The Socratics and the Logos Protreptikos in the Fourth Century BC

The so-called Socratic protreptikos is usually seen as a kind of transitory genre departing from the epideictic oratory of the Sophists and leading into the early dialogues of Plato. The aim of this article is to examine various examples of Socratic protreptikoi and to further define whether we can speak of a type of genre in formation and of the transitory nature of this genre. The author also wishes to draw the reader’s attention to a few problems of methodology which are related to our understanding of the protreptik corpus which dates from the fourth century BC to the time of the birth of Our Lord. The article also examines the differences between the explicitly named protreptikoi (Cleitophon, Euthydemos) and those generally known under the name of Socratic protreptikoi