Page:The Journal of Classical and Sacred Philology, Volume 1, 1854.djvu/192

1 82 Journal of Philology. certainly justified their contemporaries in speaking of them as a peculiar class, and applying to them a common name. We have next to speak of the name by which this class was specially designated. Mr Grote, pp. 479 481, has collected a number of examples of the application of the word o-o^iorqy, with the view of showing that it was a term common to all artists, and literary and professional people carrying with it however an invidious and unfriendly feeling and was not applied to "the Sophists" in any special or unusual sense, except by Plato. The word a-cxpia^s deserves a little further examination. The termination <rrr)s or rather ttjs, for the o- comes from the C of the verb indicates a certain character or profession or assumption. ypanixaTia-rrjs is a professor of letters or literature : xP r )H> aTlfrT 'ls> one who adopts the profession of getting money, a man of business : dv8pa7ro8ia-TTjs, one who follows the calling of a kidnapper or slave- dealer : Xj/oT^r, one who pursues the trade of robbery and plunder: dyopaorrjs, one who has the office of purchasing, a purveyor : and SO On : compare <ra><ppopi<rn]s, Thuc. III. 65. VI. 86. aycoptcrnjs, (ppop- TtoTT/'r, &c. From this general notion of assuming a character or functions comes the more special sense of imitating, copying, pretence, as in the verbs Mqd/ffti', Xttmc^^ &c, and the substan- tives 'EWrjvKrnjs, 'An-tKioTijs ... SO dvdpaya6l(c(r0ai, to ** affect Or play the man of honour ;" similarly TLvBayopurnjs, KaWoomcrTTJs, &c. Hence atxpos is a wise man, one whom others think wise, but who does not necessarily make any profession of wisdom or learning himself: o-o^to-njy is one who professes skill or wisdom, assumes that character : and it may, according to the preceding analogies, pass into the bad sense of " one who apes or copies badly the character of a wise man," (jiipijrrjs rod <ro<pov, as Plato defines it, Sophist. 268. c.) a sham wise man ; or sophist in the modern sense. If the foregoing observations are well founded, Mr Grote's first explanation, p. 479, "a wise man, a clever man" is incorrect : there must at any rate be some distinction between <ro<t>6s and <ro<pt(rrT}s : it is amended afterwards, p 495, where the word is translated " Professors." Hence it appears that the word could be employed with an inoffensive and indifferent, or even an honourable signification. And so I believe it always is used by the earlier writers, Pindar, Herodotus and the tragedians. [Prom. Vinct. 946, o-e top ao<pioTT)v, top irvpbs Kkiirn)v Xc'yw, is no exception because Hermes is there