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Polypragmosyne: a Study in Greek Politics*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2013

Victor Ehrenberg
Victor Ehrenberg
Affiliation:
Bedford College, University of London
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Extract

Πολυπραγμοσύνη and its opposite ἀπραγμοσύνη are typical abstract nouns of the fifth century, indicating human qualities, comparable to words like δικαιοσύνη and σωφροσύνη. There is, however, one thing peculiar to our two words: they are opposite extremes, but there is nothing between them. There is no πραγμοσύνη. Simple action (πρᾶξις), we may assume, does not easily reveal a man's character. It is only when he acts ‘much’ or ‘not at all,’ that a conclusion can be drawn as to his own nature. The psychological aspect is paramount, more than in words like δικαιοσύνη or σωφροσύνη which also represent an idea. As so frequently happens in psychology, it is the contrast which illuminates either particular quality. We can perhaps go one step further and assume that conceptions like these are more likely than not to spring from a rational and conscious awareness of real phenomena, while for instance δικαιοσύνη, although it is the abstract noun belonging to δίκαιος, at the same time originates from the desire to give a name to the abstract idea which dominates the world of δίκη). There is no ‘idea,’ there are only psychological facts, in ‘busybodiness.’

This ugly and unwieldy English word makes it plain that—at least in English—the concrete rather than the abstract noun belongs to ordinary speech, the man rather than the quality. The ‘busybody’ is indeed a type which, though little loved, is deeply rooted in the English mind, and this is undoubtedly the legitimate translation of πολυπράγμων

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Hellenic Studies , Volume 67 , November 1947 , pp. 46 - 67
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 1947

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References

1 Tyndale used the word busybody in his translation of the Bible (1526), but the word he translates is the unique άλλοτ ριοεπίσκοπος (1 Pet. 4, 15).

2 This is typical of the Greek way of thought. Cf. Adcock, F. E., Proceedings of the Class. Ass. XLV (1948), 7Google Scholar: ‘It looks as if the Greeks saw that men were clever rather than what cleverness was.’

3 Some valuable work on the meaning of πολυπραγμοσύνη and especially its opposite, ἀπραγμοσύνη, has been done by Nestle, W. (Philologus LXXXl, 1926, 129 ff.Google Scholar), and by H.T. Wade-Gery in a short paragraph on ἡσυχία and ἀπραγμοσύνη (JHS LII, 1932, 224 f.)Google Scholar. My own note in the first edition of The People of Aristophanes (274, 9) has been merged in this paper.

3a Cf. Neil, R. A. in his edition of the Knights, p. 208 fGoogle Scholar. It will be seen from several passages mentioned later that Neil was hardly right in claiming hesychia almost exclusively as a Dorian ideal.

4 The line of the Margites: (3 Kinkel, p. 68 = Homeri Opera, ed. Allen, T. W., vol. 5, p. 157)Google Scholar, of which B. Snell reminded me inaugurates a kind of parallel movement, introducing the πολυμαθής rather than the πολυπράγμων.

5 Gomme, A. W., Historical Commentary on Thucydides I, p. 232Google Scholar.

6 Cf. Finley, J., Thucydides, 121 fGoogle Scholar.

7 A similar use of ἀπραγμόνως occurs, e.g., in Euripides, fr. 787.

8 It is interesting to compare this speech with that of the Corcyraeans in which they expound the advantages for Athens of the alliance which they are trying to achieve (1, 33, 2 f.).

9 We shall see that for most (though not all) later writers, ἀπράγμων was a word of praise. The quotations from Pericles' other speech show that this cannot have been his view. I fail to understand why Gomme, loc. cit., 167 f. calls ἀπράγμων ‘always a complimentary term.’ It is derogatory in 2, 40, 2, though of course less so than ἀχρεῖος Cf. Nestle, loc. cit., 130: ‘das Verhaltnis der beiden Adjektiva ist nicht das eines Gegensatzes, sondern das einer Steigerung.’

10 For this earlier period of Athenian imperialism cf. Meiggs, R., JHS LXIII (1943), 21 ffCrossRefGoogle Scholar.

11 Cf. Finley, op. cit., 192, Westlake, H. D., CQ. XXXIX (1945), 75 ffCrossRefGoogle Scholar.

12 Brasidas' speech is probably coloured by Thucydides' experience of Spartan rule after 403, but that does not alter its significance for our problem.

13 Méautis in his fine Inaugural Speech, Thucydide et l'impérialisme athénien (Neuchâtel 1939)Google Scholar, bases his striking denunciation of power politics too narrowly on the conception of πλεονεξία.

14 Cf. Gomme, op. cit., I 245.

15 Πλεονεξία, whether as private greed and avarice or as a State's aggrandisement at other people's costs, is a conception which is very common, e.g., in the Orators, Sometimes it results from πολυπραγμοσύνη, more frequently it does not. It is even possible to speak of Sparta's ἀργία καὶ πλεονεξία (Isocr. 11, 20).

16 Cf. West, A. B., Cl. Phil. XIX (1924), 137 ffGoogle Scholar.

17 Cf. for this, and in general, de Romilly, J., Thucydide et l'impérialisme athénien (1947)Google Scholar, also my review JHS LXVI (1946), 136 f.Google Scholar

18 Cf. Heinimann, F., Nomos und Physis (1945), 135 ff., 167, 7Google Scholar; also des Places, E., L'Antiquite Class. XVI (1947), 335Google Scholar. Greene, W. C., Moira, 240Google Scholar, regards Antiphon (B 44 Diels) as a critic rather than a follower of the utilitarian theory of νόμος.

19 de Romilly, 181. In later writers Pericles therefore appears as the statesman who checked and repressed πολυπραγμοσύνη (e.g., Plut., Per. 21, 1)Google Scholar.

20 Thuc. I, 84, 3. 8, 24, 4. 48, 6. 53, 3. 64, 5. In 3, 62, 3, the Thebans contrast it with the radicalism of a small ruling clique (δυναστεία ὀλίγων ἀνδρῶν.

21 The best collection of the fragments of the Antiope is in von Arnim, H., Supplementum Euripideum (1913), 11 f.Google Scholar, but I have added the numbers of Nauck's, FTG.2(N.). Plato quotes from that discussion in Gorg. 484 ff.

22 B 17 f. = fr. 193 N. I read with Nauck:

,

.

The codd. have παρόν instead of χρεών and v. Arnim keeps it. But it seems out of place, and the repetition of the word actually weakens the case instead of strengthening it. Cf. also Her. Fur. 266.

23 Cf. Snell, B., Philol. LXXXXVII (1948), 127, 2Google Scholar.

24 This was in 431 B.C., perhaps only a short time after the trial of Anaxagoras. The allusion would be natural and no doubt readily understood.

25 We can also mention in this context Pentheus' un-reasonable restlessness which is contrasted by the Bacchic chorus with their own ἡσυχία (although the latter is only one side of the Dionysiac life). The word πολυπράγμων is not used here, but it is probably right to see Pentheus as such a type (Bacch. 386 ff.). As so often Dionysus is worshipped also as a god of peace, whatever kind of peace that may be (416 ff.). Cf. Winnington-Ingram, R. P., Euripides and Dionysus, passim, esp. 62, 66 fGoogle Scholar.

25a There is no evidence in the fragments of the early comedians, although Cratinus has been probably rightly described as an opponent of Pericles' ‘ochlocratic imperialism’; cf. below, note 35, and in general Pieters, J. Th. M. F., Cratinus (1946)Google Scholar.

26 This statement probably also covers the rather obscure use of the word in Ach. 833.

27 Cf. Voegelin, W., Die Diabole bei Lysias (Basle 1943)Google Scholar. It may be added that, e.g., Isocrates (18, 53) once speaks of a party in a legal contest as ‘keeping quiet’ in order that their opponents would not be induced to change τὸ πρᾶγμα and invent other arguments for the defence.

28 He is perhaps one of the ‘useless’ rich contrasted by Euripides (Suppl. 238 ff.) with the poor and the city-saving middle class. Cf. also Neil on Knights 261.

29 Peace and Hesychia belong to the enchanting attendance of Aphrodite; Peace 456, Birds 1320 f., Lysistr. 1289 f., cf. also Ach. 989 ff.

30 Page, D. L., Greek Lit. Papyri I, p. 206 f.Google Scholar, no. 40, I verso, 21 ff.

31 That is to say, if the date of 412 for the Demoi is accepted. J. de Romilly, op. cit., 174, takes c. 415 as the true date. She maintains that Nicias plays an important part in that comedy; but the only allusion to him is fr. 91, and its attribution to the Demoi is not even certain. There seems no evidence for his being an essential factor in the plot, or for his appearance ‘early in the play as a ghost’ (Edmonds, J. M., Mnemosyne VIII, 1939, 18Google Scholar).

32 The phrase ἀπράγμων καὶ πένης was perhaps not un-common. It appears again in Dem. 21, 83 (see below p. 59), and it may have been a sort of counterphrase to the ‘idle rich’ (Knights 261 ff., Ps. Dem. 58, 65).

33 Anab. 5, 1, 15. Hell. 1, 6, 3. Cyrop. 8, 6, 3. Rep. Lac. 13, 5. Similar ἀπράγμων: Mem. 2, 1, 33. Apol. 7, Ages. 4, 1. The weakening of the original meaning is most obvious in the use of the adverb ἀπραγμόνως = ‘simply, without trouble’ (Hell. 6, 4, 27. Rep. Lac. 2, 6).

34 Such will frequently be the ideal of a frustrated man of action. ‘I am prepared,’ says Joseph Conrad (quoted by Liddell, R., A Treatise on the Novel, 63Google Scholar), ‘to put up serenely with the insignificance which attaches to persons who are not meddlesome in some way or other. But resignation is not indifference.’

35 The two words appear as synonyms also in Aristotle', Topica 2, 111a, 9Google Scholar, and φιλοπραγματία is used as early as Cratinus (fr. 27 Dem.).

36 According to Ps. Aristotle, , Rhet. ad Alex. 1437 a, 35Google Scholar, a man who makes a constant practice of speaking meets with prejudice because he is regarded as a πολυπράγμων.

37 This is not the place to discuss the authenticity of this speech. According to Croiset's analysis (Coll. Budé, vol. 2) most sections, though not the composition of the whole, are to be regarded as authentic. Of the passage here concerned (§§ 70–4) Croiset is convinced that it is Demosthenes at his best. I am sure he is essentially right.

38 Cf. Didymus, , Comm. ad Demosth. 9, 52–10, 11Google Scholar.

39 In my opinion Wade-Gery (see note 3) is convincing in contesting Nestle's view that the ἀπράγμονες in Thucydides and other sources referring to the time round 430 B.C. were Socrates and his pupils.

40 Charm. 161 D; Gorg. 526 C; Rep. 433 A, D. It is the same, though on a more trivial level, when Parmenides begins his discussion by asking the youngest member of the company to answer him (Parm. 137 B): ‘for he is least likely to πολυπραγμονεῖν, and most likely to say what he really thinks.’ That means that he will probably not digress and thus, in a sense, will τὰ ἑαυτοῦ πράττειν. Cf. similar use in Theaet. 184 E.

41 Festugière, A. J., Contemplation el vie contemplative selon Platon, 31Google Scholar, calls Heraclitus and Parmenides ‘deux chorèges présocratiques à l'édifice de la contemplation.’

42 Cf. Jaeger, W., Über Ursprung u. Kreislauf des philosoph. Lebensideals (Sitzungsber. Preuss. Akad. 1929)Google Scholar, and the book by Festugière.

43 He coins a new synonym to πολυπραγμοσύνη by which the intrusion into other folk's business is particularly stressed: ἀλλοτριοπραγμοσύνη. Cf. Polyb. 5, 41, 8.

44 Cf. Jaeger, loc. cit., 398 ff.

45 One of the words ascribed to Chilon as one of the Seven Sages is: (Stob., florileg. 3, 79Google Scholar). Cf. also, e.g., Xen., Mem. 1, 3, 1Google Scholar. Isocr. 5, 98. Dem. 10, 72. 26, 15. 32, 28.

46 This is, for instance, true of Polybius who uses the verb (and sometimes the abstract noun) for any kind of intensified activity (e.g., 2, 13, 3. 43, 9. 45, 6. 18, 54, 2; also περιεργάЗεσθαι), but more frequently he has the word in the new meaning of investigating ( = ἱστορία), reconnoitring, or even instructing (e.g., 3, 38, 2. 58, 5. 80, 2. 5, 75, 6. 9, 19, 5. 12, 27a, 13. 27, 1–4, 6, etc.).

47 About the various versions of the story, cf. Wilcken, U., Sitzungsber. Preuss. Akad. 1923, 151 ffGoogle Scholar.

48 Revue des études anciennes XLIV (1942), 300 ffGoogle Scholar.

49 Méautis mentions in this context another article of his which I regret to say I have been unable to see (Mélanges Ravarino, 212).

50 In Beiträge zur geistigen Überlieferung (Godesberg 1947), 184 ffGoogle Scholar.

51 Most recently Alexander and the Greeks (1938), 52 ff.Google Scholar; cf. Festschrift für M. Winternitz (1933), 295 ffGoogle Scholar. The Ephemerides contained (Ps. Aristeas § 298). It is therefore probable that they frequently quoted the phrase, especially if they had such a personal character as assumed by Altheim, F., Weltgeschichte Asiens im griech. Zeitalter I (1947), 115fGoogle Scholar.

52 Lately by Instinsky. Tarn, W. W., Alexander the Great II 353, 2Google Scholar, while accepting the conclusion that the phrase does not indicate any particular source, expresses no opinion on its origin.

53 Cf. Ehrenberg, loc. cit., 57, and, somewhat differently, Instinsky, 194 ff.

54 Quoted from my book, p. 59.

55 Méautis translates ἀπεόντων with ‘l'inconnu,’ which is not quite correct.

56 I see that Prof. Adcock calls this ἔρως a strong word, ‘so much stronger than the πόθος which seized Alexander the Great at each adventurous moment' (loc. cit., 13). It will be seen that I cannot entirely agree with this statement.

57 It seems significant (in spite of Thuc. 1, 70, 3) that Aristophanes in the Birds of 414 B.C. uses the word for the name of the good-natured typical Athenian rather than of the great planner of Cloudcuckoobury.

58 The argumentum ex silentio is here especially ambiguos and dangerous; πόθος is a fairly frequent word in poetry, but by no means common in prose, and very rare indeed, for instance, in Herodotus or the Orators.

59 That seems to me also the silent presupposition underlying Professor Ferguson's, W. S. book Creek Imperialism (1913)Google Scholar, though the remarks following in the text do not apply to it. This book covers the imperialism of the Polis as well as that of Alexander and his successors. I take the opportunity to pay homage to a great book which for many years in the past I was unable to obtain, and which therefore I did not mention when I ought to have done so. There is much in its fundamental outlook with which I disagree; but when I read it for the first time about three decades after it had been published I was impressed by the amount of intuitive anticipation of conclusions and views expressed by scholars in the years between the wars.

60 Her. 1, 24, 1. 116, 4. 3, 134, 5. 4, 79, 1. 7, 100, 1.

61 Cf. my remarks in Festschrift für M. Winternitz, 296, 3Google Scholar.

62 I shall try to confirm, to expound, and in a few points to correct my earlier attempts (see note 51).

63 . Similar Xen., Anab. 3, 1, 3Google Scholar.

64 . Cf. Norwood, G., Pindar 40 ffGoogle Scholar.

65 Cratyl. 420 A.—Longing for absent person, e.g., Aesch. Ag. 414. Soph., Tr. 103 ffGoogle Scholar., 631, 755. O.T. 969. Eur., Med. 623Google Scholar. Ion 572. Iph. Aul. 431. Aristoph., Peace 584, 638Google Scholar, Frogs 53 ff. Plato, , Laws 6, 776 AGoogle Scholar. Xen., Anab. 3, 1,3Google Scholar.—Longing for the dead: Aesch., Pers. 62, 132, 136Google Scholar. Her. 3, 67, 3. Eur., Tro. 595Google Scholar, Phoen. 330. Xen., Apol. 7Google Scholar. Dem. 60, 16.

66 Eur., Hel. 1306Google Scholar. Carcinus fr. 5, 4 (Nauck p. 799).

67 Soph., El. 544 fGoogle Scholar. Eur., Suppl. 1088Google Scholar; fr. 316.

68 See note 65.

69 Pindar fr. 123. Soph., Tr. 368, 431Google Scholar. Eur., Alc. 1087Google Scholar. Med. 623, Heraclid. 299, Tro. 891, Bac. 456, Iph. Aul. 1304, 1411 (cf. 555). Aristoph., Lys. 888Google Scholar, Thesm. 481, Eccl. 954 ff. Plato, , Phaedr. 253 EGoogle Scholar, Rep. 573 A, Phil. 48 A, Symp. 197 D, Laws 633 D, 870 A. To these passages belongs Frogs 53 ff., mentioned above.

70 ὀμμάτειος πόθος, Soph. fr. 733. Cf. Aesch., Prom. 654Google Scholar. Eur., Hipp. 525 fGoogle Scholar. Plat., Phaedr. 253 EGoogle Scholar. Xen., Symp. 4, 22Google Scholar.

71 Aesch., Suppl. 1039Google Scholar (cf. Anthol. Pal. X 21Google Scholar). Aristoph., Peace 456Google Scholar, Birds 1320 (cf. Peace 638). Plat., Symp. 197 DGoogle Scholar. Cf. also Xen., Mem. 2, 3, 4Google Scholar. Pothos also appears in Dionysiac scenes on vase-paintings; cf. Dodds, E. R., Euripides' Bacchae, on 1. 414Google Scholar. This Pothos belongs to Hesychia (cf. note 29) and therefore, as it were, to the camp opposed to πολυπραγμοσύνη.

72 Xen., mem. 1, 4, 7Google Scholar. Soph. O.T. 518, El. 822. Eur., Andr. 824Google Scholar, Her., Fur. 316, Or. 189Google Scholar.

73 Examples mentioned: Aristotle fr. 675. Eur., Bac. 708Google Scholar, Hipp. 234. Aristoph., Ach. 362Google Scholar. Eur., Phoen. 194Google Scholar. Thuc. 6, 24, 3. Other examples: Soph. O.C. 1697. Eur., Tro. 116, 650Google Scholar, Hel. 763, Phoen. 384, Plat., Phaedr. 250 CGoogle Scholar, Phil. 36 A, 48 A. Xen., Hiero 1, 25Google Scholar. In some of these passages little more is expressed than an ordinary wish; that is particularly the meaning which Sophocles gives the word in his last plays: Phil. 601, 646, O.C. 419, 1106, 1678.

74 Rhet. ad Alex. 1436 a, 7.

74a I should, however, have mentioned that both πολυπραγμοσύνη and πόθος could be connected with the idea of πόνοι. As to πολυπραγμοσύνη, cf. above pp. 47, 53 f., 56. As far as Alexander is concerned, it is tempting to let the conceptions of πόθος and of πόνοι derive from his mythical models Achilles and Heracles respectively. Cf. my Alexander and the Greeks 104 ff., and more specifically Kleiner, G., Alexanders Reichsmünzen (Abh. Deutsche Akad. Berlin, 1949), 15 fGoogle Scholar.

75 Cf. Altheim, , Weltgesch. Asiens, I 206Google Scholar: ‘Entdecken und Erobern, Planung und Tat, Traum und Berechnung, Weitblick und Irrtum sind die gleiche einzigartige Verbindung eingegangen, die das Wesen Alexanders auch sonst kennzeichnet,’ and Tarn, , Alexander the Great, I 124Google Scholar: ‘To be mystical and intensely practical, to dream greatly and to do greatly, is not given to many men; it is this combination which gives Alexander his place apart in history.’