Perceptions of the Second Sophistic and Its Times - Regards sur la Seconde Sophistique et son époque

By Thomas Schmidt & Pascale Fleury
Categories: Literature & Language Studies, Literary Criticism
Series: Phoenix Supplementary Volumes
Publisher: University of Toronto Press, Scholarly Publishing Division
Hardcover : 9781442642164, 304 pages, April 2011
Paperback : 9781487525972, 304 pages, April 2011

Table of contents

Introduction by Thomas Schmidt (Université de Fribourg) and Pascale Fleury (Université Laval)

PART I : Essence et presence de la Seconde Sophistique

  1. Narrative of Cultural Geography in Philostratus’ Lives of the Sophists by Adam Kemezis (University of Alberta)
  2. The Second Sophistic and Non-Elite Speakers by Ian Henderson (McGill University)
  3. L’Héraclès d’Hérode: héroïsme et philosophie dans la sophistique de Philostrate by Dominque Côté (University of Ottawa)

PART II: L’orateur et son image

  1. L’orateur oracle: une image sophistique by Pascale Fleury
  2. Portrait d’un rhéteur: Aelius Aristide comme inité mystique et athlete dans les Discours sacrés by Janet Downie (Princeton University)
  3. Une écriture du visuel au temps de la Seconde Sophistique: Clément d’Alexandrie (Protreptique) et Philostrate
    (Images) by Anne Pasquier (Université Laval)

PART III: Passé et identité grecque

  1. Sophistes, barbares et identité grecques: le cas de dion Chrysostome by Thomas Schmidt
  2. Reflets de l’hellénisme chez Athénée à travers l’emploi des termes […] by Marie-Hélène Mainguy (Université Laval)
  3. Pausanias le Périégète et la Seconde Sophistique by Janick Auberger (Université du Québec à Montréal)

PART IV: Texte, tradition et performance

  1. Dance and Discourse in Plutarch’s Table Talks 9.15 by Karin Schlapbach (University of Ottawa)
  2. Galen on […] by Sean Alexander Gurd (Concordia University)

PART V: Héritage et influence de la Seconde Sophistique

  1. Were the Speeches of Aelius Aristides “rediscovered” in the 350s p.C.? by John Vanderspoel (University of Calgary)
  2. Libanius’ Monody for Daphne (Or. 60) and the Eleusinios Logos of Aelius Aristides by Diane Johnson (University of
    Western Washington)
  3. Thémistios et la Seconde Sophistique: le thème du tyran by Christian R. Raschle (Université de Montréal)

Description

The Second Sophistic (50 to 250 BCE) was an intellectual movement throughout the ancient Greek and Roman world. Although it can be characterized as a literary and cultural phenomenon of which rhetoric is an essential component, other themes and values such as peideia, mimesis, the glorification of the past, the importance of Athens, and Greek identity pervade the literature and art of this era.

From a workshop held at Université Laval, Perceptions of the Second Sophistic and its Times brings together fourteen essays and a range of perspectives, including work from scholars in literature, philology, linguistics, history, political science, sociology, and religion. The essays explore the Second Sophistic and describe how the intellectual elites of this period perceived and defined themselves, how they were judged by later authors, and how we understand them today.