Hippias
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214316829
2008-05-23T00:25:49Z
Neelix
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[[WP:UNDO|Undid]] revision 214316455 by [[Special:Contributions/Neelix|Neelix]] ([[User talk:Neelix|talk]]) There are not enough possible entries to constitute a disambiguation page.
:''Hippias can also refer to the tyrant of Athens, son of Peisistratus. See [[Hippias (tyrant)]].''
'''Hippias of Elis''' ([[Greek language|Greek]]: Ἱππίας) [[Ancient Greece|Greek]] [[Sophist]], was born about the middle of the [[5th century BC]] (ca. 460 BC) and was thus a younger contemporary of [[Protagoras]] and [[Socrates]]. He lived at least as late as Socrates (399 B.C.).
He was a man of great versatility and won the respect of his fellow-citizens to such an extent that he was sent to various towns on important embassies. He was born in Athens. At [[Athens]] he made the acquaintance of Socrates leading thinkers. With an assurance characteristic of the later sophists, he claimed to be regarded as an authority on all subjects, and lectured, at all events with financial success, on poetry, grammar, history, politics, archaeology, mathematics and astronomy.
He boasted that he was more popular than [[Protagoras]], and was prepared at any moment to deliver an extempore address on any subject to the assembly at [[Olympia, Greece|Olympia]]. His aim was not to give knowledge, but to provide his pupils with the weapons of argument, to make them fertile in discussion on all subjects alike. It is said that he boasted of wearing nothing that he had not made with his own hands.
Plato's two dialogues, the ''[[Hippias Major]]'' and ''[[Hippias Minor|Minor]]'', contain an exposé of his methods, exaggerated no doubt for purposes of argument but written with full knowledge of the man and the class which he represented.
[[Friedrich Ast]] denies their authenticity, but they must have been written by a contemporary writer (as they are mentioned in the literature of the [[4th century]]), and undoubtedly represent the attitude of serious thinkers to the growing influence of the professional Sophists.
There is, however, no question that Hippias did a real service to Greek literature by insisting on the meaning of words, the value of rhythm and literary style. He is credited with an excellent work on [[Homer]], collections of Greek and foreign literature, and archaeological treatises, but nothing remains except the barest notes. He forms the connecting link between the first great sophists, Protagoras and [[Prodicus]], and the innumerable [[Eristic|eristics]] who brought their name into disrepute. {{Fact|date=March 2008}}
==External links==
* {{MacTutor Biography|id=Hippias}}
*[http://mathdl.maa.org/convergence/1/?pa=content&sa=viewDocument&nodeId=1207&bodyId=1352 Hippias' Attempt to Trisect an Angle] at [http://mathdl.maa.org/convergence/1/ Convergence]
{{1911}}
{{Greek mathematics}}
{{Presocratics}}
[[Category:Ancient Greek mathematicians]]
[[Category:Sophists]]
[[Category:Ancient Eleans]]
[[Category:5th century BC births]]
[[Category:4th century BC deaths]]
[[bs:Hipija]]
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[[it:Ippia di Elide]]
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