Hello Christopher,

Thank you. -- So there was a "publication" outside the
Academy, and Plato's dialogues were even sold. Good.
How shall we deal with "lies," i.e., pseudos? -- False,
wrong, not-corresponding-to-actual-events,... or lies?

Reading --> performing? I suppose it depends on whether
the reader imitated the different voices indicated in
the text.

And that brings us back to the oral vs. written issue
of "stylometrics." Or, in a different way, are
'style-features' found in the written text sensed by us
as peculiar as written, but natural as representing
spoken language? -- I recall Phaedo reporting in that
work about someone who spoke in his local dialect
(therefore imitated in the written text) at a certain
point, so he spoke Athenian dialect and then, for
special emphasis of mood or meaning, slipped into his
local dialect.

You are undoubtedly more expert at Greek than I: how
would you suggest beginning to play with the style oral
vs written issue, or the
style-out-of-control-of-the-author issue?

Or perhaps I should just keep my nose out of these
discussions?

Best regards,

George




_____

Von: plato@yahoogroups.com
[mailto:plato@yahoogroups.com] Im Auftrag von Planeaux,
Christopher S
Gesendet: Samstag, 27. Juni 2009 04:57
An: plato@yahoogroups.com
Betreff: [plato] Dialogues Query





George Gregory writes [in part]:

>> .....................How do you know that Plato's
>> works were performed outside the Academy for a wider
>> public? (One example would not be sufficient, I
would
>> think.) Is there any external evidence of this sort?
>> May be, but I can't imagine how you could provide
such
>> documentation and I can't imagine what sort of
evidence
>> it might be based on.

Themistios writes of a Korinthian farmer who, upon
reading
the *Gorgias*, abandoned his fields to become a
follower
of Platon as well as of a Axiothea who, upon reading
the *Republic*, came from Arkadia to become a follower
of Platon (Or. Xxii 295c-d; cf. D.L. iii 46, iv 2).

Cicero records that Hermodoros carried Platon's
writings
to Sicily whereas the Suda adds that he made money by
selling them (Att. Xiii 21; s.v. LO/GOISIN).

Now, as to whether or not reading = performing I leave
as another discussion altogether (we do have,
nonetheless
those two anecdotes of Platon reading the *Lysis* to
Sokrates, who retorted about all the lies Platon told
as well as the one where Platon read the *Phaedo* and
only
Aristoteles remained until the bitter end).

csp






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