(pp. 301-304) i. bywater - bernays' lucian and the cynics

8/9/2019 (Pp. 301-304) I. Bywater - Bernays' Lucian and the Cynics

1/5

Bernays' Lucian and the CynicsAuthor(s): I. BywaterSource: The Journal of Hellenic Studies, Vol. 1 (1880), pp. 301-304Published by: The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies

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2/5

BERNAYS

LUCIAN

AND

THE

CYNICS.

301

BERNAYS

LUClAN

AND)

THE

CYNICS.

PROFESSORBERNAYS

is among the few who possess the art

of

writing

what

can

be

read

by

men

of

culture as

well

as

by

professional

scholars and

historians;

a

monograph

from

his

pen

is

sure

to

be at

once

a

real

contribution

to

knowledge,

full of

striking

and

original

suggestions,

and

a

work

of

literature,

written

with the

attention

to form

and

finish which

we admire

in

some of

the classic

productions

of a

former

age.

The

present

work

on

Lucian and the

Cynics

is

in

every

respect

a

worthy

companion to the Theophrastus on Piety published in 1866.

Though

it

is

shorter

and

less elaborate

in

details

than

its

predecessor,

the

subject

is

one

which

allows

of a

more con-

secutive

mode of

statement,

and

has

perhaps

in itself

a

more

immediate

interest

for the

general

reader.

Prof.

Bernays

now

deals

with

an

aspect

of the

civilization of

the Roman

empire,

in

which

he

demonstrates-what

to

many

of

us,

I

suppose,

will

be

a sort

of

revelation-the existence

of

a

popular

religious

move-

ment,

distinct

from

the

established

Paganism

and

from

the

philosophies

of

the

schools.

This

new

interpretation

of

Cynicism

enables

us

to

realize

the

fact

that

the

Cynic

of the

first and

second

centuries was

not a

philosophical oddity,

to be

relegated

to a

chapter

of a

history

of

ancient

philosophy,

but

a

religious

reformer

at a

moment when the Greek world

seemed

to

have

lost

the

power

of

religious

initiative,

and

the

spokesman

of

a

kind

of

popular opposition

when

opposition

to

the

existing

political

order

of

things

was

least to

be

expected.

In reference to the book De morte

Peregrini

I

may

here

remark,

for

the

benefit

of readers

of Mr.

Cotterill s

Peregrinus

Proteus,

that Prof.

Bernays

does not seem

disturbed

by

any

1

Lucian und

die

Kyniker.

Von

Jacob

Bernays.

Mit

einer

Uebersetzung

der

Schrift

Lucians Uiber das

Lebensende

des

Peregrinus.

Berlin:

W.

Hertz.


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3/5

302 BERNAYS

LUCIAN

AND

THE

CYNICS.

sceptical

doubts

as

to the

genuineness

of the

book:

had the

English

work

appeared

in time

to raise the

question,

I

fancy

that he would have made- short work of difficulties and

objections

of the

sort

which Mr. Cotterill has

found it so

easy

to

raise.

What

weight

are we to attach

to

Lucian s

judgments

on

his

contemporaries

?

This is

a

very

old

literary

problem,

which must

force itself

on

the

attention

of

a critical

reader of

the

De morte

Peregrini.

By

the

opportune discovery

ih

Galen

(De

methodo

medendi,

xiii.

15)

of a

passage

relating

to

Theagenes,

who is

made to play the part of second Cynic in Lucian s satire, Prof.

Bernays

had

been

able

to

put

the

problem

in

a

light,

by

the aid

of

which

we

can

henceforth,

to a

certain

extent,

control

Lucian s

statement,

and

see

what manner

of

man

Theagenes

was

in the

eyes

of a learned

and

unprejudiced

physician.

Writing

as

a

physician

for

physicians,

Galen has

occasion

to describe

the last

illness of the

Cynic,

whose death

he

attributes to

the

erroneous

course

of

treatment

adopted by

certain

of the

medical

men of

the day. What he has to say about the man himself is all the

more

trustworthy

from the fact

of its

being

brought

in

incident-

ally.

We

gather

from

Galen s

narrative that at the time of

his

own

residence

in

Rome

Theagenes,

then an old

man,

was

a

familiar

figure

at

Trajan s Gymnasium,

where

he

was

to

be

found

daily talking

and

teaching,

and that

his life at this

time

was

one

of ideal

austerity,

without

wife,

child,

or attendant

-hardly

the sort

of life

that a

ranting hypocrite

would

be

likely

to

choose.

If

this

is

what

Theagenes

was to

Galen,

just

as

Peregrinus,

the

principal

personage

in

the

satire,

seemed

a

vir

gravis

atque

constans

to the

candid

Aulus

Gellius,

what

is one

to

think of Lucian

and the

very

different version he

has

left

us

of

their

ways

and

character

? The account

of

Lucian

as

a man

and

as

a

littirateur

given

in these

pages

(p.

42

seqq.)

s a

model

of

literary

portraiture

which

I

commend to

the

careful

con-

sideration

of all students

of the

witty

Syrian.

As

for

the

hackneyed

comparison

between

him

and

Voltaire,

Prof.

Bernays

very

rightly maintains that the comparison is superficial, and

in

every

way

unfair

to Voltaire. Lucian lacked

among

other

things

the varied

knowledge,

the intellectual

sincerity,

the

revolt

at

injustice

and

oppression

of

the

great

Frenchman;

and his ambition

was

to

end

his

days

as

a

Roman

official.




4/5

BERNAYS

LUCIAN

AND THE CYNICS. 303

He

attacked the

failings

of the

gods

and the

philosophers,

who could

not

retaliate,

but

discreetly spared

the vices

and

prejudices

of the

ruling

classes and the abuses of the

Imperial

system

of

government.

To

the

public

which

Lucian

addressed

the

Cynic

was a

disquieting

social

anomaly;

his

renunciation

of

worldly

wealth

and

comfort

seemed

mere

hypocrisy;

his

contempt

for received standards of

belief and

conduct

was

an

unpardonable

offence

in

so

conventional

a

state

of

society.

Freethinking,

as

a

mere form of

enlightenment,

was

then

as

now a

thing

which

the

polite

world

could

tolerate,

but

the

Cynic was not a freethinker of the harmless professorial type;

he

was

too

much

in

earnest

in

his

mockery

at

polytheism,

with

its

paraphernalia

of

priests,

sacrifices

and

oracles;

he

set

himself

up

as

a

sort

of

preacher

of

righteousness,

talked

of

freedom

in a

way

distressing

to official

ears,

and

did

not

mind

speaking

the

truth even

of

the

greatest.

Such

men

were

obviously

an

element of

danger

to a mechanical

civilization

(p.

45)

like

that of

the

Empire;

and Lucian

as

the

littrateur

of the period showed that he knew how to please the influential

classes

when

he

undertook to

turn the life

and

death

of

Peregrinus

into

ridicule,

and

made it

seem as

though

his

end,

so far

from

being

evidence of

honesty,

were

the

appropriate

finale

of

a

long

career of

fraud

and

imposture.

The

story

of

Peregrinus

as

told

by

Lucian

may

be

analyzed

into

two

portions-the

facts,

and

the

colouring

Lucian

has

put

upon

the facts.

Remove the

colouring,

the

innuendoes,

motives,

and

other

inventions

which

constitute so

much of

the

picture,

and

we

may

easily

conceive

the

Peregrinus

and

Theagenes

of

reality

to have

been

very

unlike

the

pair

of

vulgar

charlatans

Lucian

makes them

out

to

have

been.

I

must not

omit

to

mention,

however,

that

while

thus

vindicating

the

memory

of

Peregrinus

and

insisting

on

the

religious

and

social

significance

of

Cynicism,

Prof.

Bernays

duly recognizes

that there were

Cynics

and

Cynics,

and

that the cloak

of the

sect

might

easily

come to

be worn

as a

cloak for

hypocrisy.

If

this

had not

been

the case

sometimes,

Cynicism

would

certainly

have been a

wholly

unique

phenomenon

in

the

history

of

religions.

As

regards

the

self-immolation of

Peregrinus,

we

know

that,

although

ancient

opinion

was

divided on

the

question

of the

lawfulness

of

suicide,

the

step

was

sanctioned

by

the

example




5/5

304

BERNAYS

LUCIAN

AND

THE

CYNICS.

of

many

of the

philosophers

of an earlier

age.

With

Cynics,

however,

there was

a,

special

motive

for

suicide;

the idea of

a

life of valetudinarianism was intolerable to such robust natures.

Accordingly

we find it intimated

in

the

biographies

of

Diogenes

and

the

semi-Cynic

Zeno

that

they

made their

exit

when

infirmity

or

some

bodily

accident came

to

warn them

that

it

was

time to

depart.

The

fever

which

brought

Peregrinus

to

death s

door

may

have served to remind him of

these

ancient

precedents.

His

history

indeed

presents

some

singular points

of

resemblance to

what is

recorded of the

founders

of his

sect;

and if we suppose his mode of life to have been more or less

consciously

influenced

by

a desire to imitate

such

precedents,

the

hypothesis

would

have

the

support

of

many

analogies

in

the

lives of

Christian

Saints.

I

would

suggest,

therefore,

that

the

motives for

his

voluntary

death

are

partially explained

by

the

influence

of

tradition and

the

circumstance

that he

was

at the

time

old

and

wasted with disease.

Of

the

translation

of

Lucian s

text

I

need

not

say

more

than

this, that it is the work of one who is a very experienced

translator

as well as

an

accomplished

scholar.

The

notes

in

the

Appendix

are

for the most

part

in

illustration

or

defence of

assertions

made in

the

introductory Essay,

which

is

thus

relieved

of

matter

calculated

to

interfere

with

the

unity

and

consecutiveness of the main discussion.

I.

BYWATER.


(pp. 301-304) i. bywater - bernays' lucian and the cynics

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