Isocrates and Recitations

Little has been said as to how Isocrates' λγοι were published. It is commonly assumed that they were written for a reading public but for greater effect were given a fictitious dramatic setting. Such a generalization, although partly true, needs qualification. This article attempts to prove the following points: (a) Isocrates wrote for a listening, as well as for a reading, public. (b) Failure to recognize indications of this in his works has led to misinterpretation and mistranslation, especially of certain words used in a semi-technical sense. (c) There has been a tendency to confuse references to a real audience who will actually be listening to the λόγος with references to a fictitious audience introduced as a picturesque literary device. (d) The Panegyricus provides an example of this. It is not, as is generally supposed, addressed to an imaginary audience in Olympia or some other πανγυρις but to real audiences in Athens, as well as to an Athenian reading public.