Antiphon (original) (raw)
Name: Antiphon
Occupation: Orator, politician, teacher of rhetoric, speech-writer, seer, interpreter of dreams, would-be squarer of the circle, and possibly tragedian.
From: Rhamnous, Athens
Son of: Sophilos
Occupation: School-Teacher
Dates: c. 479-411 BC
Brief biography: A contemporary of Sokrates who, like him, met his death by means of judicial execution. It has been debated since antiquity whether the Antiphon who attempted to square the circle is the same man or a different man from other contemporary Athenian homonyms; it was a common name (79 occurances in the Lexicon of Greek Personal Names). J S Morrison (PCPS (1961) 49-58) believes that Antiphon the Sophist and the orator Antiphon of Rhamnous (and indeed Antiphon the seer and dream-interpreter) are one and the same, and that this same man wrote On Truth (wherein the squaring of the circle appeared, as discussed by Aristotle Physics 1.2). The biographical details above assume this identification. This leaves as approximately contemporary homonyms the son of Pyrilampes (who was Plato's half-brother; same mother, whoever she was), and the son of Lysonidas. In Athens at about the same time is/are (a) Antiphon the eponymous archon of 418, (b) Antiphon put to death by the 30 tyrants in 403, and (c) Antiphon the tragic poet. (a) could be any of the three Antiphons with patronyms, and/or could be the same as (c). (b) cannot be son of Sophilos, who died in 411.
Our Antiphon was the first to write and publish forensic speeches. He is said to have taught Thucydides (inferred in antiquity and today from Thuc. 8.68) and Sokrates (Plato Menexenos 236a). He was elected strategos (so was militarily able), selected for the trierarchy (so was wealthy) and served as ambassador. For his role in the oligarchic coup of 411 he was prosecuted and executed, his body thrown over the border and his house razed to the ground. His defence speech survives in fragments (B1 in the Loeb).
Works
References: G B Kerford DSB 1.170-2; J S Morrison 'Antiphon' in R K Sprague (ed) The Older Sophists 1972 pp. 106-240.
Home
T E Rihll
Last modified: 19 March 2004
