Lysias

thumb|right|You have heard, you have seen, you have suffered; you have the guilty: give judgement. Lysias (Ancient Greek: Λυσίας, Lysías; c. 445 – c. 380 BC) was a Greek logographer and one of the Attic orators, generally regarded as the finest representative of the plain style. His surviving corpus consists mainly of forensic speeches. Quotes Greek text cited from C. Carey, Lysiae Orationes cum fragmentis (Oxford, 2007).Translations cited from W. R. Lamb, Lysias (Cambridge-London, 1930), unless otherwise noted. I. On the Murder of Eratosthenes ὤσαντες δὲ τὴν θύραν τοῦ δωματίου οἱ μὲν πρῶτοι εἰσιόντες ἔτι εἴδομεν αὐτὸν κατακείμενον παρὰ τῇ γυναικί, οἱ δ᾿ ὕστερον ἐν τῇ κλίνῃ γυμνὸν ἑστηκότα. ἐγὼ δ᾿, ὦ ἄνδρες, πατάξας καταβάλλω αὐτόν, καὶ τὼ χεῖρε περιαγαγὼν εἰς τοὔπισθεν καὶ δήσας ἠρώτων διὰ τί ὑβρίζει εἰς τὴν οἰκίαν τὴν ἐμὴν εἰσιών. κἀκεῖνος ἀδικεῖν μὲν ὡμολόγει, ἠντεβόλει δὲ καὶ ἱκέτευε μὴ ἀποκτεῖναι ἀλλ᾿ ἀργύριον πράξασθαι. ἐγὼ δ᾿ εἶπον ὅτι 'οὐκ ἐγώ σε ἀποκτενῶ, ἀλλ᾿ ὁ τῆς πόλεως νόμος.' When I had thrust open the door of the bedroom those who entered first saw a man still lying beside my wife, those who came afterwards saw him standing naked on the bed. I, gentlemen, knocked him down, bound both his arms behind him and asked him why he had insulted the honour of my house. He admitted that he had done wrong, but begged and prayed me not to kill him, but to take from him a sum of money. To this I answered, ‘I will not kill you, but the law of the State will kill you’. I.24. Source: Hans Licht, Sexual Life in Ancient Greece, trans. J. H. Freese (London, 1932), pp. 61–62 VIII. Accusation of Calumny [Sp.] τοιοῦτον γὰρ πρὸς ὑμᾶς αὐτοὺς πείσεσθε, ἐπειδή περ ὑμῖν ἔθος ἐστὶν ἕνα τῶν ξυνόντων ἀεὶ κακῶς λέγειν καὶ ποιεῖν· ἐπειδὰν ὑμῖν ἐγὼ μὴ ξυνῶ, πρὸς ὑμᾶς αὐτοὺς τρέψεσθε, κἄπειτα καθ᾿ ἕνα ἕκαστον ὑμῖν αὐτοῖς ἀπεχθήσεσθε, τὸ δὲ τελευταῖον εἷς ὁ λειπόμενος αὐτὸς αὑτὸν κακῶς ἐρεῖ. And this is what will happen to you among yourselves, since it is your habit to be ever injuring one of your associates in speech and in act: when I have left your association, you will turn against yourselves; then you will conceive a hatred of each one of your number in turn; and finally the last one left will defame himself. VIII.19 XII. Against Eratosthenes τοιαῦτα αὐτοῖς τὸ μέγεθος καὶ τοσαῦτα τὸ πλῆθος εἴργασται, ὥστε μήτ᾿ ἂν ψευδόμενον δεινότερα τῶν ὑπαρχόντων κατηγορῆσαι, μήτε τἀληθῆ βουλόμενον εἰπεῖν ἅπαντα δύνασθαι, ἀλλ᾿ ἀνάγκη ἢ τὸν κατήγορον ἀπειπεῖν ἢ τὸν χρόνον ἐπιλιπεῖν. So enormous, so numerous are the acts they have committed, that neither could lying avail one to accuse them of things more monstrous than the actual facts, nor with every desire to speak mere truth could one tell the whole; of necessity either the accuser must be tired out or his time must run short. XII.1 (on the crimes of the Thirty Tyrants) παύσομαι κατηγορῶν. ἀκηκόατε, ἑοράκατε, πεπόνθατε, ἔχετε· δικάζετε. I will here conclude my accusation. You have heard, you have seen, you have suffered; you have the guilty: give judgement. ΧΙΙ.100 Fragments ψεύδεσθαι προχειρότατον τοῖς πολλάκις ἁμαρτάνουσιν. Lying comes easier to those who are always transgressing. Frg. 423 Carey (tr. T. B. Harbottle, 1897) Attributed οὐχ ἅπαξ μέλλεις λέγειν αὐτὸν ἐπὶ τῶν δικαστῶν; Isn’t it only once that you are going to speak it before the jurors? Response when told a commissioned oration seemed unconvincing after repeated readings. Reported by Plutarch, Concerning Talkativeness, 504c (tr. W. C. Helmbold, 1939): Λυσίας τινὶ δίκην ἔχοντι λόγον συγγράψας ἔδωκεν· ὁ δὲ πολλάκις ἀναγνοὺς ἧκε πρὸς τὸν Λυσίαν ἀθυμῶν καὶ λέγων τὸ μὲν πρῶτον αὐτῷ διεξιόντι θαυμαστὸν φανῆναι τὸν λόγον, αὖθις δὲ καὶ τρίτον ἀναλαμβάνοντι παντελῶς ἀμβλὺν καὶ ἄπρακτον· ὁ δὲ Λυσίας γελάσας 'τί οὖν;' εἶπεν 'οὐχ ἅπαξ μέλλεις λέγειν αὐτὸν ἐπὶ τῶν δικαστῶν;' Lysias once composed a speech for a litigant and gave it to him. The man read it through a number of times and came to Lysias in despair and said that the first time he read it the speech seemed to him wonderfully good, but on taking it up a second and third time it appeared completely dull and ineffectual, "Well," said Lysias laughing, "isn’t it only once that you are going to speak it before the jurors?" Quotes about Lysias Dicat igitur Attice venustissimus ille scriptor ac politissimus Lysias—quis enim id possit negare?—dum intellegamus hoc esse Atticum in Lysia, non quod tenuis sit atque inornatus, sed quod nihil habeat insolens aut ineptum. Let us agree, then, that the Attic manner of speech belonged to Lysias, that most charming and exquisite writer (who could deny it?), provided that we understand that the Attic quality in Lysias is not that he is plain and unadorned, but that he has nothing strange or wanting in taste. Cicero, Orator, 28 (tr. H. M. Hubbell, 1939) His aetate Lysias maior, subtilis atque elegans et quo nihil, si oratori satis sit docere, quaeras perfectius: nihil enim est inane, nihil arcessitum, puro tamen fonti quam magno flumini propior. Lysias was older than these [sc. Demosthenes, Aeschines, Hyperides]; he is refined and elegant, and if the orator's only business were to give information one could ask for nothing more perfect. There are no empty phrases and nothing farfetched; but he is more like the pure spring than the mighty river. Quintilian, Institutio Oratoria, X.1.78 (tr. D. A. Russell, 2002) External links Category:Orators Category:People from Greece Category:BCE births Category:BCE deaths