Reflections on Lysias and Lysianic Rhetoric in the Fourth Century BCE

Abstract

The only explicit reference to Lysias in the corpus of ancient orators is made in Apollodorus’ speech Against Neaira, which had long been included in the Demosthenic corpus. This speech, dating from around the 340s, mentions Lysias in a brief passage in connection with an argument about the background of Neaira who is accused of not being a citizen of Athens, but acting as if she was in legal marriage with an Athenian citizen. Sections §§21–3 make some personal, but not denigrating, remarks about Lysias: he is introduced as a sophist (Λυσίας ὁ σοφιστής, §21) who has a concubine Metaneira (from the same background as Neaira), whom Lysias wanted to initiate into the Eleusinian mysteries. According to this speech, Lysias hosted both Metaneira and Neaira at his friend’s place rather than in his home, because he did not want to embarrass his wife and family by the presence of the two concubines in his home. It is generally accepted that the mention of Lysias in this passage refers to the famous speechwriter Lysias, and this passage is usually included among sources for Lysias’ biography. As already mentioned above, it is interesting that Lysias is called here a sophist with the assumption that it will be clear to everyone who was meant. The resonance of this word in this context is not entirely clear. Perhaps referring to Lysias as a speechwriter or logographos (λογογράφος) would have been dangerous given the fact that the very speech was written by Apollodorus and delivered jointly by his brother-in-law as the main accuser and