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III. TRUTH 1 I follow Diels-Kranz in assigning these fragments the number (44) Diels assigned to the relevant citation from Harpocration (see below, note 2) in his 1903 edition. However , I cite the text of Decleva Caizzi 1989, because it includes the most recent papyrus fragment (POxy 3647), published by Funghi 1984. Decleva Caizzi follows Funghi in reversing Diels-Kranz’s ordering of the first two fragments; thus the numbers 44A, 44B, and 44C in her text correspond to 44B, 44A, and 44 (or 44C) respectively in DielsKranz and other older editions. As Lugenbill notes (1997: 170 n. 29), the case for reordering is not strong (it is based on the discoloration of part of the papyrus), and he prefers the traditional order. Nothing in the discussion that follows hinges on this ordering. The translations are slightly modified from Gagarin and Woodruff 1995: 244 – 47. Disputed points of text and translation will be treated at relevant points in the discussion. Two major sophistic works are ascribed to Antiphon,Truth (Alētheia, in two books) and Concord (Homonoia). The former has attracted more scholarly attention, especially since the discovery of substantial papyrus fragments early in the twentieth century, which contain the longest continuous texts and are of great philosophical interest (44 DK, 90–92 M).1 Concord is of less philosophical interest but is still important for the full understanding of Antiphon ’s work. In addition, the little that is known about Antiphon’s work on dreams suggests an attitude of inquiry and skepticism similar to that of Truth. This chapter will examine the fragments of Truth; Concord and Antiphon ’s views on dreams will be the subject of chapter 4. 1. the papyrus fragments Before examining the text of Truth (see full text of 44 in appendix A), we must consider briefly the identification of the papyrus fragments. Since their publication virtually all scholars have accepted that POxy 1364 (44A and B), together with the recently discovered scrap from the same papyrus 03-T1987 1/31/02 10:05 AM Page 63 64 truth 2 ÉAntif«n d¨ §n t“ per‹ élhye¤aw fhs‹ “toÁw nÒmouw megãlouw êgoi” ént‹ toË ≤go›to. 3 Bilik 1998. 4 Bilik (ibid.: 42) cites an anonymous comic fragment (726 Kock) as identical except that the verb is a first-person singular indicative (êgv instead of êgoi). But Kassel and Austin (1995: 511) more plausibly take these words (cited without attribution in a schol- (POxy 3647), comes from Antiphon’s Truth, and most have agreed because of similarities in content that POxy 1797, found together with 1364 but written in a different hand, is also from this work, though perhaps from a different book. The first identification is based on a citation from Harpocration (A7, s.v. êgoi), who quotes Antiphon as using the verbagō in an unusual sense “in his work on Truth.”2 The expression Harpocration attributes to Antiphon, “he considered (agoi) the laws important,” appears verbatim, including the third-person present optative form of the verb, in the papyrus text of 44B (1.16 –20). This would seem conclusive proof of Antiphontean authorship, but since Bilik has recently challenged this conclusion, we must consider the matter in greater detail.3 Bilik argues that the content of the papyrus fragments is incompatible with either a unitarian or a separatist view of Antiphon; for this reason he seeks to show (1) that Harpocration’s citation is in error, (2) that the contents of the papyrus do not fit what we know of Truth or Concord, (3) that the stylistic differences between the papyrus text and the fragments from Concord are so great that if the papyrus fragments belonged to Truth, Hermogenes (and his predecessors) could not have grouped Truth and Concord together stylistically, and (4) that the contents of the papyrus fragments are so different from that of Concord that they are not likely to be the work of the same author. Bilik’s solution to these difficulties is that Harpocration’s original text referred the citation to Concord, not Truth, but in any case, he was not citing the text of this papyrus but a different text from that work that no longer survives and that just happened to use the same common phrase. Bilik concludes that the papyrus fragments have nothing to do with Antiphon but are the work of an unknown author of around the same time. Our examination of the papyrus...

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