Dialogues · Chapter
On the Decline of Greek Literature explained
This chapter examines the decline of Greek literature, attributing it to the rise of rhetoric and sophistry, the loss of creative genius, and the proliferation of pedantic scholarship.
What happens
This chapter examines the decline of Greek literature, attributing it to the rise of rhetoric and sophistry, the loss of creative genius, and the proliferation of pedantic scholarship. Plato's critique of rhetoricians in the 'Phaedrus' is used as a starting point to explore how formalism and lack of truth led to a thousand-year literary stagnation, broken only by a few later writers. The chapter also considers whether education and broader cultural exchange might avert a similar decline in modern times.
Themes in this chapter
Knowledge and Ignorance
The chapter contrasts the genuine knowledge sought by philosophers like Plato with the ignorance and pretension of rhetoricians and later scholastics.
Education and Virtue
The decline of literature is linked to failures in education, and the chapter proposes that broader and deeper education might revive literary culture.
Law, Custom, and Legislation
The chapter touches on how political freedom and national character influence literary excellence, and how their absence contributed to decline.
Characters to notice
- Socrates
Plato's Socrates is used to critique rhetoricians and sophists, contrasting them with ancient poets like Homer and Hesiod.
- Plato
Plato's works, especially the 'Phaedrus', are central to the chapter's critique of rhetoric and the decline of literature.
- Homer
Mentioned as an example of ancient genius contrasted with later rhetoricians and sophists.
- Hesiod
Listed alongside Homer as a representative of the great ancient poets.
- Aristophanes
Referenced for his vision of the decline of Greek drama after the three great tragedians.
Key passages
“The thing which is most necessary of all, the knowledge of human nature, is hardly if at all considered by them.”
The rhetoricians neglect the most essential element of their art: understanding human nature.
Highlights Plato's critique of rhetoric's superficiality.
“The spirit of rhetoric was soon to overspread all Hellas; and Plato with prophetic insight may have seen, from afar, the great literary waste or dead level, or interminable marsh, in which Greek literature was soon to disappear.”
Plato foresaw that the dominance of rhetoric would lead to a long period of literary mediocrity in Greece.
Connects Plato's critique to the historical decline of Greek literature.
“The commentator or interpreter had no conception of his author as a whole, and very little of the context of any passage which he was explaining.”
Later scholars failed to understand the works they commented on, focusing on trivial details instead of the bigger picture.
Criticizes the pedantic scholarship that contributed to the decline.