Pro'dicus
（
*Pro/dikos), was a native of Iulis in the island of Ceos, the birthplace of Simonides (Plat.
Protag. p. 316d.; Suid.
s. v.), whom he is described as having imitated (Plat.
Prot. pp. 339, c., 340, e., 341, b.), and with whom he was without doubt acquainted, as the poet did not die till the 79th, or the beginning of the 80th Olympiad. Prodicus came frequently to Athens for the purpose of transacting business on behalf of his native city, and even attracted admiration in the senate as an orator (Plat.
Hipp. Maj. p. 282, comp. Philos.
Vit. Soph. 1.12), although his voice was deep and apt to fall (Plat.
Protag. p. 316a. ; Philost.
l.c.). Plutarch describes him as slender and weak (Plut.
an seni ger. sit Resp. 100.15); and Plato also alludes to his weakliness, and a degree of effeminacy which resulted therefrom (
Prot. p. 315d.). Philostratus is the first who taxes him with luxury and avarice (
l.c., comp. Welcker,
Kleine Schriften, ii. p. 513, &c.).
In the
Protagoras of Plato, which points to the 87th Olympiad (any more exact determination is disputable) as the time at which the dialogue is supposed to take place, Prodicus is mentioned as having previously arrived in Athens.
He had been brought forward in a play of Eupolis, and in the
Clouds and the
Birds of Aristophanes (1. 360), which belong to Ol. 89 and Ol. 91, and came frequently to Athens on public business. (Plut.
Hipp. Maj. p. 282.) Still later, when Isocrates (born Ol. 86. 1) is mentioned as his disciple (see Welcker,
Prodikos von Keos, Vorgänger des Socrates, published first in the
Rheinisches Museum der Philologie, von Welcker and Näke, 1.1-39, 533-545, afterwards in F. G. Welcker's
Kleine Schriften, ii. p. 392-541), and in the year of the death of Socrates, Prodicus was still living. (Plat.
Apol. p. 19. c.)
The dates of his birth and death cannot be determined.
The statement of Suidas (s.
v., comp. Schol. on Plat.
de Rep. x. p. 600. c.), that he was condemned to the hemlock cup as a corrupter of the youth in Athens, sounds very suspicious (comp. Welcker, p. 582).
According to the statement of Philostratus (p. 483, comp. 496, ed. Olearius), on which little more reliance can be placed, he delivered his lecture on virtue and vice in Thebes and Sparta also. The
Apology of Plato unites him with Gorgias and Hippias in the statement, that into whatever city they might come, they were competent to instruct the youth. Lucian (
Vit. Herod. 100.3) mentions him among those who had held lectures at Olympia.
In the dialogues of Plato he is mentioned or introduced, not indeed without irony, though, as compared with the other sophists, with a certain degree of esteem. (
Hipp. Maj. p. 282,
Theaet. p. 151b.,
Phaedo, 60,
Protag. p. 341a.,
Charmid. p. 163d.,
Meno, p. 96,
Cratyl. p. 384. b.,
Symp. p. 177,
Euthyd. p. 305.) Aristophanes in the
Clouds (1. 360) deals more indulgently with him than with Socrates; and the Xenophontic Socrates, for the purpose of combating the voluptuousness of Aristippus, borrows from the book of the wise Prodicus (
Πρόδ. ὁ σοφός) the story of the choice of Hercules (
Memor. 2.1.21, &c.).
This separation of Prodicus from the other sophists has been pointed out by Welcker in the above-quoted treatise (p. 400, &c.).
Like Protagoras and others, Prodicus delivered lectures in return for the payment of contributions (
ἐπιδείκνυται --
Xen. Mem. 2.1.21, comp. Philostr. p. 482;
D. L. 9.50;
ἠρανίζοντο-τιμή, Plat.
Prot. 314, b.) of from half a drachma to 50 drachmae, probably according as the hearers limited them-selves to a single lecture, or entered into an agreement for a more complete course (
Axioch. 6 ; Cratyl. p. 384b.; Arist.
Rhet. 3.14.9; Suid. s. v.; comp. Welcker, p. 414). Prodicus is said to have amassed a great amount of money (
Hipp. Maj. p. 282d.; Xen.
Symp. 4.62, 1.5; on the practice of paying for instruction and lectures, comp. again Welcker,
l.c. p. 412, &c.).
The assertion that he hunted after rich young men, is only found in Philostratus (p. 496). As Prodicus and others maintained with regard to themselves, that they stood equally on the confines of philosophy and politics (
Euthyd. p. 305c.), so Plato represents his instructions as chiefly ethical (
Meno, p. 96d.; comp.
de Rep. x. p. 600e.), and gives the preference to his distinction of ideas, as of those of courage, rashness, boldness, over similar attempts of other sophists (
Lach. p. 197c.). What pertained to this point was probably only contained in individual show-orations (Diog. Laert., Philost.
ll. cc.), which he usually declined. (Philost. p. 482.) Though known to Callimachus, they do not appear to have been much longer preserved. (Welcker, p. 465, &c.)
In contrast with Gorgias and others, who boasted of possessing the art of making the small appear great, the great small, and of expatiating in long or short speeches, Prodicus required that the speech should be neither long nor short, but of the proper measure (Plot.
Plated. p. 267a.; comp.
Gory. p. 449c.,
Prot. p. 334e., 335, b., 338, d.; Arist.
Rhet. 3.17), and it is only as associated with other sophists that he is charged with endeavouring to make the weaker cause strong by means of his rhetoric. (
Cic. Brut. 100.8.)
He paid especial attention to the correct use of words (Plat.
Euthyd. p. 187e.,
Cratyl. p. 384b., comp. Galen.
in Hippoer de Articul. iv. p. 461. 1), and the distinction of expressions related in sense (
Lach. p. 197d.,
Prot. p. 340a., 341, a.,
Charmid. p. 163d.,
Meno, p. 7.5, c., comp. Themist.
Orat. iv. p. 1 ]3).
As disciples of Prodicus in oratory, we find mentioned the orators Theramenes (Aeschin.
in Athen. p. 220b.; Schol.
ad Aristoph. Nub. p. 360), and Isocrates (Dionys.
Isocr. 1; Phot.
cod. 260; comp. Welcker, p. 463, &c.). Thucydides is said to have appropriated from him his accuracy in the use of words (Marcell.
Vit. Thuc. p. xiii., Bekk.; comp. Schol. ap. Hemsterhus.
Annot. in Lucian., App. 3; Maxim. Tyr.
Dissert. vii. p. 72, Davis.)
Works
Speech of the Choice of Hercules from Xenophon
The speech on the choice of Hercules (Philost. p. 496; Xenophon,
Xen. Mem. 2.1.21, only quotes the (
σύγγραμμα περὶ τοῦ Ἡρακλέους) was entitled
Ὡραι. (Suid.
s. v. Ὧραι and
Πρόδ. ; Schol.
ad Aristoph. Nub. 1. 360. Respecting the different explanations of this title, see Weicker, p. 466, &c., who refers it to the youthful bloom of Hercules.)
To Hercules, as he was on the point, at his entrance on the age of youth, of deciding for one of the two paths of life, that of virtue and that of vice, there appear two women, the one of dignified beauty, adorned with purity, modesty, and discretion, the other of a voluptuous form, and meretricious look and dress.
The latter promises to lead him by the shortest road, without any toil, to the enjoyment of every pleasure.
The other, while she reminds him of his progenitors and his noble nature, does not conceal from him that the gods have not granted what is really beautiful and good apart from trouble and careful striving. The former seeks to deter him from the path of virtue by urging the difficulty of it; the latter calls attention to the unnatural character of enjoyment which anticipates the need of it, its want of the highest joy, that arising from noble deeds, and the consequences of a life of voluptuousness, and how she herself, honoured by gods and men, leads to all noble works, and to true well-being in all circumstances of life. Hercules decides for virtue.
This outline in Xenophon probably represents, in a very abbreviated form, and with the omission of all collateral references, the leading ideas of the original, of which no fragments remain (comp. Welcker, p. 469, &c., who also shows that the amplifications in Dio Chysostomus and Themistius belong to these rhetoricians, and are not derived from the
florae of Prodicus, p. 488, &c. Respecting the numerous imitations of this narrative in poets, phlosophers, rhetoricians, and in works of art, see, in like manner, Welcker, p. 467, &c.).
Speech on Riches described in teh
Eryxias
In another speech, which treated of riches, and the substance of which is reproduced in the dialogue
Eryxias, Prodicus had undertaken to show that the value of external goods depends simply upon the use which is made of them, and that virtue must be learnt. (Welcker endeavours to point out the coincidence of the former doctrine with that of Socrates and Antisthenes, p. 493, &c.)
Praise of Agriculture
Similar sentiments were expressed in Prodicus's
Praise of Agriculture (Themist.
Orat. 30, p. 349; comp. Welcker, p. 496, &c.).
Other views as cited
His views respecting the worthlessness of earthly life in different ages and callings, and how we must long after freedom from connection with the body in the heavenly and cognate aether, are found represented in the dialogue
Axiochus, from a lecture by Prodicus; as also his doctrine that death is not to be feared, as it affects neither the living nor the departed (comp. Stob.
Serm. 20.35). Whether the appended arguments for immortality are borrowed from him, as Welcker (p. 500) endeavours to show, is doubtful The gods he regarded as personifications of the sun, moon, rivers, fountains, and whatever else contributes to the comfort of our life (Sext. Emp.
ad v. Math. 1.52; Cic.
de Nat. Deor. 1.42), and he is therefore, though hastily, charged with atheism (ib. 55).
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Ch. A. B.]
