Misplaced Pages

#538461

46-436: A Yes man is a sycophant ; an obsequious assistant or enabler. Yes Man or Yes Men may refer to: Sycophant In modern English , sycophant denotes an "insincere flatterer" and is used to refer to someone practising sycophancy (i.e., insincere flattery to gain advantage). The word has its origin in the legal system of Classical Athens . Most legal cases of the time were brought by private litigants as there

92-500: A Boeotian purchases a sycophant as a typical Athenian product that he cannot obtain at home. A sycophant appears as a character in The Birds . One of his lost plays had, as its principal theme, an attack against a sycophant. In Wealth , the character, Sycophant, defends his role as a necessity in supporting the laws and preventing wrongdoing. In daily use, the term συκοφάντης refers to someone that purposely spreads lies about

138-542: A false accuser. Today, in Greek and French it retains the original meaning. The meaning in English has changed over time, however, and came to mean an insincere flatterer. The common thread in the older and current meanings is that the sycophant is in both instances portrayed as a kind of parasite, speaking falsely and insincerely in the accusation or the flattery for gain. The Greek plays often combined in one single character

184-493: A garden and steal figs, and that the law was so odious that informers were given the name sycophants. A different explanation of the origin of the term by Shadwell was that the sycophant refers to the manner in which figs are harvested, by shaking the tree and revealing the fruit hidden among the leaves. The sycophant, by making false accusations, makes the accused yield up their fruit. The Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition listed these and other explanations, including that

230-521: A liberality which shamed many of those who enjoyed the franchise ( Against Eratosthenes xii.20). The fact that they owned house property shows that they were classed as isoteleis ( ἰσοτελεῖς ), i.e. foreigners who paid only the same tax as citizens, being exempt from the special tax (μετοίκιον) on resident aliens . Polemarchus occupied a house in Athens itself, Lysias another in the Piraeus, near which

276-516: A person, in order to harm this person’s reputation, or otherwise insult his honor (i.e. a slanderer), and συκοφαντία is doing so (i.e. slander, n., to slander: συκοφαντώ ). In legal terms, Article 362 of the Greek Penal Code defines defamation ( δυσφήμηση ) "whoever who with in any way claims or spreads for someone else a fact that could harm that person's honor or reputation", whereas slanderous defamation ( συκοφαντική δυσφήμηση )

322-446: A speech For Pherenicus ) belongs to 381 or 380 BC. He probably died in or soon after 380 BC. Lysias displays literary tact, humour, and attention to character in his extant speeches, and is famous for using his skill to conceal his art. It was obviously desirable that a speech written for delivery by a client should be suitable to his age, station and circumstances. Lysias was the first to make this adaptation truly artistic. His language

368-444: A witness, bribing ecclesiastical or civil authorities and juries, or other questionable things, with which one did not want to be personally associated. Sycophants were viewed as uncontrolled and parasitic, lacking proper regard for truth or for justice in a matter, using their education and skill to destroy opponents for profit in matters where they had no stake, lacking even the convictions of politicians, and having no sense of serving

414-492: A writer of speeches to be delivered in the law courts . The thirty-four extant are but a small fraction. From 403 to about 380 BC, his industry must have been incessant. The notices of his personal life in these years are scanty. In 403 he came forward as the accuser of Eratosthenes , one of the Thirty Tyrants. This was his only direct contact with Athenian politics. The story that he wrote a defence for Socrates , which

460-487: A young Athenian hippeus , making a spirited defence of his honor against the charge of disloyalty. The defence For the Invalid is a humorous character-sketch. The speech Against Pancleon illustrates the intimate relations between Athens and Plataea , while it gives us some picturesque glimpses of Athenian town life. The defence of the person who had, been charged with destroying a mona , or sacred olive, places us amidst

506-471: Is a brilliant fragment, expressing the spirit of the festival at Olympia, and exhorting Greeks to unite against their common foes. The Plea for the Constitution (403 BC) is interesting for the manner in which it argues that the well-being of Athens—now stripped of empire—is bound up with the maintenance of democratic principles. The speech For Mantitheus (392 BC) is a graceful and animated portrait, of

SECTION 10

#1732779908539

552-456: Is an eloquent and vivid picture of the reign of terror which the Thirty established at Athens; the concluding appeal, to both parties among the citizens, is specially powerful. Next in importance is the speech Against Agoratus (388 BC), one of our chief authorities for the internal history of Athens during the months which immediately followed the defeat at Aegospotami . The Olympiacus (388 BC)

598-570: Is crafted to flow easily, in contrast to his predecessor Antiphon 's pursuit of majestic emphasis, to his pupil (and close follower in many respects) Isaeus ' more conspicuous display of artistry and more strictly logical manner of argumentation, and later to the forceful oratory of Demosthenes . Translated into terms of ancient criticism, he became the model of the plain style ( ἰσχνὸς χαρακτήρ, ἰσχνὴ/λιτὴ/ἀφελὴς λέξις : genus tenue or subtile ). Greek and then Roman critics distinguished three styles of rhetorical composition—the grand (or elaborate),

644-489: Is in the introduction and the narrative that Lysias is seen at his best. In his greatest extant speech—that Against Eratosthenes —and also in the fragmentary Olympiacus , he has pathos and fire; but these were not characteristic qualities of his work. In Cicero 's judgment ( De Orat. iii. 7, 28) Demosthenes was peculiarly distinguished by force ( vis ), Aeschines by resonance ( sonitus ); Hypereides by acuteness ( acumen ); Isocrates by sweetness ( suavitas );

690-448: Is that the opprobrium against sycophants was attached to the bringing of an unjustified complaint, hoping either to obtain the payment for a successful case, or to blackmail the defendant into paying a bribe to drop the case. Other scholars have suggested that the sycophant, rather than being disparaged for being motivated by profit, was instead viewed as a vexatious litigant who was over-eager to prosecute, and who had no personal stake in

736-429: Is when the fact is a lie, and the person who claims or spreads it knows that. The first case is punishable with up to two years' imprisonment or a fine, whereas slanderous defamation is punishable with at least three months' imprisonment and a fine. The word sycophant entered the English and French languages in the mid-16th century, and originally had the same meaning in English and French ( sycophante ) as in Greek,

782-479: The Ancient Greek word συκοφάντης ( sykophántēs ) is a matter of debate, but disparages the unjustified accuser who has in some way perverted the legal system. The original etymology of the word ( sukon / sykos / συκος 'fig', and phainein / fanēs / φανης 'to show') "revealer of figs"—has been the subject of extensive scholarly speculation and conjecture. Plutarch appears to be

828-607: The Euripides of Attic prose. His style has attracted interest from modern readers, because it is employed in describing scenes from the everyday life of Athens. From Lysias we have thirty-four speeches. Three fragmentary ones have come down under the name of Lysias; one hundred and twenty-seven more, now lost, are known from smaller fragments or from titles. In the Augustan age four hundred and twenty-five works bore his name, of which more than two hundred were allowed as genuine by

874-403: The sacred enclosure , and the wealth of Dionysius was vividly shown by the number of chariots which he had entered. Lysias lifted up his voice to denounce Dionysius as, next to Artaxerxes , the worst enemy of Hellas, and to impress upon the assembled Greeks that one of their foremost duties was to deliver Sicily from a hateful oppression. The latest work of Lysias which can be dated (a fragment of

920-528: The Greek informer, and the current sense of a "flattering parasite", with both being cast as enemies—not only of those they wrong, but also of the person or state that they ostensibly serve. Sycophancy is insincere flattery given to gain advantage from a superior. A user of sycophancy is referred to as a sycophant or a “yes-man.” Alternative phrases are often used such as: [REDACTED] The dictionary definition of sycophancy at Wiktionary Lysias According to Dionysius of Halicarnassus and

966-538: The Sicilian school possibly, as tradition said, under Tisias , the pupil of Corax , whose name is associated with the first attempt to formulate rhetoric as an art. The Athenian invasion of Sicily in 415–413 BC during the Peloponnesian War would ultimately create difficulties for Lysias's family, especially when the campaign ended in a devastating defeat for Athens. The continued attempt to link Lysias to

SECTION 20

#1732779908539

1012-408: The author of the life ascribed to Plutarch , Lysias was born in 459 BC, which would accord with a tradition that Lysias reached, or passed, the age of eighty. This date was evidently obtained by reckoning back from the foundation of Thurii (444 BC), since there was a tradition that Lysias had gone there at the age of fifteen. Modern critics, in general, place his birth later, c. 445 BC, and place

1058-538: The critics. The table below shows the name of the speech (in the ordered listed in the Lamb translation), the suggested date of the speech, the primary rhetorical mode, the main point of the speech, and comments. Forensic is synonymous with judicial and denotes speeches made in law courts. Epideictic is ceremonial and involves the praise or, less often, the criticism, of the subject. Deliberative denotes speeches made in legislatures. Notes (e.g., A1, B3, etc.) refer to

1104-442: The distinction which he assigns to Lysias is subtilitas , an Attic refinement—which, as he elsewhere says ( Brutus , 16, 64) is often joined to an admirable vigour ( lacerti ). Nor was it oratory alone to which Lysias rendered service; his work had an important effect on all subsequent Greek prose, by showing how perfect elegance could be joined to plainness. Here, in his artistic use of familiar idiom, he might fairly be called

1150-442: The elements of the parasite and the sycophant, and the natural similarities of the two closely related types led to the shift in the meaning of the word. The sycophant in both meanings can also be viewed as two sides of the same coin: the same person currying one's favor by insincere flattery is also spreading false tales and accusations behind one's back. In Renaissance English, the word was used in both senses and meanings, that of

1196-712: The famous names of the era is illustrated by the ancient ascription to Lysias of a rhetorical exercise purporting to be a speech in which the captive Athenian general Nicias appealed for mercy to the Sicilians. The terrible blow to Athens quickened the energies of an anti-Athenian faction at Thurii. Lysias and his elder brother Polemarchus, with three hundred other persons, were accused of Atticizing. They were driven from Thurii and settled at Athens (412 BC). Lysias and Polemarchus were rich men, having inherited property from their father, Cephalus; and Lysias claims that, though merely resident aliens, they discharged public services with

1242-410: The first to have suggested that the source of the term was in laws forbidding the exportation of figs, and that those who leveled the accusation against another of illegally exporting figs were therefore called sycophants. Athenaeus provided a similar explanation. Blackstone's Commentaries repeats this story, but adds an additional take—that there were laws making it a capital offense to break into

1288-465: The fragments are comparatively large. Of these, the fragmentary speech For Pherenicus belongs to 381 or 380 BC, and is thus the latest known work of Lysias. In literary and historical interest, the first place among the extant speeches of Lysias belongs to that Against Eratosthenes (403 BC), one of the Thirty Tyrants , whom Lysias arraigns as the murderer of his brother Polemarchus. The speech

1334-463: The house of Epicrates of Athens : he meets Socrates , with whom he will read and discuss the speech of Lysias he heard. At Thurii, the colony newly planted on the Tarentine Gulf , the boy may have seen Herodotus , now a man in middle life, and a friendship may have grown up between them. There, too, Lysias is said to have commenced his studies in rhetoric —doubtless under a master of

1380-421: The lack of personal involvement appears to have been the crux of the accusation of sycophancy against them, the merits of the cases being separate matters from whether they had a right to bring them. Efforts were made to discourage or suppress sycophants, including imposing fines on litigants who failed to obtain at least one fifth of the jury's votes, or for abandoning a case after it had begun (as would occur if

1426-481: The latter declined to use, probably arose from a confusion. Several years after the death of Socrates, the sophist Polycrates composed a declamation against him, to which Lysias replied. A more authentic tradition represents Lysias as having spoken his own Olympiacus at the Olympic festival of 388 BC, to which Dionysius I of Syracuse had sent a magnificent embassy. Tents embroidered with gold were pitched within

Yes man - Misplaced Pages Continue

1472-473: The list of qualifications below the table. NOTES "A": FORENSIC, RELATING TO PUBLIC CASES NOTES "B": FORENSIC, RELATING TO PRIVATE CASES To his Companions, a Complaint of Slanders, viii. (certainly spurious). The speech attributed to Lysias in Plato's Phaedrus 230e–234. This speech has generally been regarded as Plato's own work; but the certainty of this conclusion will be doubted by those who observe: If

1518-404: The making of false accusations was an insult to the accused in the nature of " showing the fig ", an "obscene gesture of phallic significance" or, alternatively that the false charges were often so insubstantial as to not amount to the worth of a fig. Generally, scholars have dismissed these explanations as inventions, long after the original meaning had been lost. Danielle Allen suggests that

1564-457: The measure could not be introduced to the ecclesia by the requisite preliminary resolution (προβούλευμα). On this ground, it was successfully opposed. During his later years, Lysias—now probably a comparatively poor man owing to the rapacity of the tyrants and his own generosity to the Athenian exiles—appears as a hard-working member of a new profession—that of logographer ,

1610-401: The parallelism or opposition of clauses. The taste of the day not yet emancipated from the influence of the Sicilian rhetoric probably demanded a large use of antithesis . Lysias excels in vivid description; he has also the knack of marking the speaker's character by light touches. The structure of his sentences varies a good deal according to the dignity of the subject. He has equal command over

1656-405: The periodic style (κατεστραμμένη λέξις) and the non-periodic or continuous (εἰρομένη, διαλελυμένη). His disposition of his subject-matter is always simple. The speech has usually four parts: introduction (προοίμιον), narrative of facts (διήγησις), proofs (πίστεις), which may be either external, as from witnesses, or internal, derived from argument on the facts, and, lastly, conclusion (ἐπίλογος). It

1702-451: The plain and the middle, the plain being nearest to the language of daily life. Greek rhetoric began in the grand style; then Lysias set an exquisite pattern of the plain; and Demosthenes might be considered as having effected an almost ideal compromise. The vocabulary of Lysias is relatively simple and would later be regarded as a model of pure diction for Atticists . Most of the rhetorical figures are sparingly used—except such as consist in

1748-493: The public good. The charge of sycophancy against a litigant was a serious matter, and the authors of two surviving oratories, "Against the Grain Dealers" (author Lysias ) and "Against Leocrates" (author Lycurgus ), defend themselves against charges that they are sycophants because they are prosecuting cases as private citizens in circumstances where they have no personal stake in the underlying dispute. In each instance,

1794-679: The satirist were merely analysing his own composition, such criticism would have little point. Lysias is the earliest writer who is known to have composed erōtikoi ; it is as representing both rhetoric and a false erōs that he is the object of attack in the Phaedrus . Stylistic differences between the speech and the rest of the Phaedrus have also been taken to suggest that the speech was genuine. Three hundred and fifty-five of these are collected by Hermann Sauppe , Oratores Attici , ii. 170–216. Two hundred and fifty-two of them represent one hundred and twenty-seven speeches of known title; and of six

1840-431: The sycophant was bribed to drop the matter), and authorizing the prosecution of men for being sycophants. Statutes of Limitation were specifically adopted to try to prevent sycophancy. Sycophants are better illustrated through the satires of Aristophanes . In The Acharnians , a Megarian attempting to sell his daughters is confronted by a sycophant who accuses him of illegally attempting to sell foreign goods; and

1886-436: The term was "slightly obscene", connoting a kind of perversion, and may have had a web of meanings derived from the symbolism of figs in ancient Greek culture, ranging from the improper display of one's "figs" by being overly aggressive in pursuing a prosecution, the unseemly revealing of the private matters of those accused of wrongdoing, to the inappropriate timing of harvesting figs when they are unripe. The traditional view

Yes man - Misplaced Pages Continue

1932-638: The trip to Thurii around 430 BC. Cephalus , his father, was a native of Syracuse , and on the invitation of Pericles had settled at Athens. The opening scene of Plato 's Republic is set at the house of Cephalus' eldest son, Polemarchus , in Piraeus . The tone of the picture warrants the inference that the Sicilian family were well known to Plato, and that their houses must often have been hospitable to such gatherings. Further, Plato's Phaedrus opens with Phaedrus coming from conversation with Lysias at

1978-401: The underlying dispute, but brings up old charges unrelated to himself long after the event. Sycophants included those who profited from using their position as citizens for profit. For instance, one could hire a sycophant to bring a charge against one's enemies, or to take a wide variety of actions of an official nature with the authorities, including introducing decrees, acting as an advocate or

2024-505: Was no police force and only a limited number of officially appointed public prosecutors . By the fifth century BC this practice had given rise to abuse by "sycophants": litigants who brought unjustified prosecutions. The word retains the same meaning ('slanderer') in Modern Greek , French (where it also can mean 'informer'), and Italian. In modern English, the meaning of the word has shifted to its present usage. The origin of

2070-466: Was arrested and compelled to drink hemlock . Lysias had a narrow escape, with the help of a large bribe. He slipped by a back-door out of the house in which he was a prisoner and took a boat to Megara . It appears that he rendered valuable services to the exiles during the reign of the tyrants, and in 403 Thrasybulus proposed that these services be recognised by the bestowal of the citizenship. The Boule , however, had not yet been reconstituted, and hence

2116-407: Was their shield factory, employing a hundred and twenty skilled slaves . In 404 BC, the Thirty Tyrants were established at Athens under the protection of a Spartan garrison. One of their earliest measures was an attack upon the resident aliens, who were represented as disaffected to the new government. Lysias and Polemarchus were on a list of ten singled out to be the first victims. Polemarchus

#538461