DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.800#0120
COLLYTUS.
103
evidence for this view except that Lucian probably assigned Collytus to
Timon, the man-hater, as an appropriate place for his extraction. But a
misanthrope might perhaps be sought more successfully in a fashionable
than a disreputable neighbourhood; and Timon must have been a rich
man to build himself a tower near the Academy. The character which
iEschines was performing in Collytus was that of CEnornaus; but it does
not seem at all probable that Demosthenes meant any sarcasm by add-
ing the name of the place; for that is inserted also by Harpocration " in
relating the same adventure, after Demochares, and by Apollonius, in
his sketch of the life of iEschines ;2 and the intention of these writers
could hardly have been sarcastic, but merely to identify the occurrence.
Besides iEschines appears to have lived in Collytus, for he says in one
of his letters, that he had dwelt there forty-five years.3 Nay, it
seems not improbable that the mishap may actually have occurred in
the house in Melite, where, as we have said, the tragic actors rehearsed;
for, as we have seen, the boundaries of Melite and Collytus were not
very accurately defined, and one might often have been mentioned for
the other. Dr. Wordsworth's charge might, perhaps, derive some
colour from a passage in Plutarch's life of Demosthenes, where the
orator retorting upon Demades, who had compared himself to Athena,
exclaimed: " This Athena was caught in adultery not long ago in
Collytus."4 But everybody knows that such things might happen
in the most fashionable quarters. Collytus was the deme of Plato, the
most eloquent of Attic writers,5 though according to some accounts he
was actually born in iEgina, whither his father had been sent to divide
lands; so that it appears a man retained his paternal deme wherever he
might happen to be born. We have already said that Timon the
misanthrope was also a Collytean.6
1 voc. "itrxav&jios.
2 ap. Eeiske, Orat. t. iii. p. 13.
3 Ibid. p. 674. The genuineness of
these letters has indeed been much ques-
tioned, but some of them seem to be
authentic. We have touched on this sub-
ject in another place. At all events the
writer, in so precise a statement, would
probably have followed some authority or
tradition.
4 cap. 11.
4 Diog. Lacrt. Vit. Plat. lib. iii. s. 3.
8 Lucian. Tim. 7 : Pausan. i. 30, 4.
103
evidence for this view except that Lucian probably assigned Collytus to
Timon, the man-hater, as an appropriate place for his extraction. But a
misanthrope might perhaps be sought more successfully in a fashionable
than a disreputable neighbourhood; and Timon must have been a rich
man to build himself a tower near the Academy. The character which
iEschines was performing in Collytus was that of CEnornaus; but it does
not seem at all probable that Demosthenes meant any sarcasm by add-
ing the name of the place; for that is inserted also by Harpocration " in
relating the same adventure, after Demochares, and by Apollonius, in
his sketch of the life of iEschines ;2 and the intention of these writers
could hardly have been sarcastic, but merely to identify the occurrence.
Besides iEschines appears to have lived in Collytus, for he says in one
of his letters, that he had dwelt there forty-five years.3 Nay, it
seems not improbable that the mishap may actually have occurred in
the house in Melite, where, as we have said, the tragic actors rehearsed;
for, as we have seen, the boundaries of Melite and Collytus were not
very accurately defined, and one might often have been mentioned for
the other. Dr. Wordsworth's charge might, perhaps, derive some
colour from a passage in Plutarch's life of Demosthenes, where the
orator retorting upon Demades, who had compared himself to Athena,
exclaimed: " This Athena was caught in adultery not long ago in
Collytus."4 But everybody knows that such things might happen
in the most fashionable quarters. Collytus was the deme of Plato, the
most eloquent of Attic writers,5 though according to some accounts he
was actually born in iEgina, whither his father had been sent to divide
lands; so that it appears a man retained his paternal deme wherever he
might happen to be born. We have already said that Timon the
misanthrope was also a Collytean.6
1 voc. "itrxav&jios.
2 ap. Eeiske, Orat. t. iii. p. 13.
3 Ibid. p. 674. The genuineness of
these letters has indeed been much ques-
tioned, but some of them seem to be
authentic. We have touched on this sub-
ject in another place. At all events the
writer, in so precise a statement, would
probably have followed some authority or
tradition.
4 cap. 11.
4 Diog. Lacrt. Vit. Plat. lib. iii. s. 3.
8 Lucian. Tim. 7 : Pausan. i. 30, 4.