Abstract:

In this dissertation, I argue that the use of the word parrhesia (meaning free and/or frank speech) provides a window onto the intersection of ethics and politics in later Greek society. While the term parrhesia originated among the democratic institutions of Classical Athens and maintained throughout its history strong conceptual ties to Athenian democracy, its ethical significance is also apparent from our earliest datable attestations. The focus of Plato in particular on the ethical application of the term had great influence on subsequent thought. Nevertheless, neither Platonic philosophy nor the rise of monarchy in the Greek world transformed parrhesia from a political value to an ethical one, as is frequently claimed. Rather, these developments, along with the conquest of the Greek-speaking world by Rome, caused adjustments in use of the term and in the larger interrelation of ethics and politics of which parrhesia can serve as an indicator.

Chapter 1 starts by differentiating modern liberal "free speech" from ancient parrhesia . Next, it sets out the functions and limitations of frankness in Classical Athens as well as the semantic-conceptual field of parrhesia . This chapter also includes a discussion of the Classical and Hellenistic figures who epitomized frankness for Roman-era writers. Chapter 2 traces through a wide range of later Greek texts the significance of the term parrhesia in connection with other important words and themes, including truth, freedom, status, gender, and kingship.

The second part of my thesis gives close readings of prominent Imperial Greek texts that focus on particular issues and contexts of frank speech. In Chapter 3, Dio Chrysostom's To the Alexandrians provides an example of the continuing relevance of parrhesia to civic politics in the High Empire. In this work we also see the value of parrhesia for historically grounded self-promotion. In Chapter 4, Plutarch's How to Tell a Flatterer from a Friend allows a view into the fraught world of aristocratic relations in the Greek cities, where friendship and political maneuvering could not truly be separated. Finally, in Chapter 5, Lucian's Fisherman shows us a satirical, self-ironizing version of the cultural authority conferred by parrhesia .