēs. Unfortunately, this is not the case either. Evidence is scanty and, where it

exists, no regular features can be established. _{Surprisingly enough, there are only} three instances of the word in the Aristophanic corpus. Perhaps not too surprisingly, all of them are found in Clouds. Possibly influenced by our own expectations, we would hope to see in this context that sophistēs designates exclusively the expert teacher of rhetoric. Once again, this is not the case. While it is true that within the value-system invoked by Aristophanes, where new opposes old and tradition opposes innovation, we see that sophos and sophia are more commonly associated with the new-trend of rhetoric (cf. 1.6), sophistēs itself carries no specific attributions. The sophistai are grouped together with a rather random and large group of people. Socrates introduces the divine Clouds to Strepsiades:

Because you aren’t aware that these goddesses sustain and nourish a whole host of sophistai, diviners from Thurii, professors of the medical art, long- haired do-nothings with onyx signet-rings; and composers of convoluted songs for dithyrambic choruses, men of airy quackery, they maintain in idleness doing nothing, because they poeticise about the Clouds (332-5).379

The only common feature of this rather random group of idlers—among which are the sophists—is the fascination of theorising about the divine Clouds. Although there is an obvious element of comic exaggeration, sophistai includes those intellectuals who, like Socrates, are keen on speculative thinking (cf. 1.6). Later on, the Worse argument guarantees to Strepsiades that Pheidippides will become a ‘skilled sophist’ (sophistēn dexion; 1111) under his instruction, and then Strepsiades, after defeating the creditors, is called a sophistēs by the Chorus (1309). In both cases knowledge of rhetoric may be implied. This should not be too surprising considering that, at that time, rhetoricians are a salient group among the reputed experts, but this only proves that the category sophistēs is inclusive of rhetoricians rather than exclusive to rhetoricians. Following Dover, ‘σοφιστής in Ar.s’ time could still be used as a

synonym of σεσοφισμένος, “skilled in an art”. The practitioner of an art is normally also a teacher of apprentices, and in E. Hp. 921 that implication of σοφιστής is necessary. Our passage may be the earliest example of the sense “teacher of the undesirable or superfluous accomplishments”’ (1968, p. 144). Thus the negative overtones that the title sophistēs carries in this context can be explained as part of a larger phenomenon, namely the comic purpose of deriding the class of intellectuals, among which are found philosophers such as Socrates, and poets such as Euripides (cf. 1.5, 1.6). This sort of permeability between the titles sophos, sophistēs and

philosophos finds the clearest example in the Hippocratic corpus. The author of On Ancient Medicine (20. 1-4) describes natural philosophers as sophistai, and

immediately after relates them to the kind of inquiry characteristic of philosophia. As Festugière (1948) observes, in this passage the term ‘sophist’ does not designate the exclusive group of intellectuals that were later classified as ‘sophists’, but it captures the original sense of ‘expert’ in reference to the phusikoi, those who apply philosophical theories to medicine. 380

Perhaps the only case that shows a more distinct use of the label sophistēs in association with the art of rhetoric is in Thucydides (Book 3. 38. 7), the only attested instance of the word in the author. In the assembly to decide the fate of the people of Mytilene after their revolt against Athens, Cleon advocates for severe punishment. In doing this, Cleon attacks his opponents by claiming that only a skilled speaker can elaborate an argument in defence of Mytileneans. He attributes this argumentative ability to Athenians’ love for words and speeches on one hand, and their inability to decide and take action, on the other. ‘In short, you are overcome by the pleasure of listening, and you sit here looking more like spectators of the sophistai [σοφιστῶν θεαταῖς] than decision-makers for the city [περὶ πόλεως βουλευομένοις].’381

It is difficult to draw a general conclusion from the examples presented above. Concerning the question of who the sophistēs is, we can point specifically to titan Prometheus, the cunning thinker, or Thamyris, the daring poet, always bearing in mind that the label includes teachers and sages such as Solon and Pythagoras, and

380 _{‘Le mot est employé au sens ancien d’ “homme habile, expert”. […] il désigne ici des philosophes}

naturalistes, des φυσικοί, qui appliquent à la médecine des theories philosophiques étrangères à la pure expérience’ (1948, p. 55).

even more generally, any one who shows expertise in some craft, such as the warrior Tydeus. We cannot establish that the sophistai designate a distinct class. At least as observed in Aristophanes, the sophistai are lumped together with all kinds of experts, including philosophers. The example in Thucydides suggests a more clear association between sophists and rhetoric, although there still exists a problem of demarcation between philosophers and sophists, as seen in Hippocrates. Importantly, the negative tinges associated with the name sophistēs may as well be attributed to

sophos when describing the intellectual, the expert or the clever (cf. 1.3, 1.4, 1.5) and

condeming their arrogance.