Sophistical Rhetoric in Classical Greece

A Note on Translations and Editions Used

A Note on Translations and Editions Used When citing material from or about the sophists in English, I am using the translations found in Rosamond K. Sprague, ed., The Older Sophists (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1972). I am also using her system of reference. Thus, in the citation "Gorgias (82B.8)," "82" refers to Gorgias; "B" refers to the section entitled Fragments; and "8" refers to a fragment attributed to Gorgias by Clement. When citing in Greek, I am using Hermann Diels, Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker, 2nd ed. (Berlin: Weidmannsche Buchhandlung , 1922). When citing from Plato in English, I am using the translations in Edith Hamilton and Huntington Cairns, eds., The Collected Dialogues of Plato (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1973), or those in the Loeb texts. In some cases, I am using a combination of the two. When citing in Greek, I am using the Loeb texts for Plato. Unless otherwise noted, I am also using the Loeb texts in the case of !socrates, Aristotle, Aristophanes, Thucydides, and the other ancient authors. No author I know of has found a satisfactory solution to the problem of using the personal or possessive pronouns (third person singular ) so that, when their reference is a gender-free noun (i.e., person, politician), they treat the masculine and feminine genders equally. This problem has been especially acute while writing this book, which includes close readings and exact translations of passages in Greek, a language whose nouns are masculine, feminine, or neuter. As the reader will notice, my use of the aforementioned pronouns in this book is not uniform throughout. When discussing matters reflecting the Hellenic culture of the fifth and fourth centuries B.C., or when explicating a particular Greek passage, I have used "he" ix x A Note on Translations and Editions Used and "his" to refer to a masculine noun. But when I generalize and my comments apply to modernity, I have used "(s)he" and "his/her" to refer to a gender-free noun. It is noteworthy that the Greeks, too, had concerns, although different from ours, about the gender of particular nouns and pronouns. See, for example Aristophanes' Clouds (685 ff.) and Aristotle's Sophistical Refutations (chap. 14). ...