Rise and fall of a Parian Shooting Star : New Perspectives on Evenus

Part 1 of this paper revisits Bowie’s recent argument (Evenus authored an early version of both book 1 and 2 of the Theognidea9 with the aim to cross-fertilize it with performance-oriented studies on Theognis: in his multiple roles of teacher, theorist and sympotic performer, Evenus arguably bridged the gap between oral and written transmission, which may offer a fresh perspective on the Theognidean question. Part 2 addresses Evenus *8b W. The poem, I argue, conjures up the notorious storms of Cape Malea, possibly with a malicious hint at the Delio-Attic league. Moreover, linguistic evidence points to the late 5th century and squares well with Bowie’s hypothesis. Part 3 surveys Plato’s citations of Evenus, who at key points works as a foil for the true philosopher. Accordingly, I argue that Evenus *8b W. is the main model for Plato’s famous eikon of the ship of state. I also suggest that the Phaedrus echoes (Evenus’?) opening of Theognidea Book 2 and possibly singles him out as the ‘inventor’ of litotes. Finally, part 4 offers new evidence for placing Evenus’ floruit in 410-400 BCE and speculatively suggests that he died soon after the execution of Socrates.