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HIPPIAS OF ELIS

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Originally appearing in Volume V13, Page 517 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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HIPPIAS OF See also:

ELIS , See also:Greek sophist, was See also:born about the See also:middle of the 5th See also:century B.C. and was thus a younger contemporary of See also:Protagoras and See also:Socrates. He was a See also:man of See also:great versatility and won the respect of his See also:fellow-citizens to such an extent that he was sent to various towns on important embassies. At See also:Athens he made the acquaintance of Socrates and other leading thinkers. With an assurance characteristic of the later See also:sophists, he claimed to be regarded as an authority on all subjects, and lectured, at all events with See also:financial success, on See also:poetry, See also:grammar, See also:history, politics, See also:archaeology, See also:mathematics and See also: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 See also:assembly at See also:Olympia. Of his ability there is no question, but it is equally certain that he was superficial. His aim was not to give knowledge, but to provide his pupils with the weapons of See also:argument, to make them fertile in discussion on all subjects alike. It is said that he boasted of wearing nothing which he had not made with his own hands. See also:Plato's two dialogues, the See also:Hip pias See also:major and See also:minor, contain an expose of his methods, exaggerated no doubt for purposes of argument but written with full knowledge of the man and the class which he represented. See also: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 undoubtedlyrepresent the attitude of serious thinkers to the growing See also: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 See also:rhythm and See also:literary See also:style. He is credited with an excellent See also:work on See also:Homer, collections of Greek and See also:foreign literature, and archaeological See also:treatises, but nothing remains except the barest notes.

He forms the connecting See also:

link between the first great sophists, Protagoras and Prodicus, and the innumerable eristics who brought their name into disrepute. For the See also:general See also:atmosphere in which Hippias moved see SopxlsTs; also histories of See also:Philosophy (e.g. Windelband, Eng. trans. by Tufts, pt. 1, c. 2, §§ 7 and 8).

End of Article: HIPPIAS OF ELIS

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