Menippus
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Menippus (Greek: Μένιππος; 3rd century BCE) of Gadara, was a Cynic and satirist. The Menippean satire genre is named after him.
He was a native of Gadara in Coele-Syria.[1] According to Diogenes Laërtius[2] he was originally a slave, amassed a fortune as a money-lender, lost it, and committed suicide through grief. His works (written in a mixture of prose and verse) are all lost. He discussed serious subjects in a spirit of ridicule, and especially delighted in attacking the Epicureans and Stoics. Strabo and Stephanus call him the "earnest-jester" (Greek: σπουδόγελοιος, spoudogeloios).
His writings exercised considerable influence upon later literature. One of the dialogues attributed to Lucian, his avowed imitator, who frequently mentions him, is called Menippus, but since the sub-title ("The Oracle of the Dead") resembles that of a work ascribed to Menippus by Diogenes Laërtius, it has been suggested that it is really the work of Menippus himself, or at least, imitated from his Necromancy.
Although the writings of Menippus no longer survive, there are some fragments of Varro's Saturae Menippeae, which were written in imitation of Menippus.[3]
Diogenes Laërtius says the following works were written by Menippus:[4]
- Νέκυια - Necromancy
- Διαθῆκαι - Wills
- Ἐπιστολαὶ κεκομψευμέναι ἀπὸ τῶν θεῶν προσώπου - Letters artificially composed as if by the Gods
- Πρὸς τοὺς φυσικοὺς καὶ μαθηματικοὺς καὶ γραμματικοὺς - Replies to the Natural Philosophers, and Mathematicians, and Grammarians
- Γονὰς Ἐπικούρου - The Birth of Epicurus
- Τὰς θρησκευομένας ὑπ' αὐτῶν εἰκάδας - The School's reverence of the twentieth day (celebrated in the Epicurean school)
In addition, Athenaeus mentions works called Symposium[5] and Arcesilaus,[6] and Diogenes Laërtius mentions a Sale of Diogenes (Greek: Διογένους Πράσει)[7] written by Menippus which seems to be the origin of the story that Diogenes of Sinope was captured by pirates and sold into slavery.
[edit] Notes
[edit] External links
- Diogenes Laërtius, Life of Menippus
- Menippus - Lucian's dialogue in which Menippus visits Hades
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