“Conversational Conversations” ( dr. Greek Συμποσιακά , lat. Quaestiones convivales ) - a collection of works by Plutarch , in 9 books (95 conversations), traditionally included in his “ Morals ” (pp. 612c — 697b).
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Content
Contents
Table discussions are a collection of speeches delivered at different times by the participants in a feast during friendly meetings in Rome and Greece. As follows from the introduction, the initiative to compile such a collection belonged to a friend of Plutarch and a participant in many of these meetings, Quintus Sosius Senecion [1] . In total, nine books were published, within which the material was grouped in random order, without observing the chronological sequence. So, the last, ninth, book consists exclusively of materials related to the youth of the author.
In discussions, a variety of issues are discussed: about the digestibility of food, about the abstinence of Jews from pork, about what happened before, a chicken or an egg, about the number of muses, about types of dances, etc. These dialogs are sprinkled with copious quotes from ancient literature. At the same time, Plutarch himself divides all topics into “sympathetic” (concerning the organization of the feast) and “sympathetic” (actually the feast), but does not consider it necessary to group conversations on this basis [2] .
“Table Talks” cannot be considered as documentary reproductions of the actual dialogues. This is obvious due to the large volume of individual “conversations” and the abundance of various quotes in them. It is proved that in the work on these texts Plutarch actively used literary sources [3] . But at the same time, the author himself points to the connection of “Table Talks” with memoirs dear to him and to other people who are mentioned as participants in dialogues and who should have been among the first readers [4] . Thus, the author “should, giving his material a literary design, be guided by the fact that [the participants in the conversations, deduced by Plutarch, his contemporaries and friends], while reading“ Table Conversations ”, find there, if not verbatim correspondence to what was actually said, then at least the preservation of the general meaning of what was said ” [5] .
The Feast of the Seven Wise Men ( Dr. Greek Ἑπτά σοφῶν συμπόσιον , Latin Septem sapientium convivium , No. 13) adjoins the “Table Talks” on the topic in “Morals”.
Value
“Table Talks” has become a special form of philosophical dialogue, in which the dialogical form is a reflection of living reality, and not an artistic fiction. This is the only one of its kind and convincing from an artistic point of view characteristic of the intellectual interests of the enlightened layer in the Roman Empire of the 1st-2nd centuries AD. e. [6]
Notes
- ↑ Plutarch . Table Talks, I.
- ↑ Plutarch . Table Talks, II.
- ↑ Hubert K. Zur Entstehung der Tischgespräche Plutarchs // Χάριτες Friedrich Leo zum sechzigsten Geburtstag dargebracht. - Berlin: Weidmann, 1911. - P. 170-187. - 490 p.
- ↑ Plutarch . Table Talks, VI.
- ↑ Borovsky, 1990 , p. 399.
- ↑ Borovsky, 1990 , p. 399-400.
Literature
- Borovsky, Y. M. Plutarch and his "Table Talks" // Plutarch . Table talks / Per. with ancient Greek. Y. M. Borovsky ; ed. sub. Ya. M. Borovsky, M.N. Botvinnik, N.V. Braginskaya , M.L. Gasparov , I.I. Kovaleva , O. L. Levinskaya; open ed. Ya.M. Borovsky , M.L. Gasparov . - L .: Nauka , 1990 .-- S. 389-400. - 592 p. - ( Literary monuments ). - ISBN 5-02-027967-6 .