antly from
Macedonia
by Amyntas, son of Andro Hal.
William Smith - 1844 - Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities - b
quitted Rome for the East.
Passing through
235, and copper coins are still extant issued by the Moesia, he routed and destroyed some barbarous
senate with the usual stamp (S. c. ), struck when he tribes upon the confines of Thrace, who sought to
was tribune for the fourth time, which therefore arrest his progress ; crossing over from thence to
cannot belong to an earlier date than the beginning Syria, he defeated Sapor in a succession of engage-
of A. D. 238.
ments, and compelled him to evacuate Mesopotamia,
2. Upon receiving intelligence of the proceed the chief merit of these achievements being pro-
ings in African, the senate at once acknowledged bably due to Misitheus, to whom they were, with
the Gordians, threw down the statues of Maximi- fitting modesty, ascribed in the despatches to the
nus, and declared him a public enemy. Hence it senate. But this prosperity did not long endure:
is manifest that they would issue no money bearing Misitheus perished by disease, or, as many histo-
his effigy after these events, which must therefore rians have asserted, by the treachery of Philip, an
belong to some period later than the beginning of Arabian, who, in an evil hour, was chosen by the
A. D. 238.
prince to supply the place of the trusty friend
3. It is known that the third Gordian was whom he had lost. Philip, from the moment of
killed about the month of March, A. D. 244, and his elevation, appears to have exerted every art to
## p. 282 (#298) ############################################
282
GORDIUS.
GORGASUS.
prejudice the soldiers against their sovereign. He crifices to Zeus Bao debs at Telmissus. She bersell
contrived that the supplies destined for the use of accompanied him into the town, and gave him the
the camp should be intercepted or sent in a wrong necessary instructions respecting the sacrifices
direction, and then aggravated the discontent Gordius, in return, took her for his wife, and be
which arose among the troops by attributing these came by her the father of Midas. When Midas
disasters to the carelessness and incapacity of the had grown up to manhood, internal disturbances
einperor. At length he so roused their passions broke out in Phrygia, and an oracle informed the
by artful misrepresentations, that the legions rising inhabitants that a car would bring them a king,
tumultuously, attacked Gordianus as the cause of who should at the same time put an end to the
their sufferings; and having gained possession of disturbances. When the people were deliberating
his person, first deposed, and then put him to on these points, Gordius, with his wife and son,
death. The narrative of the circumstances attending suddenly appeared riding in his car in the assembly
this event, as recorded by Capitolinus, is evidently of the people, who at once recognised the person
largely mingled with fable, but no doubt exists as described by the oracle. According to Arrian
to the manner in which Gordian perished, nor of (Anab. ii. 3), the Phrygians made Midas their
the treachery by which the deed was accomplished. king, while, according to Justin (xi
. 7), who also
Of a lively but tractable disposition, endowed gives the oracle somewhat differently, and to others,
with high abilities, of amiable temper and winning Gordius himself was made king, and succeeded by
address, Gordian hnd gained the hearts of all, and Midas. The new king dedicated his car and the
was the idol alike of the senate, the people, and yoke to which the oxen had been fastened, to Zeus
the armies, until betrayed by the perfidy of his Baoileús, in the acropolis of Gordium, and an oracle
general. So well aware was Philip of the popu- declared thai, whosoever should untie the knot of
larity of his victim, that, instead of commanding the yoke, should reign over all Asia. It is a well-
his statues to be thrown down, and his name to be known story, that Alexander, on his arrival at
erased from public monuments, as was the common Gordium, cut the knot with liis sword, and applied
practice under such circumstances, he requested the the oracle to himself. (Comp. Curt. iii. 1. $ 15;
senate to grant him divine honours, announcing in Plut. Aler. 18; Strab. xii. p. 568 ; Aelian, V. H.
his despatch that the young prince had died a iv. 17. )
(L. S. )
natural death, and that he himself had been GO'RDIUS, a Cappadocian by birth, the instru-
chosen unanimously to fill the vacant throne. ment of Mithridates Eupator VI. in his attempts
Gordian was buried near Castrum Circesium to annex Cappadocia to Pontus. Gordius was em-
or Cercusium, in Mesopotamia, and an epitaph, ployed by him, in B. C. 96, to murder Ariarathes VI.
enumerating his exploits, was engraved upon the king of Cappadocia (ARIARATHES, No. 6). He
tomb in Greek, Latin, Persian, Hebrew, and was afterwards tutor of a son of Mithridates, whom,
Egyptian characters. The inscription itself is said after the murder of Ariarathes VII. he made king
to have been destroyed by Licinius, but the se- of Cappadocia Gordius was sent as the envoy of
pulchre, which formed a conspicuous object as Mithridates to Rome, and afterwards employed by
viewed from the surrounding country, was still to him to engage Tigranes, king of Armenia, to attack
be seen in the days of Julian (A. D. 363), as we Cappadocia, and expel Ariobarzanes I. , whom the
are told by Ammianus Marcellinus, who calls the Romans made king of that country in B. c. 93.
spot Zaithu, or the olive-tree.
Sulla restored Ariobarzanes in the following year,
(Capitolin. Marimin. duo, Gordiani tres ; He and drove Gordius out of Cappadocia Gordius
rodian, lib. vii. viii. ; Victor, de Caes. xxvi. xxvii. , was opposed to Muraena on the banks of the Halys,
Epit. xxvi. xxvii. ; Eutrop. ix. 2 ; Amm. Marc. B. C. 83--2. (Justin, xxxviii. 1-3 ; App. Mich.
xxiii. 5. S 7; Zosim. i. 14–16, 19, i. 14; Eckhel, 66 ; Plut. Sull. 5. )
(W. B. D. )
vol. vii. p. 293. )
(W. R. ] GO'RDICS, a charioteer, the companion of
Elagaba'us in his first race, and from that day for-
ward the chosen friend of the emperor, by whom
he was appointed praefectus vigilum. (Lamprid.
Elagab. 6. 12; Dion Cass. lxxix. 15. ) [W. R. ]
GORDYS (rópdus), a son of Triptolemus, who
assisted in searching after lo, and then settled in
Phrygia, where the district of Gordyaea received
its name from him. (Steph. Byz. s. v. Toplelor;
Strab. pp. 747, 750. )
(L. S. )
COIN OF GORDIANUS III.
GOʻRGASUS (rópyagos), a son of Machaon
GOʻRDIUS (rópdios), an ancient king of Phry- and Anticleia, who, together with his brother Ni-
gia, and father of Midas, is celebrated in history, comachus, had a sanctuary at Pherae, founded by
through the story of the Gordian knot. According Glaucus, the son of Aepytus. (Paus. iv. 3. § 6,
to tradition, he was originally a poor peasant, but 30. S 2.
[L. S. )
was destined to occupy a kingly throne, as GOʻRGASUS (rópaoos), one of the sons of
was indicated by a prodigy which happened to Machaon, the son of Aesculapius, by Anticleia, the
him. One day, while he was ploughing, an eagle daughter of Diocles, king of Pherae, in Messenia ;
came down and settled on his yoke of oxen, and who, after the death of his grandfather, succeeded
remained there till the evening. Gordius was sur- to the kingdom. He also followed the example of
prised at the phenomenon, and went to Telmissus his father, by practising the art of healing, for which
to consult the soothsayers of that place, who were he received divine honours after his death. (Paus,
very celebrated for their art. Close by the gates is, 30. $ 2. )
(W. A. G. )
of the town he met a Telmissian girl, who herself GOʻRGASUS, painter and modeller. [DANO-
possessed prophetic powers. He told her what he PHILUS). (See also Walz, Kunstblatt, 1841, note
had come for, and she advised him to offer up sa- | 43, p. 347. )
[P. S. )
သည်
นโย
US”
?
## p. 283 (#299) ############################################
GORGIAS.
283
GORGIAS.
GORGE (rópy), a daughter of Oeneus and I have no trace of an earlier journey, we must reject
Althaea, and the wife of Andraemon. When Ar- the statement that the great Athenian statesman
temis metamorphosed her sisters into birds, on and the historian Thucydides were among his dis
account of their unceasing lamentations about their ciples. (Philostr. Vit
. Soph. p. 493, Epist. 13, p.
brother Meleager, Gorge and Deianeira alone were 919; comp. Dionys. Hal. Epist. ad Pomp. 2, Jud.
spared. (Anton. lib. 2; Ov. Met. viii. 532 ; de Thucyd. 24. ) But his Sicilian oratory, in which
Apollod. i. 8. $$ 3, 5. ) According to Apollodorus, he is said to have excelled Tisias, who was at
she became the mother of Tydeus by her own Athens at the same time with him, perhaps as am-
father. Her son Thoas led the Aetolians against bassador from Syracuse (Paus. vi. 7. $ 8; Plat.
Troy. One of the Danaides likewise bore the Phaedr. p. 267), must have exercised a consider-
name of Gorge. (Apollod. ii. 1. & 5. ) (L. S. ) able influence even upon eminent men of the time,
GOʻRGIAS (ropylas), one of Alexander's offi- such as Agathon, the tragic poet, and the rhetori-
cers, was among those who were brought reluct- cian Isocrates. (Plat. Symp. p. 198 ; Dionys.
antly from Macedonia by Amyntas, son of Andro Hal. de Isocrat. 1, de Compos. Verb. 23; Isocrat.
menes, when he was sent home to collect levies in Panath. i. p. 334, ed. Lange. ) Besides Polus, who
B. C. 332. (Curt. vii. 1, ad fin. ; see Vol. I. p. 155, is described in such lively colours in the Gorgias of
b. ) Gorgias was one of the commanders left by Plato, Alcibiades, Critias, Alcidamas, Acschines,
Alexander in Bactria to complete the reduction of and Antisthenes, are called either pupils or imi-
the Bactrian insurgents, and to check further re tators of Gorgias. (Philostr. p. 493, &c. , comp. p.
bellion, while the king himself marched to quell 919; Dionys. de Isaco, 19 ; Diog. Laërt. ii. 63,
the revolt in Sogdiana, B. C. 328. (Arrian, Anab. vi. 1. )
iv. 16. ) He accompanied Alexander in his Indian In his earlier years Gorgias was attracted,
expedition, and, together with Attalus and Methough not convinced, by the conclusions to which
leager, commanded the mercenaries at the passage the Eleatics had come: but he neither attempted
of the Hydaspes against Porus in B. C. 326. (Arrian, to refute them, nor did he endeavour to reconcile
Anab. v. 12; comp. Curt. viii. 13; Plut. Alex. 60 ; | the reality of the various and varying phaenomena
Diod. xvii. 87, &c. ) This is perhaps the same of the world with the supposition of a simple,
Gorgias whose name occurs in Justin (xii. 12) eternal, and unchangeable existence, as Empedo-
among the veterans whom Alexander sent home cles, Anaxagoras, and the atomists had done. On
under Craterus in B. c. 324; and, in that case, he the contrary, he made use of the conclusions of the
must be distinguished from the Gorgias who is Eleatics, for the purpose of proving that there was
mentioned by Plutarch (Eum. 7) as one of the nothing which had any existence or reality ; and in
officers of Eumenes in his battle against Craterus doing this he paid so much attention to externals,
and Neoptolemus in Cappadocia, in B. C. 321. [E. E. ) and kept so evidently appearance alone in view,
GOʻRGIAS (Topylas), of Leontini, a Chalci- instead of truth, that he was justly reckoned among
dian colony in Sicily, was somewhat older than the sophists. His work, On Nature, or On that
the orator Antiphon (born in B. C, 480 or 479), which is not, in which he developed his views, and
and lived to such an advanced age (some say 105, which is said to have been written B. C. 444
and others 109 years), that he survived Socrates, (Olympiod. in Plat. Gorg. p. 567, ed. Routh. ),
though probably only a short time. (Quintil. ij. ). seems to have been lost at an early time it is
$ 9; comp. Xenoph. Anab. ii. 6. & 16; H. Ed. doubtful whether Galen, who quotes it, Opera, vol
Foss, de Gorgia Leontino, Halle, 1828, p. 6, &c. ; i. p. 56, ed. Gesner, actually read it); but we
J. Geel, Histor. Crit. Sophistarum, in the Nova possess sufficient extracts from it, to form a definite
Acta Literaria Societatis Rheno-Trajectinae, ii. p. 14. ) idea of its nature. The work de Xenoph. Gorgia
The accounts which we have of personal collisions et Melisso, ascribed to Aristotle or Theophrastus,
between Gorgias and Plato, and of the opinion contains a faithful and accurate account of it, though
which Gorgias is said to have expressed respecting the text is unfortunately very corrupt : Sextus
Plato's dialogue Gorgias (Athen. xi. p. 505), are Empiricus (adv. Math. vii. 65, &c. ) is more super-
doubtful. We have no particular information re- ficial, but clearer. The book of Gorgias was
specting the early life and circumstances of Gorgias, divided into three sections: in the first he endea-
but we are told that at an advanced age, in B. c. voured to show that nothing had any real exist-
427, he was sent by his fellow-citizens as ambas- ence ; in the second, that if there was a real
sador to Athens, for the purpose of soliciting its pro- existence, it was beyond man's power to ascertain
tection against the threatening power of Syracuse. it ; and in the third, that existence could not be
(Diod. xii. 53; Plat. Hipp. Maj. p. 282; Timaeus, communicated, even supposing that it was real and
ar. Dionys. Hal. Jud. Lys. 3. ) He seems to have ascertainable. The first section, of which we have
returned to Leontini only for a short time, and a much more precise and accurate account in the
to have spent the remaining years of his vigorous Aristotelian work than in Sextus Empiricus, shows
old age in the towns of Greece Proper, especially on the one hand that things neither are nor are
at Athens and the Thessalian Larissa, enjoying not, because otherwise being and not being would be
honour everywhere as an orator and teacher of identical ; and on the other hand, that if there
rhetoric. (Diod. I. c. ; Plut. de Socrat. Daem. 8 ; were existence, it could neither have come to be
Dionys. I. c. ; Plut. Hipp. Maj. p. 282, b. , Gorg. nor not come to be, and neither be one nor many.
p. 449, b. , Níeno, p. 71, Protag. pp. 309, 315; comp. The first of these inferences arises from an ambi-
Foss, p. 23, &c. ) Süvern (Ueber Aristoph. Vögel, guity in the use of the term of existence; the
p. 26, in the Mémoirs of the Royal Acad. of Berlin) second from the fact of Gorgias adopting the con-
endeavoared to prove that Gorgias and his brother clusion of Melissus, which is manifestly wrong, and
Herodicus, a physician of some note, settled at according to which existence not having come to be
Athens, but there is not sufficient evidence for this is infinite, and applying Zeno's argument against
opinion. As Gorgias did not go as ambassador to the reality of space-as an infinite has no exist-
Athens till after the death of Pericles, and as we ence. Gorgias further makes bad use of another
## p. 284 (#300) ############################################
284
GORGIAS.
GORGIAS.
1
argument of Zeno, inasmuch as he conceives the metry of its parts and similar artifices (Dind. xii.
unit as having no magnitude, and hence as incor-53; Cic. Orat. 49, 52; Dionys. Hal. passim), and
poreal, that is, according to the materialistic views, to dazzle by metaphors, hypallagae, allegories, re-
as not existing at all, although with regard to petitions, apostrophes, and the like (Suidas ; Dio
variety, he observes that it presupposes the exist- nys. Hal. passim); by novel images, poetical
ence of units. The second section concludes that, circumlocutions, and high-sounding expressions,
if existence were ascertainable or cognizable, every- and sometimes also by a strain of irony. (Aristot.
thing which is ascertained or thought must be real; Rhet. iii. 17, 8; Xenoph. Symp. 2 ; Aristot. Rhet.
but, he continues, things which are ascertainable ii. 1, 3, 14; Philostr. p. 492 ; Dionys. de Lys. 3. )
through the medium of our senses do not exist, He lastly tried to charm his hearers by a sym-
because they are conceived, but exist even when metrical arrangement of his periods. (Demetr. de
they are not conceived. The third section urges Elocut. 15. ) But as these artifices, in the applica-
the fact, that it is not existence which is communition of which he is said to have often shown real
cated, but only words, and that words are intelli- grandeur, earnestness, and elegance (woyalowpé-
gible only by their reference to corresponding per-elav kal oeuvotnta kad kalti oylar, Dionys. de
ceptions; but even then intelligible only approxi- | Admir. vi Demosth. 4), were made use of too pro-
matively, since no two persons ever perfectly fusely, and, for the purpose of giving undue pro-
agreed in their perceptions or sentimenis, nay, minence to poor thoughis, his orations did not
not even one and the same person agreed with excite the feelings of his hearers (Aristot Riet. iii.
himself at different times. (Comp. Foss, pp. 1073, 17; Longin. de Sublim. iii. 12 ; Hermog. de
-185. )
Ideis, i. 6, č. 9; Dionys. passim), and at all events
However little such a mode of arguing might could produce only a momentary impression. This
stand the test of a sound dialectical examination, was the case with his oration addressed to the
yet it could not but direct attention to the insuffi- assembled Greeks at Olympia, exhorting them to
ciency of the abstractions of the Eleatics, and call union against their common enemy (Aristol Rhet.
forth more careful investigations concerning the iii. 14; Philostr.
235, and copper coins are still extant issued by the Moesia, he routed and destroyed some barbarous
senate with the usual stamp (S. c. ), struck when he tribes upon the confines of Thrace, who sought to
was tribune for the fourth time, which therefore arrest his progress ; crossing over from thence to
cannot belong to an earlier date than the beginning Syria, he defeated Sapor in a succession of engage-
of A. D. 238.
ments, and compelled him to evacuate Mesopotamia,
2. Upon receiving intelligence of the proceed the chief merit of these achievements being pro-
ings in African, the senate at once acknowledged bably due to Misitheus, to whom they were, with
the Gordians, threw down the statues of Maximi- fitting modesty, ascribed in the despatches to the
nus, and declared him a public enemy. Hence it senate. But this prosperity did not long endure:
is manifest that they would issue no money bearing Misitheus perished by disease, or, as many histo-
his effigy after these events, which must therefore rians have asserted, by the treachery of Philip, an
belong to some period later than the beginning of Arabian, who, in an evil hour, was chosen by the
A. D. 238.
prince to supply the place of the trusty friend
3. It is known that the third Gordian was whom he had lost. Philip, from the moment of
killed about the month of March, A. D. 244, and his elevation, appears to have exerted every art to
## p. 282 (#298) ############################################
282
GORDIUS.
GORGASUS.
prejudice the soldiers against their sovereign. He crifices to Zeus Bao debs at Telmissus. She bersell
contrived that the supplies destined for the use of accompanied him into the town, and gave him the
the camp should be intercepted or sent in a wrong necessary instructions respecting the sacrifices
direction, and then aggravated the discontent Gordius, in return, took her for his wife, and be
which arose among the troops by attributing these came by her the father of Midas. When Midas
disasters to the carelessness and incapacity of the had grown up to manhood, internal disturbances
einperor. At length he so roused their passions broke out in Phrygia, and an oracle informed the
by artful misrepresentations, that the legions rising inhabitants that a car would bring them a king,
tumultuously, attacked Gordianus as the cause of who should at the same time put an end to the
their sufferings; and having gained possession of disturbances. When the people were deliberating
his person, first deposed, and then put him to on these points, Gordius, with his wife and son,
death. The narrative of the circumstances attending suddenly appeared riding in his car in the assembly
this event, as recorded by Capitolinus, is evidently of the people, who at once recognised the person
largely mingled with fable, but no doubt exists as described by the oracle. According to Arrian
to the manner in which Gordian perished, nor of (Anab. ii. 3), the Phrygians made Midas their
the treachery by which the deed was accomplished. king, while, according to Justin (xi
. 7), who also
Of a lively but tractable disposition, endowed gives the oracle somewhat differently, and to others,
with high abilities, of amiable temper and winning Gordius himself was made king, and succeeded by
address, Gordian hnd gained the hearts of all, and Midas. The new king dedicated his car and the
was the idol alike of the senate, the people, and yoke to which the oxen had been fastened, to Zeus
the armies, until betrayed by the perfidy of his Baoileús, in the acropolis of Gordium, and an oracle
general. So well aware was Philip of the popu- declared thai, whosoever should untie the knot of
larity of his victim, that, instead of commanding the yoke, should reign over all Asia. It is a well-
his statues to be thrown down, and his name to be known story, that Alexander, on his arrival at
erased from public monuments, as was the common Gordium, cut the knot with liis sword, and applied
practice under such circumstances, he requested the the oracle to himself. (Comp. Curt. iii. 1. $ 15;
senate to grant him divine honours, announcing in Plut. Aler. 18; Strab. xii. p. 568 ; Aelian, V. H.
his despatch that the young prince had died a iv. 17. )
(L. S. )
natural death, and that he himself had been GO'RDIUS, a Cappadocian by birth, the instru-
chosen unanimously to fill the vacant throne. ment of Mithridates Eupator VI. in his attempts
Gordian was buried near Castrum Circesium to annex Cappadocia to Pontus. Gordius was em-
or Cercusium, in Mesopotamia, and an epitaph, ployed by him, in B. C. 96, to murder Ariarathes VI.
enumerating his exploits, was engraved upon the king of Cappadocia (ARIARATHES, No. 6). He
tomb in Greek, Latin, Persian, Hebrew, and was afterwards tutor of a son of Mithridates, whom,
Egyptian characters. The inscription itself is said after the murder of Ariarathes VII. he made king
to have been destroyed by Licinius, but the se- of Cappadocia Gordius was sent as the envoy of
pulchre, which formed a conspicuous object as Mithridates to Rome, and afterwards employed by
viewed from the surrounding country, was still to him to engage Tigranes, king of Armenia, to attack
be seen in the days of Julian (A. D. 363), as we Cappadocia, and expel Ariobarzanes I. , whom the
are told by Ammianus Marcellinus, who calls the Romans made king of that country in B. c. 93.
spot Zaithu, or the olive-tree.
Sulla restored Ariobarzanes in the following year,
(Capitolin. Marimin. duo, Gordiani tres ; He and drove Gordius out of Cappadocia Gordius
rodian, lib. vii. viii. ; Victor, de Caes. xxvi. xxvii. , was opposed to Muraena on the banks of the Halys,
Epit. xxvi. xxvii. ; Eutrop. ix. 2 ; Amm. Marc. B. C. 83--2. (Justin, xxxviii. 1-3 ; App. Mich.
xxiii. 5. S 7; Zosim. i. 14–16, 19, i. 14; Eckhel, 66 ; Plut. Sull. 5. )
(W. B. D. )
vol. vii. p. 293. )
(W. R. ] GO'RDICS, a charioteer, the companion of
Elagaba'us in his first race, and from that day for-
ward the chosen friend of the emperor, by whom
he was appointed praefectus vigilum. (Lamprid.
Elagab. 6. 12; Dion Cass. lxxix. 15. ) [W. R. ]
GORDYS (rópdus), a son of Triptolemus, who
assisted in searching after lo, and then settled in
Phrygia, where the district of Gordyaea received
its name from him. (Steph. Byz. s. v. Toplelor;
Strab. pp. 747, 750. )
(L. S. )
COIN OF GORDIANUS III.
GOʻRGASUS (rópyagos), a son of Machaon
GOʻRDIUS (rópdios), an ancient king of Phry- and Anticleia, who, together with his brother Ni-
gia, and father of Midas, is celebrated in history, comachus, had a sanctuary at Pherae, founded by
through the story of the Gordian knot. According Glaucus, the son of Aepytus. (Paus. iv. 3. § 6,
to tradition, he was originally a poor peasant, but 30. S 2.
[L. S. )
was destined to occupy a kingly throne, as GOʻRGASUS (rópaoos), one of the sons of
was indicated by a prodigy which happened to Machaon, the son of Aesculapius, by Anticleia, the
him. One day, while he was ploughing, an eagle daughter of Diocles, king of Pherae, in Messenia ;
came down and settled on his yoke of oxen, and who, after the death of his grandfather, succeeded
remained there till the evening. Gordius was sur- to the kingdom. He also followed the example of
prised at the phenomenon, and went to Telmissus his father, by practising the art of healing, for which
to consult the soothsayers of that place, who were he received divine honours after his death. (Paus,
very celebrated for their art. Close by the gates is, 30. $ 2. )
(W. A. G. )
of the town he met a Telmissian girl, who herself GOʻRGASUS, painter and modeller. [DANO-
possessed prophetic powers. He told her what he PHILUS). (See also Walz, Kunstblatt, 1841, note
had come for, and she advised him to offer up sa- | 43, p. 347. )
[P. S. )
သည်
นโย
US”
?
## p. 283 (#299) ############################################
GORGIAS.
283
GORGIAS.
GORGE (rópy), a daughter of Oeneus and I have no trace of an earlier journey, we must reject
Althaea, and the wife of Andraemon. When Ar- the statement that the great Athenian statesman
temis metamorphosed her sisters into birds, on and the historian Thucydides were among his dis
account of their unceasing lamentations about their ciples. (Philostr. Vit
. Soph. p. 493, Epist. 13, p.
brother Meleager, Gorge and Deianeira alone were 919; comp. Dionys. Hal. Epist. ad Pomp. 2, Jud.
spared. (Anton. lib. 2; Ov. Met. viii. 532 ; de Thucyd. 24. ) But his Sicilian oratory, in which
Apollod. i. 8. $$ 3, 5. ) According to Apollodorus, he is said to have excelled Tisias, who was at
she became the mother of Tydeus by her own Athens at the same time with him, perhaps as am-
father. Her son Thoas led the Aetolians against bassador from Syracuse (Paus. vi. 7. $ 8; Plat.
Troy. One of the Danaides likewise bore the Phaedr. p. 267), must have exercised a consider-
name of Gorge. (Apollod. ii. 1. & 5. ) (L. S. ) able influence even upon eminent men of the time,
GOʻRGIAS (ropylas), one of Alexander's offi- such as Agathon, the tragic poet, and the rhetori-
cers, was among those who were brought reluct- cian Isocrates. (Plat. Symp. p. 198 ; Dionys.
antly from Macedonia by Amyntas, son of Andro Hal. de Isocrat. 1, de Compos. Verb. 23; Isocrat.
menes, when he was sent home to collect levies in Panath. i. p. 334, ed. Lange. ) Besides Polus, who
B. C. 332. (Curt. vii. 1, ad fin. ; see Vol. I. p. 155, is described in such lively colours in the Gorgias of
b. ) Gorgias was one of the commanders left by Plato, Alcibiades, Critias, Alcidamas, Acschines,
Alexander in Bactria to complete the reduction of and Antisthenes, are called either pupils or imi-
the Bactrian insurgents, and to check further re tators of Gorgias. (Philostr. p. 493, &c. , comp. p.
bellion, while the king himself marched to quell 919; Dionys. de Isaco, 19 ; Diog. Laërt. ii. 63,
the revolt in Sogdiana, B. C. 328. (Arrian, Anab. vi. 1. )
iv. 16. ) He accompanied Alexander in his Indian In his earlier years Gorgias was attracted,
expedition, and, together with Attalus and Methough not convinced, by the conclusions to which
leager, commanded the mercenaries at the passage the Eleatics had come: but he neither attempted
of the Hydaspes against Porus in B. C. 326. (Arrian, to refute them, nor did he endeavour to reconcile
Anab. v. 12; comp. Curt. viii. 13; Plut. Alex. 60 ; | the reality of the various and varying phaenomena
Diod. xvii. 87, &c. ) This is perhaps the same of the world with the supposition of a simple,
Gorgias whose name occurs in Justin (xii. 12) eternal, and unchangeable existence, as Empedo-
among the veterans whom Alexander sent home cles, Anaxagoras, and the atomists had done. On
under Craterus in B. c. 324; and, in that case, he the contrary, he made use of the conclusions of the
must be distinguished from the Gorgias who is Eleatics, for the purpose of proving that there was
mentioned by Plutarch (Eum. 7) as one of the nothing which had any existence or reality ; and in
officers of Eumenes in his battle against Craterus doing this he paid so much attention to externals,
and Neoptolemus in Cappadocia, in B. C. 321. [E. E. ) and kept so evidently appearance alone in view,
GOʻRGIAS (Topylas), of Leontini, a Chalci- instead of truth, that he was justly reckoned among
dian colony in Sicily, was somewhat older than the sophists. His work, On Nature, or On that
the orator Antiphon (born in B. C, 480 or 479), which is not, in which he developed his views, and
and lived to such an advanced age (some say 105, which is said to have been written B. C. 444
and others 109 years), that he survived Socrates, (Olympiod. in Plat. Gorg. p. 567, ed. Routh. ),
though probably only a short time. (Quintil. ij. ). seems to have been lost at an early time it is
$ 9; comp. Xenoph. Anab. ii. 6. & 16; H. Ed. doubtful whether Galen, who quotes it, Opera, vol
Foss, de Gorgia Leontino, Halle, 1828, p. 6, &c. ; i. p. 56, ed. Gesner, actually read it); but we
J. Geel, Histor. Crit. Sophistarum, in the Nova possess sufficient extracts from it, to form a definite
Acta Literaria Societatis Rheno-Trajectinae, ii. p. 14. ) idea of its nature. The work de Xenoph. Gorgia
The accounts which we have of personal collisions et Melisso, ascribed to Aristotle or Theophrastus,
between Gorgias and Plato, and of the opinion contains a faithful and accurate account of it, though
which Gorgias is said to have expressed respecting the text is unfortunately very corrupt : Sextus
Plato's dialogue Gorgias (Athen. xi. p. 505), are Empiricus (adv. Math. vii. 65, &c. ) is more super-
doubtful. We have no particular information re- ficial, but clearer. The book of Gorgias was
specting the early life and circumstances of Gorgias, divided into three sections: in the first he endea-
but we are told that at an advanced age, in B. c. voured to show that nothing had any real exist-
427, he was sent by his fellow-citizens as ambas- ence ; in the second, that if there was a real
sador to Athens, for the purpose of soliciting its pro- existence, it was beyond man's power to ascertain
tection against the threatening power of Syracuse. it ; and in the third, that existence could not be
(Diod. xii. 53; Plat. Hipp. Maj. p. 282; Timaeus, communicated, even supposing that it was real and
ar. Dionys. Hal. Jud. Lys. 3. ) He seems to have ascertainable. The first section, of which we have
returned to Leontini only for a short time, and a much more precise and accurate account in the
to have spent the remaining years of his vigorous Aristotelian work than in Sextus Empiricus, shows
old age in the towns of Greece Proper, especially on the one hand that things neither are nor are
at Athens and the Thessalian Larissa, enjoying not, because otherwise being and not being would be
honour everywhere as an orator and teacher of identical ; and on the other hand, that if there
rhetoric. (Diod. I. c. ; Plut. de Socrat. Daem. 8 ; were existence, it could neither have come to be
Dionys. I. c. ; Plut. Hipp. Maj. p. 282, b. , Gorg. nor not come to be, and neither be one nor many.
p. 449, b. , Níeno, p. 71, Protag. pp. 309, 315; comp. The first of these inferences arises from an ambi-
Foss, p. 23, &c. ) Süvern (Ueber Aristoph. Vögel, guity in the use of the term of existence; the
p. 26, in the Mémoirs of the Royal Acad. of Berlin) second from the fact of Gorgias adopting the con-
endeavoared to prove that Gorgias and his brother clusion of Melissus, which is manifestly wrong, and
Herodicus, a physician of some note, settled at according to which existence not having come to be
Athens, but there is not sufficient evidence for this is infinite, and applying Zeno's argument against
opinion. As Gorgias did not go as ambassador to the reality of space-as an infinite has no exist-
Athens till after the death of Pericles, and as we ence. Gorgias further makes bad use of another
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284
GORGIAS.
GORGIAS.
1
argument of Zeno, inasmuch as he conceives the metry of its parts and similar artifices (Dind. xii.
unit as having no magnitude, and hence as incor-53; Cic. Orat. 49, 52; Dionys. Hal. passim), and
poreal, that is, according to the materialistic views, to dazzle by metaphors, hypallagae, allegories, re-
as not existing at all, although with regard to petitions, apostrophes, and the like (Suidas ; Dio
variety, he observes that it presupposes the exist- nys. Hal. passim); by novel images, poetical
ence of units. The second section concludes that, circumlocutions, and high-sounding expressions,
if existence were ascertainable or cognizable, every- and sometimes also by a strain of irony. (Aristot.
thing which is ascertained or thought must be real; Rhet. iii. 17, 8; Xenoph. Symp. 2 ; Aristot. Rhet.
but, he continues, things which are ascertainable ii. 1, 3, 14; Philostr. p. 492 ; Dionys. de Lys. 3. )
through the medium of our senses do not exist, He lastly tried to charm his hearers by a sym-
because they are conceived, but exist even when metrical arrangement of his periods. (Demetr. de
they are not conceived. The third section urges Elocut. 15. ) But as these artifices, in the applica-
the fact, that it is not existence which is communition of which he is said to have often shown real
cated, but only words, and that words are intelli- grandeur, earnestness, and elegance (woyalowpé-
gible only by their reference to corresponding per-elav kal oeuvotnta kad kalti oylar, Dionys. de
ceptions; but even then intelligible only approxi- | Admir. vi Demosth. 4), were made use of too pro-
matively, since no two persons ever perfectly fusely, and, for the purpose of giving undue pro-
agreed in their perceptions or sentimenis, nay, minence to poor thoughis, his orations did not
not even one and the same person agreed with excite the feelings of his hearers (Aristot Riet. iii.
himself at different times. (Comp. Foss, pp. 1073, 17; Longin. de Sublim. iii. 12 ; Hermog. de
-185. )
Ideis, i. 6, č. 9; Dionys. passim), and at all events
However little such a mode of arguing might could produce only a momentary impression. This
stand the test of a sound dialectical examination, was the case with his oration addressed to the
yet it could not but direct attention to the insuffi- assembled Greeks at Olympia, exhorting them to
ciency of the abstractions of the Eleatics, and call union against their common enemy (Aristol Rhet.
forth more careful investigations concerning the iii. 14; Philostr.
