Halcyon (dialogue)

The Halcyon or Alkyon (Greek Ἀλκυών ALKYON, in the Attic dialect Ἁλκυών Halcyon, latin (H ) alcyo ) is an ancient literary dialogue in ancient Greek, which was attributed to the philosopher Plato, but certainly not from him. The spuriousness was already recognized in ancient times. The unknown author, who allegedly Leon said, apparently lived in the Hellenistic period.

The content is a short fictional conversation between the philosopher Socrates and his pupil Chaerephon. They discuss the question of whether Metamorphoses - the traditional in many myths transformations of humans into animals - are indeed possible. This subject leads to general epistemological problem of knowledge limits, the weakness of the mind and the lack of certainty of what we think we know. Socrates explains why he assessed the accessibility of reliable knowledge skeptical.

In the early modern period, the dialogue was usually as a work of the writer Lucian of Samosata.

Content

The parties and the circumstances

The dialogue takes place during the lifetime of Socrates († 399 BC ) from, even before the seizure of power of the oligarchic Council of Thirty ( " Thirty Tyrants " ) in the year 404 BC, which forced Chaerephon to go into exile. The historical Chaerephon was a contemporary of, a pupil and friend of Socrates.

A frame story is lacking, the conversation begins abruptly. The two parties are on a walk by the sea shore at Phalerum near Athens. It's that time of the fourteen " halcyon days " in December around the winter solstice. The halcyon days were estimated in ancient Greece in this period because of the usually serene weather and the wind. They were taken to the Halcyon, the Kingfisher, named because it was assumed that the Eisvogelweibchen nests at this time and broods.

The conversation history

Chaerephon asks Socrates by the sweet sounds that can be heard from afar; he wants to know which animal produces such sounds. Socrates explains that it is the sad, plaintive voice of the kingfisher. With it, a myth is related. According to an ancient story was Halkyone ( Alcyone ), the daughter of the wind god Aeolus, with Ceyx, son of the morning star Heosphoros married. After the death of her husband she was wrong about heartbroken over the world in the vain hope of find it again somewhere. Finally, she turned the gods out of compassion into a kingfisher. In this guise she flies since the seas, where she continues the search for her beloved husband. As a reward for their extraordinary love the gods have made sure that during their breeding season the weather is nice. Chaerephon who has never heard a kingfisher, confirmed that his voice sounds like a wail. But he doubts the truth of the story, because the transformation of a woman into a bird, it is impossible before. Now he wants to know what his friend and teacher thinks.

Socrates takes the question as an opportunity to point out the limits of human cognition. After his presentation, any assertion that a hitherto observed process is possible or impossible questionable. The assumption that something can not be, lacks a foundation. Because human life is short, his mind always remains childlike. Even in the everyday processes of nature, which he perceives it is much puzzling, for example, can be apparent from eggs varied creatures. His knowledge and his ways judgment are strictly limited his understanding is related to that of the gods as a few days old child to that of an adult. Given the forces of nature, man is helpless and clueless as such a child. He is mistaken to judge if he believes what is possible and what is not. Acts that are unimaginable for some be done by others. From the extent of the capabilities of the gods mortals have no idea. That is why they should not imagine to know the limits of the possible is. The myth of the Kingfisher wants to tell his children, as he has taken him from the ancestors Socrates; whether the events described have literally played so it does not care. He comes down to the glorification of a model of conjugal love in the Eisvogelsage. Chaerephon agrees.

Author and date of origin

The Halcyon is delivered along with other ascribed wrongly Plato works, but also works together with the satirist Lucian of Samosata, who lived in the 2nd century. That neither Plato nor Lucian comes as an author to consider is undisputed in research.

The Roman Iron Age philosophy Diogenes Laertius historian cites as an author Leon, where it refers to the fifth book of the Memoirs of the writer Favorinus, who lived in the 2nd century, refers. From the work of Favorinus only fragments remain. Athenaeus claims that " the academician Leon " wrote the dialogue; he reported this information came from Nicias of Nicaea, the author of the now lost Philosophy History The succession of philosophers. Who was Leon and whether the tradition which names him as the author is credible, is unclear. It has often been assumed that it was to Leon of Byzantium, a philosopher and politician of the 4th century BC. Also another Leon of the 4th century, which was concerned with mathematics and the Platonic Academy belonged, has been considered. The assumption Leon of Byzantium was the author, has continued to advocate, but meets strong concerns as linguistic and stylistic reasons to believe that the dialogue has emerged at the earliest in the 3rd century BC. Carl Werner Müller suspected drafting in the second half of the 2nd century BC, Eckart Mensching is the plant in the middle of the 3rd century BC None of the attempts to identify the alleged author Leon and to determine the time of origin, has generally met with approval. The author of the Halcyon can mention his Socrates, that he had two wives, Xanthippe and Myrto. From the alleged bigamy of the philosopher but nothing survives in contemporary sources; There is a legend that was spread only after Plato's death. Again, this is an indication that speaks against an early dating. As a distinct epistemological skepticism is represented in the dialogue, it is likely that the author of the Platonic Academy belonged in the period known as the era of the "younger" or "skeptical " Academy ( 268/264-88/86 BC. ). Further evidence in the Halcyon offers the reasoning described above in detail of Socrates against the claim that the transformation of a human into an animal was impossible. Thus, the author of the dialogue turns probably the opposite direction to the Stoics sharp distinction between the rational and the irrational human animal. Accordingly, it is an opinion in the dispute over the reasonableness of the animals which was done in the era of Hellenism between the Academy and the Stoa.

Reception

Since the Halcyon was considered spurious in antiquity, it was not included in the tetralogy order of the works of Plato. Diogenes Laertius led to among the writings that were consistently not considered as originating from Plato.

Nevertheless, the Halcyon was distributed no later than the 2nd century under Plato's name. The attribution to Lucian did not begin until later than that of Plato, presumably in late antiquity or the Middle Ages. As the only ancient textual witness a papyrus fragment from the late 2nd century has been preserved.

In the Middle Ages the Halcyon Latin -speaking scholarly world of the West was not accessible. In the Byzantine Empire, however, she found occasional readers. The oldest surviving medieval manuscript dates from the 9th century. You are as entitled " Alkyon or via the transformation " to. In the Lukianüberlieferung the alternative title "On transformations " is.

After its rediscovery in the age of Renaissance humanism, the Halcyon was again attention. The humanist Agostino Dati prepared a Latin translation, which he finished in the period 1448-1467. Dati held that the dialogue is a genuine work of Plato, which by its proximity distinguishing the Christian faith. His translation was first printed in 1503 in Siena. The first edition of the Greek text appeared in 1496 in Florence under the first edition of Lucian's works. Also in the following Lucian spending the Halcyon was taken. In the 1513 published edition of Plato's works, however, it was missing. Also in 1578 published, relevant for the subsequent period Plato edition of Henri Estienne ( Henricus Stephanus ), the Halcyon was omitted in contrast to other pseudo- Platonic works. Christoph Martin Wieland (1733-1813), who translated the Halcyon into German, she stopped for a genuine work of Lucian.

The English writer Walter Pater was a scholar occur in his 1885 published historical novel Marius the Epicurean, who recited the Halcyon at a symposium and this raised the question of whether Lucian could be the author really.

In modern research, the small business has relatively little attention. The older opinion research, the author was Stoics, is not represented today. Alfred Edward Taylor described the dialogue as a piece of silly affectation. Luc Brisson, however, praised the very neat style of Halcyon, which is a natural and attractive font. The Lucian Editor Matthew D. MacLeod has today authoritative critical edition of the Halcyon published in 1987 as part of his complete edition of the works of Lucian, although the possibility that Lucian was indeed the author excludes. MacLeod says the author of the dialogue Plato's style had sent imitated.

Editions and translations

• Matthew D. MacLeod ( Eds.): Luciani opera, Vol 4: Libelli 69-86. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1987, ISBN 0-19-814596-9, pp. 90-95 ( critical edition )
• Christoph Martin Wieland (translator ): Lucian: Works in three volumes, 2nd edition, volume 3, Aufbau-Verlag, Berlin 1981, pp. 155-159 ( for the first time in 1789 published translation of Wieland )
• Matthew D. MacLeod ( Eds.): Lucian in eight volumes, Volume 8, Harvard University Press, Cambridge (Massachusetts ), 1979 ( reprint of the edition of 1967), ISBN 0-674-99476-0, pp. 303-317 ( Greek text and English translation)