Theophrastus: Characters (review)

Theophrastus' Characters is a notoriously difficult text. It has, as James Diggle remarks in the introduction to his new edition, "probably the corruptest manuscript tradition in all of Greek literature" (20). We do not even know what this collection of character types is for; attempts to place it within the scheme of recognizable genres in classical literature have ranged from the jocular to the narrowly pragmatic. For instance, Jebb famously argued, in his best clubbish manner, that Theophrastus wrote the portraits merely to amuse himself and his friends.¹ Others have suggested that they are meant as rough sketches for dramatic or oratorical use, a key for "Menander . . . and his fellows."²

The portraits are by turns quirky and brilliant, but perhaps because they zero in on character traits of average Athenian citizens, they seem to call forth in many of their readers an indulgence in play that scholars would scarcely contemplate elsewhere. James Diggle's translation and commentary is no exception. Indeed, following Pasquali he offers a lively turn on the gentlemen's joke argument—namely that the sketches served Theophrastus the animated lecturer as "a few moments' light entertainment amid more serious matter" (15).³ He envisions Theophrastus' own performances as a lecturer and adduces by way of illustration a professor from Oxford who was similarly entertaining (17–18).⁴

This cozy picture is not very methodologically rigorous; it consists of little more than assuming similarity between the conventions of the fourth-century "lecture hall" and those of Oxford, as well as identification with an upper-class intellectual whose portraits reveal his sense of superiority and impeccable taste. Diggle's own language tends to match the playfulness and stylistic economy that he enjoys in his author. When, for instance, he expends much jovial energy in arguing that Theophrastus' style in Characters is pure and elegant, he reiterates quite uncritically (and often with overly thrifty syntax and punctuation) the elitist mockery that shapes the portraits: "Sound, sight, smell: a slovenly carefree inconsiderate yokel. All that in twenty-six words" (21).

The volume as a whole, however, showcases many of Diggle's strengths. While one might question his interpretive claims, his adjudication of textual questions is unparalleled. In addition, the introduction is comprehensive, the translations of the sketches lively, the commentary lucid and helpful, the bibliography excellent, and the indices exemplary. Its apparatus is well supported by the introduction's exhaustive essay on the manuscript tradition and the commentary's often contentious analyses of specific textual problems. The one drawback of this careful work is that the changing of some of the text's numbering and the zealous use of lacunae can make the text difficult to cite.

Diggle's translations for the most part effectively communicate the piquant quality of Theophrastus' language, a fact that may make lapses more noticeable. For example, translating ¢ponenohm√noj as "the man who has lost all sense" is awkward and misleading, even if it does faithfully reproduce the entry in LSJ. The sketch depicts a reckless, insensitive type whose thick skin is the direct result of his marketplace origins (cf. ¢gora‹Òj tij, 6.2). To translate the character label in a manner that effaces this is to miss the precise and class-specific nature of the category. The man is not senseless; he is insensitive—a very different thing. Diggle's engagement with the scholarship can be similarly uneven. For instance, while he repeatedly endorses Stein's important demonstration that the definitions introducing the sketches are later interpolations, his enthusiasm leads him to treat them as merely "banal," rather than as useful evidence of the text's reception.⁵ Further, the summaries in the commentary can seem overly economical and not sufficiently engaged with the extensive literature on the different sketches.⁶

This may be the result of the reader-friendly approach that Diggle adopts. And in this the volume is very successful. Its elegance makes it a useful introduction for students, while its comprehensive...