Abstract
The article focuses on the paragraph 30 from the epideictic speech of Gorgias The Defense of Palamedes (B 11a in: Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker 1956, 291), where the noun μνήμη ("memory") appears. Through a contextual philological analysis, the Author manages to establish the full semantic range of mneme and determine the role it plays in this passage (B 11a, lines 188-198). The title character of the speech, Palamedes, defending himself against a false accusation, presents his inventions as the main argument for his innocence. One of the most important inventions is writing, which mneme - "memory" entrusts stored information, becoming its confidant. Based on a detailed contextual analysis, it can be convincingly concluded that the proper meaning of mneme in the examined fragment is "intellectual ability, power" to collect, organize and store messages, understood as a "reservoir" of remembered facts and events. Written word is the real guarantor of their preservation in an unchanged form. In this way it becomes the guardian of "memory", moreover, as its confidant, writing removes the "troublesome" excess of information from it and thus makes it regenerated, efficient and accessible for humans to acquire new information and knowledge.
- Journal
- Res Rhetorica
- Published
- 2024-10-02
- DOI
- 10.29107/rr2024.3.4
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