Phaedrus
Could not find Phaedre in Logeion dictionaries.
Phaedre Proper-name noun: masculine vocative singular of Phaedrus
- A pupil of Socrates, a native of Myrsinus, in Attica, after whom Plato named one of his dialogues, Cic. de Or. 1, 7, 28; id. Or. 4, 15; 12, 39; id. Fin. 2, 2, 4; id. Tusc. 1, 22, 53 al. —
- II An Epicurean philosopher of Athens, an instructor of Cicero, Cic. Fam. 13, 1, 2; id. Fin. 1, 5, 16; id. N. D. 1, 33, 93; id. Phil. 5, 5, 13.—
- III A freedman of Augustus, a Thracian by birth, and author of some well-known Latin fables.
- 1. leerling v. Socrates, naar wie een dialoog v. Plato genoemd werd; hij treedt ook in andere dialogen v. Plato op;
- 2. epicurisch filosoof uit Athene, vriend en leermeester v. Cicero;
- 3. Rom. schrijver v. fabels, afkomstig uit Macedonië, als slaaf naar Rome gekomen, door Augustus vrijgelaten.
(Φαῖδρος).
1. An Athenian, the son of Pythocles, of the deme Myrrhinus (Plat. Phaedr. p. 244). He was a friend of Plato (D. L. 3.29), by whom he is introduced in the Phaedrus and the Convivium.It appears from these that he was a great admirer of Lysias and the other rhetoricians of his age. (Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. ii. p. 717.)
2. An Epicurean philosopher, a contemporary of Cicero, who became acquainted with him in his youth at Rome (Cic. Fam. 13.1, 2).
During his residence in Athens (B. C. 80) Cicero renewed his acquaintance with hint. Phaedrus was at that time an old man, and was the president of the Epicurean school (Cic. Phil. 5.5.13, de Nat. Deor. 1.33.93, de Fin. 1.5.16). He was also on terms of friendship with Velleius, whom Cicero introduces as the defender of the Epicurean tenets in the De Nat. Deor. (1.21.58; comp. Madvig. aid Cic. de Fin. p. 35), and especially with Atticus (Cic. de Fin. 1.5.16, 5.1.3, &c.). He occupied the position of head of the Epicurean school till B. C. 70 (Phot. Bibl. 97, p. 84, ed. Bekker), and was succeeded by Patron [Patron]. Cicero especially praises his agreeable manners. He had a son named Lysiadas. Works
Cicero (Cic. Att. 13.39) mentions, according to the common reading, two treatises by Phaedrus, Φαίδρου περισσῶν et Ἑλλάδος. The first title is corrected on MS. authority to Περὶ δεῶν. Some critics (as Petersen) suppose that only one treatise is spoken of, Περὶ θεῶν καὶ Παλλάδος. Others (among whom is Orelli, (Onom. Tull. s.v. Phaedrus) adopt the reading et Ἑλλάδος, or at least suppose that two treatises are spoken of.
Cicero was largely indebted to this work of Phaedrus for the materials of the first book of the De Natura Deorum. Not only is the development of the Epicurean doctrine (100.16, &c.) taken from it, but the erudite account of the doctrines of earlier philosophers put in the mouth of Velleius, is a mere translation from Phaedrus. Editions
An interesting fragment of the former work was discovered at Herculaneum in 1806, and was first published, though not recognised as the work of Phaedrus, in a work entitled Herculanensia, or Archaeological and Philological Dissertations; containing a Manuscript found among the ruins of Herculaneum, London, 1810. A better edition was published by Petersen (Phaedri Epicurei, vulgo Anonymi Herculanensis, de Nat Deor. Fragm. Hamb. 1833). Further Information
Fabric. Bibl. Graec. iii. p. 608; Krische, Forschungen anf dem Gebiete der allen Phil. vol. i. p. 27, &c.; Preller, in Ersch and Gruber's Encyklopäie.) [C.P.M]
Ninety-seven fables in Latin iambic verse (ed. Orelli), distributed in five books, are attributed to Phaedrus. The first writer who mentions Phaedrus is Avienus, unless one of Martial's epigrams (3.20) alludes to him, and there is no sufficient reason for doubting that the author of the fables is meant. The little that is known of Phaedrus is collected or inferred from the fables. he was originally a slave, and was brought from Thrace or Macedonia to Rome, where he learned the Latin language. As the title of his work is Phaedri Aug. Liberti Fabulae Aesopiae, we must conclude that he had belonged to Augustus, who manumitted him. Under Tiberius he appears to have undergone some persecution from Sejanus, but the allusion to Sejanus in the prologue to Eutychus (Lib. iii.) is very obscure, and has been variously understood. It may be inferred from this prologue that the third book of the fables was not published until after the death of Sejanus. A passage in the tenth fable of the third book shows that this fable was written after the death of Augustus.
The prologue to the first book states that the fables are Aesop's matter turned into iambic verse : -- Aesopus auctor quam materiam repperit, Hanc ego polivi versibus senariis.
This prologue also adds that the object was to amuse and to instruct. The prologue to the second book intimates a somewhat freer handling of the old fabulist's material. In the prologue to the third book he still refers to Aesop as his model :-- Librum exarabo tertium Aesopi stilo.
There is no prologue to the fourth book; and in the prologue to the fifth book he intimates that he had often used the name of Aesop only to recommend his verses. Accordingly, many of the fables of Phaedrus are not Aesopian, as the matter clearly shows, for they refer to historical events of a much later period (5.1, 8, 3.10). Many of the fables, however, are transfusions of the Aesopian fables, or those which pass as such, into Latin verse. The expression is generally clear and concise, and the language, with some few exceptions, as pure and correct as we should expect from a Roman writer of the Augustan age. But Phaedrus has not escaped censure, when he has deviated from his Greek model, and much of the censure is just. The best fables are those in which he has kept the closest to his original. MSS
The MSS. of Phaedrus are rare, which circumstance, combined with a passage of Seneca (Consol. (ad Plb. 27), "that fable-writing had not been attempted by the Romans," and an expression of N. Perotti, has led some critics to doubt their genuineness, and even to ascribe them to Perotti; an opinion, however, which Perrotti's own attempts at verse-making completely disprove. Epitome Fabularum
Another collection of thirty-two fables, attributed to Aesop, has been published from a MS. of the same N. Perotti, who was archbishop of Manfredonia in the middle part of the fifteenth century. Editions
This collection is entitled Epitome Fabularum, and was first published at Naples, in 1809, by Cassitti. Opinions are much divided as to the genuinenes of this collection. The probability is, that the Epitome is founded on genuine Roman fables, which, in the process of transcription during many centuries, have undergone considerable changes. Editions
The first edition of the five books of fables of Phaedrus was by P. Pithou, 1596, 12mo., which was from a MS. that is supposed to belong to the tenth century. The last and only critical edition of the fables is by J. C. Orelli, Zürich, 1831, 8vo., which contains the Aratea of Caesar Germanicus. Orelli has not always displayed judgment in his choice of the readings. The last edition of the thirty-two new fables is entitled Phaedri Fabulae Nocae XXXII. codice Vaticano redintegratque ab Angelo Milaio. Supplementum Editionis Orellianae. Accedunt Publii Syri Codd. Basil. et Turic. antiquissimi cum Sententiis circiter XXX. nunc primum editis, Zürich, 1832. [G.L]
(Φαῖδρος). (1) An Epicurean philosopher, who was head of the Epicurean School at Athens while Cicero was a student there (B.C. 80). He died in the year 70, and was succeeded by Patron. He wrote a treatise on the gods (Περὶ Θεῶν), a fragment of which was found at Herculaneum in 1806. (Edition by Petersen [Hamburg, 1883].) From it Cicero largely drew his materials for the first book of the De Natura Deorum. See Schwenke in Jahn's Neue Jahrbücher, 119, 49; 129.
(2) A Roman writer of poetical fables. By birth a Macedonian of the district of Pieria, he came early to Rome as a slave, and acquired a knowledge of Roman literature while still a boy. If the traditional title of his five books of fables after Aesop is to be trusted (Phaedri, Augusti liberti, fabulae Aesopiae), he was set free by Augustus. To Phaedrus belongs the credit of introducing fable-writing into Latin poetical literature—a fact of which he was fully conscious, but which secured him neither relief from his miserable position, nor recognition on the part of the educated public; his patrons seem to have been only freedmen like himself. In fact, he even drew upon himself, by his two first published books, the ill-will and persecution of the all-powerful favourite of Tiberius, Seianus, who suspected in them malicious reference to contemporary events. In consequence, he did not publish the remaining books till after the fall of Seianus in A.D. 31 and the death of Tiberius in 37.
The five books are preserved, though not in a complete form. Whether the further collection of thirty-two fables, transcribed from a MS. in the fifteenth century by Archbishop Nicolo Perotti (Fabulae Perottianae) —and published at Naples in 1809—are a genuine work of Phaedrus, is doubtful. The matter of the fables is only to a small extent borrowed from Aesop. Some include stories from history, partly referring to the present or immediate past. In relation to the Greek originals, the material is not always skilfully used, especially in the “morals.” The drawing of the characters is at first very cramped, but is afterwards more broadly treated; the language fluent and, in general, correct; the metre, too (iambic senarius), used with strictness, though wanting the purity which, in this kind of verse, became general from the time of Catullus. About the tenth century an author, calling himself Romulus, drew up a prose version of Phaedrus, which served as a model for the mediaeval collections of fables.
The editio princeps of Phaedrus is that by Pithoeus (Autun, 1596). Other editions are those of Burmann (Amsterdam, 1698; re-edited with a commentary, Leyden, 1727); Bentley, with Terence (London, 1726); Schwabe, with commentary, 2 vols. (last ed. Brunswick, 1806); Orelli (Zürich, 1831); Dressler (Leipzig, 1850); Eyssenhardt (Berlin, 1867); Ramorius (Turin, 1884); L. Müller, with lexicon by Schaubach (Leipzig, 1888); Riese (Leipzig, 1885). Larger critical ed. by L. Müller (Leipzig, 1877). School edition, with English notes and vocabulary, by Schmitz; selections by Walford (London, 1873). See Hervieux, Les Fabulistes Latins, 2 vols. (Paris, 1884).