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Headword: Ἀποπυργίζοντας λόγους
Adler number: alpha,3493
Translated headword: Apopurgizontes Logoi
Vetting Status: low
Translation:
[The works] which Diagoras the Atheist wrote, containing the recantation and dissolution of his belief in the divine.
Greek Original:
Ἀποπυργίζοντας λόγους: οὓς ἔγραψε Διαγόρας ὁ Ἄθεος, ἀναχώρησιν αὐτοῦ καὶ ἔκπτωσιν ἔχοντας τῆς περὶ τὸ θεῖον δόξης.
Notes:
The headword phrase, in the accusative case, is extracted from either delta 523 or pi 3200
For the lyric poet Diagoras of Melos (active late C5 BC) see those two entries; also delta 524, and generally OCD(3) p.461.
Keywords: biography; definition; dialects, grammar, and etymology; philosophy; poetry; religion
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Headword: Διαγόρας
Adler number: delta,523
Translated headword: Diagoras
Vetting Status: low
Translation:
[Diagoras], son of Telekleides or Teleklytos; a Melian, a philosopher and a lyric poet; whom Democritus from Abdera,[1] seeing that he was naturally talented, bought -- since he was a slave -- for ten thousand drachmas and made a pupil. And he also applied himself to the lyric art, being in time after Pindar and Bacchylides, but older than Melanippides:[2] he flourished in the 78th Olympiad.[3] And he was called Atheos since he held such an opinion, after the time when someone of the same art, being accused by him of stealing a paean which he himself had made, swore he did not steal this, and performing it a short while later, met with success. Thereupon Diagoras, being upset, wrote the so-called Apopyrgizontes Logoi, which includes his withdrawal and falling away from his belief concerning the divine.[4] But Diagoras, settling in Corinth, lived out his life there.
Greek Original:
Διαγόρας, Τηλεκλείδου, ἢ Τηλεκλύτου, Μήλιος, φιλόσοφος καὶ ᾀσμάτων ποιητής: ὃν εὐφυᾶ θεασάμενος Δημόκριτος ὁ Ἀβδηρίτης ὠνήσατο αὐτὸν δοῦλον ὄντα μυρίων δραχμῶν καὶ μαθητὴν ἐποιήσατο. ὁ δὲ καὶ τῇ λυρικῇ ἐπέθετο, τοῖς χρόνοις ὢν μετὰ Πίνδαρον καὶ Βακχυλίδην, Μελανιππίδου δὲ πρεσβύτερος: ἤκμαζε τοίνυν οη# Ὀλυμπιάδι. καὶ ἐπεκλήθη Ἄθεος διότι τοῦτο ἐδόξαζεν, ἀφ' οὗ τις ὁμότεχνος αἰτιαθεὶς ὑπ' αὐτοῦ ὡς δὴ παιᾶνα ἀφελόμενος, ὃν αὐτὸς ἐπεποιήκει, ἐξωμόσατο μὴ κεκλοφέναι τοῦτον, μικρὸν δὲ ὕστερον ἐπιδειξάμενος αὐτὸν εὐημέρησεν. ἐντεῦθεν οὖν ὁ Διαγόρας λυπηθεὶς ἔγραψε τοὺς καλουμένους Ἀποπυργίζοντας λόγους, ἀναχώρησιν αὐτοῦ καὶ ἔκπτωσιν ἔχοντας τῆς περὶ τὸ θεῖον δόξης. κατοικήσας δὲ Κόρινθον ὁ Διαγόρας αὐτόθι τὸν βίον κατέστρεψεν.
Notes:
See also delta 524, and generally OCD(3) p.461.
[1] Delta 448.
[2] Pindar pi 1617, Bacchylides beta 59, Melanippides mu 455.
[3] 468-465 BC.
[4] For this work cf. alpha 3493, pi 3200. For the (controversial) view that it has survived -- on the so-called Derveni Papyrus -- see Richard Janko, 'The Derveni Papyrus (Diagoras of Melos, Apopyrgizontes Logoi?)', Classical Philology 96 (2001) 1-32.
Keywords: biography; chronology; poetry; religion
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Headword: Διαγόρας ὁ Μήλιος
Adler number: delta,524
Translated headword: Diagoras the Melian
Vetting Status: low
Translation:
[A phrase used] in reference to atheists and unbelievers and impious people. For after the capture of Melos[1] this man was living in Athens, and he disparaged the mysteries[2] in such a way as to turn many people away from initiation. So the Athenians made the following proclamation against him, and inscribed it on a bronze monument: anyone who killed him would receive a talent, and anyone who brought him [alive] would receive two. This proclamation was made because of his impiety, when he described the mysteries to everyone, making them common knowledge, trivialising them, and turning away those people who wanted to be initiated. So Aristophanes says in Birds: 'On this day in particular the proclamation is made: if one of you kills Diagoras the Melian, he will receive a talent, and if anyone kills one of the tyrants (who are already dead), he will receive a talent.' 'Already dead': that is, those who are fleeing under penalty of death. He has said with exaggeration, 'to kill the dead'.[3]
Greek Original:
Διαγόρας ὁ Μήλιος: ἐπὶ τῶν ἀθέων καὶ ἀπίστων καὶ ἀσεβῶν. οὗτος γὰρ μετὰ τὴν ἅλωσιν Μήλου ᾤκει ἐν Ἀθήναις: τὰ δὲ μυστήρια οὕτως ηὐτέλιζεν ὡς πολλοὺς ἐκτρέπειν τῆς τελετῆς. τοῦτο οὖν ἐκήρυξαν κατ' αὐτοῦ Ἀθηναῖοι καὶ ἐν χαλκῇ στήλῃ ἔγραψαν, τῷ μὲν ἀποκτείναντι τάλαντον λαμβάνειν, τῷ δὲ ἄγοντι δύο. ἐκηρύχθη δὲ τοῦτο διὰ τὸ ἀσεβὲς αὐτοῦ, ἐπεὶ τὰ μυστήρια πᾶσι διηγεῖτο, κοινοποιῶν αὐτὰ καὶ μικρὰ ποιῶν καὶ τοὺς βουλομένους μυεῖσθαι ἀποτρέπων. φησὶν οὖν Ἀριστοφάνης ἐν Ὄρνισι: τῇδε μέντοι θἠμέρᾳ μάλιστ' ἐπαναγορεύεται: ἢν ἀποκτείνῃ τις ὑμῶν Διαγόραν τὸν Μήλιον, λαμβάνειν τάλαντον: ἤν τε τῶν τυράννων τις τῶν τεθνηκότων ἀποκτείνῃ, τάλαντον λαμβάνειν. τεθνηκότι, τουτέστι τῶν ἐπὶ θανάτῳ φευγόντων. ἐν ὑπερβολῇ δὲ εἴρηται, τοὺς τεθνηκότας ἀποκτείνειν.
Notes:
For Diagoras see already delta 523. The present entry stems from Aristophanes, Birds 1072-1075 (web address 1; reading τίς τινα in 1074), with comments from the scholia there.
[1] By Athenian forces, in 416/15 BCE. For Melos see generally mu 935.
[2] sc. of Eleusis. See generally mu 1485.
[3] The scholiast does his best here, but misses the central point that the allusion is to the Peisistratid tyrants of the previous century (pi 1474).
Associated internet address:
Web address 1
Keywords: biography; comedy; history; law; military affairs; religion
http://www.stoa.org/sol-bin/search.pl