
A Commentary on Isocrates' Busiris
Livingstone(Author)
Brill (Publisher)
Published on 28. June 2001
Book
Hardback
244 pages
978-90-04-12143-0 (ISBN)
Description
This volume contains the first scholarly commentary on the puzzling work Busiris - part mythological jeu d'esprit, part rhetorical treatise and part self-promoting polemic - by the Greek educator and rhetorician Isocrates (436-338 BC).
The commentary reveals Isocrates' strategies in advertising his own political rhetoric as a middle way between amoral 'sophistic' education and the abstruse studies of Plato's Academy. Introductory chapters situate Busiris within the lively intellectual marketplace of 4th-century Athens, showing how the work parodies Plato's Republic, and how its revisionist treatment of the monster-king Busiris reflects Athenian fascination with the 'alien wisdom' of Egypt.
As a whole, the book casts new light both on Isocrates himself, revealed as an agile and witty polemicist, and on the struggle between rhetoric and philosophy from which Hellenism and modern humanities were born.
The commentary reveals Isocrates' strategies in advertising his own political rhetoric as a middle way between amoral 'sophistic' education and the abstruse studies of Plato's Academy. Introductory chapters situate Busiris within the lively intellectual marketplace of 4th-century Athens, showing how the work parodies Plato's Republic, and how its revisionist treatment of the monster-king Busiris reflects Athenian fascination with the 'alien wisdom' of Egypt.
As a whole, the book casts new light both on Isocrates himself, revealed as an agile and witty polemicist, and on the struggle between rhetoric and philosophy from which Hellenism and modern humanities were born.
Reviews / Votes
'L. had done an excellent job in what will be the definitive commentary on this work...'David C. Mirhady, BMCR, 2004.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Leiden
Netherlands
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Paper over boards
Dimensions
Height: 244 mm
Width: 186 mm
Thickness: 21 mm
Weight
549 gr
ISBN-13
978-90-04-12143-0 (9789004121430)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

Niall Livingstone
A Commentary on Isocrates' Busiris
Software
06/2001
Brill
Unfortunately, price unknown
Available (delivery time upon request)
Person
Niall Livingstone, D.Phil. (1995) in Classics, Oxford University, is Lecturer in Classics at the University of Birmingham. He is co-editor with Yun Lee Too of Pedagogy and Power: Rhetorics of Classical Learning (CUP, 1998).